GLUG Meetings and Events

After the death of Tsar Alexis on 8 February 1676,[4] Peter's half brother and godfather Feodor, the "semi-invalid eldest bridal jewellery surviving son of Maria Miloslavskaya",[5] became the Tsar of Russia.[5] Ivan Miloslavsky, Feodor's uncle, and chief minister, returned to Moscow from virtual exile as Governor of Astrakhan, his family not having been in power for some time.[5] Ivan Miloslavsky hated the Naryshkins, who included Peter, Peter's mother Natalia Naryshkina, and Natalia's foster father, Artamon Matveyev.[5] When a new ruling family took over, the previous ruling family was usually banished to a ceremonial position somewhere far from Moscow.[5] Instead, Ivan Miloslavsky tried to arrest the Naryshkins, but he only succeeded in capturing Artamon Matveyev. As the new Tsar, Feodor was fond of his half-brother Peter and Peter's mother, and both were allowed to remain in the Kremlin in sapphire rings private apartments.[5] Most 17th-century Muscovites received little education, and there were low levels of literacy even among the nobility, education for whom typically consisted of a little reading, writing, and a small amount of history and geography. Religious scholars were usually the exception to this rule, often also taught grammar, mathematics, and foreign languages. Two of Tsar Alexis' children—Feodor, and his sister men's rings Tsarevna Sophia—received a thorough education from the religious scholars of Kiev, and could speak Latin and Polis