old, might order an investigation of his father's death. These
men held the power and decided that, since Catherine had been crowned
as Empress, it was she who should succeed. Thus the former maid
servant, not even a native Russian, became Empress of all the Russias.
There were some protests in favor of Peter's grandson, but they were
disregarded.

Menzikoff who was the cause of Catherine's rise, fancied himself
all-powerful, and there was jealousy among Peter's associates.
Menzikoff sent one of them, Tolstoi, to Siberia, but Catherine would
not consent to the punishment of the other friends of the late czar.
She was honest in carrying out Peter's unfinished projects. He had
planned the marriage of his daughter Anne to the Duke of Holstein: the
wedding took place; he intended to send an exploring expedition to
Kamtschatka; she engaged the services of a Danish captain, Bering, (p. 174)
who discovered the sea and strait named after him. The Academy of
Sciences was opened in 1726. She, however, changed the Senate into a
Secret High Council, which met under the presidency of the empress.

Catherine died in 1727, and on her deathbed appointed Peter's
grandson, then fourteen years old, as her successor. In case of his
death, the throne would go to Anne, and next to Elizabeth. During his
minority these two daughters assisted by the Duke of Holstein,
Menzikoff, and some other high officers, would constitute a Board of
Regents.

Menzikoff had taken precautions. He had obtained her consent that the
young heir, Peter II, should marry one of his daughters, a young lady
two years older than the boy. He showed, in his letters to Peter, that
he looked upon him as his son. He also intended his own son to marry
the boy's sister Natalia. There was one member of Peter the Great's
family who did not approve of Menzikoff's schemes, Elizabeth, the
young czar's aunt, then seventeen years old. Not long after
Catherine's death, Menzikoff fell ill; he was compelled to keep to his
rooms, and in that time Elizabeth roused her nephew's suspicions.
Peter left Menzikoff's palace and when Catherine's favorite tried to
resume his authority, he was arrested and exiled to his estates. Soon
after he was sent to Siberia, where he died two years later, in 1729.

The Dolgorouki family succeeded, but its head committed the same
mistakes, besides showing a tendency to undo the work of Peter the
Great. The young czar was growing weary of the Dolgorouki whe