Alexei despised his father and repeatedly thwarted Peter's plans to raise him as successor to the throne, to continue his policies.

His wife joined him at Toruń in December, but in April 1712 a peremptory ukase ordered him off to the army in Pomerania, and in the autumn of the same year he was forced to accompany his father on a tour of inspection through Finland.

After the birth of Natalia in 1714, Alexei brought his long-time Finnish serf mistress Afrosinia[3] to live in the palace.

Some historians speculate that it was his conservative powerbase's disapproval of his foreign, non-Orthodox bride, more so than her appearance, that caused Alexei to spurn Charlotte.

Immediately on his return from Finland, Alexei was dispatched by his father to Staraya Russa and Lake Ladoga to see to the building of new ships.

Alexei wrote a pitiful reply to his father, offering to renounce the succession in favour of his infant son Peter.

[2] While Alexei was pondering his options, on 26 August 1716 Peter wrote from abroad, urging him, if he desired to remain tsarevich, to join him and the army without delay.

Rather than face this ordeal, Alexei fled to Vienna and placed himself under the protection of his brother-in-law, the emperor Charles VI, who sent him for safety first to the Tirolean fortress of Ehrenberg (near Reutte), and finally to the castle of Sant'Elmo at Naples.

That the emperor sincerely sympathized with Alexei, and suspected Peter of harbouring murderous designs against his son, is plain from his confidential letter to George I of Great Britain, whom he consulted on this delicate affair.

Peter felt insulted: the flight of the tsarevich to a foreign potentate was a reproach and a scandal, and he had to be recovered and brought back to Russia at all costs.

[2] Alexei would only consent to return if his father swore that if he came back, he would not be punished and would be allowed to live quietly on his estates and marry Afrosinia.

On 18 February a confession was extorted from Alexei which implicated most of his friends, and he then publicly renounced the succession to the throne in favour of the baby grand-duke Peter Alexeyevich.

"I shall bring back the old people ...", Alexei is reported to have told her, and choose myself new ones according to my will; when I become sovereign I shall live in Moscow and leave Saint Petersburg simply as any other town; I won't launch any ships; I shall maintain troops only for defense, and won't make war on anyone; I shall be content with the old domains.

[5] The clergy, for their part, declared that the Tsarevich Alexei ... had placed his Confidence in those who loved the ancient Customs, and that he had become acquainted with them by the Discourses they held, wherein they had constantly praised the ancient Manners, and spoke with Distaste of the Novelties his Father had introduced.Declaring this to be a civil rather than an ecclesiastical matter, the clergy left the matter to the tsar's own decision.

), the temporal dignitaries – the 126 members of both the Senate and magistrates that comprised the court – declared Alexei guilty and sentenced him to death.

), Alexei died in the Peter and Paul fortress in Saint Petersburg, two days after the senate had condemned him to death for conspiring rebellion against his father, and for hoping for the cooperation of the common people and the armed intervention of his sister-in-law’s husband, Emperor Charles VI.