5. Empress Catherine I Of Russia Seduced and Controlled Peter the Great
When Marta Skowronska was three years old, her parents died in the plague of 1689, leaving her and her four siblings as orphans. They were raised by Johann Ernst Gluck – a Lutheran pastor – and his wife, but Frau Gluck became jealous of Marta’s beautiful appearances. So jealous, in fact, that she forced the 17-year-old Marta into a marriage with a soldier, bringing her into a relationship with the military and eventually the Russian royal family. Marta worked in the homes of members of Russian nobility and their friends and finally found her way to the court of Peter the Great.
The problem was that Peter was already engaged. Not a problem. Marta became his mistress and bore him a son, named after his father, before marrying him and taking on the Orthodox Christian name of Catherine I. They had to be married in a secret ceremony and spent several years living together in a cabin. In 1724, though, Catherine was crowned and became co-emperor of the Russian Empire. She heavily controlled who had access to her husband, thereby wielding control over a crucial aspect of the Russian monarchy. When Peter died, she continued to rule as empress and even named her four siblings as counts and countesses.