33. The Ruler Who Left the Corpse of His Sister’s Lover Dangling Outside Her Window
Russian Emperor Peter the Great ascended the throne as a child, so his elder Sophia ruled as regent on his behalf. When Peter grew up and sought to rule in his own right, Sophia resisted surrendering her power. So he locked her up in a monastery. Ten years later, in 1698, a lover of Sophia led the Streltsy Regiments – a sort of medieval Russian Praetorian Guard – in a failed uprising while Peter was out of the country.
Peter rushed back to Russia, but the rebellion had already collapsed by the time he returned home. Upon reaching Moscow, he brutally broke the Streltsy, who were tortured and executed by the thousands. Peter took a hands-on approach, and played an active part in the executions, personally chopping off the heads of rebels with an ax in Moscow’s Red Square. He also strung up the bodies of executed Streltsy outside Sophia’s monastery, and left the corpse of her lover dangling from a rope directly outside her window.