Royal adultery. The most famous “izmeniti” in the Russian Empire
SPB.AIF.RU recalls empresses, not stored fidelity to their husbands.
Peter I and his wife
To know that such a betrayal, had one of the most loving Russian rulers — Peter the great
Tender feelings to his first wife — Praskovia Illarionovna, daughter of the Royal steward Lopukhin, he doesn’t. It was a political choice of his mother, that 16-year-old Peter agreed. Despite the fact that the choice was pretty, he preferred her society of cheerful ladies from German settlement.
Without much agony in 1697 he was sent unloved in the Suzdal-Pokrovsky monastery, where she found solace in the arms of major Stepan Glebov. About this torrid affair became known to the king in 1718, after the arrest of the Tsarevich Alexei, accused of conspiracy. Stepan Glebov and ex-Queen arrested as implicated in the case. During the torture the poor mayor admitted that he “lived the prodigal” with Lopukhina.
The sentence was harsh — the death penalty. The cheater also publicly flogged, and then sent to the Ladoga assumption monastery.
Not remained faithful to Peter and his mistress — the daughter of a winemaker Johann Georg of Mons, Anna. The affair that began in his youth, lasted for more than ten years and brought Peter Alekseevich many emotional experiences. Despite generous gifts from the king, his beloved did not forget about other men. These relations are very hurt Peter. After he learned about the relations of the Mons with the Saxon envoy Kenigson, he even put favorite under house arrest.
But it tempered the ardor of Anna. In her life there was the Prussian envoy Georg Johann von Keyserling, who had intended to take her as his wife. At first this infuriated the king, but then he changed his temper justice with mercy, and gave them permission to marry.
It should be noted that a fatal role in the life of the king was played by the brother of Anne — Willem. Thanks to the support of the sisters, he became chamber-lackey Empress Catherine Alexeyevna. Attractive young man accompanied her on all tours and trips, including Europe and the Persian campaign. For courtiers it was no secret that the Empress and her assistant have not only a working relationship. Rumors about the romantic nature of their relationship came up to Peter.
In November 1724 the Willem was arrested and charged with embezzlement. A hearing on the case was swift — November 16 “the offender” has lost on the scaffold of the head.
Peter III and Catherine II
“God knows why my wife again is pregnant! I’m not sure whether from me this child and should I take that personally,” preserved in the history of the phrase of Peter III, one of the most controversial Russian tsars.
About the personal life of an unpopular autocrat, whose reign lasted six months and ended by a Palace coup, after which ascended the throne his wife is known from his letters and memories of Catherine.
In one of them she complained that dealing with her, he preferred other fun stuff: reading Lutheran prayer books and stories about robbers and playing with dolls that day he hid under the bed.
Their wedding took place in 1745, but it is believed that up to 1750 years of intimate relations between them were. Only after the future heir to the throne had the surgery, he went to live with Catherine as husband and wife. In 1754 she gave birth to her son Paul, future Emperor Paul I.
That it was not a child of Peter, says the letter, which he wrote to her: “I Ask you tonight not to bother to sleep with me, inasmuch as it is too late to deceive me.”
Historians suggest that the possible father was count Saltykov, who in those years was a friend of Catherine. Two years later, in 1756 in her life there was Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, the Polish envoy at the Russian court. This love affair was no secret to Peter III, who had tender feelings for the maid of honour Elizaveta Vorontsova. There is evidence that Peter and Catherine would have been happy even joint dinners with their favorites — Poniatowski and Vorontsova. Supposedly, they were held in the chambers of the Grand Duchess. After, at the half, Peter joked: “Well, children, now we do not need.” In 1757 Catherine daughter was born, probable whose father was Stanislaw August. The baby lived two years and died of smallpox in 1759.
Every year the relations between spouses got worse and worse. As Emperor, he did not hesitate, said he was going to divorce Catherine in order to marry his mistress. But the stars came together so that in June 1762 he lost his throne, which went to the hated wife.
The former autocrat has been arrested and sent escort to Ropsha, where a few days later he died under strange circumstances.
Alexander I and Elizabeth A.
On 28 September 1793 the wedding of a 14-year-old Princess Louise Maria Augusta (in Orthodoxy — Elizabeth Alexeyevna) and 16-year-old heir to the throne of Alexander.
Feelings of Elizabeth and Alexander in the first years of marriage were touching. New husband wrote to his mother that without her husband she “would die a thousand deaths”: “the Happiness of my life in his hands if he would stop loving me, I’ll be miserable forever. I will take everything, but not this.”
However, later each of them there are new objects of adoration. The Emperor openly courted a maid of honor, Maria Naryshkina, and the Empress lost her head officer Alexei Okhotnikov.
The story of her relationship with the son of wealthy landowners began in 1805, when Alexander I went to Austerlitz, leaving a decision to the rear the operating and financial tasks of the quartermaster Okhotnikov.
It is known that the first connection of the Empress and the first officer crossed the border of the letters, but then the situation changed. Some historians even tend to assume that the father of the eldest daughter Elizabeth, who died in childhood, were the Hunters, and that Alexander knew about this from the words of the Empress, however, in view of friendly relations between spouses and in the name of the desire to keep up appearances, he agreed to admit the child.
The ending of this story was tragic: one day, on leaving the theatre, a lover of the Empress received a blow with a dagger to the chest.
After learning about the attack, Elizabeth A. immediately went to his house. After his death in parting, she put him in the coffin a lock of his blond hair.
The story of her passion years later he described to a cousin of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Nicholas. But the biography of Empress Elizabeth in three volumes did not pass the censorship — too taboo topic of family change.