PETER I THE GREAT

Russian Tsar and 1682 (reigned from 1689), Russia′s first emperor (from 1721), the youngest son of Alexei Mikhailovich. Held public administration reform, built a new capital - St. Petersburg. He headed the army in the Azov campaigns (1695-1696), the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Prut campaign (1711), the Persian campaign (1722-1723) and others, commanded troops in the capture Nöteborg (1702), in the battles of the village Wood (1708) and at Poltava (1709). Supervised the construction of the fleet and the establishment of a regular army. On his initiative, was opened by the Academy of Sciences, passed the civil alphabet. As the creator of a powerful absolute state, has ensured that Western Europe recognized Russia a great power.

Peter was 17 years old when his mother decided to marry. Early marriage, according to calculations of Queen Natalie, had significantly change the position of his son, and together with him and herself. According to the custom of the time the young man became an adult after his marriage. Consequently, married Peter will no longer need a guardian sister Sophia, the time comes to his reign, he moved from the Transfiguration to the Chamber of the Kremlin.

In addition, marriage mother hoped her son settled down, tie him to the family hearth, to distract from the German settlement, inhabited by foreign traders and artisans, and hobbies, not peculiar to the king′s dignity. Hasty marriage, finally, tried to protect the interests of the descendants of Peter from the claims of potential heirs of his co-ruler of Ivan, which by this time was already a married man and waited for the addition of the family.

Queen Natalia herself found a bride for a son - a beautiful Evdokia Lopukhin, according to contemporaries, "the princess face hefty, tokmo mediation of mind and character dissimilar to her husband. This is a contemporary noted that "the love between them was a handsome, but continued unless tokmo year. " It is possible that cooling between the couple arrived even earlier, for a month after the wedding, Peter Evdokia left and went to engage in marine Pereyaslavl lake fun.

In the German Quarter king met with the vintner′s daughter, Anna Mons. A contemporary thought that this "girl was a handsome and intelligent," and another, on the contrary, found that it was "mediocre sharpness and intelligence. " Who is right, hard to say, but happy, Affectionate, resourceful, always ready to joke, dance, or maintain small talk, Anna Mons, was the complete opposite of the king′s wife - Beauty Limited, which cause anguish of servility and blind adherence to the old days. Peter preferred Mons and leisure time spent in her company.

Evdokia preserved several letters to Peter and no response of the king. In 1689, when Peter went to Pereyaslavl Lake, Evdokia appealed to him with gentle words: "Hello, my light, for many years. Please grace, perhaps the emperor, to awaken us, not too late. I′m at my mother′s grace alive. Ženíšek your Dunka brow beating. In another letter, addressed to "my lapushke", "Ženíšek your Tweety, still unaware of nearby explosions, requested the authorization of the spouse to come to visit. Two letters Evdokiya belong to a later time - in 1694, the latter of which is full of sadness and loneliness of women, which is well known that she had been abandoned for the sake of another. They no longer had recourse to "lapushke, spouse did not hide his bitterness and could not refrain from criticism, calling herself" besschastnoy ", lamented that does not receive a reply to his letter" a single line. " Not strengthened family ties and the birth of a son in 1690, named Alexei.

She retired from Suzdal convent, where she spent 18 years. Freed from his wife, Peter has not shown any interest to her, and she got the opportunity to live as she wanted. Instead of a meager meal she served the monastery viands delivered numerous relatives and friends. Approximately ten years later she took a lover .

Photo — «Peter I The Great»

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Only 6 March 1711 it was announced that Peter has a new legal wife Ekaterina A. .

Real name Catherine Alekseevny - Martha. When the siege of Marienburg by Russian troops in 1702 Martha, the servant pastor Gluck, was taken prisoner. For some time she was the mistress of the non-commissioned officer, it said Marshal Sheremetev, liked it and Menshikov. In Menshikov called her Catherine Trubchevoy, Katerina Vasilevskoi. Middle Alekseevny she received in 1708, when at her baptism in the role of godfather made Tsarevich Alexei.

Peter met Catherine in 1703 by Menshikov. Fate ugotovila former maid role of concubine and later wife extraordinary man. Beautiful, charming and courteous, she quickly won the heart of Peter.

But what happened to Anna Mons? Communication king with her more than ten years and ceased not his fault - Sultana got himself a lover. When this became known to Peter, he said: "To love the king, ought to be king in his head, and ordered to support her under house arrest.

Admirer of Anna Mons was Prussian envoy Keyserling. Interesting description Keyserling meeting with Peter and Menshikov, during which the ambassador had sought permission to marry Mons. In response to a request by Keyserling said the king, "that he brought the girl Mons for themselves, with the genuine intention to marry her, but because it flattered me and depraved, then he or about her or about her relatives nor hear, nor know not wants. Menshikov, while adding that "the girl Mons really vile, a public woman with whom he acted impudently. " Servant Menshikov beat Keyserling and lowered it down the stairs.

In 1711, Keyserling did manage to marry Anna Mons, but six months later he died. The former mistress tried once again to marry, but death from tuberculosis prevented this.

From Anna Mons Catherine differed good health, allowing it to easily endure grueling camp life and the first call of Peter to overcome the many hundreds of miles off-road. Catherine, moreover, had an extraordinary physical strength. Kammerjunker Berholts described how one day the king joked with one of his orderlies, the young Buturlin, who ordered to raise the outstretched hand of his great marshal′s baton. He could not do. "Then His Majesty, knowing how strong hand of the Empress, gave her across the table to his rod. She rose and, with extraordinary skill several times raised his hand over so directly, that all of us a little surprised. "

Catherine became necessary to Peter, and letters to the king to her eloquently reflect the growth of his affection and respect. "Come to Kiev did not delay" - the king wrote to Catherine of Zhovkva in January 1707. "For God, come quickly, and if not for what will soon be otpishite, Inasmuch not without sadness to me that neither hear nor see you" - he wrote from St. Petersburg. Talbot king care of Catherine and their illegitimate daughter Anna. "If that happens I will of God, - he made a written order in early 1708 before sending in the army - then three thousand rubles, which is now in the yard of Mr. Prince Menshikov, Catherine Wasilewska and give to the girl. "

A new stage in relations between Peter and Catherine came after she became his wife. In his letters after 1711 familiarly rather coarse "Hello, Mama!" Replace gentle: "Katerinushka, my friend, hello. " It is not only a form of treatment, but the tone of the notes: replace concise letters ordinances similar to the officer′s command to his subordinates, such as "how do you still donositel come, go syudy do not delay, began to receive letters with an expression of tender feelings to a close man. In a letter to Peter advised during a visit to him to be cautious: "For God carefully and go to the battalion or a hundred yards Does not drive off. " Husband gave her the joy of expensive gifts, or overseas delicacies.

Preserved 170 letters of Peter to Catherine. Only very few of them are business in nature. However, they do not burden the king of his spouse or requests something to fulfill a task or check out someone else or asking for advice, he only made known what had happened - to win a battle for their health.

Photo — «Peter I The Great»

"I finished the course yesterday, the water, thank God, acted exceedingly pretty, as will happen after?" - he wrote from Carlsbad, or: "Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I hear that you′re bored, and and I do not bezskuchno same, but can razsudit that cases of boredom do not need to change.

In short, Catherine enjoyed the love and respect for Peter. To marry a prisoner of obscure and neglected bride boyar family or princesses Western European countries was a challenge to the customs, the abandonment of time-honored tradition. But Peter allowed himself, and not such challenges. Announcing his wife Catherine, Peter also thought about the future of marriage with her daughters - Anna and Elizabeth. "I ZIL inflict forced to obscure this way, so if orphans ostanuttsya, utche be able to have a life of her.

Catherine was given the internal grace, subtle understanding of the nature of his hot-tempered husband. When the king was in a state of rage, no one dared to approach him. I think she′s one knew how to soothe the King, without fear to look in his eyes glowed with anger.

Glitter court is not overshadowed by her memories of the origin.

"The king, - a contemporary wrote, - he could not admire her ability and skill to become, as he put it, the empress, not forgetting that she was not born with it. They often traveled together, but always in separate trains, different - a grandeur of its simplicity, its other luxury. He liked to see her everywhere. There was a military review, the descent of the ship, a ceremony or celebration, in which she was not. Another foreign diplomat also had the opportunity to observe the manifestation of the Peter the care 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 young daughter and several times kissed them, while if it is found great affection for the queen, and one can say justly, that, despite the uncertainty of its kind, it is quite worthy of the grace of the great monarch. The diplomat made the only extant description of the appearance of Catherine, coinciding with its portraits: "At the present moment (1715), it has a pleasant fullness, her complexion is very white with an admixture of natural, a few bright cheeks, her eyes were black, small hair the same color are long and thick, neck and hands are beautiful, gentle expression and very agreeable.

Catherine really did not forget about his past. In one of her letters to her husband read: "Although there is some tea, you have new portomoi, the same, and trying not to forget" - so she was joking manner reminiscent of that in his time was a washerwoman. In general, the role of the wife of the king, she coped easily and naturally, if this role, it taught from childhood.

"He loved His Majesty the female sex", - said one of his contemporaries. This same reasoning has recorded contemporary king: "To forget the service for a woman is inexcusable. Being a prisoner of his mistress worse than be a prisoner of war, the enemy may be more freedom, but a woman shackles long lasting.

Catherine condescendingly referred to the passing of his wife relations, and even herself delivered to him "metresishek. Once, while abroad, Peter sent a response to a letter from Catherine, which she jokingly accused him of being intimate relationships with other women. "And that joke about fun, and we have no tovo, Inasmuch as we are old people and not Rakovsky. "Since, - the king wrote to his wife in 1717 - when drinking water home fun forbid doctors to use, that I metresu for its release to you. " Answer Catherine was drawn in the same vein: "But I do mnyu that you onuyu (metresishku) deigned to send for her illness, which she now resides, and for the treatment deigned to go to The Hague, and did not wish I were from which God forbid, that and a gala metresishki that this is the well came what she had come.

Nevertheless, his beloved had to contend with rivals, even after marriage to Peter and the accession to the throne, and since then some of them threatened her position wife and empress.

Photo — «Peter I The Great»

In 1706 in Hamburg, Peter promised the daughter of a Lutheran pastor′s divorce from Catherine, as the pastor agreed to give his daughter only legal wife. Shafirov already received orders to prepare all necessary documents. But, unfortunately for himself, too trusting bride agreed to partake of the joys of Hymen before his torch was lit. After that, her evicted by paying her a thousand ducats.

The heroine of another, less temporary infatuation 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 followers of Peter, born whose antiquity and nobility competed with native Tatischevs. A girl of fifteen, she was thrown on the bed of the king, and at sixteen, Peter married her for who sought promotions officer Chernysheva and does not break with it. We Evdokia born from the king four daughters and three sons, at least, it was called the father of these children. But, taking into account too frivolous temper Eudoxia, his father′s right Peter was more than doubtful. This greatly reduced her chances as a favorite. If you believe the scandalous chronicle, she managed to achieve only the famous commandment: "Go and vent Avdotya. Such an order was given to her husband, her lover, sick and regarded Evdokia blamed for their illness. Peter Chernyshev usually called: "Avdotya virago. " Her mother was the famous "Prince-Superior.

Adventure with Evdokia Rzhevskaya would not be of any interest, if it were unique. But, unfortunately, its legendary image of a very typical, which was the interest of this sad page of history; Evdokia represented a whole epoch and a whole society.

Illegitimate offspring of Peter to the large number of offspring is equal to Louis XIV, though, perhaps, the legend and exaggerates a little. For example, the illegality of the origin of the sons of Mrs. Stroganov, not to mention the other, does not historically verified. We only know that their mother, nee Novosiltsev a party orgies, distinguished good-tempered and drank the bitter.

A very curious story of another maid of honor - Mary Hamilton. It goes without saying that the sentimental novel, created from the imagination of some writers of history, and remains a fiction novel. Hamilton was, apparently, quite vulgar sozdanitsem, and Peter did not betray me, showing his love for her own way. As you know, one of the branches of a large Scottish family, a rival of Douglas, moved to Russia in the era that preceded the great emigration movement in the XVII century and approaching the time of Ivan the Terrible. Genus entered into this relationship with many Russian names and seemed quite Russified long before the accession to the throne the king reformer. Mary Hamilton was the granddaughter of his foster father of Natalia Naryshkina, Artamonov Matveeva. It was not bad-looking, and being taken to court, it shared the fate of many of these. It caused only a momentary flash of passion of Peter.

Having mastered it in passing, Peter immediately left her, and she consoled itself with imperial orderlies. Mary Hamilton a few times she was pregnant, but all sorts of ways to rid themselves of the children. To bind itself to one of her casual lovers, young Orlova, rather insignificant man, roughly handle it and robbing her, she stole money and jewels of the Empress. All of her large and small crimes were opened by accident. Of the king′s cabinet lost a pretty important document. Suspicion fell on the Orlova, because he knew about this document, and spent the night outside the home. Summoned to the emperor for questioning, he was frightened and imagined that he was in trouble because of the connection with Hamilton. With a cry of "guilty" and he fell on his knees and confessed everything, and telling of the theft, which he used, and the known him infanticides. Begin an investigation and process.

Unfortunate Mary blamed mainly in the pronunciation of ill-intentioned speeches against the sovereign, too good complexion which causes her ridicule.

Photo — «Peter I The Great»

Indeed, a serious crime . . . Whatever was said at this time, Catherine has shown quite a lot of goodwill. She herself sought for criminal, and even forced to stand up for her queen Praskovia, exercised great influence. Intercession of the queen Praskovia was all the more important that everyone knew how little, usually, she was inclined to mercy. As notions of old Russia for crimes such as infanticide, there were many extenuating circumstances, and the queen Praskovya in many respects a true Russian old school.

But the emperor was adamant: "He does not want to be neither Saul nor Ahab, in violation of God unto the law due to a gust of kindness. Does he respect the Divine Laws? Perhaps. But he drove it into his head that he was robbed of several soldiers, and this was an unforgivable crime. Mary Hamilton several times tortured in the presence of the king, but to the very end she refused to name his accomplice. The latter was thinking only about how to defend himself, and in all the sins he accused her. We can not say that the ancestor of the future favorites of Catherine II behaved as a hero.

March 14, 1714 Mary Hamilton went on the block, as described Scherer, "in a white dress decorated with black ribbons. Peter is very fond of theatrical effects, he could not respond to this latest gimmick deathbed coquetry. He had the courage to witness the execution and, as could never remain a passive spectator, took a direct part in it. He kissed the prisoners, exhorted her to pray, supported in his arms, when she lost consciousness - and then withdrew. This was the signal. When Mary looked up, the king has changed his executioner. Scherer reported stunning detail: "When the ax did his part, the king returned, picked up the fallen in the mud bloodied head and quietly began to lecture on anatomy, referring to attending all of the affected organs with an ax and insisting on the dissection of the spine. After graduating, he touched his lips to the pale face, which once covered most other kisses, threw the head of Mary, the cross and walked away. "

It is doubtful that Peter′s favorite Menshikov, as some say, found it appropriate to participate in the trial and condemnation of the unfortunate Hamilton, to protect the interests of its patron saint Catherine. This was no rival for her dangerous. Some time later, Catherine found no grounds for more serious concern. In the dispatch Kampredona on June 8, 1722 states: "The Queen feared that if the princess will give birth to a son, the king, at the request of Valahskogo Ruler, divorces his wife and marry his mistress. "

It was about Mary Cantemir.

Hospodar Dimitrie Cantemir, a former ally of Peter during the unfortunate expedition in 1711, lost their possessions at the conclusion of Prutskaya contract. Finding shelter in St. Petersburg, he was languishing there, waiting for promised him compensation for damages. For a long time it seemed that her daughter will reward him for lost time. When Peter, in 1722 went to war against Persia, his love affair with Mary Cantemir ran for several years and seemed close to the junction, fatal to Catherine. Both women accompanied the king during his campaign. But Maria was forced to stay in Astrakhan, as she was pregnant. This further strengthened the confidence of its supporters in her victory. After the death of little Pyotr Petrovich Catherine was no longer her son, whom Peter could make his heir. It was assumed that if the king on his return from a hike Cantemir give him a son, then Peter did not hesitate get rid of the second wife as well as freed from the first. According to Scherer, Catherine′s friends found a way to get rid of the risk: return, Peter found his mistress seriously ill after preterm birth, even feared for her life. Catherine triumphed, and the novel, almost destroy it seemed henceforth doomed to the same end of the banal, as all previous ones. Shortly before his death the emperor one officious entity, such Chernyshev and Rumyantsev, offered "to mean" to marry the princess, still loved Peter, though ambitious to have lost hope.

Photo — «Peter I The Great»

The fate of Catherine safely deduced from all the tests. Solemn Crowning of the situation made it completely inaccessible. The honor of his mistress was rehabilitated by marriage, and the position of spouses, vigilantly guarding the family home, and the empress, separating all the honors bestowed high rank, finally took her and gave her a special place among the disorderly crowd of women, where the maids from the hotel to go hand in hand with daughters Scottish lords and Moldava valahskimi princesses. And suddenly all this crowd to a totally unexpected way, the image of a chaste and respected friend.

Appear in this role of the noble Polish lady, a Slav by birth, but received a Western education, was charming in every sense of the word. Peter enjoyed the company of Mrs. Sieniawska the ownership of the gardens Javorova. Many hours they spent together in the construction of the barge, in walks on water, in conversations. It was a real idyll. Elizabeth Senyavskaya, nee Princess Lyubomirskaya, was the wife of Crown Hetman Sieniawska the ownership, a strong supporter of August against Leszczynski. She went through a rebellious life of brutal conqueror, avoiding slander. Peter admired not so much its pretty mediocre beauty, as its rare intelligence. He enjoyed her company.

He listened to her advice, sometimes put him in a difficult position, because it supported Leszczynski, but not a protege of the king, and her own husband. When the king told her of his intention to release all those invited them to the service of foreign officers, she gave him an object lesson, sending the Germans, who ruled the orchestra of Polish musicians, and even the ear of the king of low-sensitivity could not be started immediately to make discordance. When he spoke with her about their project to turn the desert Russian and Polish regions that lie on the path of Karl XII in Moscow, she interrupted him a story about a nobleman who to punish his wife planned to become a eunuch. She was lovely, and Peter succumbed to its charm, restraint, ennobled by her presence, as if mutated from contact with this pure and refined in kind, both sweet and strong . . .

In 1722, Peter, feeling that his forces leave, has published the Charter of the legacy of the throne. Henceforth, the appointment of an heir depended on the will of the sovereign. It is likely that the king chose Catherine because only this choice can be explained by the intention of Peter to proclaim his wife the Empress and start a lush ceremony of her coronation. It is unlikely that Peter has found the wisdom of state from his "friend serdeshnenkogo" as he called Catherine, but it seemed to him, had one important advantage: his entourage were at the same time and its surroundings.

In 1724, Peter was often sick. November 9, was arrested 30-year-old dude Mons, brother of the former favorite of Peter. He was charged with relatively minor at the time of the theft of the treasury. Less than a week, as the executioner cut off his head. However, rumors linked the execution of Mons with no abuse, but with his intimate relationship with the Empress. Peter allowed himself to misconduct, but did not think that the same right to possess and Catherine. The Empress was younger than her husband of 12 years . . .

The relationship between husband and wife were strained. Peter has not used the right to appoint a receiver to the throne and the coronation of Catherine the act brought to its logical end.

The illness worsened, and most of the last three months of life, Peter spent in bed. Peter died on Jan. 28, 1725 in terrible agony. The body of a deceased spouse Catherine, proclaimed the same day, the Empress, left unburied for forty days and twice daily he mourned. "The courtiers were amazed, - noticed a contemporary - where so many tears is taken at the Empress . . . "