He was born in
1672, and his father died in 1676.

Theodore was at this time about sixteen. Of course, however, being so
young, and his health being so infirm, he could not take any active part
in the administration of government, but was obliged to leave every thing
in the hands of his counselors and ministers of state, who managed
affairs as they thought proper, though they acted always in Theodore's
name.

There were a great many persons who were ambitious of having a share of
the power which the young Czar thus left in the hands of his
subordinates; and, among these, perhaps the most ambitious of all was the
Princess Sophia, Theodore's sister, who was all this time shut up in the
convent to which the rules and regulations of imperial etiquette
consigned her. She was very uneasy in this confinement, and wished very
much to get released, thinking that if she could do so she should be able
to make herself of considerable consequence in the management of public
affairs. So she made application to the authorities to be allowed to go
to the palace to see and take care of her brother in his sickness. This
application was at length complied with, and Sophia went to the palace.
Here she devoted herself with so much assiduity to the care of her
brother, watching constantly at his bedside, and suffering no one to
attend upon him or to give him medicines but herself, that she won not
only his heart, but the hearts of all the nobles of the court, by her
seemingly disinterested sisterly affection.

Indeed, it is not by any means impossible that Sophia might have been at
first disinterested and sincere in her desire to minister to the wants of
her brother, and to solace and comfort him in his sickness. But, however
this may have been at the outset, the result was that, after a time, she
acquired so much popularity and influence that she became quite an
important personage at court. She was a very talented and accomplished
young woman, and was possessed, moreover, of a strong and masculine
character. Yet she was very agreeable and insinuating in her manners;
and she conversed so affably, and at the same time so intelligently, with
all the grandees of the empire, as they came by turns to visit her
brother in his sick chamber, that they all formed a very high estimate of
her character.

She also obtained a great ascendency over the mind of Theodore himself,
and this, of itself, very much increased her importance in the ey