The Mons Affairs of 1704 and 1724 and the Lopukhina Affair of 1742 comprise three interconnected trials that shocked the Russian nobility of the 18th century. These processes were dramatized in Grigory Gorin's play Balakirev the Fool and in the Soviet TV series Gardemariny, vperyod! (1986). Events Building of the Students Monument in Aiud, Romania. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Categories of Russian nobility and royalty Kniaz (as ancient ruler) Velikiy Kniaz Boyar Tsar (Emperor), Tsarina (Empress, Empress consort) Tsar family Tsarevich, Tsarevna Velikiy Kniaz (Grand Duke) (as title), Velikaya Knyaginya (Grand Duchess), Velikaya Knyazhna (Grand Duchess) Dvoryanstvo Titled Dvoryanstvo Earl Baron Kniaz (as title) Related article Table of Ranks... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...

Anna Mons House in the German Quarter, by Alexandre Benois.

German Quarter - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois (May 4, 1870, St Petersburg - February 9, 1960, Paris) was probably the most important member of the artistic Benois family. ...

Anna Mons Affair (1704)

In 1691, during one of his visits to the German Quarter, young Peter I of Russia got enamoured of Anna Mons, a Dutch merchant's daughter. As his relations with the tsarina Eudoxia Lopukhina gradually worsened, Anna Mons took the place of his permanent and semi-official mistress. Having finally divorced Lopukhina, Peter announced his plans to marry Anna and commissioned a palace for her. In 1704, however, she was arrested in her rooms, while 30 of her acquiantances were tried for various trespasses and abuses. The reasons for Anna's persecution have been disputed ever since. Many scholars believe that Mons concealed from the tsar her liaison with the Prussian ambassador Keyserling, whom she would finally marry in 1711. Events March 5 - French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons March 29 - Siege of Mons ends to the city’s surrender October 3 - Treaty of Limerick which guaranteed civil rights to catholics was signed. ... German Quarter - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Portrait of Peter by Paul Delaroche Peter I (Пётр I Алексеевич in Russian, or Pyotr I Alexeyevich) (10 June 1672–8 February 1725 [30 May 1672– 28 January 1725] O.S.) ruled Russia from 7 May (27 April O.S.) 1682 until his death. ... Evdokiya Feodorovna Lopukhina (Julian calendar, July 30, 1669 - August 27, 1731)/(Gregorian calendar, August 9, 1669 – September 7, 1731) was the first Empress consort of Peter I of Russia. ... Events Building of the Students Monument in Aiud, Romania. ... // Events February 24 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage. ...

Willem Mons Affair (1724)

Anna's handsome brother, Willem Mons, was born in Russia in 1688. After his sister's process, he joined the Russian Army and took part in the Battle of Poltava. In 1711, he was appointed personal adjutant to the tsar. His sister Matryona Balk, in the meantime, became the closest friend of Peter's wife Catherine. // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ... The Battle of Poltava (or Pultowa) was a battle between the armies of Peter I of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden on 28 June (new style 8 July) 1709, the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. ... // Events February 24 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage. ... H.I.M. Ekaterina I, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias Catherine I (In Russian: Екатерина I Алексеевна) (April 15, 1683/1684–May 17, 1727) was the second wife of Peter the Great and Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death. ...

This monument in Catherinehof is said to have been erected by Catherine I to commemorate her executed lover, Willem Mons.

In 1716, on Catherine's behest, Peter entrusted Willem with administrating her estates. After Catherine's crowning in 1724, he was promoted to the rank of imperial chamberlain. Several months later, however, Willem Mons was apprehended on charges of peculation and betrayal of trust and, after a brief and brutal inquest by Pyotr Tolstoy, was publicly quartered on November 16. His head has been preserved in alcohol in the Kunstkamera up to the present. There is a legend that cruel Peter forced his wife to contemplate this gruesome exhibit for hours. // Events Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi, founded. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... ). The Kunstkamera is a museum in St. ...

The true causes of Willem's downfall are also obscure. It has been rumoured that Peter was enraged by his intimacy with the Empress. Many courtiers regarded Mons as Catherine's lover and his sister Matryona as their matchmaker. The affair didn't affect Catherine's position as the empress, however. Several months after his execution, she succeeded to the throne and lavished honours on Matryona (who had been publicly flogged during her brother's trial) and her Lutheran daughter, Natalia Lopukhina. The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...

Lopukhina Affair (1742-43)

Just like her aunt Anna Mons, Natalia Lopukhina (1699-1781) was a famed beauty. During the reign of Empress Anna (1730-40), she was described as "the brightest flower of St Petersburg court". Her liaisons with some of the most powerful courtiers and her arrogance towards Peter I's neglected daughter Elizaveta Petrovna must have fed the latter's jealousy. Elizaveta's ascension to the throne in 1741 was a huge blow to Lopukhina. She managed to maintain her position at court owing to her friendship with the wife of Mikhail Bestuzhev. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-62) Yelizaveta Petrovna (Елизаве́та Петро́вна) (December 29, 1709 - January 5, 1762) was an Empress of Russia (1741 - 1762) who took the country into the War of Austrian succession (1740 - 1748) and the Seven Years War (1756-63). ... // Events April 10 – Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz December 19 – Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius William Browning invents mineral water Elizabeth of Russia became czarina. ...

Coat of arms of the Lopukhin family.

In 1742, however, the French diplomacy arranged a complicated intrigue to slander both Lopukhina and Bestuzheva, thereby securing the downfall of the philo-Austrian chancellor Aleksey Bestuzhev. Lopukhina's affection for the exiled Count von Löwenwolde being well-known, her correspondence with this odious courtier was brought to light and presented to the Empress in the most unflattering light. Simultaneously, her son Ivan Lopukhin, being drunk in a pub, was reported to deplore Elizaveta's taste for English beer and mumbled several phrases, which were interpreted as his wish for restoration of Ivan VI. During an inquiry that followed they established that the Lopukhin house used to be frequented by the Austrian agent Marquis Botta d'Adorno, who allegedly promised his support for restoration of Ivan VI on the Russian throne. // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Ivan VI with his mother Anna Leopoldovna Ascension to the throne Ivan VI of Russia (Иоанн Антонович), (August 23, 1740 - July 16, 1764), reigned as Emperor of Russia 1740 - 1741, was the son of Prince Antony Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg and of the princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg. ...

After a rigid inquisition of twenty-five days, during which every variety of torture was freely employed against the accused, "the terrible plot," says the English Minister, Sir Cyril Wych, "was found to be little more than the ill-considered discourses of a couple of spiteful passionate women." Nevertheless, the two ladies principally concerned had their tongues publicly torn out before being sent to Siberia; and the Russian ambassador at Vienna was instructed to demand Botta's condign punishment. This was done at a special audience; whereupon Empress Maria Theresa declared that she would never admit the validity of extorted evidence, and issued a manifesto to all the Great Powers defending Botta and accusing the Russian court of rank injustice. Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Hungarian: Bécs) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... This page is about Maria Theresa of Austria (often only known as Empress Maria Theresa), ruler of the Habsburg Empire from 1740-1780. ...

Lopukhina was allowed to return to the Russian capital only after Elizaveta's death. It is generally believed that the savage reprisal for this bogus conspiracy was prompted primarily by Elizaveta's personal jealousy of Lopukhina's beauty and by her negative attitude towards the Mons family.