Yevdokia Lopukhina, 1st wife of Emperor Peter the Great

[hikaru]

I do not think that Peter could do it with a man. They just were very close. They could sleep in one bad because of cold or danger, but Peter loved women.
He have got Catherine from Menshikov.

[umigon]

Of course he loved women, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have sex with a man... look at his grandson, Peter II, who was openly bisexual...

I think it is a possibility...

[hikaru]

we have one guide-book which called "Other Petersburg". It was written by one quite known gay of Petersburg. He studied carefully all Romanovs from this point of view. But he did not mention Peter the Great.

[Fay]

And whom did he mention? :-/

[Grand_Duke]

This is just a curious remark: I read somewhere, although it was not written in a reliable source (Internet article), that Peter I divorced from Eudoxia on charges of adultery and lesbianism!! I'll try to learn more about this, but just to see what you think about it and if you have also read it somewhere!!

I found this at http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/E/EU/EUDOXIA_LOPUKHINA.htm:

<<In 1698 she was unceremoniously sent off to the Pokrovsky monastery at Suzdal for refusing to consent to a divorce, though it was not till June 1699 that she disappeared from the world beneath the hood of sister Elena. In the monastery, however, she was held in high honor by the archimandrite; the nuns persisted in regarding her as the lawful empress; and she was permitted an extraordinary degree of latitude, unknown to Peter, who dragged her from her enforced retreat in 1718 on a charge of adultery. As the evidence was collected by Peters creatures, it is very doubtful whether Eudoxia was guilty, though she was compelled to make a public confession. She was then divorced and consigned to the remote monastery of Ladoga.>>

[Marc]

[Marc]

And one colour portrait of her...

[Macedonsky]

The unnamed son was not unnamed, his name was Paul, he died aged five months.

There was no such tsarevich, as like as another myphical tsarevich Peter 1719-1723. Five months is very interesting detail, most sources said (wrongly) just 1693-1693.

[Romanov_fan]

Evdokia was very traditional, yes, married to a traditional Czar she would have been perfect, but married to Peter the Great-no. As for Peter II, he was very young, and it's hard to judge, before I read this thread I hadn't realized he was so...wild although he was but 14. I had heard that it is possible that Elizabeth Petrovna and him were lovers, and it's possible, knowing the both of them. As for Evdokia, she was rather traditional, so one wonders about any adultery charges. Henry VIII used that to get rid of wives as well.

[ilyala]

peter had to have a reason for the divorce. irreconciliable differences was not accepted at the time..

[Robert_Hall]

He was the Emperor & Autocrat- he did really need a reason other than he did not want her around any more.

[ilyala]

i don't think it's that simple even for autocrats. they can be driven down by the people if they don't do well... they have a public image to maintain. the public can be sympathetic to the poor wife... i don't think even an autocrat can do whatever he pleases. henry 8th didn't just execute anne bolleyn, he organized a trial. everyone with a brain i'm sure knew what the outcome was going to be but at least the illusion of a fair trial was kept.

[Romanov_fan]

It is true that the the appreances needed to be maintained, and so they were, by these rulers. One of Henry's wives, Catherine Howard, certainly did commit adultery, but other than that the charges he got rid of wives on were rather dubious. As for Evdokia, given the example of many Russian Empresses to come, she may have actually done something. But at the same time, she seems like a traditional Muscovite Tsarina, and they woudn't have done this. But sometimes it's what we want over the truth.

[Robert_Hall]

I think Peter was far more of a determined autocrat than Henry VIII ever dreamed of being ! He certainly did not let public opinion stand in his way in the case of reforms & modernisation.  He even abolished the patriarchy! What is a bit surprising  to me is that poor Evdokia even survived as long as she did !

[Romanov_fan]

oh yes, he was an autocrat, and if there hadn't been the monastery option, of putting discarded wives in a monastery, one wonders how long she would have survived. I think that's the only reason she did at all.