Tsar Peter 1 and his children. Descendants of Peter I: How did the fate of numerous sons and daughters of the first Russian emperor. Children of Evdokia Lopukhina
Peter I, nicknamed Peter the Great for his services to Russia, is a figure for Russian history not just iconic, but key. Peter 1 created the Russian Empire, so he turned out to be the last king of all Russia and, accordingly, the first All-Russian Emperor. The son of the king, the godson of the king, the brother of the king - Peter himself was proclaimed the head of the country, and at that time the boy was barely 10 years old. Initially, he had a formal co-ruler Ivan V, but from the age of 17 he already ruled independently, and in 1721 Peter I became emperor.
Tsar Peter the First | Haiku Deck
For Russia, the years of the reign of Peter I were a time of large-scale reforms. He significantly expanded the territory of the state, built the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, incredibly boosted the economy by founding a whole network of metallurgical and glass factories, and also reduced the import of foreign goods to a minimum. In addition, Peter the Great was the first of the Russian rulers to take over from Western countries their best ideas. But since all the reforms of Peter the Great were achieved through violence against the population and the eradication of any dissent, the personality of Peter 1 among historians still evokes diametrically opposed assessments.
Childhood and youth of Peter I
The biography of Peter I initially implied his future reign, since he was born in the family of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov and his wife Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. It is noteworthy that Peter the Great turned out to be the 14th child of his father, but the firstborn for his mother. It is also worth noting that the name Peter was completely unconventional for both dynasties of his ancestors, so historians still cannot figure out where he got this name from.
Childhood of Peter the Great | Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias The boy was only four years old when the king-father died. His older brother and godfather Fyodor III Alekseevich ascended the throne, who took custody of his brother and ordered him to be given the best possible education. However, Peter the Great had big problems with this. He was always very inquisitive, but just at that moment the Orthodox Church started a war against foreign influence, and all Latin teachers were removed from the court. Therefore, the prince was taught by Russian clerks, who themselves did not have deep knowledge, and Russian-language books of the proper level did not yet exist. As a result, Peter the Great had a meager vocabulary and wrote with errors until the end of his life.
Childhood of Peter the Great | View map Tsar Fedor III rules only six years old and died due to poor health at a young age. According to tradition, another offspring of Tsar Alexei, Ivan, was to take the throne, but he was very painful, so the Naryshkin family organized a virtual palace coup and declared Peter I the heir. It was beneficial for them, since the boy was a descendant of their family, but the Naryshkins did not take into account that the Miloslavsky family would raise an uprising because of the infringement of the interests of Tsarevich Ivan. The famous Streltsy rebellion of 1682 took place, the result of which was the recognition of two tsars at the same time - Ivan and Peter. The Kremlin Armory still has a double throne for the brother-kings.
Childhood and youth of Peter the Great | Russian Museum The favorite game of young Peter I was training with his army. Moreover, the soldiers of the prince were not at all toys. His peers dressed in uniform and marched through the streets of the city, and Peter the Great himself "served" in his regiment as a drummer. Later, he even started his own artillery, also real. The funny army of Peter I was called the Preobrazhensky regiment, to which the Semenovsky regiment was later added, and, in addition to them, the tsar organized a funny fleet.
Tsar Peter I
When the young tsar was still a minor, his older sister, Princess Sophia, and later his mother Natalya Kirillovna and her relatives, the Naryshkins, stood behind him. In 1689, co-ruler brother Ivan V finally gave all power to Peter, although he nominally remained co-tsar until he suddenly died at the age of 30. After the death of his mother, Tsar Peter the Great freed himself from the burdensome guardianship of the princes Naryshkins, and it was from that time that one can speak of Peter the Great as an independent ruler.
Tsar Peter the First | Culturology He continued military operations in the Crimea against Ottoman Empire, ran a series Azov campaigns, which resulted in the capture of the fortress of Azov. To strengthen the southern borders, the tsar built the port of Taganrog, but Russia still did not have a full-fledged fleet, so it did not achieve a final victory. The large-scale construction of ships and the training of young nobles abroad in shipbuilding began. And the tsar himself learned the art of building a fleet, even working as a carpenter on the construction of the ship "Peter and Paul".
Emperor Peter the First | Bookaholic While Peter the Great was preparing to reform the country and personally studied the technical and economic progress of the leading European states, a conspiracy was conceived against him, and the king's first wife was at the head. Having suppressed the streltsy rebellion, Peter the Great decided to reorient military operations. He concludes a peace agreement with the Ottoman Empire and starts a war with Sweden. His troops captured the fortresses Noteburg and Nienschanz at the mouth of the Neva, where the tsar decided to found the city of St. Petersburg, and placed the base of the Russian fleet on the nearby island of Kronstadt.
Wars of Peter the Great
The above conquests made it possible to open an exit to the Baltic Sea, which later received the symbolic name "Window to Europe". Later, the territories of the Eastern Baltic joined Russia, and in 1709, during the legendary Battle of Poltava, the Swedes were completely defeated. Moreover, it is important to note: Peter the Great, unlike many kings, did not sit out in fortresses, but personally led the troops on the battlefield. AT Poltava battle They even shot Peter I in the hat, that is, he really risked his own life.
Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava | X-digest After the defeat of the Swedes at Poltava, King Charles XII took refuge under the patronage of the Turks in the city of Bender, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, and today is located in Moldova. With help Crimean Tatars and the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, he began to escalate the situation on the southern border of Russia. Seeking the expulsion of Charles, Peter the Great, on the contrary, forced the Ottoman Sultan to unleash again Russian-Turkish war. Russia found itself in a situation where it was necessary to wage a war on three fronts. On the border with Moldova, the king was surrounded and agreed to sign peace with the Turks, giving them back the fortress of Azov and access to the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov.
Fragment of Ivan Aivazovsky's painting "Peter I at Krasnaya Gorka" | Russian Museum In addition to Russian-Turkish and northern wars Peter the Great escalated the situation in the east. Thanks to his expeditions, the cities of Omsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk were founded, later Kamchatka joined Russia. The king wanted to carry out campaigns in North America and India, but failed to realize these ideas. On the other hand, he conducted the so-called Caspian campaign against Persia, during which he conquered Baku, Rasht, Astrabad, Derbent, as well as other Iranian and Caucasian fortresses. But after the death of Peter the Great, most of these territories were lost, as the new government considered the region not promising, and maintaining the garrison in those conditions was too expensive.
Reforms of Peter I
Due to the fact that the territory of Russia expanded significantly, Peter managed to reorganize the country from a kingdom into an empire, and starting from 1721, Peter I became emperor. Of the numerous reforms of Peter I, the transformations in the army clearly stood out, which allowed him to achieve great military victories. But no less important were such innovations as the transfer of the church under the subordination of the emperor, as well as the development of industry and trade. Emperor Peter the Great was well aware of the need for education and the fight against an outdated way of life. On the one hand, his tax on wearing a beard was perceived as tyranny, but at the same time, there was a direct dependence of the promotion of the nobles on the level of their education.
Peter the Great cuts the boyars' beards | VistaNews Under Peter, the first Russian newspaper was founded and many translations of foreign books appeared. Artillery, engineering, medical, naval and mining schools were opened, as well as the first gymnasium in the country. And now comprehensive schools not only the children of noble people could visit, but also the offspring of soldiers. He really wanted to create a mandatory for all primary school, but did not manage to carry out this plan. It is important to note that the reforms of Peter the Great affected not only the economy and politics. He financed the education of talented artists, introduced a new Julian calendar, tried to change the position of women by banning forced marriage. He also raised the dignity of his subjects, obliging them not to kneel even before the king and to use full names, and not call yourself "Senka" or "Ivashka" as before.
Monument "Tsar Carpenter" in St. Petersburg | Russian Museum In general, the reforms of Peter the Great changed the system of values among the nobles, which can be considered a huge plus, but at the same time the gap between the nobility and the people increased many times over and was no longer limited only to finances and titles. The main disadvantage of the tsarist reforms is considered to be the violent method of their implementation. In fact, it was a struggle of despotism with uneducated people, and Peter hoped to instill consciousness in the people with a whip. Indicative in this regard is the construction of St. Petersburg, which was carried out in the most difficult conditions. Many craftsmen rushed from hard labor to flee, and the king ordered their entire family to be imprisoned until the fugitives returned with a confession.
TVNZ Since not everyone liked the method of governing the state under Peter the Great, the tsar founded the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, an organ of political investigation and court, which later grew into the infamous Secret Chancellery. The most unpopular decrees in this context were the prohibition of taking notes in a closed room, as well as the prohibition of non-speech. Violation of both of these decrees was punishable death penalty. In this way, Peter the Great fought conspiracies and palace coups.
Personal life of Peter I
In his youth, Tsar Peter I liked to visit the German settlement, where he not only became interested in foreign life, for example, he learned to dance, smoke and communicate in a Western manner, but also fell in love with a German girl Anna Mons. His mother was very alarmed by such a relationship, so when Peter reached the age of 17, she insisted on his wedding with Evdokia Lopukhina. However, they did not have a normal family life: shortly after the wedding, Peter the Great left his wife and visited her only in order to prevent rumors of a certain kind.
Evdokia Lopukhina, first wife of Peter the Great | Sunday afternoon Tsar Peter I and his wife had three sons: Alexei, Alexander and Pavel, but the last two died in infancy. The eldest son of Peter the Great was to become his heir, but since Evdokia in 1698 unsuccessfully tried to overthrow her husband from the throne in order to transfer the crown to her son and was imprisoned in a monastery, Alexei was forced to flee abroad. He never approved of his father's reforms, considered him a tyrant and planned to overthrow his parent. However, in 1717 young man arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and next summer sentenced to death. The matter did not come to execution, since Alexei soon died in prison under unclear circumstances.
A few years after the dissolution of the marriage with his first wife, Peter the Great took 19-year-old Marta Skavronskaya as his mistress, whom the Russian troops captured as spoils of war. She gave birth to eleven children from the king, half of them even before the legal wedding. The wedding took place in February 1712 after the woman accepted Orthodoxy, thanks to which she became Ekaterina Alekseevna, later known as Empress Catherine I. Among the children of Peter and Catherine are the future Empress Elizabeth I and Anna, mother, the rest died in childhood. Interestingly, the second wife of Peter the Great was the only person in his life who knew how to calm his violent temper even in moments of rage and fits of anger.
Maria Cantemir, favorite of Peter the Great | Wikipedia Despite the fact that his wife accompanied the emperor in all campaigns, he was able to get carried away by the young Maria Cantemir, the daughter of the former Moldavian ruler, Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich. Maria remained the favorite of Peter the Great until the end of his life. Separately, it is worth mentioning the growth of Peter I. Even for our contemporaries, a more than two-meter man seems very tall. But in the time of Peter I, his 203 centimeters seemed absolutely incredible. Judging by the chronicles of eyewitnesses, when the Tsar and Emperor Peter the Great walked through the crowd, his head towered over the sea of people.
Compared to his older brothers, born to a different mother from their common father, Peter the Great seemed to be quite healthy. But in fact, he was tormented by severe headaches almost all his life, and in the last years of his reign, Peter the Great suffered from kidney stones. The attacks intensified even more after the emperor, along with ordinary soldiers, pulled out the boat that had run aground, but he tried not to pay attention to the illness.
Engraving "Death of Peter the Great" | ArtPolitInfo At the end of January 1725, the ruler could no longer endure pain and fell ill in his Winter Palace. After the emperor had no strength left to scream, he only groaned, and the whole environment realized that Peter the Great was dying. Peter the Great accepted death in terrible agony. Doctors called pneumonia the official cause of his death, but later doctors had strong doubts about such a verdict. An autopsy was performed, which showed a terrible inflammation of the bladder, which had already developed into gangrene. Peter the Great was buried in the cathedral at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, and his wife, Empress Catherine I, became the heir to the throne.
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 the 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’s hard to say which of them is right, but cheerful, loving, resourceful, always ready to joke, dance or keep up a secular conversation, Anna Mons was the complete opposite of the king’s wife - a limited beauty who made melancholy with slavish obedience and blind adherence to antiquity. Peter preferred Mons and free time spent 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 Pereyaslav Lake, 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 sweetheart,” “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 the sake of 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 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, Marta, 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 relationship of the king 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 Kyiv 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. Marry an unknown captive and neglect brides boyar family or princesses of Western European countries was a challenge to customs, a rejection of time-honored traditions. But Peter allowed himself not such challenges.
Announcing Catherine as his wife, Peter also thought about the future of 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 of her. They often traveled together, but always in separate trains, distinguished one by their majesty in 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 tea, you have new portomy, 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, it is believed, very close to a decisive victory and to 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 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 Empress Praskovya had the greater value that everyone knew how little, as a rule, she was inclined to mercy. According to the concepts of old Russia, there were many extenuating circumstances for such crimes as infanticide, and Tsaritsa Praskovya was in many respects a real 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 the full sense of the 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 the little sensitive ear of the king could not endure 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 end.
The disease worsened, and Peter spent most of the last three months of his life in bed. Peter died on January 28, 1725 in terrible agony. Catherine, who was proclaimed Empress on the same day, left the body of her deceased husband unburied for forty days and mourned him twice daily. “The courtiers marveled,” a contemporary remarked, “where did so many tears come from the empress…”
When it comes to the emperor's children Peter the Great, as a rule, remember the eldest son Tsarevich Alexei, as well as daughter Elizabeth Petrovna who became empress.
In fact, in two marriages, Peter I had more than 10 children. Why, at the time of the death of the emperor, did he not have obvious heirs, and how did the fate of the offspring of the most famous Russian reformer develop in general?
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. reproduction
Alexei
Firstborn of Peter and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina, named Alexei, was born on February 18 (28 according to the new style) February 1690 in the village of Preobrazhensky.
The first years of his life, Alexei Petrovich was in the care of his grandmother, the queen Natalya Kirillovna. The father, immersed in state affairs, practically did not pay attention to the upbringing of his son.
After the death of Natalya Kirillovna and the imprisonment in the monastery of his mother, Evdokia Lopukhina, Peter gave his son to be raised by his sister, Natalya Alekseevna.
Peter I, who nevertheless attended to the education of the heir to the throne, could not find worthy teachers for him.
Alexei Petrovich spent most of his time away from his father, surrounded by people who did not have high moral principles. Peter's attempts to involve his son in state affairs turned into failures.
In 1711, Peter arranged the marriage of his son with the princess Charlotte of Wolfenbüttel who gave birth to Alexei's daughter Natalia and son Petra. She died shortly after the birth of her son.
The gulf between Peter and Alexei by that time had become almost insurmountable. And after the second wife of the emperor gave birth to his son, named Peter, the emperor began to seek from the first-born renunciation of the rights to the throne. Alexei decided to flee and left the country in 1716.
The situation was extremely unpleasant for Peter I - the heir could well be used in political games against him. Russian diplomats were ordered to return the prince to his homeland at all costs.
At the end of 1717, Alexei agreed to return to Russia and in February 1718 solemnly renounced his rights to the throne.
Despite this, the Secret Office began an investigation, suspecting Alexei of treason. As a result of the investigation, the prince was put on trial and condemned to death as a traitor. He died in the Peter and Paul Fortress on June 26 (July 7), 1718, according to official version, from impact.
Peter I published an official notice stating that, after hearing the death sentence, the prince was horrified, demanded his father, asked his forgiveness and died in a Christian way, in complete repentance from his deed.
Alexander and Pavel
Alexander, the second child of Peter and Evdokia Lopukhina, like his older brother, was born in the village of Preobrazhensky on October 3 (13), 1691.
The boy lived only seven months and died in Moscow on May 14 (May 24), 1692. The prince was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The inscription on his tombstone reads: “Summer 7200 of the month of May, from 13 days at five o’clock at night in the second quarter from heel to Saturday, in memory of the holy martyr Isidore and on the island of Chios, the servant of God, the Blessed and Pious Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, of all Grand and Small and White Russia, the Autocrat, and the Blessed and Pious Empress Tsaritsa and Grand Duchess Evdokia Feodorovna son, Blessed Sovereign Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Petrovich, of all Great and Small and White Russia, and was buried in this place of the same month on the 14th day.
The existence of another son of Peter and Evdokia Lopukhina, Pavel, is completely questioned by historians. The boy was born in 1693, but died almost immediately.
Ekaterina
In 1703, the mistress of Emperor Peter I became Marta Skavronskaya, which the tsar in the first years of the relationship called in letters Katerina Vasilevskaya.
Even before marriage, Peter's mistress was pregnant several times by him. The first two children were boys who died shortly after birth.
December 28, 1706 (January 8, 1707) in Moscow, Marta Skavronskaya gave birth to a daughter named Catherine. The girl lived for one year and seven months and died on July 27, 1708 (August 8, 1709).
Like her two younger sisters, Catherine was born out of wedlock, but later officially recognized as her father and was posthumously recognized as Grand Duchess.
She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Anna
Anna Petrovna was born on January 27 (February 7), 1708. The girl, being an illegitimate child, received the same generic name "Anna" as her legal cousin, the daughter of Ivan V Anna Ioannovna.
Anna became the first of Peter's daughters and the first of Martha Skavronskaya's children to survive infancy.
In 1711, the father, having not yet entered into a legal marriage with Anna's mother, officially proclaimed her and her sister Elizabeth princesses.
A large plot of land in St. Petersburg was transferred to Anna's ownership. Subsequently, the Annenhof country estate was built for Anna near Ekateringof.
In 1724, Peter I agreed to the marriage of his daughter with the duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp.
According to the marriage contract, Anna Petrovna retained the Orthodox faith and could bring up daughters born in marriage in Orthodoxy, while sons had to be brought up in the faith of their father. Anna and her husband refused the opportunity to claim the Russian crown, but the contract had a secret article, according to which Peter reserved the right to proclaim his son's heir from their marriage.
The father did not see his daughter's wedding - Peter died two months after signing the marriage contract, and the marriage was concluded on May 21 (June 1), 1725.
Anna and her husband were very influential figures in St. Petersburg during the short reign of her mother, formerly Maria Skavronskaya, who ascended the throne under the name of Catherine I.
After the death of Catherine in 1727, Anna and her husband were forced to leave for Holstein. In February 1728, Anna gave birth to a son, who was named Carl Peter Ulrich. In the future, Anna's son ascended the Russian throne under the name of Emperor Peter III.
Anna Petrovna died in the spring of 1728. According to some sources, the cause was the consequences of childbirth, according to another, Anna caught a bad cold at the celebrations in honor of the birth of her son.
Before her death, Anna expressed a desire to be buried in St. Petersburg, in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, next to the grave of her father, which was done in November 1728.
Elizabeth
The third daughter of Peter I and his second wife was born on December 18 (29), 1709, during the celebrations on the occasion of the victory over Charles XII. In 1711, together with his older sister Anna, Elizabeth was officially proclaimed queen.
The father made big plans for Elizabeth, intending to intermarry with the French kings, but proposals for such a marriage were rejected.
During the reign of Catherine I, Elizabeth was seen as the heir to the Russian throne. Opponents, primarily Prince Menshikov, in response, began to promote the project of the marriage of the princess. The groom, Prince Karl August of Holstein-Gottorp, came to Russia to marry, but in May 1727, in the midst of preparations for the wedding, he contracted smallpox and died.
After the death of Emperor Peter II in 1730, the throne passed to the cousin of Elizabeth, Anna Ioannovna. For ten years of the reign of her cousin, Elizabeth was in disgrace, under vigilant supervision.
In 1741, after the death of Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth led a coup against the young Emperor Ivan VI and his relatives. Having achieved success, she ascended the throne under the name of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
The throne was occupied by Peter's daughter for twenty years, until her death. Unable to conclude an official marriage, and, accordingly, to give birth to legitimate heirs to the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna returned her nephew Duke Karl-Peter Ulrich of Holstein from abroad. Upon arrival in Russia, he was renamed in the Russian manner to Pyotr Fedorovich, and the words "grandson of Peter the Great" were included in the official title.
Elizabeth died in St. Petersburg on December 25, 1761 (January 5, 1762) at the age of 52, and was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Natalia (older) and Margarita
On March 3 (14), 1713, in St. Petersburg, Peter I and his second wife had a daughter, who was named Natalia. The girl became the first legitimate child of the emperor and his new wife.
Named after her grandmother, the mother of Peter the Great, Natalia lived for 2 years and 2 months. She died on May 27 (June 7), 1715 and was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
On September 3 (14), 1714, Empress Catherine gave birth to another daughter, who was named Margarita. The girl lived 10 months and 24 days and died on July 27 (August 7), 1715, that is, exactly two months after her sister. Margarita was also buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Tsarevich Pyotr Petrovich as Cupid in a portrait by Louis Caravaque Photo: reproduction
Peter
On October 29 (November 9), 1715, the son of Peter the Great was born, who, like his father, was named Peter. The king made big plans in connection with the birth of his son - he was supposed to replace his older brother Alexei as heir to the throne.
But the boy was in poor health, by the age of three he did not begin to walk or talk. The worst fears of doctors and parents were justified - at the age of three and a half years, on April 25 (May 6), 1719, Peter Petrovich died.
For Peter the Great, this death was a heavy blow. Hope for a son who will continue the work was completely destroyed.
Pavel
Unlike Pavel, allegedly born Evdokia Lopukhina, the fact of the birth of a son with that name by the second wife of Peter I is confirmed.
The boy was born on January 2 (13), 1717 in Wesel, Germany, during a trip abroad by Peter the Great. The king at that time was in Amsterdam and did not find his son alive. Pavel Petrovich died after only one day. Nevertheless, he received the title of Grand Duke and was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, becoming the first Romanov man to be buried there.
Natalya (younger)
On August 20 (31), 1718, during peace negotiations with Sweden, the tsarina gave birth to Peter the Great another daughter, who was destined to become his last child.
The baby was named Natalya, despite the fact that just three years before that, a daughter with the same name had died at the royal couple.
The younger Natalia, unlike most of her brothers and sisters, managed to survive infancy. At the time of the official announcement Russian Empire in 1721, only three daughters of Peter the Great remained alive - Anna, Elizabeth and Natalya.
Alas, this girl was not destined to become an adult. In January 1725, her father, Peter I, died without leaving a will. A fierce struggle for power flared up among the tsar's associates. In these conditions, few people paid attention to the child. Natasha fell ill with measles and on March 4 (15), 1725 she died.
By that time, Peter I had not yet been buried, and the coffins of father and daughter were put together in one hall. Natalya Petrovna was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her brothers and sisters.
The personal lives of great monarchs are always in sight, but very little is often known about their children. Not all the descendants of Peter the Great gained popularity, some of them lived rather modestly and died in obscurity.
Children from Evdokia Lopukhina
The first marriage of Peter 1 took place in 1690. Evdokia Lopukhina became the wife of the young king. His mother chose a wife for her son, not coordinating her actions with Peter, who was only 17 years old at that time. This marriage was not successful.
In marriage, the first son of Peter the Great, Alexei Petrovich, was born. The relationship between father and son did not initially work out. Evdokia did not accept the reforms and innovations of the king, she organized around herself a circle of dissatisfied with the activities of Peter. Some time later, the plot was uncovered, and Evdokia was sent to a monastery against her will. Alexei was strictly forbidden to see his mother, which made him suffer greatly. Aleksey Petrovich himself never showed activity and did not participate in his father's affairs.
Alexei Petrovich, like his mother, did not accept the innovations introduced by Peter. A few years later, Alexei was accused of an organized conspiracy against the tsar, he was convicted and thrown into the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he soon died. There is a version that he died under torture or was deliberately killed. This happened in 1718. From Alexei there was a son - Peter, who in 1727 was destined to become the head of the empire. But his reign was very short, in 1730 he became seriously ill and died of smallpox.
From the marriage of Peter and Lopukhina in 1691, another son was born - Alexander, who died in infancy.
Children from Marta Skavronskaya (Catherine I)
The fate of the children of Peter 1 from his second marriage is interesting. In 1703, Martha Skavronskaya, a Livonian peasant woman, became the ruler's new favorite. Martha accepted the Orthodox faith and received a new name - Ekaterina Alekseevna. In March 1717, the wife of Peter 1, Catherine, was declared empress. In 1725 she ascended the throne. But she only had two years to rule. Not much outliving her husband, Catherine 1 died in 1727.
From the union of Peter and Martha came Catherine. At the time of birth, the girl was considered illegitimate. She did not live long - only a year and a half. The girl was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Another illegitimate daughter from this relationship is Anna. When the young girl turned 17, she was given in marriage to the Duke of Holstein. In this marriage, Peter Ulrich was born, who later became Emperor of Russia Peter III.
In 1709, the future Empress Elizabeth was born. When she was two years old, she was declared a princess. Elizabeth was destined to ascend the throne, rule for 20 years (from 1741 to 1761) and continue her father's reforms. Elizabeth remained unmarried and left no direct heirs.
The first legitimate child was Natalya Petrovna, who was born in 1713. The girl was named after her grandmother - the mother of Peter Natalya Kirillovna. The child lived a little over two years. Natalia's grave is located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Subsequently, Peter will have another daughter, who will also be called Natalya. But she will not live long and will die at the age of five from measles.
Five more children were born between 1713 and 1719, but they all died in early age. Of the 10 children born in this marriage, 8 died in childhood. Only Anna and Elizabeth remained.
Despite big problems with his sons, the reformer tsar provided Russia with emperors until 1917
Peter the Great had two official wives and countless mistresses. But after his death, there were no obvious heirs to the throne, and the era of palace coups began ..
Unloved wife and objectionable son
His first wife Evdokia Lopukhin Peter did not love. The bride, brought up according to the traditions of Domostroy, was the personification of old Moscow, hated by the young tsar.
Evdokia for Peter was chosen by his mother Natalya Kirillovna. Thus, she wanted to settle down the 16-year-old king, who often visited German settlement addicted there to wine and carried away Anna Mons, the daughter of a local wine merchant, or a goldsmith. Peter did not object, he got married, but a month later he again left for Lake Plesheyevo, closer to Mons.
On February 18, 1690, a year after the wedding, Peter and Evdokia had their first child. The boy was named Alexey. He was considered the official heir to the throne. The second son of Evdokia and Peter, who was born in the autumn of 1691, died five months later. The existence of a third son, Pavel Petrovich, many historians question whether he most likely died during childbirth or in the first days of life.
In 1694 Peter's mother Natalya Kirillovna died. Soon after that, the tsar completely stopped paying attention to his wife, left for Arkhangelsk and did not even write letters to Evdokia. All this time, he continued to live with the love of youth, Anna Mons. The king and his first wife had no more children.
The first years of the life of the only heir to the throne were brought up by his grandmother - Natalya Kirillovna. At the age of six, they began to teach Alexei to read and write, but the tsarevich's teachers did not differ in special intelligence, the child often raised his hand to them.
Alexei lost his mother when he was eight years old - Peter forcibly sent Evdokia to a monastery. After that, the king gave his son to be raised by his sister Natalia.
Peter remembered the heir when he was 9 years old. He tried to involve his son in state affairs, even gave instructions. When Alexei turned 14, he began to take him on military campaigns. But the prince did not show much interest in the affairs of the country. The only heir of the reformer was more like his mother than the king wanted - he loved the old days and secretly hated all the transformations of his father.
To make Alexey look more like a European, they found him an overseas bride. In the autumn of 1711, a magnificent wedding took place between the 21-year-old heir to the Russian throne and the 17-year-old German princess Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, in Russia they began to call her Natalya Petrovna.
The Queen of the Convoy
In 1704, Peter broke off relations with Anna Mons, convicted of treason. By this moment, the place in his heart had already begun to take so timely presented to the king by the prince Menshikov Marta Skavronskaya, a former maid. Marta, taken prisoner during the capture of the Swedish fortress, became first the mistress, and then the wife of the king CatherineI.
Even before the official wedding, Catherine gave birth to four children to Peter - two boys, Pavel and Peter died shortly after giving birth, daughters Anna and Elizabeth in the future played a decisive role in the fate of the Russian throne.
The official wedding of Peter and Catherine took place in 1712. Over the next three years, Catherine gave birth to two already "legitimate" daughters, but both died in infancy. On November 9, 1715, another contender for the throne was born - Tsarevich Petr Petrovich.
Died under unclear circumstances
When Catherine gave birth to the long-awaited boy to Peter, the position of her son from his first marriage was shaken. By this time, the heir to the throne, Alexei Petrovich, had two children from the German princess - the eldest Natalia and junior Peter(future emperor) PeterII, last Romanov in a straight male line). But shortly after giving birth, Alexei's wife died. On the day of the funeral, the wife gave the prince a letter from his father. In it, Peter threatened to deprive his son of the throne.
Peter's opponents took advantage of the quarrel between father and son - they advised Alexei to flee to Austria. The prince obeyed, and by doing so he ruined himself.
The fugitive was found, returned to Russia and sent to his father for trial. After interrogations and severe torture, Alexei named the names of those who helped him escape the country. And he admitted that he went on the run because he was afraid for his life. Alexei understood that he was an objectionable heir, and was afraid that his father, together with his wife Catherine, would decide to get rid of him.
The prince was placed in Peter and Paul Fortress. The court ruled traitor death sentence. But 28-year-old Aleksey did not live to see his execution - he was found dead in a cell. The official cause of death is apoplexy. But historians are still arguing about what actually happened.
Empress Elizabeth
Outwardly, Peter tried to remain calm and behaved as usual. After the death of Alexei, mourning was not declared; the anniversary of the victory near Poltava was widely celebrated in the country. But in letters to relatives, Peter admitted that it was hard for him.
Less than a year after the death of Alexei, Tsarevich Peter, who was considered at that time the heir to the throne, died. The boy was just over three years old. He never learned to walk or talk. Peter the Great had high hopes for his son, but they did not come true.
The sovereign had no other sons. The baby who was born shortly after Pyotr Petrovich Pavel died in the first days of life. By the beginning of 1725, last year Peter's life, only three of his daughters from Catherine survived: Anna and Elizabeth, who were born before the official wedding, and the youngest, the last child of Catherine and Peter - Natalia.
Natalya did not long survive her father - the girl died of measles at the age of six and a half years, on March 15, 1725. Then the emperor Peter was not yet buried, the coffins of the father and his daughter were placed in the same hall.
Natalia's older sister, Elizabeth, was prepared from childhood for marriage with one of the heirs to the French throne. But bourbons Peter was politely refused. An incredible beauty, according to contemporaries, Elizabeth never officially married. As a result palace coup 1741, the 31-year-old daughter of Peter I ascended the throne. She ruled until her death in January 1762.
Peter, but not that
Anna, after the death of her father, married the duke Karl Friedrich Holstein-Gottorp. This marriage was organized by Peter during his lifetime, under the terms of the marriage contract, Anna and Karl renounced their claims to the Russian throne, but their children had the right to do so.
In 1728 Anna gave birth to a son Carl Peter Ulrich and died shortly after giving birth, she was 20 years old. Anna's son, the grandson of Peter I, claimed two thrones at once - Russian and Swedish. In 1762 he was already under the name PeterIII at the behest of his aunt Elizaveta Petrovna, he went to Russia.
Thus, the direct descendants of Peter's daughter Anna ruled Russia from 1762 until 1917.
Reference: PeterIII, again by the will of Elizabeth, married a German princess, baptized in Catherine II . She was succeeded by her son Pavel I , then - the son of Paul Alexander I . After the childless Alexander, his brother ruled Nicholas I . After the throne ascended the son of Nicholas Alexander II , then ruled by his son Alexander III , and the last Russian emperor was the son of AlexanderIII Nicholas I I .
