Charles Hughes , circus director in United Kingdom Born 1747 dead 1797 . A horseman and former Astley employee named Charles Hughes traveled to Russia in 1773 to perform for Catherine the Great in the royal palace of St. Petersburg. He took with him a small company of trick riders and taught horsemanship at the court. Hughes is therefore sometimes credited with having introduced the circus to Russia, but his exhibitions encompassed only trick riding. (The first Russian circus to incorporate a full complement of acts was that of the Frenchman Jacques Tourniaire, a first-rate equestrian who built a short-lived circus in St. Petersburg.) Hughes went on to introduce the term circus in 1782, when he opened what he called the Royal Circus a few hundred yards south of Astley’s amphitheatre.
