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any formal limitations by a patriot assembly whichrepresented above all the middle ranks of the territoriallevies and the freer northern townsmen and peasants, towhom the intrigues of the magnates, Polish ideas ofpacta conventa and the licence of the ' robber' Cossackswere equally abhorrent, and who thought in terms ofancient custom applied to their own present needs.Michael, who was only sixteen, would certainly have tomeet those needs.Thus at this crisis in her history Russia did not followthe example of her conqueror Poland, still almost at theheight of her power, but within a century to pay onlytoo dearly for the binding limitations imposed by thenobles and country gentry upon their elected kings."Unite with us"—said the Poles—"and you will thenhave freedom." "Your way is freedom for you"—saidthe Russians—"but for us it is unfreedom. You donot have freedom, but licence ... if the Tsar himselfacts unjustly, it is his will: it is easier to suffer injuryfrom the Tsar than from one's brother; for he is ourcommon ruler."Few long-lasting dynasties have started under moreunpromising auspices and been later beset by suchsuccession difficulties as the house of Romanov. Itbegan with four minorities. There were two coupsd'etat (1682, 1689), largely decided by the attitude ofthe permanent Moscow garrison, the streltsy y and onewoman as regent (1682-89), a portent for the futurein a country which, with the momentary exceptionalready mentioned of tsar Feodor's wife, had never knowna woman on the throne and only one, long ago, asregent. But the succession was at least a family struggle:there was no question of going outside the Romanovfamily. Some play was made with the precedents ofelection by a national assembly (1682), but it was notmore than a gathering of those in Moscow. Then in1694 Peter the Great, who had been since 1682 nominaljoint tsar with his incapable half-brother Ivan V, at theage of twenty-two took power to himself.Peter pondered for years over his successor; decidednegatively and had his eldest son publicly condemned83