THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

ACCESSION OF THE CZAR NICHOLAS 241
rightful heir to the throne, was a mere unlettered savage.
In 1820, moreover, he had divorced his wife,
and contracted a morganatic union with a certain
Countess Grudzinska. This circumstance, and perhaps
some consciousness of his own utter unfitness to
rule, had induced him, in 1823, to sign a resignation
of his claim to the crown in favour of his second
brother, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who was married
to the Prussian Princess Charlotte. The Czar Alexander
had agreed to this arrangement, and the formal
documents had been duly executed, and deposited in
the archives at Moscow and St.
Petersburg,
but with
such secrecy that the transaction had not become gen-
and Nicholas himself had received no
erally known,
official intimation of it.
When, therefore, the news of Alexander's death
reached St. Petersburg, Nicholas himself took the oath
of allegiance to Constantine, and administered it also
to the imperial guard. Not till this was done were
the documents unsealed which appointed Nicholas
heir to the Empire.
Even now he refused to mount
the throne, unless he received from Constantine a renewal
of his abdication.
The result of this delay and
uncertainty was an inevitable confusion, of which the
forces of discontent were quick to avail themselves.
For some years before the death of Alexander the
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