14. Peter The Great Forced His Son to Flee the Country
The reformist Emperor Peter the Great is often credited with dragging Russia from its medieval ways and into the modern world. His achievements included revamping the government, weakening the Orthodox Church, modernizing and strengthening the military, and expanding Russia’s borders. He also moved the capital from Moscow to a new city that he built on the Baltic and named after himself, Saint Petersburg. As with any major reforms, Peter faced significant resistance from the old order, but the Emperor ruthlessly enforced his will, steamrolling over all opposition. Tragically, those steamrolled included his own son and heir, Prince Alexei Petrovich.
The prince, as kids often do, sought to stake out his individuality by contrasting himself with his father. To that end, Alexei Petrovich became conservative and religious, and attracted admirers from amongst the traditionalists pining for the old days. Unfortunately for the prince, the kinds of kids who get away with that kind of stuff are the kinds of kids who don’t have Peter the Great for a father. The reformist Emperor, determined to protect his reforms from the threat of getting overturned by a reactionary successor down the road, sought to force his son into seeing things his way. The pressure eventually got too much for Alexei. In desperation, he escaped to Vienna, where he sought political asylum from the ruling Habsburgs. That was bad enough, but it was about to get far worse.