What century did Peter 1 live in. Camping wife. Why Peter I fell in love with a German simpleton

Queen Evdokia in disgrace
Historian Vyacheslav Kozlyakov wrote a book-requiem of pre-Petrine Russia

The biography of Empress Evdokia is, first of all, a book about the price of Peter's reforms. Behind a description of the scale of accomplishments and the number of victims, historians rarely get to the story of how human destinies were broken at that time. And in this regard, the example of the first wife of Peter the Great is most indicative. A representative of an ancient family, left in Moscow and imprisoned in exile, survived the execution of her son and the death of her grandson, who was in disgrace for decades and became an influential person after the death of her husband - how unlike the fate of the "chicks of Petrov's nest".

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Parsuna depicting Evdokia Lopukhina, 18th century

Historian Vyacheslav Kozlyakov actually writes a requiem of pre-Petrine Russia, he hints at this unequivocally, naming the book "Lament for the Moscow kingdom."

Russian Planet, with the permission of the Young Guard publishing house, publishes a fragment of Vyacheslav Kozlyakov’s book “Queen Evdokia, or Lament for the Moscow Kingdom”, dedicated to her exile on Ladoga.

Peter I was leaving with Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich from Moscow to St. Petersburg, leaving behind a white stone pillar, frightening with the visible consequences of monstrous massacres. Two days after the departure of the tsar, on March 20, on another road, to Novgorod, they took away from Moscow Tsarina Evdokia, who was sent to the Assumption Monastery in Staraya Ladoga. "Bitter life" in the Intercession Monastery, she now could remember how better times, not knowing what else lay ahead of her. Tsar Peter did not want more accidents, he had to be sure that the first wife would remain in the nuns in the monastery, and there would not be those around her who dream of returning to the past. After all, he was sincerely convinced of the guilt of Tsarevich Alexei, who fell under the unnecessary influence of "nuns" and "monks", and among them Tsarina Evdokia, and Bishop Dositheus, and other persons involved in the Suzdal search. Peter I valued people as a measure of state good, so the monks and the church were in one of the last places with him. The old story with Patriarch Nikon was also superimposed on this. Tsar Peter thought that he interfered with his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, to rule.

The historian Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov cited a remarkable conversation between the tsar and Peter Tolstoy, the main assistant in the investigation of the case of Tsarevich Alexei: “If it were not for a nun, a monk and Kikin, Alexei would not have dared to commit such unheard-of evil,” said Peter I in his entourage, tormented by my choice. - Oh, beards! Much evil is rooted in the elders and priests; my father dealt with one bearded man, and I dealt with thousands. God is a seer of hearts and a judge of the treacherous. I wanted him well, and he is my constant adversary.” In response, Tolstoy suggested "cutting the feathers and reducing the fluff for the elders." "They won't fly soon, soon!" Peter answered. Of course, the king knew what he was talking about. Further consistent subordination of the church to the state, the creation of the Synod were also remotely connected with the case of Tsarevich Alexei and Tsaritsa Evdokia. Having stepped over the execution of Bishop Dositheus, the tsar did not stop, and all the hierarchs, dissatisfied with the position of the church, were frightened.

Tsar Peter found the “benefit” of monasteries in turning them into prisons. Since 1718, the former queen becomes a prisoner of the monastery; from now on, she is only old woman Elena. It was supposed to be under the protection of a specially seconded company of soldiers. The choice of Staraya Ladoga as the place of confinement of Queen Evdokia can be explained by the proximity of the city to St. Petersburg. Ladoga fortress to late XVII For centuries it was only called a fortress. Even at the start Northern war there was chaos. According to the painting of the voivode, during the transfer of control of the city in 1687, all the wooden fortifications in Ladoga fell apart: “The city of Ladoga is stone, the towers and fences stand without a roof and without repair for many years, and in the towers the bridges from rain and snow all lit up and failed ... but cannon supplies and a gun treasury stand in a wooden hut, and on that hut the roof is thin, and that hut is on fire, and the wooden city stands without a roof, and everything falls apart from sputum.

Things should have been no better at a later time, when the successes of the Northern War pushed back the threat to Ladoga from the Swedes. If there were no funds to repair the city fortress, then what was there to say about the Ladoga monasteries ?! Literally, the first problem that arose with the jailers of the old woman Elena was that the entire territory of the monastery was in a jura, any person could freely pass through it. True, after the death of Tsarevich Alexei and all the close people of the former queen, no one sought to see her, give her a letter, a gift, or just say hello in words. Only clerical correspondence remained regarding the details of the protection of the "famous person", but there are no personal documents of the old woman Elena, her own letters and letters relating to this time. Therefore, her life in the Ladoga Monastery is being restored as if from a reflection in a mirror, and even then, figuratively speaking, standing in a back room.

Assumption Cathedral in Staraya Ladoga

Tsar Peter instructed the most trusted person, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, the governor of all Ingermanland, as the lands around St. Petersburg began to be called, to manage the affairs of the protection of the old woman Helena. Prince Menshikov escaped personal participation in the Moscow wanted list, but there is no doubt that if he were in Moscow along with other Peter's "ministers", he would, if necessary, sign all the death sentences. Despite the fact that the "Most Serene One" and his wife themselves once patronized the executed Bishop Dositheus. This means that the Suzdal search touched directly on the most serene and he wanted to make amends for his possible guilt before Peter and Tsarina Catherine I. Of course, the hostile attitude of Tsar Peter towards his first wife was shared by the most serene prince: after all, the former tsarina remembered other times - Preobrazhensky batman Menshikov. Therefore, Elder Elena was his enemy.

There were also political calculations, in which Menshikov was also a master. The new heir, Tsarevich Peter Petrovich, chosen by Tsar Peter I in 1718, did not live long, and the Tsar and Tsarina had no offspring in the male line. Being faithful to Tsarina Ekaterina Alekseevna, Menshikov first staked on her accession. But he had to understand that the children of Tsarevich Alexei, the grandchildren of Tsarina Evdokia, were alive. It is no coincidence that St. Petersburg was so anxious after the death of Peter in January 1725, during the transfer of power to Empress Catherine I. Then, however, another political reversal will follow: His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov, on the contrary, will seek to marry his daughter to Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich - the future Emperor Peter II, and he will need Tsarina Evdokia again. But first things first.

"Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof", Nikolai Ge, 1871

No one took care of the Elder Elena, just as when she was sent to the Intercession Monastery in September 1698. The place for the prison was appointed, the soldiers were identified, but the instructions on how to feed and drink were not issued. Exactly a month lasted her mournful journey from Moscow to Ladoga under the protection of Preobrazhensky Lieutenant Fyodor Novokshchenov. On April 19, 1718, the old woman Elena found herself in the place of her confinement in the Dormition Ladoga Monastery. The only one from the former environment who was allowed to stay nearby was the dwarf Agafya, she continued to help the former queen. In a hurry, Novokshchenov was not even assigned a replacement, and at first he himself was forced to stay in the service in Ladoga until Captain Semyon Maslov arrived there.

Maslov already had detailed instructions, how to protect the old woman Elena, signed by Prince Alexander Menshikov on May 20, 1718. The first point was to accept the former queen from the guards officer and "do not make a mistake in all her content." An order was issued to organize "a guard at her and around the entire monastery." To do this, a corporal from another prison in Shlisselburg was assigned to Ladoga and a dozen Preobrazhensky soldiers were sent.

Finally, it was said where to get food supplies (with a characteristic clause so that there was nothing superfluous): “The supplies she needs, without which it is impossible to stay, without excess, to take from the Ladoga landrat Podchertkov, about which the decree was sent to him. The decree was prepared for the Ladoga Landrat, but they forgot to send it; the guard for some time had to feed the former queen at his own expense. The instruction of Prince Menshikov established a special regime in the entire monastery; following the letter of this document, it was necessary to forbid entry and exit from the monastery not only to Elder Elena, but also to other nuns and priests who became the same captives. Captain Maslov was required “to have a good eye, so that in some secret way she and the nuns existing in the monastery, she also didn’t have any letters to the nuns, to anyone, about anything, which, fearing under the loss of her stomach, look vigilantly.” Maslov had to "do not make a mistake in all of the above, her former queen of content, and so that from neglect of what indecent things would not be done."

Parsuna depicting Evdokia Lopukhina in monastic vestments, 18th century

Several months of old Elena's life passed under strict guards, until, apparently, the routine of life took its toll. It was necessary to take care of the most pressing; monastic supplies and the money of Captain Maslov were quickly depleted. Maslov even had to ask for candles, incense, church wine and wheat flour for baking prosphora, since monastic life stopped. “For her person,” as the captain called old woman Elena in correspondence with the Ladoga landrat, she also needed a lot: “buckwheat, vinegar, salt, granular or pressed caviar, onions.” It was necessary to equip a kitchen to cook food; for this, the overseer asked for "barrels, kvass tubs, tubs, buckets, bread bowls, wooden dishes" and so on. In the middle of summer, in advance, Captain Maslov also reminded of the need to prepare firewood for the winter. He knew his service well, but the clerical servants dragged things out: they were looking for everything in the camp office of Prince Menshikov, where the necessary decree was lost to the Ladoga landrat. And time passed.

The first winter of old Elena in Ladoga was hard. In January 1719, Captain Maslov reported to Prince Menshikov: “The former queen, nun Elena, was placed in the cells of that monastery as a mentor, and those cells are restless, high and cold, from which she has illness in her legs, asks for mercy, so that it was ordered to build a low cell.” It really was a confinement, aggravated by the fact that, unlike Suzdal, the former queen could not even go to church services. Another year passed, and Tsarina Evdokia still continued to ask for a transfer to a new cell: “... because in this winter time from the cold and from the fumes she becomes very exhausted and is obsessed with a strong illness. And in prison, the former queen could achieve her goal and did not back down, having built this cell with her own money.

The well-known Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev, who was instructed to manage the property of persons convicted under the Suzdal search in 1718, sold the "silver and other things" of the former Queen Evdokia, gaining 833 rubles 5 kopecks. This money, sent in 1719 to the Ladoga landrat Podchertkov, was enough to build not only cells for Empress Evdokia, but also a hieromonk's cell and guard quarters for an officer and soldiers "behind the monastery". It turns out that before that, not only Tsarina Evdokia, but also her guards, were left to their own devices, for the "chambers" for which the captive herself also had to take care.

Peter II and Princess Natalya Alekseevna - grandsons of Evdokia Lopukhina, Louis Caravaque, 1722

To resume full order monastic life in the Dormition Ladoga Monastery, the old woman Elena also took a lot of time. First, one after the other, two elderly hieromonks who lived there died. The roof on the ancient, main temple of the Assumption collapsed from the winds, and streams of water penetrated into the altar. It was only in January 1723 that the Synod decreed that Hieromonk Kleonicus be sent to the Ladoga Monastery to the old woman Helena "for priestly service and spirituality." Hieromonk Kleonicus was obliged to stay in the monastery "inseparably". He swore "according to his rank to act temperately and soberly, with all reverence and proper art, suspicious and forbidden actions that Holy Scripture and by the holy rules they are renounced and his imperial majesty is forbidden by decrees, by no means to create.

Captain Semyon Maslov remained attached to his place of service in Ladoga for the entire time Ellen Elena was there. Over time, they had to somehow adapt to each other, because Maslov was the only person, besides the dwarf Agafya, who was allowed to enter the cell of the old woman Elena. He was in charge of everything in the monastery, watched the guards and how they fed and watered a small detachment of soldiers guarding the former queen. Maslov conveyed requests to the authorities about the simple needs of the captive, perhaps he told her something about what was happening in the world. If this still continued to interest the old woman Elena. Whether she learned from him or, rather, after hearing the death knell over Staraya Ladoga for many days, she guessed about the death of Peter I on January 28, 1725. It's hard to imagine what she went through at that moment. But the days of dreaming about returning to the palace are long gone for her, and the former queen had to think about not getting worse.

Kozlyakov V. N. Queen Evdokia, or Lamentation for the Moscow Kingdom - M .: Young Guard, 2014

She was born 230 years ago, on April 15, 1684, in a family ... No, in which family it is not known. Several nationalities can claim kinship with this woman at once - Germans, Latvians, Estonians. But in history she remained as a Russian. Russian empress. Name given at birth - Martha Katarina. We know her as a wife Peter the Great - Catherine I.

Much less known are the results of her short independent reign - from 1725 to 1727. What happened in Russia under the first Catherine? There are few global cases. But the country, raised on its hind legs by the "iron hand" of Peter and turned into a kind of military-industrial camp, nevertheless received the necessary respite. And even acquired some attributes of a full-fledged European enlightened state. With her light hand, the Academy of Sciences appeared. The famous expedition of Vitus Bering was organized. She also established the Order of Alexander Nevsky, which migrated, by the way, both to the USSR and to modern Russia. Few? There was one more thing that our sovereigns rarely differed in - caring for the people. Almost for the first time in history, the annual poll tax was not raised under her, but on the contrary, it was lowered.

When it comes to the first Russian empress, they immediately recall the Western European fairy tale. Cinderella. Yes, yes, about a girl who washed floors, washed clothes, and then suddenly became the wife of a powerful ruler. That's right.

Only now the Russian Empress can give odds to any Cinderella. She, according to the writer Charles Perrault, was still the daughter of the “chief royal huntsman”. That is, a rather noble noblewoman. Our heroine came out of the bottom.

The family of Peter I in 1717: Peter I, Catherine, the eldest son Alexei Petrovich from his first wife, the youngest two-year-old son Peter and daughters Anna and Elizabeth. Enamel on copper plate. (fragment) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Musikisky, Grigory Semenovich

shaven-headed queen

“Small, fat and black. Her whole appearance does not make a favorable impression. It is immediately noticeable that she is of low origin, ”such was the verdict of the German Countess Wilhelmina of Bayrete. Yes, and domestic witnesses, forced on duty to flatter, admired the empress more than moderately: “Catherine was not at all a beauty ... But there was so much charm in her upturned nose, scarlet lips, and most importantly, in a luxurious bust ... No wonder that such a colossus, like Tsar Peter, he gave himself completely to this heartfelt friend.

Maybe it's just a luxurious bust? In fact, there are many legends about the inclinations of Peter the Great. He drank drunkenly, fought, cursed, kept almost a harem with him. So why shouldn't he make the Chukhon simpleton an empress for a magnificent bust?

No. I think it's something else. It is unlikely that Catherine was much more beautiful than Peter's first wife, Evdokia Lopukhina. But she did have some special skills. And this does not apply to bedding. She could gulp down a glass of the strongest vodka. She could and loved to live in an army tent, to sleep on a hard mattress. Distinguished by remarkable physical strength. According to legend, Peter once raised his heavy marshal's baton and asked the courtiers: "Who will hold it with his hand outstretched?" Even the recognized strongman Menshikov could not. Catherine, leaning over the table, took the staff and raised it several times.

She made two and even three equestrian crossings a day on horseback in a men's saddle. Accompanied her restless husband even in the war. And how! In the Persian campaign of 1722, she shaved her head and wore a grenadier's cap. She was not afraid to appear on the front line either - before the battle she personally reviewed the troops, encouraging the soldiers with words and a glass of vodka. According to eyewitnesses, "Enemy bullets whistling over her head hardly bothered Catherine."

Babi age

Another deed of hers deserves even more astonishment - Catherine achieved the payment of overdue salaries for 18 months for three guards regiments. Yes, by and large, she tried for herself. It became clear only after the death of Peter, when the troops first sided with the widowed queen. Moreover, they proclaimed her their “protective mother”. This, in fact, was the opening of the "Baby Age" national history- for almost a century, women ruled Russia.

The merits of Catherine to our Russia are not obvious. Most often, her debauchery, drunkenness and money-grubbing are remembered. Well, yes, she turned all her awards and gifts into money, which she put in an Amsterdam bank, and this started another tradition - to transfer her funds to accounts of foreign banks. Yes, she brought a huge number of hangers-on and jesters at court, which amazed the refined European envoys. Yes, she was taken as a wife literally from under a soldier: “First there was a husband, the Swedish royal cuirassier Johann Rabe, then an unnamed Russian grenadier, followed by Field Marshal Sheremetev, followed by Menshikov, and only then the tsar.” She couldn't read or write. When I had to learn to put at least my signature on documents of national importance, I sat over this "wisdom" for three whole months.

She also gave Peter 11 children. Almost all of them died in infancy. It would seem: what is the merit here? Yes, in that the direct descendants of Catherine reigned in Russia for more than a hundred years. Starting with the son of her daughter Anna Petrovna, whom we know as Peter III.

All this could not be. How could our glorious history XVIII centuries. There is another merit of the "camping wife" of Emperor Peter. In the unfortunate Prut campaign In 1711, the Russian army was surrounded by the Turks. Together with the army, the king and his wife, who was in her seventh month of pregnancy, got into the “cauldron”. But hopeless situations, history teaches, do not happen. Eastern peoples, as you know, are greedy and corrupt. This quality was useful even then. Ekaterina took off her jewelry and gave it away as a ransom. The king, queen and army received freedom. The mother's nervous shock killed Catherine's unborn child - he was born dead. But Russian history remained alive.

The most famous foreign women on the Russian throne

Sofia Paleolog

Niece last emperor Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine IX, who was killed during the capture of Constantinople in 1453. She married the Russian prince Ivan III. The grandmother of Ivan the Terrible - outwardly he is all in her.

Marina Mnishek

Daughter of the Polish magnate Yuri (Jerzy) Mniszek. Legally crowned Russian queen. Rules exactly 1 week. Before her death in 1614, she cursed the Romanov family. According to the official version, she "died of anguish of her own free will."

Catherine the Great

At birth - Sophia Augusta Frederick of Anhalt-Zerbst. Then she received a name known to us, and even 18 years later - the throne, as a result of a guards coup. Adopted an empire with 18 million souls, left with a population twice as large.

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 view of the great reformer.

Peter the Great - biography of the emperor's personal life

Let us digress from the universally recognized merits of the great Russian emperor to Russia - its enlightenment and transformations. Here, undoubtedly, there are no equals to Peter I. A somewhat different state of affairs was in his personal life. A 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 vindictiveness and cruelty of the king, cheated on him.

The first wife of Peter I - Evdokia Lopukhina

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

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

On September 23, 1698, nun Elena appeared in the Suzdal Intercession 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 she was sent to the monastery 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 monetary support, humiliating the Russian tsarina to the level of a freeloader of the monastery.

In 1710, the stately major Glebov found himself in the monastery with a service opportunity. His love, completely non-political relationship with the former queen lasted seven years. Peter found out about her by accident. It would seem with ex-wife he actually broke up 20 years ago! However, he acted extremely cruelly with secret lovers: Glebov ordered to impale in front of the windows of Evdokia-Elena - so that he would suffer for a long time, and she would see his suffering ...

The second wife of Peter I - Catherine

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

The brother of the former passion of Peter Anna Mons - Willim - went down in history as a man who cuckolded the emperor himself. By the way, Anna Mons was also not faithful to Peter I, but she saved her head from the ax - unlike her brother. His headless body was not removed from the place of execution for a week and buried without a funeral.
With the severed head of Mons, impaled on a pole, Peter forced his unfaithful wife to “admire”. He hoped to enjoy Catherine's despair, but not a single muscle twitched in her face. The frustrated husband ordered that the opponent's head be placed in a jar of alcohol and transferred 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 in gold 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 the wedding in the Amsterdam Church (why is the daughter of a pastor worse than the daughter of a Lithuanian peasant?!)

At home, the king would not ask anyone - he took the girl by force, and her father would also thank God that everyone remained alive and well. But a pastor in Amsterdam is a completely different matter. I had to promise the future "father-in-law" everything he asked for. And the next morning, Peter sobered up ... The conflict had to be settled by the cunning baron Peter Shafirov. The deceived pastor was paid 1,000 ducats in pure gold for the virginity of his daughter. By European standards early XVIII century is just an astronomical sum!

But in Russia, Peter did not care about anything and did not pay anyone anything - at best, he could successfully marry his mistress. The list of his women is long and cynical. A certain Avdotya Ivanovna, whom he called "Avdotya the boy-woman", married his batman Chernyshev. Having made her husband a general, he periodically visited an old acquaintance, not paying attention to his spouse.

His concubines were: the beautiful Princess Maria Yuryevna Cherkasskaya, both Golovkin sisters, Anna Kramer, Princess Kantemir, the daughter of the boyar Maria Matveeva, who later married Count Rumyantsev (Field Marshal Minikh claimed that the Russian commander Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky was the illegitimate son of the tsar).

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

According to the verdict of the court, Maria was beaten mercilessly in the square with a whip, and then sent into exile for a year - to a spinning mill. It would seem that everything was over, but Peter was not enough. The 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 her to be put in alcohol and placed in the Kunstkamera, next to the jar with the severed head of Mons.

Victims of royal curiosity

Those who admire the genius of Peter note his great curiosity in natural sciences and medicine. However, not only his relatives, wives and mistresses suffered from the "medical practice" of the king, but also random women who saw the reformer for the first and last time in their lives.

He pulled out a completely healthy tooth with his own hands to the wife of his valet Poluboyarov. While in Moscow, Peter accidentally found out that the wife of the merchant Boret was suffering from dropsy. He broke into the merchant's house, personally cut the flesh of a sick woman 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 the same day.

The tragedy also happened to the wife of Chief Marshal Olsufiev. She was nine months pregnant and could not come to the next Assembly. [The king is furious! He ordered the woman to be brought immediately and made to drink a huge glass of vodka. As a result, the unfortunate contractions began, the child was born dead. Peter calmly looked at the still warm baby body and ordered to place it in a jar of alcohol and take it to the Kunstkamera.

Already in the late 1780s, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who ran the Russian Academy of Sciences, began to check her accounts and noticed a surprisingly large consumption of alcohol. The caretaker explained that it was necessary to replace the alcohol in two jars of exhibits of the Kunstkamera - 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 about this. Only after the order of the empress, the remains of Mons and Hamilton were buried according to the Orthodox rite and buried.

Peter I the Great

Peter I the Great (1672-1725) is perhaps one of the most active rulers of the Russian state. During his reign, he reformed government controlled, built a new capital of St. Petersburg, created a regular army. Thanks to him political activity country Western Europe recognized Russia as a great power.

The married life of Peter I began quite early, when he was not yet 17 years old. According to Queen Natalia, such a marriage was primarily of political significance. According to the ideas of that time, a young man was considered an adult only after his marriage, so a married Peter I could escape from the care of his sister Sophia and become a full-fledged ruler of Russia.

In addition, the mother of Peter I pursued other goals: early years the young tsar was interested in the life of foreigners who settled in the German Quarter. There, Peter I was engaged in affairs alien to the Russian person, and even to the royal dignity. In addition, with the help of an early marriage, Tsarina Natalya tried to protect the interests of Peter I as heir to the throne.

Tsaritsa Natalya herself found a bride for her son. She became Princess Evdokia Lopukhina. According to contemporaries, she was quite good-looking, but had mediocre abilities. A spark of love immediately flared up between the young, but just as quickly all feelings faded away. Historians claim that the love relationship lasted between them for about a year, however, it is likely that the cooling came even earlier, because a month after the wedding, Peter I left his young wife and returned to his usual entertainment: sea fun on Lake Pereyaslavl.

Significant in the fate of Peter I was a meeting with the daughter of a wine merchant Anna Mons, whom he met in the German Quarter. Anna Mons was the complete opposite of the quiet Evdokia: cheerful, loving, resourceful, always ready to joke, dance or keep up a secular conversation. Therefore, the king preferred Anna and spent his free time in her company.

Several letters from Evdokia to Peter I have survived to this day, and the latter never answered them. In 1689, when Peter I, immediately after his marriage, went to Lake Pereyaslav, Evdokia sent a letter to her husband, addressing him with gentle words: “Hello, my light, for many years. We ask for mercy, perhaps, sovereign, wake up to us without delay. And I am alive with the grace of my mother. Your fiancé Dunka beats with his forehead. In the later letters of Evdokia, sadness is seen and the loneliness of a woman is felt, who realizes that she is no longer loved by her husband and left by him for the sake of another. The birth of a son, Tsarevich Alexei, in 1690 also did not help the couple get closer.

Having tried all possible means to keep her husband, and disappointed, Evdokia retired to the Suzdal monastery, where she spent 18 years. Until his death, Peter I was not interested in the life of his wife, so she had a lot of opportunities to spend time the way she wanted. About ten years after entering the convent, she even took a lover.

The second legal wife of Peter I was Ekaterina Alekseevna, which was announced on March 6, 1711. Ekaterina Alekseevna received her name at baptism. Her real name was Martha. Before becoming the wife of Peter I, she visited the beds of Field Marshal Sheremetev and Menshikov. Beautiful, charming and courteous Catherine was quickly able to find her way to the heart of Peter I.

Anna Mons fell into disgrace through her own fault. In the absence of the king, she met with her lover, the Prussian envoy Keyserling. He had the most pious intentions towards Anna Mons. He even asked Peter I for permission to marry her, to which the tsar replied that Anna was intended for him, but since she was already seduced and corrupted, he did not want to hear or know about her or her relatives. In 1711, Keyserling nevertheless married Anna Mons, but died six months later. The former favorite did not hide her aspirations to remarry, but death from consumption prevented this.

Unlike Anna Mons, Ekaterina Alekseevna possessed remarkable physical strength and endurance, which helped her cope with the difficulties of an exhausting camp life. Here is how the chamber junker Berholz described one of the cases: “Once the tsar was joking with one of his batmen, with the young Buturlin, whom he ordered to raise his large marshal's baton on his outstretched hand. He couldn't do it. Then His Majesty, knowing how strong the hand of the Empress, gave her his staff across the table. She stood up and with extraordinary dexterity several times raised him above the table with her straight hand, which surprised us all a lot.

After the marriage, the attitude of Peter I towards Catherine became more tender. In his letters after 1711, he no longer addressed rudely: “Hello, mother!”, but wrote: “Katerinushka, my friend, hello!”. The form and tone of the letters also changed. They were not orders and orders to his comrade-in-arms, but rather requests and manifestations of care.

Catherine was probably the only woman in the life of Peter I who enjoyed not only his love, but also respect. By taking Catherine as his wife, the sovereign challenged the customs and traditions of all of Russia. If we consider the behavior of Peter I not as a king, but as an ordinary man, then we can conclude that he acted as a deeply moral person. Peter I thought first of all about the future of illegitimate daughters - Anna and Elizabeth. Here is what the king himself wrote about this: “Even I am compelled to commit for this unknown path, so that if the orphans remain, the ducks could have their own life.”

Catherine's advantages were inner tact, a subtle understanding of the character of Peter I, which more than once helped her resolve situations when her husband was in a state of rage. Finding herself at the court of a great state, she did not forget about her origin. According to contemporaries, the king's wife perfectly knew how to turn into an empress, not forgetting that she was not born as such.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was present at all the events arranged by Peter I. There was no military review, launching of the ship, ceremony or holiday where she would not be. The empress always looked beautiful: simple, but at the same time majestic. One diplomat, who attended a ball in the royal palace, gave the only description of Catherine's appearance that has come down to us: “At the moment, she has a pleasant fullness; her complexion is very white, with an admixture of a natural, somewhat bright blush, her eyes are black, small, her hair is of the same color, long and thick, her neck and arms are beautiful, her expression is meek and very pleasant.

Catherine practically did not pay attention to the fleeting connections of her husband and she herself found him "messies". However, she often had to fight with rivals even after her marriage to Peter I and accession to the throne, especially when some of them threatened her position as wife and empress.

So, for example, in 1706 in Hamburg, Peter I began a love relationship with the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, and he even wanted to divorce Catherine, since the pastor agreed to give his daughter only to his legal spouse. Nevertheless, everything ended happily for the Empress: the girl was escorted home, giving her a thousand ducats.

On another occasion, Catherine came close to losing her royal position. Evdokia Rzhevskaya was the daughter of one of the first adherents of Peter I, whose family in antiquity and nobility competed with the Tatishchev family. Their relationship began when Evdokia was only 15 years old. Then she was married off to officer Chernyshev, who was looking for a promotion, but even after marriage, the meetings did not stop. Evdokia had four daughters and three sons from the king; on at least, he was considered the father of these children. But, if we take into account the windiness of Evdokia, it is rather difficult to assert this with complete certainty.

No less interesting is the story of another maid of honor - Mary Hamilton. Obviously, she was the creation of her era, dissolute and frivolous, and Peter I did not change himself, showing love for her in his own way. Maria Hamilton was a representative of an old Scottish family, part of which settled in Russia and mixed with eminent noble families. Mary, however, like others like her, was expected by the fate of a fleeting temptress.

Maria Hamilton several times was going to become a mother, but by all means got rid of the children. In order to win over one of her casual lovers, young Orlov, who despised her, she stole money and jewelry from the Empress. All her big and small crimes were discovered quite by accident. It all started with the fact that a rather important document disappeared from the tsar's office. Orlov turned out to be under suspicion, since he knew about this document, and spent the night outside the house. During the interrogation, the frightened lover fell to his knees and repented of everything, telling about the thefts that he took advantage of and about the infanticides known to him.

Peter I was adamant and ordered the execution of the criminal. This happened on March 14, 1714. Moreover, the king, who loved theatrical performances, insisted that the condemned go to her death in a white dress, decorated with black ribbons. Before the execution began, he kissed Mary, exhorted her to pray, supported her in his arms when she lost consciousness, then left. Peter I coolly watched how the beautiful head of the former mistress was separated from the body, and then enthusiastically began to lecture on human anatomy.

A huge role in the life of Peter the Great was played by Maria Kantemir, the daughter of the ruler Dmitry Kantemir. The love affair with Maria Cantemir dragged on for several years and seemed close to the denouement, fatal for Catherine. During military campaigns, Catherine and Mary accompanied the king. However, Maria stayed in Astrakhan, as she was already in the last months of pregnancy. Her inner circle celebrated the victory. After the death of little Peter Petrovich, Catherine no longer had a son whom Peter I could make his heir. According to Scherer, Catherine acted without delay: upon returning, Peter I found his mistress seriously ill after a premature birth.

The solemn coronation of Catherine protected her from the encroachments of her rivals. Now she could not be afraid of the new hobbies of Peter I and look down on this disorderly crowd of maids and noble ladies. But suddenly her calmness was broken in another way - the image of a chaste and respected friend.

Elizaveta Sinyavskaya, born Princess Lubomirskaya, was the wife of the Crown Hetman Sinyavsky, a strong supporter of Augustus and an opponent of Leshchinsky. She was beautiful, smart and charming. Peter I listened to her advice, which often puzzled him, since she supported Leshchinsky, but not the protégé of the tsar and her own husband. Her company ennobled the energetic and rude Peter I, he seemed to be transformed, knowing the depths of a subtle and sensitive nature.

In 1722, the Charter on the succession to the throne was issued, according to which the appointment of an heir depended only on the will of the sovereign. Peter I opted for Catherine, confirming his intention to proclaim his wife an empress; in honor of the coronation, he arranged a magnificent ceremony. Such a choice was hardly due to the fact that the tsar discovered some business qualities in her, just, as it seemed to him, Catherine had one important advantage: his entourage was at the same time her entourage.

The severe and prolonged illnesses that tormented Peter I in 1724 also affected his mental health. He became more suspicious. The state of mind was further aggravated by the fact that the Empress took a young lover, the brother of Anna Mons. The news of their intimate relationship reached the king, and he ordered Mons to be arrested and executed. Peter I allowed himself to violate marital fidelity, but did not consider that Catherine had the same right, although the empress was 12 years younger than her husband.

Before the death of the sovereign, relations between the spouses became strained. Peter I did not use the right to appoint a successor to the throne and did not bring the act of Catherine's coronation to completion. Peter the Great died on January 28, 1725 in terrible agony. On the day of his death, Catherine was proclaimed empress. For Catherine, the loss of her husband was a great grief. For 40 days, his body was left unburied, and the inconsolable widow mourned her husband twice a day.

He fearlessly introduced new traditions in Russia, cutting through a "window" to Europe. But one "tradition" would probably be the envy of 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 brides of a 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 Queen Natalia, should have significantly changed the position of her son, and with him her own. According to the custom of that time, the 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 marrying, the mother hoped to settle down her son, 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, finally, they tried to protect the interests of Peter's descendants from the claims of possible heirs of his co-ruler Ivan, who by this time was already a married man and was waiting for the addition of a 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 dissimilar dissimilar to her husband." The same contemporary noted that "the love between them was fair, but only lasted a year."

It is possible that the cooling between the spouses came even earlier, because a month after the wedding, Peter left Evdokia and went to Pereyaslav Lake 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 a fair and smart", while another, on the contrary, found that she was "mediocre wit 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 Tsar's wife - a limited beauty who made melancholy with slavish obedience and blind adherence to antiquity. Peter preferred Mons and spent his free time in her company.

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

In another letter, addressed to “my sweetie,” “your fiancé Dunka,” who had not yet suspected a close break, asked permission to come to her husband herself for a date. Two letters of Evdokia belong to a later time - 1694, and the last of them is full of sadness and loneliness of a woman who is well aware that she is abandoned for another.

There was no longer an appeal to “darling” in them, the wife did not hide her bitterness and could not resist reproaches, called herself “merciless”, complained that she did not receive “a single line” in response to her letters. Family ties were not strengthened by the birth in 1690 of a son named Alexei.

She retired from the Suzdal Monastery, where she spent 18 years. Having got rid of his wife, Peter showed no 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 took 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, and Menshikov also liked her.

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

Ekaterina Alekseevna (Marta Skavronskaya)

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

And what happened to Anna Mons? The king's connection with her lasted more than ten years and ceased through no fault of his own - the favorite got herself a lover. When this became known to Peter, he said: "To love the king, it was necessary to have a king in your head," and ordered her to be kept under house arrest.

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

In response to the request of Keyserling, the king said, “that he raised the maiden Mons for himself, with the sincere intention of marrying her, but since she was seduced and corrupted by me, he neither hears nor knows about her, nor about her relatives. ". At the same time, Menshikov added that "the girl Mons is really a vile, public woman, with whom he himself debauched." Menshikov's servants beat Keyserling and pushed him down the stairs.

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

Secret wedding of Peter the Great and Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Ekaterina differed from Anna Mons in her good health, which allowed her to easily endure the exhausting camp life and, at the first call of Peter, overcome many hundreds of miles of off-road. Catherine, in addition, possessed extraordinary physical strength.

The chamber junker Berholz described how the tsar once joked with one of his batmen, with the young Buturlin, whom he ordered to raise his large marshal's baton on his outstretched hand. He couldn't do it. “Then His Majesty, knowing how strong the hand of the Empress, gave her his staff across the table. She stood up and with extraordinary dexterity several times raised him above the table with her straight hand, which surprised us all a lot.

Catherine became indispensable to Peter, and the Tsar's letters to her quite eloquently reflect the growth of his affection and respect. “Come to Kiev without delay,” the tsar wrote to Catherine from Zhovkva in January 1707. “For God’s sake, come soon, and if it’s impossible to be there soon, write back, because it’s not without sadness that I don’t hear or see you,” he wrote from St. Petersburg.

The tsar showed concern for Catherine and for his illegitimate daughter Anna. “If something 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 yard of Mr. 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!” was replaced by a gentle: "Katerinushka, my friend, hello."

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

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

170 letters of Peter to Catherine have been preserved. Only very few of them are of a business nature. However, in them the king did not burden his wife with orders to do something or check the completion 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, acted very 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 reason that there is no need to change things for boredom.

Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna

In a word, Catherine enjoyed the love and respect of Peter. To marry an unknown captive and neglect the brides of the boyar family or the 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 the daughters living with her - Anna and Elizabeth: “Even I am compelled to commit 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 nature of her quick-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 burning with anger.

The brilliance of the court did not eclipse the memories of her origin in her memory.

“The king,” wrote a contemporary, “could not be surprised by her ability and ability to turn, 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 majesty of their simplicity, the other by their luxury. He loved to see her everywhere.

There was no military review, descent of the ship, ceremony or holiday, at which she would not appear. Another foreign diplomat also had the opportunity to observe Peter's attentiveness and warmth to his wife: “After dinner, the king and queen opened the ball, which lasted about three hours; the king often danced with the queen and little princesses and kissed them many times; on this occasion, he showed great tenderness for the queen, and it can be said with justice that, despite the unknown nature 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, coinciding with her portrait image: “At the present moment (1715), she has a pleasant fullness; her complexion is very white with an admixture of a 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 meek and very pleasant.

Catherine really did not forget about her past. In one of her letters to her husband we read: “Although there is, for tea, you have new porters, however, the old one does not forget,” - so she jokingly reminded that at one time she was 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 since childhood.

“His Majesty loved the female,” one of his contemporaries noted. The same contemporary recorded the king's reasoning: “Forgetting service for the sake of a woman is unforgivable. To be a prisoner of a mistress is worse than to be a prisoner in war; the enemy can rather have freedom, but the woman's fetters are long-term.

Catherine condescendingly treated the fleeting connections of her husband and even herself supplied him with "metresishki". Once, while abroad, Peter sent an answer to Catherine's letter, in which she jokingly reproached him for intimate relationships with other women. “But what to joke about fun, and we don’t have that, because we are old people and not like that.”

“Because,” the tsar wrote to his wife in 1717, “while drinking the waters of domestic fun, doctors are forbidden to use, for that I let my meter go to you.” Ekaterina’s answer was composed in the same spirit: “But I more think that you deigned to send this (metresishka) for her illness, in which she still resides, and deigned to go to The Hague for treatment; and I wouldn’t want, God forbid, that the galan of that litter would come as healthy as she came.”

Nevertheless, his chosen one had to fight with rivals even after her marriage to Peter and accession to the throne, because even then some of them threatened her position as 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 legal spouse.

Shafirov has already received an order to prepare everything required documents. But, unfortunately for herself, the too trusting bride agreed to taste the joys of Hymen 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 passion was believed to be very close to a decisive victory and to a high position. Evdokia Rzhevskaya was the daughter of one of the first adherents of Peter, whose family in antiquity and nobility competed with the Tatishchev family.

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

This greatly reduced her chances as a favorite. According to the scandalous chronicle, she managed to achieve only the famous order: "Go and flog Avdotya." Such an order was given to her husband by her lover, who fell ill and considered Evdokia the culprit of his illness. Peter usually called Chernyshev: "Avdotya boy-woman." Her mother was the famous "Prince Abbess".

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

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

Maria Hamilton before her execution

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

As is known, one of the branches of a large Scottish family, which competed with the Douglases, moved to Russia in the era preceding the great emigrant movement in the 17th century and approaching the time of Ivan the Terrible. This clan entered into kinship with many Russian surnames and seemed completely Russified long before the accession to the throne of the reformer tsar. Maria Hamilton was the granddaughter of Natalia Naryshkina's adoptive father, Artamon Matveev. She was not bad-looking and, having been accepted to the court, shared the fate of many like her. She caused only a fleeting flash of passion for Peter.

Having taken possession of her in passing, Peter immediately abandoned her, and she consoled herself with the royal batmen. Maria Hamilton was pregnant several times, but by all means got rid of the children. In order to bind to her one of her casual lovers, young Orlov, a rather insignificant person who treated her rudely 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 king's office. Suspicion fell on Orlov, since he knew about this document, and spent the night outside the house. Summoned to the sovereign for interrogation, he was frightened and imagined that he was in trouble because of his connection with Hamilton. With a cry of "guilty!" he fell on his knees and repented of everything, telling both about the thefts that he took advantage of and about the infanticides known to him. The investigation and process began.

The unfortunate Mary was mainly accused of delivering malicious speeches against the empress, whose too good complexion aroused her ridicule. Indeed, a grave crime ... No matter what 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 Tsaritsa Praskovya was all the more important because everyone knew how little, as a rule, she was inclined to mercy. By concepts old Russia there were many mitigating circumstances for crimes such as infanticide, and Tsaritsa Praskovya was in many ways a true Russian of the old school.

But the sovereign turned out to be inexorable: "He does not want to be either Saul or Ahab, violating the Divine law because of a burst of kindness." Did he really have such respect for God's laws? Maybe. But he got it into his head that several soldiers were taken from him, and this was an unforgivable crime. Mary Hamilton was tortured several times in the presence of the king, but until the very end she refused to name her accomplice. The latter thought only of 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 block, as Scherer said, "in a white dress adorned with black ribbons." Peter, who was very fond of theatrical effects, could not but respond to this latest trick of dying coquetry. He had the courage to be present at the execution and, since he could never remain a passive spectator, took a direct part in it.

He kissed the convict, exhorted her to pray, supported her in his arms when she lost consciousness, and then left. It was a signal. When Mary raised her head, the king had already been replaced by the executioner. Scherer gave amazing details: “When the ax had done its job, the king returned, raised his bloody head that had fallen into the mud and calmly began to lecture on anatomy, naming all the organs affected by the ax and insisting on dissecting the spine. When he finished, he touched his lips to his pale lips, which he once covered with completely different kisses, threw Mary's head, 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 condemnation of the unfortunate Hamilton in order to protect the interests of his patroness Catherine. This rival was not at all dangerous for her. Some time later, Catherine found grounds for more serious anxiety. The dispatch of Campredon dated June 8, 1722 says: “The queen fears that if the princess gives birth to a son, then the king, at the request of the Wallachian ruler, will divorce his wife and marry his mistress.”

It was about Maria Cantemir.

Maria Cantemir

Gospodar Dmitry Kantemir, who was an ally of 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 losses. For a long time it seemed that his daughter would reward him for what he had lost.

When Peter went on a campaign against Persia in 1722, his love affair with Maria Cantemir had been dragging on for several years and seemed close to the 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 no longer had a son whom Peter could make his heir. It was assumed that if, upon the return of the king from the campaign, Cantemir would give him a son, then Peter would not hesitate to get rid of his second wife in the same way as he had freed himself from the first. According to Scherer, Catherine's friends found a way to get rid of the danger: returning, Peter found his mistress seriously ill after premature birth; feared even for her life.

Catherine triumphed, and the novel, which had almost killed her, seemed now 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 appearance" to marry the princess, still beloved by Peter, although she had lost her ambitious hopes.

Fate successfully brought Catherine out of all the trials. The solemn coronation made her position completely inaccessible. The honor of the mistress was rehabilitated by marriage, and the position of the wife, vigilantly guarding the family hearth, and the empress, sharing all the honors given to high rank, exalted her completely and gave her a very special place among the disorderly crowd of women, where the maids from the hotel walked hand in hand with their daughters. Scottish lords and with the Moldavian-Wallachian princesses. And suddenly, among this crowd, a completely unexpected image arose, the image of a chaste and respected friend.

The noble Polish lady who appeared in this role, a Slav by origin, but who received a Western upbringing, was charming in full sense this word. Peter enjoyed the company of Mrs. Senyavskaya in the gardens of Yavorov. They spent many hours together in the construction of the barge, in walks on the water, in conversations. It was a real idyll. Elizabeth Senyavskaya,

born Princess Lubomirskaya, was the wife of the crown hetman Senyavsky, a strong supporter of Augustus against Leshchinsky. She went through the rebellious life of a rough conqueror, avoiding slander. Peter admired not so much her rather mediocre beauty as her rare intelligence. He enjoyed her company.

He listened to her advice, which sometimes put him in a difficult position, since she supported Leshchinsky, but not the protégé of the tsar and her own husband. When the tsar informed her of his intention to release all the foreign officers he had invited to serve, she gave him an object lesson by sending away the German who was directing the orchestra of Polish musicians; even a little sensitive ear The king 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 of 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 by 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 succession to the throne. From now on, the appointment of an heir depended on the will of the sovereign. It is likely that the tsar chose Catherine, for only this choice can explain Peter's intention to proclaim his wife empress and start a magnificent ceremony for her coronation.

It is unlikely that Peter discovered statesmanship from his “hearty 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, the 30-year-old dandy Mons, the brother of Peter's former favorite, was arrested. He was accused of relatively minor embezzlement from the treasury at that time. Less than a week later, the executioner cut off his head. However, the rumor associated 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 consider that Catherine had the same right. The Empress was 12 years younger than her husband...

Relations between the spouses became strained. Peter did not use 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 most Peter spent 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 him twice daily. “The courtiers marveled,” a contemporary remarked, “where did so many tears come from the empress…”