11. Catherine I of Russia was the Russian peasant who became first the mistress and then the second wife of Peter the Great — and later Empress in her own right.
Marta Skowronska had an inauspicious start to life. Born a Lithuanian peasant in 1684, she was raised by a Lutheran minister in the town of Marienburg. When the Russians captured Marienburg in 1702, they took Marta as a prisoner. Oddly, her captivity marked a change in her fortunes. For Marta fell into the hands of an Imperial adviser — and caught the eye of Tsar Peter the Great.
Marta initially became the unhappily married Peter’s mistress and was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church, taking the new name of Catherine. In 1712, the couple finally married after Peter divorced his first wife. Finally, on May 18th, 1724, Catherine was crowned Empress-consort of Russia. After Peter’s death, she became Empress in her own right.
