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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
None of the many riddles in the reign of Tsar Alexander I is so intriguing as that of the position of the heir apparent, the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. His secret renunciation of his right to the throne cast doubt on Nicholas I's succession and contributed to the opportunity of the Decembrist conspirators. Moreover, as commander of the armed forces in Poland he was the chief figure in its government. The uprising of November 1830 signified the failure of Alexander's Polish plans, but it was also a personal tragedy for Constantine, who had so thoroughly identified himself with the new kingdom. His role in history was important; by his own choice it had not become much greater, but neither his contemporaries nor historians have agreed as to his qualifications to rule an empire.
Accounts differ even as to his capacity to manage the Polish army, or indeed to govern himself. A British historian in the nineteenth century described him as “a savage prince whose conduct and character made him more like a brute than a man.” This opinion was an extreme version of a common view of Constantine in the last century; the attitude is reflected by some writers of our own age, although few have gone so far as one modern author who pictured the Tsesarevich as “that insane hyena.” Polish writers, to further their justification of the 1830 revolt, assigned much of the discontent in that country to Constantine's “despotic” conduct, but even Russian and other historians have agreed that his explosive temperament and dislike for the Polish Constitution contributed to the uprising.
1 Spencer, Walpole, A History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 181$ (London, 1890), IV, 268.Google Scholar
2 According to the British representative in Vienna, the higher classes of society at St. Petersburg dreaded the “violent character of Constantine” (Sir Henry Wellesley to Stratford Canning, Jan. 4, 1826, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Stratford Canning Papers, Foreign Office 352/15 [Part 1 ] / 1 ). The historian Archibald Alison wrote that Constantine was “by nature capricious and passionate” (History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in MDCCCXV to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in MDCCCLII, IV [Edinburgh and London, 1855], 615), while Stern compares him, in his “ungovernable temper,” to his father Paul ( Alfred, Stern, Geschichte Europas seit den Vertrdgen von 1815 bis zum Frankfurter Frieden von 1871, III [Berlin, 1901], 49 Google Scholar).
3 Harold, Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna : A Study in Allied Unity, 18x2-1822 (New York, 1946), p. 106.Google Scholar
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8 Ibid., p. 269.
9 Ibid., p. 263.
10 Memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski and His Correspondence with Alexander I (London, 1888), I, 99.
11 Ibid., p. 116.
12 Ibid., II, 306-7.
13 Ibid., II, 309-10.
14 Grand-Due Nicolas Mikhailowitch, Les Rapports diplomatiques de Lebzeltern (St. Petersburg, 1913), p. 26.
15 Barzykowski, I, 78.
16 Schiemann, I, 113-14.
17 Pamietniki Jenerala Jazefa Dwernickiego (Lwów, 1870), pp. 1, 3; “Pamietnik Alfreda Mlockiego,” in Zbidr pamietnikdw do historyi powstania Polskiego z roku 1830-1831 (Lw6w, 1882), p. 223; W. Zamoyski, Jenerai Zamoyski (1803-1868) (Poznari, 1910-14), I, 121, 123, 148; Clement Kolaczkowski, “Pol'sha v 1814-1831 gg. (Iz vospominanii generala Klementiia Kolachkovskago),” Russkaia starina, CIX (1902), 630, 634.
18 Shil'der, N. K., Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi (St. Petersburg, 1897-98), IV, 17–18 Google Scholar; Mikhailowitch, Grand-Due Nicholas, L'Empereur Alexandre 1” (St. Petersburg, 1912), II, 335.Google Scholar
19 “Otchety Lagarpa k (Kn.) Saltykovu o vospitanii v. k. Aleksandra i Konstantina Pavlovichei, Menoire du 17 septembre 1789,” Russkaia starina, I (1870), 411.
20 Zapiski Nikolaia Nikolaevicha Murav'eva,” Russkii arkhiv, XXIII, Book 3 (Moscow, 1885), 54, 591.
21 Ibid., p. 55; Moriolles, Comte de, “Velikii Kniaz’ Konstantin Pavlovich i ego dvor,” Russkaia starina, CXI (1902), 295.Google Scholar
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24 “Perepiski Velikago Kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha s grafom A. Kh. Benkendorfom,” Russkii arkhiv, XXII, Book 3 (Moscow, 1884), 262, 312; “Pis'ma Velikago Kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha k Grafu A. Kh. Benkendorfu, 1829 god,” Russkii arkhiv, XXIII, Book 1 (Moscow, 1885), 31-32.
25 Timoshchuk, V, “Vpechatleniia velikago kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha vynesennyia im iz poezdki v Germaniiu v 1824 godu,” Russkaia starina, CXLIV (1910), 578 Google Scholar; Schiemann, I. 154.
26 Timoshchuk, V, “Imperator Nikolai Pavlovich i Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich v ikh pis'makh 1825-1831 gg.,” Russkaia starina, CXLVIII (1911), 382.Google Scholar
27 “Posmertnyia zapiski Alekseia Alekseevicha Odintsova,” p. 318.
28 Zamoyski, I, 103.
29 Velikii kniaz ’Konstantin Pavlovich v somneniakh i otritsaniiakh emu poriadkov,” Russkaia starina, CII (1900), 99, 104.
30 “Pis'ma Velikago kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha k Grafu Vladimiru Fedorovichu Vasil'evu, 1812-1814,” Russkii arkhiv, XX, Book 1 (Moscow, 1882), 129.
31 Ibid., pp. 145, 147, 153.
32 Ibid., pp. 158-59.
33 Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich v 1816-1828 gg.,” Russkaia starina, XXXIV (1882), 262-63.
34 Constantine to Nicholas, Sept. 21/Oct. 3, 1830, in Sbornik Imperatorskago Russkago Istoricheskago Obshchestva, CXXXII (St. Petersburg, 1911), 52; hereafter cited as Sbornik.
35 Constantine'sletters in Sbornik, CXXXI (1910), 27, 55, 65, 80; and CXXXII, 48.
36 “Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich v 1816-1828 gg.,” pp. 258, 262.
37 See correspondence in Syroechkovskii, B. E., ed., Mezhdutsarstvie 182$ goda v perepiske i memuarakh chlenov tsarskoi sem'i (Moscow and Leningrad, 1926), pp. 128–29, 149, 151, 156, 166Google Scholar; Sbornik, CXXXI, 28.
38 Sbornik, CXXXI, 18.
39 Ibid., pp. 8-9.
40 Sbornik, CXXXII, 17.
41 Wellington to George Canning, April 15, 1826, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Foreign Office, 65/155. Printed in Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur Duke of Wellington K.G., III (London, 1868), 300-302.
42 Heytesbury to Aberdeen, Aug. 22, 1829, British Museum, Aberdeen Papers, Add. Mss. 43089.
43 “Perepiska Velikago Kniaza Konstantina Pavlovicha s Grafom A. Kh. Benkendorfom,” pp. 248-49; and “Pis'ma Velikago Kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha k Grafu A. Kl. Benkendorfu, 1829 goda,” p. 27.
44 “Pis'ma Tsesarevicha Velikago Kniazia Konstandna Pavlovicha k Markize de-Kiub'er,” Russkii arkhiv, VIII (1870), 425.
45 Grand-Due Nicolas Mikhailowitch, Les Rapports diplomatiques de Lebzeltern, pp. 101-2.
46 Sokolovskii, p. 228.
47 Sbornik, CXXXI, 64-65, 196-97; Shil'der, Imperator Nikolai Pervyi, II, 111-18, 299-301, 333; M. Polievktov, Nikolai I (Moscow, 1918), pp. 98-99.
48 “Pis'ma Velikago Kniazia Konstantina Pavlovicha k Grafu A. Kh. Benkendorfu, 1829 goda,” p. 29.
49 An illustration of the humane and honorable views of Constantine can be seen in the recollections of the Polish deputy, E. I. V. Wolicki, who interviewed the Grand Duke in December 1830 (N. P. Baryshnikov, “Priezd Pol'skago deputata k Tsesarevichu Konstantinu Pavlovichu,” Russkaia starina, XXI [1878], 29-33).
