Everyone knows that Peter I was married to a commoner Martha Skavronskaya, who became empress under the name of Catherine I. About his very first wife, Evdokia Lopukhina, most sources sparingly report only that Peter imprisoned her in a monastery, "shedding tears" as Alexei Tolstoy writes in his novel ... Meanwhile, the story of the disgraced queen is not so simple ...

Unloved ...

The mother, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, chose the bride for her son. Evdokia, from a seedy boyar family, was several years older than the 16-year-old tsar, modest and very pretty ...

At first, young Dunyasha is sincerely husband. However, compared to his former lovers - the liberated beauties from the German settlement - the shy, not experienced in carnal love, the terem hawthorn Evdokia seemed boring, insipid, uninteresting ... Peter spent more and more time in the German Quarter with his favorite Anna Mons, causing mad jealousy by this ... True, this did not prevent him from having children from Evdokia: Alexei and Natalia.

Natalya Kirillovna died in 1696. In August 1698, Evdokia was forcibly sent to the Suzdal Women's Pokrovsky Monastery by tsarist orders.

Mad Evdokia and two Glebov

In May 1699 Evdokia took a secret tonsure under the name of Eldress Elena. In exchange for agreeing to become, she was allowed to maintain relations with her Moscow relatives - Lopukhin, Shcherbatov, Troyekurov ... From them she received money, parcels, and from Princess Marya Alekseevna, the king's half-sister, daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich from her first marriage, from her first marriage son ... But this was not enough for the disgraced Evdokia. The revived nun queen dreamed of returning to the court!

At this time, the rejected queen received the news that not far away, in the Snovitsky monastery of the Vladimir diocese, lived Abbot Dosifei, who had a prophetic gift. By the way, his parents belonged to the courtyard people of the Lopukhins. But this did not prevent Demid Glebov (this was the secular name of Dositheus) to take the clergy, and subsequently to become Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl.

So, Evdokia visited the former serf of her family, and now a clergyman, to find out about her own future. Her expectations did not disappoint - the seer predicted to her: "You will return to the court, you will end your life in glory and wealth, which is decent for you!" In addition, Dositheus announced that the death of Tsar Peter was close, and soon Alexei, the son of Peter and Evdokia, would ascend the throne.

Upon returning to her sister, Elena no longer put on monastic robes, wore luxurious outfits sent from Moscow by her relatives ... From now on, she led a social life, gathering around her a courtyard of former Moscow subjects. More than once, as a legitimate sovereign, she received local governors, burgomasters and clergy.

In 1710 Evdokia had a lover - Major Stepan Glebov (by a strange coincidence - the namesake of Dositheus), who arrived in Suzdal for recruitment. However, having fed up with the queen's love, Glebov abandoned her ... Evdokia turned to the same Dositheus for help, and he advised her to go on a pilgrimage ... Traveling to churches and monasteries, she willingly accepted honors from the clergy ...

Pay

In the meantime, rumors reached the tsar that Evdokia did not live as befits a monk, and even made herself a lover of a low rank! Peter's relationship with his son from his first wife Alexei also did not go well. In 1718, the tsarevich was thrown into prison on charges of "high treason." The investigation began. In the course of it, it turned out that Alexei was constantly in touch with his disgraced mother ... In a word, soon Evdokia, her confidants and the ill-fated Glebov were brought to Moscow and an inquest was organized in full: confrontations, torture ...

Glebov, however, completely denied the love affair with the tsarina, but this did not save him from punishment: he was put on a stake. The rest of the "culprits" were punished by execution or exile. Even the "prophet" Dositheus did not pass this cup. The bodies of the executed conspirators were thrown into the fire, after having chopped off their heads, which were planted on poles and put on a high stone wall for everyone to see.

Unenviable befell other participants in the "conspiracy". Tsarevna Marya Alekseevna was put in prison for aiding the "rebel" Evdokia ... Tsarevich Aleksey Petrovich died in Shlisselburg fortress under mysterious circumstances ...

Evdokia was sent to the Ladoga monastery, where she lived on bread and water ... It seemed that the prediction of the unfortunate Dositheus would never come true ... Moreover, the latter could not even foresee his own terrible death!

A fulfilled prophecy

However, it is too early to draw conclusions. In 1725, after the death of Peter I, Empress Catherine I ascended the throne.
First of all, the newly-made ruler of Russia ordered to conclude her predecessor in the same Shlisselburg fortress, where her son died ...

However, two years later, Catherine ordered to live a long time - according to rumors, her ... The only surviving male heir - Peter II, the son of the ruined Alexei ...

The grandson, of course, immediately remembered his own grandmother. I wrote letters to her, sent her a portrait and ten thousand rubles as a gift ... But at a personal meeting, the grandmother did not please Peter with something: he allocated money for her maintenance, but he often did not want to see her ... From now on, she began to live in the Novodevichy Convent, with a large staff of servants, surrounded by honor. Sometimes she appeared at the court ... Evdokia died on August 27, 1731 in the Novodevichy monastery, where she was buried.

Was Dosifei really so wrong? After all, Peter I nevertheless died before his first wife, and her descendant - even if not a son, but a grandson, Peter II - nevertheless ascended the throne! And, finally, Evdokia Lopukhina-Romanova completed her life, as befits a reigning person. She survived in spite of fate, which seeks to push her to the margins of history ...

He fearlessly introduced new traditions to Russia, opening a "window" to Europe. But one "tradition", probably, could envy all Western autocrats. After all, as you know, "no king can marry for love." But Peter the Great, the first Russian emperor, was able to challenge society, neglect the brides of the noble family and princesses of Western European countries and marry for love ... Peter was not even 17 years old when his mother decided to marry him. An early marriage, according to the calculations of Tsarina Natalia, should have significantly changed the position of her son, and with it, herself. According to the custom of that time, a young man became an adult after marriage. Consequently, the married Peter will no longer need the care of his sister Sophia, the time will come for his reign, he will move from Preobrazhensky to the chambers of the Kremlin. In addition, by marriage, the mother hoped to settle her son down, tie him to the family hearth, distract him from the German settlement, where foreign merchants and artisans lived, and hobbies that were not characteristic of the royal dignity. By a hasty marriage, they finally tried to protect the interests of Peter's descendants from the claims of the possible heirs of his co-ruler Ivan, who by this time was already a married man and was waiting for the addition of the family.

Evdokia Lopukhina

Tsarina Natalya herself found a bride for her son - the beautiful Evdokia Lopukhina, according to a contemporary, "a princess with a fair face, only an average mind and a disposition dissimilar to her husband." The same contemporary noted that "the love between them was hefty, but only lasted only a year."

It is possible that the cooling between the spouses began even earlier, because a month after the wedding, Peter left Evdokia and went to Lake Pereyaslavskoye to engage in sea fun.

Anna Mons

In the German settlement, the tsar met the daughter of a wine merchant, Anna Mons. One contemporary believed that this "girl was fair and intelligent", while another, on the contrary, found that she was "of mediocre acuteness and intelligence."

It is difficult to say which of them is right, but cheerful, loving, resourceful, always ready to joke, dance or keep up a secular conversation, Anna Mons was the complete opposite of the king's wife - a limited beauty, who made me yearning with slavish obedience and blind adherence to antiquity. Peter preferred Mons and free time spent in her company.

Several letters from Evdokia to Peter and not a single answer from the tsar have survived. In 1689, when Peter went to Lake Pereyaslavskoye, Evdokia addressed him with tender words: “Hello, my light, for many years. We ask for your mercy, perhaps the sovereign, wake up to us without hesitation. And I am alive with the grace of my mother. Your fiancé beats Dunka with his forehead. "

In another letter addressed to “my sweetheart,” “your fiancé Dunka,” who had not yet suspected of an imminent breakup, asked permission to come to her husband for a date herself. Two letters to Evdokia refer to a later time - 1694, and the last of them is full of sadness and loneliness of a woman who knows well that she was abandoned for the sake of another.

In them there was no longer an appeal to "sweetheart", the wife did not hide her bitterness and could not refrain from reproaches, called herself "shameless", complained that she did not receive "a single line" in response to her letters. The birth of a son named Alexei in 1690 did not strengthen family ties.

She retired from the Suzdal Monastery, where she spent 18 years. Having got rid of his wife, Peter did not show any interest in her, and she got the opportunity to live as she wanted. Instead of the meager monastic food, she was served food delivered by numerous relatives and friends. About ten years later, she got a lover ...

Only on March 6, 1711, it was announced that Peter had a new legal wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna.

The real name of Ekaterina Alekseevna is Marta. During the siege of Marienburg by Russian troops in 1702 Martha, a servant of Pastor Gluck, was captured. For some time she was the mistress of a non-commissioned officer, Field Marshal Sheremetev noticed her, she also liked Menshikov.

Menshikov called her Ekaterina Trubcheva, Katerina Vasilevskaya. She received her patronymic Alekseevna in 1708, when Tsarevich Alexei acted as godfather at her baptism.

Ekaterina Alekseevna (Marta Skavronskaya)

Peter met Catherine in 1703 at Menshikov's. Fate prepared for the former servant the role of a concubine, and then the wife of an extraordinary person. Beautiful, charming and courteous, she quickly won the heart of Peter.

What happened to Anna Mons? The tsar's relationship with her lasted more than ten years and ended through no fault of his - the favorite got herself a lover. When Peter found out about this, he said: "To love a king, you had to have a king in your head," and ordered her to be kept under house arrest.

The Prussian envoy Keyserling was an admirer of Anna Mons. An interesting description of Keyserling's meeting with Peter and Menshikov, during which the envoy asked permission to marry Mons.

In response to Keyserling's request, the tsar said, “that he raised the maiden Mons for himself, with a sincere intention to marry her, but since she was seduced and corrupted by me, he did not want to hear or know about her or her relatives. ". Menshikov added that "the girl Mons is really a vile, public woman, with whom he himself lewd". Menshikov's servants beat Keyserling and let him down the stairs.

In 1711, Keyserling still managed to marry Anna Mons, but he died six months later. The former favorite tried to marry again, but death from consumption prevented this.

Secret wedding of Peter the Great and Ekaterina Alekseevna.

From Anna Mons, Catherine was distinguished by her good health, which allowed her to easily endure a grueling camp life and, at the first call of Peter, overcome many hundreds of miles of off-road. Catherine, moreover, possessed extraordinary physical strength.

Kamer-junker Berholz described how the tsar once joked with one of his orderlies, with the young Buturlin, whom he ordered to raise his large marshal's baton at his outstretched hand. He could not do this. “Then His Majesty, knowing how strong the Empress’s hand was, gave her his rod across the table. She got up and, with extraordinary dexterity, several times lifted him over the table with her straight hand, which surprised us all a lot. "

Catherine became necessary for Peter, and the Tsar's letters to her quite eloquently reflect the growth of his affection and respect. “Come to Kiev without hesitation,” the tsar wrote to Catherine from Zhovkva in January 1707. “For God, come soon, and if something is impossible to be soon, write it down, it’s not without sadness that I neither hear nor see you,” he wrote from St. Petersburg.

The tsar showed concern for Catherine and his illegitimate daughter Anna. "If what happens to me by the will of God," he made a written order at the beginning of 1708, before leaving for the army, "then three thousand rubles, which are now in the courtyard of Prince Menshikov, should be given to Ekaterina Vasilevskaya and the girl."

A new stage in the relationship between Peter and Catherine came after she became his wife. In letters after 1711, the familiarly rude "hello, mother!" replaced by a gentle: "Katerinushka, my friend, hello."

Not only the form of address has changed, but also the tonality of the notes: to replace the laconic letters-orders, similar to the command of an officer to his subordinates, like “how this informer will come to you, go here without hesitating”, letters began to come expressing tender feelings for a loved one ...

In one of his letters, Peter advised to be careful during the trip to him: "For God, drive carefully and don't leave the battalions a hundred yards." Her husband brought her joy with an expensive gift, or overseas delicacies.

Preserved 170 letters of Peter to Catherine. Only a very few of them are of a business nature. However, in them, the king did not burden his spouse with either instructions to do something or check the fulfillment of the task by someone else, or with a request for advice, he only informed about what had happened - about the battles won, about his health.

“I finished the course yesterday, the waters, thank God, were acting pretty well; how will it be after? " - he wrote from Carlsbad, or: “Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I hear that you are bored, but I am not bored either, but we can judge that there is no need to change things for boredom. "

Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna

In short, Catherine enjoyed the love and respect of Peter. Combining marriage with an unknown captive and neglecting the brides of the boyar family or princesses of Western European countries was a challenge to customs, a rejection of time-honored traditions. But Peter allowed himself not such challenges.

Announcing Catherine as his wife, Peter also thought about the future of his daughters, Anna and Elizabeth, who lived with her: "I have to commit a hedgehog for this unknown path, so that if the orphans remain, they could have their own life."

Catherine was endowed with inner tact, a subtle understanding of the character of her hot-tempered husband. When the king was in a state of rage, no one dared to approach him. It seems that she alone knew how to calm the Tsar, without fear to look into his eyes blazing with anger.

The brilliance of the courtyard did not overshadow the memories of her origins in her memory.

“The Tsar,” wrote a contemporary, “could not marvel at her ability and ability to transform, as he put it, into an empress, not forgetting that she was not born by her. They often traveled together, but always in separate trains, distinguished - one by the grandeur of its simplicity, the other by its luxury. He loved to see her everywhere.

There was no military review, launching of a ship, ceremony or holiday at which she would not appear. " Another foreign diplomat also had the opportunity to observe Peter's manifestation of attentiveness and warmth to his wife: “After dinner, the tsar and tsarina opened a ball, which lasted about three hours; the king often danced with the queen and little princesses and kissed them many times; in this case, he showed great affection for the queen, and it can be said in fairness that, despite the uncertainty of her family, she is quite worthy of the mercy of such a great monarch. "

This diplomat gave the only description of Catherine's appearance that has come down to us, which coincides with her portrait image: “At the present moment (1715) she has a pleasant fullness; her complexion is very white with an admixture of natural, somewhat bright blush, her eyes are black, small, her hair of the same color is long and thick, her neck and arms are beautiful, her expression is gentle and very pleasant. "

Catherine really did not forget about her past. In one of her letters to her husband, we read: “Although there are, for tea, you have new portomoys, however, the old one does not forget too,” so she jokingly reminded that she had once been a laundress. In general, she coped with the role of the king's wife easily and naturally, as if she had been taught this role from childhood.

“His Majesty loved the female sex,” said one of his contemporaries. The same contemporary wrote down the tsar's reasoning: “It is unforgivable to forget the service for the sake of a woman. Being a prisoner of a mistress is worse than being a prisoner in war; the enemy may rather have freedom, but the woman's chains are long-lasting. "

Catherine was condescending to the fleeting connections of her husband and even supplied him with "metresishek" herself. Once, while abroad, Peter sent a response to Catherine's letter, in which she jokingly reproached him for having intimate relationships with other women. "Why joke about fun, and we do not have it, we are old people and not like that."

"Ponezh," the tsar wrote to his wife in 1717, "while drinking the waters of domestic fun, doctors are forbidden to use, for that sake I let my metresa go to you." Catherine's answer was composed in the same spirit: “And I think more that you deigned to send this (metresishka) because of her illness, in which she is now, and for treatment you deigned to go to The Hague; and I would not wish, from what God forbid, that the galan of that metresishka would come as healthy as she came ”.

Nevertheless, his chosen one had to fight with rivals even after marriage with Peter and accession to the throne, for even then some of them threatened her position as a wife and empress. In 1706, in Hamburg, Peter promised the daughter of a Lutheran pastor to divorce Catherine, since the pastor agreed to give his daughter only to his lawful spouse.

Shafirov has already received an order to prepare everything required documents... But, unfortunately for herself, the too gullible bride agreed to partake of the joys of Hymeneus before his torch was lit. After that, she was escorted out, paying her a thousand ducats.

Chernysheva Avdotya Ivanovna (Evdokia Rzhevskaya)

The heroine of another, less fleeting infatuation was believed to be very close to a decisive victory and a high position. Evdokia Rzhevskaya was the daughter of one of the first adherents of Peter, whose family, in antiquity and nobility, rivaled the Tatishchev family.

As a fifteen-year-old girl, she was thrown on the Tsar's bed, and at the age of sixteen, Peter married her off to the officer Chernyshev, who was looking for a promotion, and did not sever ties with her. Eudoxia had four daughters and three sons from the king; at least he was called the father of these children. But, taking into account the overly frivolous disposition of Evdokia, Peter's paternal rights were more than doubtful.

This greatly reduced her chances as favorites. If you believe the scandalous chronicle, she managed to achieve only the famous order: "Go and whip Avdotya." Such an order was given to her husband by her lover, who fell ill and considered Evdokia to be the culprit of his illness. Peter used to call Chernyshev: "Avdotya Boy-Baba." Her mother was the famous “prince-abbess”.

An adventure with Evdokia Rzhevskaya would not be of any interest if it were one of a kind. But, unfortunately, her legendary image is very typical, which is the sad interest of this page of history; Evdokia personified an entire era and a whole society.

The illegitimate offspring of Peter is equal in number to the offspring Louis XIV, although, perhaps, tradition exaggerates a little. For example, the illegality of the origin of the sons of Mrs. Stroganova, not to mention the others, has not been historically certified by anything. It is only known that their mother, nee Novosiltseva, was a participant in orgies, was distinguished by a cheerful disposition and drank bitter.

Maria Hamilton before execution

The story of another lady-in-waiting, Maria Hamilton, is very curious. It goes without saying that the sentimental novel created from this story by the imagination of some writers remains fantasy novel... Hamilton was, apparently, a rather vulgar creature, and Peter did not betray himself, showing his love for her in his own way.

As you know, one of the branches of a large Scottish family that rivaled the Douglases, moved to Russia in the era that preceded the great emigre movement in the 17th century and was approaching the time of Ivan the Terrible. This clan became related to many Russian surnames and seemed completely Russified long before the accession of the reformer tsar to the throne. Maria Hamilton was the granddaughter of Natalia Naryshkina's adoptive father, Artamon Matveyev. She was not bad-looking and, being taken to the court, shared the fate of many like her. It caused only a fleeting flash of Peter's passion.

Having mastered her in passing, Peter immediately abandoned her, and she consoled herself with the tsar's orderlies. Maria Hamilton was pregnant several times, but in every way she got rid of the children. In order to bind one of her accidental lovers, young Orlov, a rather insignificant person who treated her roughly and robbed her, she stole money and jewelry from the empress.

All her big and small crimes were discovered quite by accident. A rather important document has disappeared from the tsar's office. Suspicion fell on Orlov, since he knew about this document, and spent the night outside the house. Summoned to the Tsar for interrogation, he was frightened and imagined that he was in trouble because of his connection with Hamilton. Shouting "I'm sorry!" he fell to his knees and repented of everything, telling about the thefts, which he took advantage of, and about infanticide known to him. The investigation and the process began.

Unhappy Mary was accused mainly of making malicious speeches against the empress, whose too good complexion caused her ridicule. Indeed, a grave crime ... Whatever they say, this time Catherine showed quite a lot of good nature. She herself interceded for the criminal and even forced Tsarina Praskovya, who enjoyed great influence, to intercede for her.

The intercession of Queen Praskovya was all the more important because everyone knew how little she usually was inclined to mercy. According to the concepts of old Russia, there were many mitigating circumstances for such crimes as infanticide, and Tsarina Praskovya in many respects was a real Russian of the old school.

But the sovereign turned out to be implacable: "He does not want to be either Saul or Ahab, violating the Divine law because of an impulse of kindness." Did he really respect divine laws that much? Perhaps. But he got it into his head that several of his soldiers were taken away from him, and that was an unforgivable crime. Maria Hamilton was tortured several times in the presence of the king, but until the very end she refused to give the name of her accomplice. The latter thought only about how to justify himself, and accused her of all sins. It cannot be said that this ancestor of the future favorites of Catherine II behaved like a hero.

On March 14, 1714, Maria Hamilton went to the chopping block, as Scherer said, "in a white dress decorated with black ribbons." Peter, who was very fond of theatrical effects, could not help responding to this last trick of his dying coquetry. He had the courage to be present at the execution and, since he could never remain a passive spectator, he took a direct part in it.

He kissed the condemned woman, admonished her to pray, supported her in his arms when she lost consciousness, and then left. This was the signal. When Mary raised her head, the executioner had already replaced the king. Scherer gave stunning details: “When the ax had done its job, the tsar returned, lifted his bloody head that had fallen into the mud and calmly began to lecture on anatomy, naming all the organs affected by the ax to those present and insisting on dissection of the spine. When he finished, he touched his pale lips with his lips, which he once covered with completely different kisses, threw the head of Mary, crossed himself and left. "

It is highly doubtful that the favorite Pyotr Menshikov, as some have argued, found it appropriate to take part in the trial and conviction of unfortunate Hamilton in order to protect the interests of his patroness Catherine. This rival was not at all dangerous to her. Some time later, Catherine found grounds for a more serious concern. The dispatch of Campredon dated June 8, 1722 says: "The queen fears that if the princess gives birth to a son, the king, at the request of the Valachian ruler, will divorce his wife and marry his mistress."

It was about Maria Cantemir.

Maria Cantemir

Lord Dmitry Kantemir, former ally Peter during the unfortunate campaign of 1711, lost his possessions at the conclusion of the Prut Treaty. Having found shelter in St. Petersburg, he languished there in anticipation of the promised compensation for his losses. For a long time it seemed that his daughter would reward him for what he had lost.

When Peter went on a campaign to Persia in 1722, his love affair with Maria Cantemir had been dragging on for several years and seemed close to a denouement, fatal for Catherine. Both women accompanied the king during the campaign. But Maria was forced to stay in Astrakhan, as she was pregnant. This further strengthened the confidence of her adherents in her victory.

After the death of little Peter Petrovich, Catherine had no more son, whom Peter could make his heir. It was assumed that if, upon the return of the tsar from the campaign, Kantemir gave him a son, then Peter would not hesitate to get rid of the second wife in the same way that he freed himself from the first. According to Scherer, Catherine's friends found a way to get rid of the danger: when he returned, Peter found his mistress seriously ill after a premature birth; even feared for her life.

Catherine was triumphant, and the romance, which almost ruined her, seemed henceforth doomed to the same vulgar end as all the previous ones. Shortly before the death of the sovereign, one obsequious subject, like Chernyshev and Rumyantsev, proposed "for the sake of appearance" to marry the princess, still beloved by Peter, although she had lost her ambitious hopes.

Fate safely led Catherine out of all trials. The solemn coronation made her position completely unattainable. The lover's honor was rehabilitated by marriage, and the position of the wife, vigilantly guarding the family hearth, and the empress, who shares all the honors bestowed on high dignity, lifted her completely and gave her a very special place among the disorderly female crowd, where the maids from the hotel walked hand in hand with their daughters Scottish lords and Moldavian-Wallachian princesses. And suddenly, among all this crowd, a completely unexpected image appeared, the image of a chaste and respected friend.

Appearing in this role, a noble Polish lady, Slavic by birth, but received a Western upbringing, was charming in full sense this word. Peter enjoyed the company of Mrs. Senyavskaya in the Yavorov gardens. They spent many hours together building the barge, walking on the water, and talking. It was a real idyll. Elizaveta Senyavskaya,

nee Princess Lubomirskaya, was the wife of the crown hetman Senyavsky, a staunch supporter of Augustus against Leshchinsky. She went through the rebellious life of a brutal conqueror, avoiding backbiting. Peter admired not so much her rather mediocre beauty as her rare intelligence. He liked her company.

He listened to her advice, which sometimes put him in a difficult position, since she supported Leshchinsky, but not a protege of the tsar and her own husband. When the king informed her of his intention to release all foreign officers invited by him to serve, she gave him object lesson by sending the German who ran the Polish musicians' orchestra; even the tsar's little sensitive ear could not bear the discord that began immediately.

When he spoke to her about his project to turn into a desert the Russian and Polish regions lying on the way Charles XII to Moscow, she interrupted him with a story about a nobleman who, in order to punish his wife, decided to become a eunuch. She was charming, and Peter succumbed to her charm, pacified, ennobled by her presence, as if transformed from contact with this pure and refined nature, both gentle and strong ...

In 1722, Peter, feeling that his strength was leaving him, published the Charter on the inheritance of the throne. Henceforth, the appointment of the heir depended on the will of the sovereign. It is likely that the tsar chose Catherine, because only this choice can explain Peter's intention to proclaim his wife empress and start a magnificent ceremony of her coronation.

It is unlikely that Peter showed statesmanship in his “heart-to-heart friend,” as he called Catherine, but she, as it seemed to him, had one important advantage: his entourage was at the same time her entourage.

In 1724, Peter was often ill. On November 9, 30-year-old dandy Mons, brother of Peter's former favorite, was arrested. He was accused of embezzlement from the treasury, which was relatively small at that time. Less than a week later, the executioner cut off his head. However, rumor linked the execution of Mons not with abuse, but with his intimate relationship with the empress. Peter allowed himself to violate marital fidelity, but did not believe that Catherine had the same right. The Empress was 12 years younger than her husband ...

The relationship between the spouses became strained. Peter never exercised the right to appoint a successor to the throne and did not bring the act of Catherine's coronation to its logical conclusion.

The disease worsened, and Peter spent most of the last three months of his life in bed. Peter died on January 28, 1725 in terrible agony. Catherine, who was proclaimed empress on the same day, left the body of her deceased husband unburied for forty days and mourned it twice daily. "The courtiers marveled," remarked a contemporary, "where do so many tears come from the Empress ..."

For many ladies from the entourage of Peter I, acquaintance with him ended in tears. And not only for his former mistresses, but also for those who simply fell into the field of vision of the great reformer.

Peter the First - biography of the personal life of the emperor

Let us digress from the generally recognized merits of the great Russian emperor to Russia - her education and transformations. Here, undoubtedly, there is no equal to Peter I. A somewhat different state of affairs was in his personal life. The study of the private biography of Peter I suggests that he was simply unable to love women, but could only use them. Probably for this reason, almost all of his women, even knowing about the vengefulness and cruelty of the king, cheated on him.

The first wife of Peter I - Evdokia Lopukhina

Historians are not unanimous in assessing the relationship between the heir to the throne Peter I and his first married wife, Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina. Some argue that even before the departure of the crowned spouse to Europe and the love affair with the beautiful German woman Anna Mons, the super-energetic Peter I was too bored with his absolutely "home" wife.

Others quote the tsar's surviving letters to his wife from abroad, written by a man who sincerely misses his beloved woman ... Be that as it may, boyars Lev Naryshkin and Mikhailo Streshnev received a royal order from London: the Russian queen and the mother of the heir to the throne should be tonsured as a nun.

On September 23, 1698, the nun Elena appeared in the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery. The queen resisted the tonsure as best she could: a young and full of strength woman did not agree to bury herself alive. It is noteworthy that her sending to the monastery took place even before the actual return of Peter, that is, the husband did not even want to meet with his disgraced wife. Moreover, he exiled his wife without the slightest financial support, humiliating the Russian queen to the level of the convent's freeloader.

In 1710, the stately Major Glebov appeared in the monastery with an official occasion. His amorous, completely non-political relationship with the former queen lasted seven years. Peter found out about her by chance. It would seem that he actually broke up with his ex-wife 20 years ago! However, he acted extremely cruelly with secret lovers: he ordered Glebov to be impaled in front of the windows of Evdokia-Elena - so that he would suffer for a long time, and she saw his suffering ...

Second wife of Peter I - Catherine

On May 7, 1724, the maid of the German pastor, the wife of the Swedish dragoon Johan Raabe, the daughter of the Lithuanian peasant Samuil Skavronsky, Marta, received the Russian crown. We know her as Empress Catherine I Alekseevna. It is believed that there was love and harmony between the reigning spouses. But the husband cheated on his married wife right and left. However, he himself was deceived - and severely avenged for it.

The brother of the former passion of Peter Anna Mons - Willim - went down in history as a man who instructed the horns of the emperor himself. By the way, Anna Mons was also not loyal to Peter I, but she saved her head from the ax - unlike her brother. His decapitated body was not removed from the place of execution for a week and was buried without a funeral service.
With the severed head of Mons, impaled on a pole, Peter made his unfaithful wife "admire". He hoped to enjoy Catherine's despair, but not a single muscle wavered on her face. The disappointed husband ordered to place the rival's head in a jar of alcohol and transfer it to the Kunstkamera for storage.

Short novels and intrigues of Peter I

During his stay in the Dutch port of Saardam, Peter often visited the wives and widows of Dutch ship carpenters, paying for carnal pleasures with golden ducats. In 1717, from Amsterdam, he almost brought another "empress" to Russia: he liked the young daughter of a Dutch pastor. However, the Pope did not give permission for the "wedding night" without announcing the marriage and wedding in the Amsterdam church (why is the pastor's daughter worse than the daughter of a Lithuanian peasant ?!)

At home, the tsar would not ask anyone - he took the girl by force, and her father would also thank God that everyone remained safe and sound. But the pastor in Amsterdam is a different matter. I had to promise the future "father-in-law" everything he asked for. And the next morning Peter sobered up ... The cunning Baron Peter Shafirov had to settle the conflict. The deceived pastor was paid 1,000 ducats in pure gold for the virginity of his daughter. By European standards at the beginning of the 18th century, an astronomical sum!

But in Russia, Peter did not care about anything and did not pay anything to anyone - at best, he could successfully arrange a marriage for his mistress. His list of women is long and cynical. A certain Avdotya Ivanovna, whom he called "Avdotya Boy-Baba", was married to his orderly Chernyshev. Having promoted her husband to the rank of general, he periodically visited his old acquaintance, not paying attention to his spouse.

His concubines were: the beautiful Princess Maria Yuryevna Cherkasskaya, both Golovkin's sisters, Anna Kramer, Princess Kantemir, the boyar's daughter Maria Matveyev, who was later married to Count Rumyantsev (Field Marshal Minich claimed that the Russian commander Rumyantsev-Transdanubian Tsar was an illegitimate son).

But with Maria Hamilton, chamber-maid of honor of Catherine I, tragedy happened. Having visited the royal bedroom, the ambitious girl remained in the field of view of the autocrat, becoming his mistress. Soon the passion of the tsar faded away, and Mary decided to seduce his orderly in order to know everything about the tsar ... On March 12, 1718, their connection was accidentally discovered. The woman was accused of stealing gold ducats and diamonds belonging to Catherine I, as well as infanticide (according to one version, she strangled a newborn boy, conceived by Peter).

By the verdict of the court, Maria was mercilessly beaten in the square with a whip, and then sent into exile for a year - to the spinning yard. It would seem that everything was over, but Peter was not enough. Convicted Hamilton was returned to St. Petersburg, tried again and sentenced to death. On March 14, 1719, she ascended the scaffold ...

After the execution, Peter the Great lifted the head of the unfortunate woman by the hair, kissed her twice on the mouth - and ordered to drink alcohol and put it in the Kunstkamera, next to the jar with the severed head of Mons.

Victims of royal curiosity

Those who admire Peter's genius note his immense curiosity in natural sciences and medicine. However, from “ medical practice The tsar suffered not only his relatives, wives and mistresses, but also random women who saw the reformer for the first and last time in their lives.

He pulled out a perfectly healthy tooth with his own hands to the wife of his valet Poluboyarov. While in Moscow, Peter accidentally learned that the merchant Boreta's wife was sick with dropsy. He burst into the merchant's house, personally cut open the sick woman's flesh and released more than 20 pounds of water from her body. But, not knowing what to do next, he waved his hand at his "patient" and ... left. The merchant's wife died on the same day.

Tragedy also happened to the wife of Goff Marshal Olsufiev. She was nine months pregnant and could not attend the next Assembly. [The king is furious! He ordered to immediately bring the woman and make her drink a huge glass of vodka. As a result, the unfortunate woman began to have labor pains, the child was born dead. Peter calmly looked at the still warm baby body and ordered to put it in a jar of alcohol and take it to the Kunstkamera.

Already at the end of the 1780s, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who ruled The Russian Academy Sci., began checking her accounts and noticed a surprisingly high consumption of alcohol. The caretaker explained that it was necessary to replace the alcohol in two cans of the Kunstkamera exhibits - with human heads, male and female. Having raised the documents and learned that the severed heads belonged to Willim Mons and Maria Hamilton, Dashkova informed Empress Catherine II of this. Only after the order of the empress, the remains of Mons and Hamilton were celebrated according to the Orthodox rite and buried.