Petition Testament of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia of Wolfenbьttel (1715): The History of the Original and Translations

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce an important document of the Petrine time into scholarly circulation. The last will of the wife of Tsarevich Alexei, Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia, written on the day of her death on October 21, 1715, in the form of a petition addressed to her father-in-law — Peter I — has been known until now only in two translations, made in the eighteenth and in the first half of the nineteenth centuries, going back to an unknown original. This publication contains the text of the petition testament of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia recently discovered by A. V. Morokhin in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library (St Petersburg). The document is in German written in fluent Neo-Gothic italics of the early eighteenth century on both sides of two sheets of yellowed paper. Comparing the signatures of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia under several of her letters originating from the archives of Germany with the signature on the document published makes it possible to conclude that the document is authentic. The article provides a complete transcription of the original source, as well as its literal translation into modern Russian. A comparative analysis of the original text with later editions of the petition testament allows the authors to define the newly found document as the original source. The letter of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia is considered in the broad context of the political and dynastic history of the Petrine state. The circumstances that come to light during the analysis of the tragic story of Princess Charlotte’s death help visualise the expressive features of everyday life in Peter I’s inner family circle.