General Notes

Catherine I, real name Marta Skavronskaya (1682?-1727), empress of Russia
(1725-27). Of peasant origin, she was born in Jakobstadt (now Jekabpils,
Latvia) but was orphaned early in life and reared by a pastor in Marienburg
(now Malbork, Poland). When the Russians captured Marienburg in 1702, she was
taken prisoner by the Russian commander, who sold her to Prince Aleksandr
Menshikov, a close adviser of Peter the Great. She soon became Peter's
mistress and most influential counselor. Peter, who had divorced his first
wife in 1699, married Catherine in 1712. After his son Alexis died, Peter
issued an ukaz ("imperial order") declaring his right to name his own
successor; he died in 1725 without doing so. Catherine, however, had been
crowned empress-consort in 1724, and on Peter's death she was proclaimed his
successor; the claims of Alexis's son (later Peter III) were bypassed. Shrewd
and courageous, Catherine defended Peter's advisers against his rages, and in
her own reign she established, and concentrated power in, the supreme privy
council. Two of her eight children by Peter survived, Anna (mother of Peter
III) and Elizabeth Petrovna (empress 1741-62).