Birth of Catherine I of Russia
The Peasant Girl Who Became An Empress
Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine I of Russia, the most powerful woman history forgot.
They shared the same name, ruled the same country, in the same century, but could hardly have been more different.
One is world-famous, the other has been virtually forgotten.
The life of Empress Catherine I was like a Cinderella story.
A commoner doing laundry and kitchen work, she took a lucky chance to ascend the Russian throne.
Catherine I’s story is thrilling, unlikely, and downright gutsy.
Catherine was born on 15th April 1684 as Martha Skavronska , an illegitimate peasant girl attached to an estate.
Marta endured a life of hardship, humiliation, and labour from dawn till dusk.
At some point in the early 1700s, Marta lived in the market town of Marienburg as a maid to protestant priest Ernst Glück.
Meanwhile, Russia’s young and ambitious Tsar Peter, declared war against Sweden…..
Marienburg fell into Russian hands in August 1702, and Marta was taken captive.
She was lucky to survive, the rampant maltreatment of women was shocking.
It was here that the Tsar spotted Marta.
She was in the right place at the right time.
Peter had just banished his first wife to a monastery.
Peter was captivated with Marta.
Nine months after their first meeting, the peasant girl Marta was by the Tsar’s side when he founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703.
Marta moved in with him, slowly morphing from mistress to indispensable partner.
Marta gave birth to their son, Peter in 1704.
Nine years later, in 1711, Peter married her, and Marta took the name of Catherine Alexeyevna.
In 1724, Peter went even further, gifting her a crown worth a million roubles.
Portraits show Marta as soft-featured, with sparkling blue eyes and rosebud lips.
Yet the portraits hide her spirit, her sense of humour and her physical and psychological strength.
As a person she was very energetic, compassionate, charming, and always cheerful.
She was able to calm Peter in his frequent rages and was often called in to do so.
Peter had suffered from epilepsy since he was a young boy.
As a giant seven foot tall man, Catherine would hold him through his seizures, when everyone else fled in terror.
Catherine and Peter were very close.
She shared Peter’s sensuous appetite, yet accepted his mistresses with grace.
“She is not beautiful, but as warm as an animal”
They went on to have twelve children, of whom only Elizabeth and Anna Petrovna survived.
Catherine was crowned as Empress of Russia in 1724.
Catherine spent much of her time at Tsarskoe Selo, which she owned for 16 years.
She turned the small farmstead into a comfortable and palatial estate.
Peter and Catherine’s relationship went through a crisis in 1724, when it was reported that Catherine had a lover – Wilhelm Mons – brother of Peter’s former mistress Anna.
Whilst Catherine allowed Peter to have his ladies, Peter expected his wife to be irreproachable..
Subsequently, Wilhelm Mons was ex3cuted for having carnal knowledge of the empress.
Peter then had Wilhelm’s head presented to Catherine in a glass jar….as a warning.
Catherine always denied such a relationship happened, and there was no conclusive evidence to prove otherwise.
With Peter’s death in February 1725, Catherine seized the crown.
Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, ruling for two peaceful and prosperous years.
Catherine I died two years after Peter on 17th May 1727 at age 43, in St. Petersburg.
She was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress.
Her cause of death was an abscess on her lungs.
Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women – including her daughter Elizabeth.
Whilst Russia was torn between forces old and new, Catherine’s policies set into motion what was to follow…
The reign of Catherine the Great, her grandaughter in law.
🌹 Catherine I of Russia
Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, c.1717
