Catherine 1 re , from her birth name Marthe Hélène Skavronskaïa (born April 15, 1684 in Jakobstadt in Livonia and died May 17, 1727 in Saint Petersburg), was Empress of Russia from 1725 to 1727. She married Emperor Peter the Great in 1707 .
There is no reliable document on the origins of Catherine. Voltaire says of her that she had a life as extraordinary as Peter the Great.
Born to poor Catholic parents who died of the plague around 1689, Marta Helena Skowronska was placed by her aunt in Marienburg as a servant to the Lutheran pastor Johann Ernst Glück, translator of the Bible into Latvian. However, the latter did not bother to teach her to read and write and she remained illiterate all her life.
At the age of 17, in 1702, a pleasantly beautiful teenager, she married a modest Swedish dragoon, Johan Cruse (or Rabbe) whose regiment was stationed in the vicinity; but this union only lasted eight days, the Swedish troops then retreating before the advance of the Russian army commanded by Boris Sheremetiev. Johan is missing.
Marta works as a servant with the old feldmarshall Sheremetiev then goes to the service of Prince Alexander Danilovitch Menchikov. She may have become Menshikov's mistress, before meeting Peter the Great in the fall of 1703. Soon after, she became Peter the Great's mistress.
In 1705, she converted to the Orthodox religion and took the name of Yekaterina Alexeïevna. In 1711, she accompanies the Tsar in his campaign against the Ottoman Empire, and renders him the most important service by dealing with the enemies who kept him imprisoned on the banks of the Prout:she buys at the price of her precious stones the retirement of the Grand Vizier .
Peter I married her in 1712 after having had a child, Anna Petrovna of Russia; together they will have six more children.
In 1724, she was solemnly crowned Empress.
After the death of the emperor in 1725, she was recognized as sovereign of all the Russias, appointed Menshikov as head of government and then let him exercise great influence.