122 I. that he will and shall for his true and honest tsar and sovereign the most enlightened and powerful tsar and ruler Peter I, Tsar and All-Russian Autocrat, etc.,etc. And after His Majesty’s death (which God for many years graciously delay and let him continue). His Tsarist Majesty’s high blood heirs, namely the most enlightened grand hereditary duke, Tsarevich Peter II, and all future heirs and they who shall occupy the throne of the tsar according to the full right of heredity and the realm, and according to the order of inheritance decreed by His Tsarist Majesty or decreed in the future. lery, and then upon his arrival in Stockholm swear the same in person in His Royal Majesty’s kammarkollegium, as it is described here. I, N. N., promise and swear upon God and His Holy Gospel, that I will and shall for my true heir-king have and hold the Most Mighty King and Master, Lord Carl XI etc., etc., and after His Royal Majesty’s death, which God graciously delay. His Royal Majesty’s breast heirs, heir after heir, which as a result of the royal family’s full rights of heredity to the Realm, and according to the Succession Ordinance, may come to possess the royal throne. I shall also be to His Royal Majesty and to them a loyal and faithful servant and subject and will, according to my best understanding and ability, observe and defend all the rights and benefits belonging to the high royal power. hold 2. that he will be a true, honest, and obedient servant and subject to His Tsarist Majesty, his most beloved consort, and most enlightened blood heirs and successors, and observe and preserve all the rights and prerogatives of the high tsarist autocracy, might, and power to his best understanding, strength, and ability. In the first edition of the General Regulation, Peter’s son by Catherine, Petr Petrovich, was included as heir to the throne, while his elder son by Evdokiia Lopukhina, Aleksei, was accused of conspiracy against the tsar and deprived of his right to inherit the Russian throne.^^** Since the four-year-old Petr Petrovich died early in 1719, however, the final version of the oath of office had a somewhat different form. The tsar reserved the right to name his successor “according to his discretion and His Tsarist Majesty’s autocratic power.” The question of the succession was later dealt with in detail in a special ukaz concerning that matter {Ukaz o nasledii prestola), which stipulated that it would always reside “in the will of the reigning monarch to grant the inheritance to whomever he wishes.” Concerning the relationship between the tsar and Tsarevich Aleksei, see Wittram, II, 346—405. PSZ, VI, no. 3,893, 496—497. 33G
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