An 'urgently readable' ( Newsweek) biography of the captivating tsar who changed Russian historyfrom the New York Times bestselling author of Nicholas and Alexandra, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great.Charles tried to dismount but the movement caused such agony that he fainted.PULITZER PRIZE WINNER By this time, the officers and men near him had noticed his extreme pallor and the blood dripping from his torn left boot. It was not until eleven a.m., almost three hours after being hit, that he returned to his headquarters and prepared to dismount. Although the wound must have been excruciatingly painful, the King continued his tour of inspection as if nothing had happened. Count Stanislaus Poniatowski, a Polish nobleman accredited to Charles XII by King Stanislaus, who was riding next to the King, noticed that he was hurt, but Charles commanded him to keep quiet.

The ball struck his heel, piercing the boot, plunging forward through the length of the foot, smashing a bone and finally passing out near the big toe. His back was to the enemy, and at that moment he was hit in the left foot by a Russian musket ball. Then, his inspection finished, he turned his horse to ride back up the bank. Charles, without the slightest care for his own safety, continued his slow ride at the water’s edge. The musket range was short and a Drabant was shot dead in his saddle. Some of the Russians from the force which had been driven back remained on one of the numerous islands in midstream, and they began to fire at the party of Swedish officers across the water. with a squadron of Drabants and began riding along the bank at the water’s edge to inspect the men and their positions. Further, he instructed that festive evergreen branches be used to decorate the doorposts in interiors of houses, and he commanded that all citizens of Moscow should “display their happiness by loudly congratulating” In his decree, the Tsar stated frankly that the change was made in order to conform to Western practice.* But to blunt the argument of those who said that God could not have made the earth in the depth of winter, Peter invited them “to view the map of the globe, and, in a pleasant temper, gave them to understand that Russia was not all the world and that what was winter with them was, at the same time, always summer in those places beyond the equator.” To celebrate the change and impress the new day on the Muscovites, Peter ordered special New Year’s services held in all the churches on January 1. “Anxious to bring both the year and New Year’s Day into line with the West, Peter decreed in December 1699 that the next new year would begin on January 1 and that the coming year would be numbered 1700.

Peter the great robert massie