Robert Massie

Black Sea. For his services in the Turkish war, he was awarded a diamond-studded sword and a miniature portrait of the empress set in diamonds to be worn over his heart, a gift previously awarded only to Gregory Orlov. One after another

would also fall on them. Nor was it widely seen as immoral. Indeed

, whom Sophia already had appointed as their commander, the Streltsy pointed out that there was a certain illegality to Peter’s election as tsar; he was the son of the second wife, while Ivan, the son of the first wife and the older of the two