Few know about the first wife of Peter I - Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina. However, it was this woman who became the last Russian tsarina and deserves that descendants remember her and her role in the history of Russia.
Biography
Born Avdotya Lopukhina was born in 1670 in the family of a streltsy head. Later, her father was granted by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the place of his steward and a roundabout at the court. Avdotya was smart, beautiful, pious and brought up in the traditions of Domostroi.
The Lopukhins were a difficult family, they had support in the rifle troops and were close to the Naryshkins. In an effort to rely on an influential family, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna personally chose Avdotya as a bride for her son - the future heir to the Russian throne. They did not ask the young people for consent to marriage; their parents decided everything for them.
The wedding of Peter I and Lopukhina took place in 1689 near Moscow in the Church of the Transfiguration Palace. Before the wedding, the bride's name and patronymic were changed to Evdokia Fedorovna. According to an ancient belief, such a ceremony protected the future queen from damage and the evil eye.
The last Russian queen
Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina was a tsarina for seven years, and the last primordially Russian wife of the tsar on the throne. After her, only empresses of foreign origin ruled in Russia.
The first son of Tsarevich Alexei Evdokia gave birth in 1690, and in October 1691 the couple had a second son - Tsarevich Alexander. Unfortunately, Alexander died in infancy.
Raised in strict Old Testament traditions, the queen, unlike her husband Peter I, did not like changes and innovations. This became one of the main reasons for their frustration.
The sedate Evdokia could not attract an active and greedy for innovations husband. She did not share his enthusiasm for "Neptune fun" and "affairs of Mars", she was angry and offended by the constant departure of Peter. Even the birth of two sons did not bring the royal spouses closer together.
Monasticism and the last years of the queen
The chill and hostility between the spouses increased in 1692, when Peter I met Anna Mons in the German Quarter.
But the final break occurred in 1694 after the death of Peter's mother. Lopukhina was still considered the queen and lived with her son in the Kremlin, but her relatives gradually began to be oppressed and deprived of the honors previously received from the tsar.
In 1698, Peter I returned from abroad and exiled his hateful wife to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery, where she was forcibly tonsured into a nun and received the name Elena.
The people treated the queen well; she also had friends at court. If desired, the unjustly exiled Evdokia could organize a riot and a palace coup, but she preferred seclusion and humility.
Peter I did not even allocate money from the treasury for the maintenance of Lopukhina, her relatives supported her in the monastery.
In 1709, Major Stepan Glebov visited his former acquaintance, now the disgraced queen, and was filled with tender feelings for her. For a long time, he supported Evdokia, sent her food and gifts.
In 1718, Lopukhina was interrogated "with passion" in connection with the "case of Tsarevich Alexei." She was accused of involvement in the conspiracy and forced to confess her love affair with Glebov, who was then executed.
The former queen was exiled to the Old Ladoga Dormition Monastery, where she spent the next seven years.
After the death of Peter I in 1725, Lopukhina was transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress. And after the ascension to the throne of Emperor Peter II (grandson of Evdokia), the disgraced queen was released and transported to live in the Kremlin. She was assigned an annual allowance of 60 thousand rubles.
Lopukhina had a long life. After the death of her grandson, she was offered the crown, but she renounced the throne and spent her last days in fasting and prayer at the Novodevichy Convent. Evdokia Fedorovna died in 1731, having outlived her cruel husband, all her children and some grandchildren.
