Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

Boris Alexeyevich Golitsyn (surname sometimes transcribed Galitzin, rus, Голи́цын, Golitsyn, ɡɐˈlʲitsɨn; 1654–1714) was a Russian politician of the noble

Golitsyn family The House of Golitsyn or Galitzine was one of the largest princely of the noble houses in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire. Among them were boyars, warlords, diplomats, generals (the Mikhailovichs), stewards, chamberlains, the richest ...

. His chief political opponent was his own cousin Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn.

Life

Boris was a court

chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

since 1676. He was the young tsar

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

's tutor and chief supporter when, in 1689, Peter resisted the usurpations of his elder half sister Sophia, and the head of the loyal council which assembled at the Trinity monastery during the crisis of the struggle. It was Golitsyn who suggested taking refuge in that strong fortress and won over the

boyars A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were sec ...

of the opposite party. In 1690 he was created a boyar and shared with Lev Naryshkin, Peter's uncle, the conduct of home affairs. After the death of the tsaritsa Natalia, Peter's mother, in 1694, his influence increased still further. The estate

Bolshiye Vyazyomy Bolshiye Vyazyomy (russian: Большие Вязёмы) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia. The population is Vyazyomy is the location of Vyazyomy Manor owned by members of the Gol ...

was given to him; since then Vyazyomy remained the ancestral estate of the Golitsyns, although Boris rarely came to Vyazyomy preferring to live at the Dubrovitsy estate (near

Podolsk Podolsk ( rus, Подольск, p=pɐˈdolʲsk) is an industrial city, center of Podolsk Urban Okrug, Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Pakhra River (a tributary of the Moskva River). History The first mentions of the village of Podol, w ...

), which came from his wife's family. From 1690 to 1704, in the Dubrovitsy estate, he led the construction of a stone Church of the Theotokos of the Sign. His son Vasily (1681-1710) inherited the estate. He accompanied Peter to the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is su ...

(1694–1695); he took part in the Azov campaign (1695); and was one of the triumvirate who ruled Russia during Peters first foreign tour (1697–1698) to Holland and England. The

Astrakhan rebellion The Bulavin Rebellion or Astrakhan Revolt (; Восстание Булавина, ''Vosstaniye Bulavina'') was a war which took place in the years 1707 and 1708 between the Don Cossacks and the Tsardom of Russia. Kondraty Bulavin, a democratical ...

(1706), which affected all the districts under his government, shook Peter's confidence in him, and seriously impaired his position. In 1707 he was superseded in the

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

n provinces by

Andrei Matveev Count Andrey Artamonovich Matveev (russian: Андрей Артамонович Матвеев) (1666–1728) was a Russian statesman of the Petrine epoch best remembered as one of the first Russian ambassadors and Peter the Great's agent in Lon ...

. A year before his death he entered a monastery. Golitsyn was a typical representative of Russian society of the end of the 17th century leaning towards Westernism. In many respects he was far in advance of his time. He was highly educated, spoke

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

with graceful fluency, frequented the society of scholars and had his children carefully educated according to the best European models. Yet this eminent, superior personage was an habitual drunkard, an uncouth savage who intruded upon the hospitality of wealthy foreigners, and was not ashamed to seize upon any dish he took a fancy to, and send it home to his wife. It was his reckless drunkenness which ultimately ruined him in the estimation of Peter the Great, despite his previous inestimable services.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Golitsyn, Boris 1654 births 1714 deaths Russian princes Boris Alexeyevich 17th-century Russian people 18th-century politicians from the Russian Empire