Born in 1657, Sophia Alexeyevna Romanov was the Tsar's daughter, a "tsarevna" expected to wither away in glittering seclusion among her useless sisters and aunts. Instead, she became the first woman to rule Mother Russia. Seventeenth-century Russia was a time of bloody turbulence and brutal conflict. When the sudden death of Tsar Alexis I left the Russian Empire bereft of strong male leadership, Sophia was cast into the breach as Regent. She governed...