At the end of January 1722, Peter I adopted a document known as the “Table of Ranks”. It was a list of court ranks for women, modeled on the French and German imperial courts.
The retinue of Empress Catherine I
In the service of the empress there were four junk cells and the same number of maids of honor. The duty of the former included monitoring the state of affairs in the villages and villages that were granted to the Empress by her husband Peter I. In addition, junkers monitored the condition of the monasteries, which were under the patronage of the empress herself. In fact, these trusted persons were managers, with the right to buy and sell land. They also recruited people for service and granted them salaries, resolved disputes between their subordinates, awarded them awards, or appointed financial assistance, etc.
The duties of the maids of honor of Ekaterina Alekseevna were not spelled out anywhere, but the entire burden of daily service fell on their shoulders. Their main concern was to follow their mistress everywhere and carry out all her orders. The maids of honor of the empress accompanied her during a walk, entertained the guests who came to her, watched her wardrobe and had many other duties.
Enviable posts
In most cases, the court lady was a representative of a noble noble family. Knowledge and impeccable observance of etiquette, as well as the ability to draw, needlework and singing - these are the main requirements that were imposed on applicants for the post of maid of honor. They could leave their place both of their own free will and by marriage. However, there were exceptions to the rules. Two maids of honor of Catherine I were punished: one was exiled to Siberia, and the other was executed.
Initially, the female court hierarchy consisted of four main ranks, which included maids of honor, stats ladies, gof maids of honor and ober-gofmeystrins. Over time, the list of posts expanded until it found its final form under Emperor Paul I. It is worth noting that the competition for filling vacant posts with good salaries was quite fierce. Therefore, there was a certain secret line.
Imperial couple's main cracker
Princess Nastasya Petrovna Prozorovskaya from childhood was brought close to the court. In 1684, she married Ivan Alekseevich, the younger brother of Boris Golitsyn, who was involved in the education of the young Peter. The best friend of the future empress was none other than Nastasya Golitsyna. Catherine during her wedding even allowed her to sit at the same table with the bride. Since 1714, Nastasya Petrovna participated in all of Peter's amusements and was a member of the so-called All-Heading Cathedral, where she bore the title prince abbess. She drank a lot and constantly joked, as she had a good sense of humor and was extremely unrestrained in her tongue.
In 1718, she suddenly fell into disgrace and was hastily sent to Moscow for questioning in the case of Tsarevich Alexei. She was found guilty of not delivering seditious words uttered by the harassment of Demid. For this, Nastasia Golitsyn should have been sent to the Spinning yard, but the punishment was replaced by flogging. She was beaten by the Batogs publicly, and then sent home to her husband. However, four years later, her guilt was forgotten, and Golitsyn's sharp tongue again returned to the court. Catherine almost immediately put her in a new position, making her the first state lady in Russia. And as a sign of her high position, Golitsyna on her left shoulder wore a portrait of Peter on a blue ribbon decorated with diamonds. In 1725, she married her eldest son to a cousin of the emperor himself, thereby intermarrying with the monarchs. A few days after the death of Catherine, she was fired to retire.
The fate of Anna Golovkina (Bestuzhev-Ryumin)
By her birth, this court lady was as close as possible to the royal environment, since her father held the position of state chancellor. In October 1723, with the participation of Empress Catherine Alexeyevna and Peter I, Anna Gavrilovna Golovkina was married to Count Pavel Yaguzhinsky, Attorney General of the Senate. Two years later, she was appointed state lady. All this time she was a faithful wife and a good helper to her husband, but after 11 years she was a widower.
In 1742, Mikhail Gavrilovich, brother of Anna Gavrilovna, was charged with high treason, tried and sentenced to death. Soon, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, by her decree, changed the measure of his punishment to exile in Siberia for eternal settlement. In May of the following year, Anna Gavrilovna’s wedding took place with Mikhail Bestuzhev-Rumin, a well-known diplomat and brother of the then Vice Chancellor Alexei Bestuzhev. Only a few months passed, when she was drawn into a “salon plot” against the ruling empress.
Death of the disgraced maid of honor
It all began with the conversation of Lieutenant Berger with Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lopukhin. It was about dissatisfaction with the methods of government, which was carried out by Elizaveta Petrovna. These seditious conversations served as the occasion for writing a denunciation and submitting it to the Secret Chancellery. Lopukhin was arrested, and during interrogation with partiality, he slandered several innocent people, including his mother and Anna Bestuzheva. The latter did not admit her guilt, therefore, in mid-August, the princess was subjected to public punishment by raising on the rack, but she gave new evidence.
Lopukhins and Anna Bestuzheva were sentenced to wheeling and cutting out the tongue. However, the empress commuted the sentence and, instead of the death penalty, sent everyone to a settlement in Yakutsk. Anna Bestuzheva died at the age of about fifty and was buried in a local church cemetery near the Mother of God Church.
The tragedy of Mary Hamilton
Perhaps the most significant maid of honor of Catherine I was the camera-frau, who was in charge of the sovereign’s wardrobe and served her when dressing. For this position, Peter ordered to find a girl of German blood, because he wanted her to be well versed in European women's dresses. However, she became Maria Danilovna Hamilton - a court lady with Scottish roots. The founder of this family was Thomas Hamilton, who settled in Russia under Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Appearing at the court in 1713, Mary, due to her beauty, immediately attracted the attention of Peter I. However, their connection was short-lived, and the monarch quickly cooled to her. Then she seduced Ivan Orlov, who served at court as a batman, whom she soon fell in love with without memory. She gave him expensive gifts, including those things that she could steal from the empress herself. And he beat her and cheated on her with a certain Avdotya Chernysheva, who also served at the court.
Severe punishment
Several times Maria got pregnant from Orlov and in order to get rid of the child, she drank some medications that her court healers supplied. And in 1717, according to her maid, secretly gave birth to a child and drowned him in a basin. Soon Tsar Peter found out about this. The court lady was captured, interrogated, and since she pleaded guilty, she was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. By the way, she was one of the first prisoners of the newly built prison.
In mid-March 1718, on the Trinity Square, Maria Hamilton was beheaded. According to legend, the emperor raised his severed head and kissed her on the lips.
Maid of honor peter I
Varvara Arsenyeva was the younger sister of Daria Mikhailovna - the wife of Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, an associate and favorite of the emperor. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, she was not distinguished by beauty, but she was unusually smart and educated. The last one she owed to her sister's husband, as Alexander Danilovich hoped to make her queen. In the Menshikov Palace, she even had her own rooms, which were called the Barbarian Chambers. For a while Peter I had a love affair with the younger Arsenyeva, he even gave her several villages.
After the death of the monarch, Menshikov, being in the retinue of Catherine I, for almost two years almost single-handedly ruled the country. Upon the accession to the throne of the new emperor Peter II, he received the rank of admiral and the rank of generalissimo. In addition, his daughter Maria became engaged to the young monarch. But he had many ill-wishers, therefore, in spite of everything, he quickly lost his influence and fell out of favor. Soon, Menshikov went into exile with his wife, and Varvara Arsenyev was sent to the Assumption Monastery. She longed for freedom from imprisonment and wrote letters to the most influential court ladies with a request to put in a word for her.
In the spring of 1728, the situation of the Menshikovs worsened even more, which could not but affect Barbara. She was transferred to the Goritsky girl’s monastery, where she was tonsured a nun. Unable to bear such a misfortune, she died a year later.
For two centuries, most families have sought to attach their daughters to the yard, and the girls themselves dreamed about it. In fact, it turned out that such a lifestyle is rather boring and monotonous. The imperial weekdays were replaced by luxurious balls and gala receptions, and such a whirl could continue for the rest of his life, as some of the maids of honor never married. Most often, these elderly ladies became teachers of imperial offspring.