The Sibling Rivalry That Wrecked an Empire, and Other Self-Destructive Royal Family Episodes

1. Making His Wife Keep Her Lover’s Head in Her Bedroom

Peter the Great had his wife’s lover, Willem Mons, arrested and hauled off in chains on charges of embezzlement and abuse of trust. Mons’ sister Matryona, the supposed matchmaker, was also arrested, publicly whipped, and exiled to Siberia. On November 28^th, 1724, eight days after his arrest, Willem Mons was publicly beheaded in St. Petersburg.

While that was going on, Catherine put on a public display of indifference towards her secretary’s fate, which probably saved her own head. However, Peter put on a final demonstration of his power, in a bid to test whether his wife’s indifference was genuine. He had Mons’ head preserved in alcohol and put in a glass jar, which he then placed in Catherine’s bedroom.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

History Collection – History’s Deadliest Relatives

Atlas Obscura – What Happened to the Severed Head of Peter the Great’s Wife’s Lover?

Cawthorne, Nigel – Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China (2007)

Daily Sabah, August 6^th, 2015 – The History of Fratricide in the Ottoman Empire

Encyclopedia Britannica – Henry II, King of England

Encyclopedia Britannica – Ptolemy VIII

History Collection – Deadly Family Spats Through the Centuries

Glubb, Sir John – A Short History of the Arab People (1969)

Herrin, Judith – Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium (2001)

Hughes, Lindsey – Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (1998)