by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

• Unofficial Royalty: Russian Titles and Patronymics

The last ethnic Russian and non-foreign wife of a Russian tsar or emperor, Eudoxia Feodorovna Lopukhina was the first wife of Peter I (the Great), Emperor of All Russia. She was born in Moscow, Russia on August 9, 1669, one of the four children of nobleman Feodor Abramovich Lopukhin and Ustinia Bogdanovna Rtishcheva.

Eudoxia had three siblings:

• Abram Fedorovich Lopukhin (executed 1718), married (1) Princess Theodosia Fedorovna Romodanovskaya, had two sons (2) Princess Tatiana Alexeyevna Golitsyna
• Anastasia Feodorovna Lopukhina, married Prince Ivan Borisovich Troyekurov, had three children
• Xenia Feodorovna Lopukhina (1678 – 1699), married Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin, had two children

Eudoxia was brought up staunchly Russian Orthodox, basically uneducated, and with a strong dislike of anything foreign. Her future husband Peter I was the complete opposite. Peter had an insatiable curiosity. He was not religious and chose what he wanted to learn about – Russian history, battles, heroes, foreign cities, blacksmithing, carpentry, printing, sailing, and shipbuilding – anything that interested him. Peter’s mother Natalya Kyrillovna Naryshkina thought if the 17-year-old Peter married, he would settle down and turn from an adolescent into a man.

Peter accepted his mother’s will without argument but he had minimal interest in the marriage plans. He agreed to the traditional bride-show but decided that his mother would choose his bride from among the young women assembled. Once his mother had chosen Eudoxia Feodorovna Lopukhina, Peter made no complaint and the couple was married on January 27, 1689.

The marriage was a disaster from the start although, within two years, Eudoxia had given birth to two sons, however, the second son died after seven months. By that time, Peter was so estranged from Eudoxia that he did not even attend his son’s funeral. Peter had abandoned his wife for a mistress, Anna Mons, the daughter of a Dutch wine merchant. Their relationship lasted for twelve years until Peter met Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, first his mistress, then his second wife, and finally his successor on the Russian throne as Catherine I, Empress of All Russia.

Eudoxia and Peter had two sons but only one survived infancy:

• Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia (1690 – 1718), married Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had two children: Grand Duchess Natalya Alexeievna and Peter II, Emperor of All Russia; both children died in their teens and Charlotte Christine died of childbirth complications a few days after the birth of her son Alexander
• Alexander Petrovich (1691 – 1692)

While Peter’s mother Natalia Kirillovna was alive, he did not openly show any negative feelings towards Eudoxia. During the last years of her life, Natalia Kirillovna herself had become disillusioned with her daughter-in-law because of her independence and obstinacy. After the death of Natalia Kirillovna in 1694, Peter stopped corresponding with Eudoxia. Although Eudoxia was still called Tsaritsa and lived with her son in a Kremlin palace, her Lopukhin relatives who occupied prominent state posts, fell into disgrace. Eudoxia began to keep in touch with people who were dissatisfied with Peter’s reform policies.

In 1697, Peter traveled incognito to Western Europe on an 18-month tour called the “Grand Embassy”.  During his journey, Peter instructed his uncle Lev Naryshkin and Eudoxia’s confessor to persuade Eudoxia to enter a convent and become a nun. Eudoxia did not agree, insisting that her seven-year-old son Alexei needed her. When Peter returned to Russia in August 1698, he continued his relationship with Anna Mons. More dramatically, Peter decided to force Eudoxia into a convent. In September 1698, Eudoxia was finally banished to the Intercession Convent of Suzdal and their marriage was over.

Eventually, Eudoxia and her son Alexei became the center of opposition to Peter’s reforms. In 1715, Peter became dissatisfied with Alexei’s lack of enthusiasm and his lackluster performance of his duties as heir to the throne. Peter sent Alexei a stern letter, urging him to take interest in the affairs of the state and threatening to cut him out of the succession. Alexei, in reply, offered to renounce the succession in favor of his infant son. Peter would agree but only on the condition that Alexei would remove himself as a dynastic threat and become a monk.

While Alexei was deciding what to do, he received a letter from his father in August 1716 ordering him to report to Peter and the army without delay if he wished to remain the heir to the throne. Instead, Alexei fled to Vienna and placed himself under the protection of his brother-in-law, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was married to the sister of Alexei’s deceased wife Charlotte Christine. Peter felt insulted. The flight of the Tsarevich of Russia to a foreign monarch was a scandal. Peter ordered Alexei brought back to Russia at all costs.

Alexei was returned to Russia in January 1718 and Peter began an inquisition regarding Alexei’s behavior. Under torture, Alexei confessed to being involved in a plot to overthrow his father and implicated most of his friends. Eudoxia was dragged from her monastery and publicly tried for alleged adultery and transferred to the Ladoga Uspensky Monastery where she lived for seven years under strict supervision until Peter I’s death. Anyone who had befriended Alexei was brutally executed including Eudoxia’s brother Abram Fedorovich Lopukhin.

Alexei was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be executed. The sentence could be carried out only with Peter’s signed authorization but Peter hesitated in making the decision. On July 7, 1718, 28-year-old Alexei died at the Fortress of St. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. His death most likely resulted from injuries suffered during his torture.

Peter had issued a decree stating that the reigning emperor should appoint a successor during his lifetime and that anyone may be named as his heir. However, Peter died in 1725 without naming a successor. A coup arranged by Peter’s best friend Prince Alexander Menshikov proclaimed Catherine, Peter’s second wife, the ruler of Russia. During the two-year-reign of Catherine I, Eudoxia was a great threat to the new empress whose rights to the throne were precarious since she was a wife of Peter the Great and not a real Romanov, just like Eudoxia. Eudoxia was sent to Shlisselburg Fortress where she was kept in strict secret confinement as a state criminal.

Upon the death of Catherine I in 1727, Eudoxia’s 11-year-old grandson, the son of Alexei, succeeded to the throne as Peter II, Emperor of All Russia. Eudoxia was brought to Moscow with honor, lived first in the Ascension Convent in the Kremlin, and then at the Novodevichy Convent. The Supreme Privy Council issued a decree restoring to her the honor and dignity of Tsaritsa. Peter II’s reign was not long. He died from smallpox on January 30, 1730, at the age of 14. Upon her grandson’s death, Eudoxia demanded that she be his successor but her claim was rejected in favor of the claim of Anna Ivanovna, daughter of Peter the Great’s half-brother and co-ruler, Ivan V.

Eudoxia died in Moscow, Russia on September 7, 1731, at the age of 62 and was buried at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, Russia by the southern wall of the Smolensk Cathedral near the tombs of Peter the Great’s half-sisters Sophia Alexeievna, Regent of Russia and Ekaterina Alexeievna.

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Romanov Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Tsardom of Russia/Russian Empire Index
• Romanov Births, Marriages and Deaths
• Romanov Burial Sites
• Romanovs Killed During the Russian Revolution
• Romanovs Who Survived the Russian Revolution

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Eudoxia Lopukhina. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudoxia_Lopukhina [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017].
• Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday
• Massie, Robert K. (1980). Peter The Great: His Life and World. New York, NY.: Alfred A. Knopf
• Ru.wikipedia.org. (2017). Лопухина, Евдокия Фёдоровна. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0,_%D0%95%D0%B2%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%A4%D1%91%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0 [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017].