PETER I

born c. 1747, , Njego, Montenegro died Oct. 18 [Oct. 30, New Style], 1830, Cetinje Montenegrin in full Petar Petrovic Njego the great vladika, or prince-bishop, of Montenegro from 1782 to 1830, who won full independence of his country from the Turks. As successor to his saintly but inept uncle Sava, Peter became the reigning prince in theocratic Montenegro in 1782 and was consecrated bishop two years later. To cement relations with Russia, always a potential ally against the Turks, he visited Russia that same year. On his return he found his land was being overrun by the forces of the pasha of Scutari. Uniting his warlike clans, he drove the invaders out. War with the Turks flared up periodically, sometimes with, and sometimes without, a powerful ally such as Russia or Austria. In 1796 a second invasion by the pasha of Scutari led to a series of brilliant victories over the Turks, with Peter leading his men. The pasha was captured and beheaded, and by a treaty in 1799 Sultan Selim III was forced to recognize the independence of Montenegro. New territories were added, including Brda, recently settled by Serbs from Hercegovina, which was to double the size of Montenegro during Peter's reign. During the Napoleonic Wars, Montenegro became involved in the struggle between the Great Powers. When by the Treaty of Pressburg with Austria (1804) the French took over Dalmatia, Peter allied himself first with the Russians until 1807 and then with the British in 1813 to maintain Montenegrin occupation of the town and Gulf of Kotor. After the French left in 1813, the territory was annexed by Peter (October 1813), and Kotor became his capital for a year. At the Congress of Vienna (1815), however, the land was returned to Austria. In Peter's last years as ruler he was involved in more wars with the Turks (1819 and 1821) and in settling blood feuds among his mountaineers; his efforts further enhanced his reputation as a just prince. born June 9 [May 30, Old Style], 1672, Moscow, Russia died Feb. 8 [Jan. 28, O.S.], 1725, St. Petersburg Russian in full Pyotr Alekseyevich, byname Peter the Great, Russian Pyotr Veliky tsar of Russia, who reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V (1682-96) and alone thereafter (1696-1725) and who in 1721 was proclaimed emperor (imperator). He was one of his country's greatest statesmen, organizers, and reformers. Peter was the son of Tsar Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. Unlike his half-brothers, sons of his father's first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, Peter proved a healthy child, lively and inquisitive. It is probably significant to his development that his mother's former guardian, Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev, had raised her in an atmosphere open to progressive influences from the West. born c. 1068, -74 died Sept. 28, 1104 king of Aragon from June 1094. The son of Sancho Ramrez, the third in order of the historic kings of Aragon, Peter belonged to times anterior to the authentic written history of his kingdom; and little is known of him save that he conquered Huesca (1096) and Barbastro (1100) from the Moors of Saragossa. He was twice married but left no children and was succeeded by his brother Alfonso I. born 1190 died 1250, at sea en route to France also called Peter Of Dreux, byname Peter Mauclerc, French Pierre De Dreux, or Pierre Mauclerc duke or count of Brittany from 1213 to 1237, French prince of the Capetian dynasty, founder of a line of French dukes of Brittany who ruled until the mid-14th century. Married by his cousin King Philip II Augustus of France to Alix, heiress to Brittany, Peter did homage for the province in 1213 and assumed the title of duke, though he was considered merely a count by the French. He energetically asserted his authority over the Breton lands, annexing new fiefs to the ducal domain, granting privileges to the towns, and regularizing the administration. As guardian for his son, John I the Red, after Alix's death in 1221, Peter attempted to build up his own power against the day of his son's majority; he extorted concessions from the French regency in 1227 by means of rebellion. He transferred his allegiance from the French to the English king from 1229 until 1234, even though his predecessor, Arthur I, had been murdered by the English. But when John came of age (1237), Peter had to renounce Brittany and henceforth was merely count of Braine. Called Mauclerc ("Bad Clerk") either because his early training for the church was abortive or because he quarreled continually with the episcopate, Peter spent much of his life under excommunication and was persuaded to go on a crusade (1239-40) in penance. In 1248 he went to Egypt on another crusade. Wounded in battle, he died on his way home. born July 11 [June 29, Old Style], 1844, Belgrade, Serbia [now in Yugoslavia] died Aug. 16, 1921, Topcider, near Belgrade king of Serbia from 1903, the first strictly constitutional monarch of his country. In 1918 he became the first king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia). Born the third son of the reigning prince Alexander Karadjordjevic (1842-58), Peter became heir to the throne on the death of his brother Svetozar (1847). After his father was forced to abdicate (1858), Peter lived in exile for the next 45 years. Educated in France, mainly at military schools such as the prestigious Saint-Cyr, he served as a lieutenant in the French Army during the Franco-German War and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour for heroism. When the Serbs of Herzegovina revolted against the Turks in 1875, Peter organized a party of volunteers to assist them. Afterward he became an honorary senator in Montenegro (1883) and improved his dynastic ties by marrying Zorka, the first child of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro (1883). In 1903 the Serbian king Alexander Obrenovic (1889-1903) was assassinated, ending the Obrenovic dynasty, and Peter was elected king of Serbia. His reputation as a liberal (he translated John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty into Serbian in 1868) and his strong advocacy of constitutional government helped improve the political situation at home and win recognition abroad. Incapacitated by age and poor health, Peter named his heir, Prince Alexander (Alexander I), regent on June 24, 1914. During World War I, after the defeat of Serbia by the Central Powers (Germany and Austria) in 1915, he took part in the retreat to the Adriatic, carried in a litter. At the end of World War I he returned to Belgrade, where he was proclaimed king of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Dec. 1, 1918). born April 8, 1320, Coimbra, Port. died Jan. 18, 1367 byname Peter The Just, or The Cruel, Portuguese Pedro O Justiceiro, or O Cruel king of Portugal from 1357 to 1367. The son of Afonso IV and his consort Beatriz of Castile, Peter was married in 1336 to Constanza of Castile; but she died in 1345, and Peter is chiefly remembered for his tragic amour with Ins de Castro (q.v.), whose death he savagely avenged after his accession to the throne. Even so, some of his acts, designed to curb abuses and to enhance the royal power, were of great importance: he reformed the administration of justice (1361) and did much to make the Portuguese church a national one by insisting on the beneplcito rgio, that is, the royal approbation of all papal bulls or letters before they could be published in the kingdom. Although before he became king of Portugal he had advanced a claim to the Castilian throne (1354), he later helped Castile against Aragon (1358 and 1360). From 1363, however, he pursued a neutral policy. On his death he was succeeded by his son Ferdinand I. Additional reading Pis'ma i bumagi Imperatora Petra Velikogo, 11 vol. (1887-1964), contains Peter's correspondence as well as valuable documents on Russian history up to 1711. Biographies include M.M. Bogoslovskii, Petr I, 5 vol. (1940-48, reissued 1969), a detailed study up to 1700; Ian Grey, Peter the Great, Emperor of All Russia (1960); M.S. Anderson, Peter the Great (1978); Alex De Jonge, Fire and Water: A Life of Peter the Great (1979); Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great: His Life and World (1980, reprinted 1991); and Henri Troyat, Peter the Great (1987; originally published in French, 1979), a popularized account. Peter's reign and the reforms he instituted are analyzed in Sergei M. Solov'ev, Publichnyia chteniia o Petrie Velikom (1872, reissued 1984), by a famous Russian historian; B.H. Sumner, Peter the Great and the Emergence of Russia (1950, reissued 1972); Reinhard Wittram, Peter I, Czar und Kaiser, 2 vol. (1964), and Peter der Grosse: der Eintritt Russlands in die Neuzeit (1954); Ivan I. Golikov, Dieianiia Petra Velikago, 2nd ed., 15 vol. (1837-43), on his reforms; James Cracraft, The Church Reform of Peter the Great (1971); Alexander V. Muller (ed. and trans.), The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great, trans. from Russian (1972); and Evgenii V. Anisimov, The Reforms of Peter the Great: Progress Through Coercion in Russia (1993; originally published in Russian, 1989). J.G. Garrard (ed.), The Eighteenth Century in Russia (1973), provides a collection of essays on different aspects of the Westernization of Russia. Peter's military campaigns and his role as the founder of the new Russian army are explored in the works of a prominent Soviet historian, Evgenii V. Tarle, Russkii flot i vneshniaia politika Petra I (1949), also available in a German translation, Russisch-englische Beziehungen unter Peter I (1954), and Severnaia voina i shvedskoe nashestvie na Rossiiu (1958). Foreign relations are described by Leonid A. Nikiforov, Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia pri Petre I (1950); and B.H. Sumner, Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire (1949, reissued 1965).Xenia Gasiorowska, The Image of Peter the Great in Russian Fiction (1979), is a study of some 60 historical novels written since Pushkin's time. Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought (1985), examines Peter's influence and how he has been perceived in Russia from 1700 to 1983.Works that put Peter the Great and his reign into historical perspective include Vasili Klyuchevsky, The Rise of the Romanovs, trans. and ed. by Liliana Archibald (1970; originally published in Russian, 1912); E.M. Almedingen, The Romanovs: Three Centuries of an Ill-Fated Dynasty (1966); John D. Bergamini, The Tragic Dynasty: A History of the Romanovs (1969), based on English- and French-language sources; Ian Grey, The Romanovs: The Rise and Fall of a Dynasty (1970); and W. Bruce Lincoln, The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias (1981). Leonid Alekseyevich Nikiforov The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica