Among the romantic heroines of past centuries, one of the most famous was the beloved of the English admiral Nelson - Emma Hamilton. She owes her unfading glory to the pen of Alexander Dumas, who embodied her image in the novel Confession of the Favorite. But few people know that in Russia, at the court of Perth I, her namesake once shone at the time - Maria Hamilton, whose short but bright life gave rise to many mysteries and legends.
Russian daughter of foggy Albion
From historical documents it is known that during the time of Ivan the Terrible a certain Scottish nobleman Thomas Hamilton came to Russia. A warm welcome awaited him in a cold and snowy country, and soon a native of the British Isles received a good position at the royal court and became the founder of a new branch of his aristocratic family.
In the next century, one of his descendants, finally Russified, but proudly bearing the English name William, had a daughter, who was destined to learn the love of the greatest of the Russian autocrats and end his short life under the ax of the executioner. They gave her a middle name, changing the foreign name of her father in Russian fashion. It turned out - Maria Danilovna Hamilton.
Young maid of honor Catherine
Her date of birth has not been established, and even about the first appearance at court there is very conflicting information. According to some sources, this happened in 1709, and according to others - six years later. But it is known for certain that she was then about sixteen years old and she possessed extraordinary beauty. The portrait of Maria Hamilton, given at the beginning of the article, gives an idea of her features. The young girl was spotted by the wife of Peter I, Empress Catherine I, and was soon among her maids of honor.
In addition to external data, nature endowed Mary with a lively character, sensuality, as well as a cunning and penetrating mind. In general, it was a classic heroine of the romantic and adventurous eighteenth century, so vividly sung in world literature. Not satisfied with the role of the maid of honor, he decided what is called to play big and win the heart of the emperor himself.
Youth and beauty are an irresistible weapon, and very soon her name began to appear in the "bed register" of the loving autocrat. Such a list of favorites really existed - the order at the court was maintained European, everything was subject to strict accounting. But did Maria Hamilton recognize what dangerous game she started? Has this Russian Englishwoman ever heard folk wisdom saying: “Near kings - near death”?
Peter I and Maria Hamilton
The love stories of these people were not destined to continue for long. The feelings fed to her by the crowned lover were no different from all his previous and subsequent hobbies. Actually, it is hardly appropriate to talk about anything other than a purely physical attraction to a young and pretty girl who successfully played along with him in another affair. And its result was quite predictable - passionate and stormy passion soon gave way to satiety and cooling. After some time, the emperor’s heart was shut for the maid of honor, and with it the doors of his chambers.
Forced romance with the royal batman
If Maria Hamilton reconciled with the role of a retired favorite, then she would probably have been able to safely live her life at court. But then she would have lost in our eyes her romantic halo. Mary was a real child of her era, and she decided to go to the last.
Her further actions are subordinated to one thing - to be as close as possible to Peter who slipped out of her arms and to have comprehensive information about everything that relates to his personal life. To this end, she begins a romance with the person closest to the emperor - his personal batman Ivan Orlov, who performed the duties of not only a servant, but also a secretary. Most contemporaries characterize him as a rude and uncouth man, but at the same time extremely narrow-minded and simple-minded. It was from him that Maria received all the information she needed.
Overseas voyage
In 1716, Peter I and his wife went abroad. Of course, Ivan Orlov and Maria Hamilton followed them, since both were part of the retinue of the most august persons. In Europe, the situation of the young intriguer became complicated due to the fact that the royal batman went headlong into a reckless and cheerful life, which was led by all the close sovereign, led by him. Ivan had new hobbies, and he not only cheated on his previous passion with love, but he often beat him out of drunken eyes.
No matter how humiliating it was, but Mary had to keep this libertine and lout close by herself, otherwise - goodbye to all her plans. There was only one option: if the man’s heart cooled to her feminine charms, then he can be warmed up with money and gifts. The method is proven, but the trouble is - where to get the money in such quantity?
Theft of jewels and night visits of the king
And then the Russian lady Hamilton - Maria Danilovna - took her first step towards the future scaffold. She did not find anything better than to steal jewelry from the Empress of the Empress. And, having sold them, buy Ivan gifts, and also pay his many debts. What is the result? Nahal favorably allowed himself to be gifted, but, once drunk, he continued to beat his girlfriend in mortal combat.
However, the perseverance of Mary was not left without a reward. Once the courtiers - great hunters of tidbit news - it was noted that at night the sovereign honored her with a visit to her bedchamber. How long these night visits lasted is not known, but only after several months everyone noticed that the young maid of honor began to give preference to wide and spacious outfits that hide the figure. However, this did not attach importance.
The corpse of a baby found in the palace
The days of travel swept through the whirlwind of festive amusements, and again the whole brilliant retinue, led by the crowned spouses, breathed in the fresh Baltic air of the Northern capital. Life here is pure pleasure. But then one day a nuisance happened - in one of the secluded corners of the palace they found an infant corpse wrapped in a blanket. There was a clear murder, and one would not be able to demolish the culprit's head, but no matter how they wanted the search in this case, they could not catch anyone.
Ivan's unexpected confession
It would have sunk into oblivion this nameless sin, but fate would have liked to order otherwise. Once, someone handed the sovereign a written denunciation to one of his enemies. Peter at that moment had the trouble to read, and he removed it, and when he grabbed it, he could not remember where he had put it. As a suspicious person by nature, Peter decided that it was Ivan who took away the paper yesterday, thereby wanting to fence someone off, and having come to such a thought, he became angry.
Urgently called Ivan. Seeing the king in anger, and not understanding the reason, he decided that everything was to blame for his connection with the maid of honor. Knowing that Maria Hamilton and Peter 1 were in close relations, he decided that he had incurred jealousy of the autocrat. Falling to his knees, Orlov tearfully obeyed, and, among other things, began to swear that he did not know anything about the murder of the secretly born baby that Mary had committed.
Exposing the beautiful maid of honor
For Peter, such a turn was a complete surprise. They searched the room of the ill-fated maid of honor and, to everyone’s amazement, found the jewelry stolen from the empress Catherine. The unfortunate woman was shackled and placed in the casemate of the newly rebuilt Peter and Paul Fortress.
There, in the hands of a skilled executioner, she spoke in detail about how she stole diamonds from her benefactress-empress in order to pay Ivan’s card debts. When the master of shoulders was especially zealous, she remembered that she had twice corrupted the fruit of criminal love in her womb, and she strangled the baby that was born into the world with her own hands.
The investigation lasted four months, and all this time she repeated that she was guilty of everything, and Ivan, although he was a drunkard and a buoy, did not know anything about theft or murder. No matter how hard the executioner tried, she did not change her testimony. It is difficult now to understand what caused such perseverance. It seems that one word of her, and Orlov would have all the grudges inflicted on her with bitter tears. But do you understand the heart of a woman - maybe there was a place in him for this crappy man.
Execution
In 1719, by the decision of the sovereign, Maria Danilovna Hamilton was sentenced to death. The execution took place on Trinity Square with a large crowd of people. The convict climbed the scaffold in a white dress, trimmed with black ribbons. Everyone involuntarily noted her extraordinary beauty, which did not fade even after long months of imprisonment. Maria Hamilton, whose execution was the lawful execution of the sentence, nonetheless aroused universal sympathy.
Next to her in this last moment of her life was Peter. He personally made sure that the executioner exactly fulfilled his command. Maria Hamilton prayed quietly before execution. Eyewitnesses wrote that when the woman’s head fell at the king’s feet, he lifted her, kissed her on the lips and, crossing himself, left.
The riddle that did not receive an answer
It would seem that the case can be archived. The thief and the murderer were executed - justice triumphed. But questions remain that are unlikely to be answered. It is not clear the persistence with which Peter demanded her execution. It is known that his wife - Empress Catherine I, a woman generous and soft-hearted, having forgiven Mary for the theft of diamonds, with tears she begged her husband to spare the unfortunate. However, the king, who always complied with her requests, was adamant this time. The widowed tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna, the widow of his sibling Ivan, turned to him with the same thing. She was also categorically refused.
Peter could have two reasons for his hatred of his former lover. First of all, we must recall the decree issued by him in 1715, legitimizing the rights of all illegitimate children. According to this document, no one could humiliate a person on the grounds that he was born without church blessing.
Thanks to this humane act, a large number of shelters were opened in Russia at that time, and all mothers were severely punished that if the fruit of sinful love was born, not to destroy it, but tossed it to the doors of the shelter - you will save the life of the baby and your life from eternal You’ll save the agony. Thus, the murder of the newborn, committed by Mary, was a direct challenge to the will of the sovereign.
But there is another reason that the courtiers were afraid to speak out loud. The child killed by Mary was found in the palace exactly nine months after immodest eyes followed the king’s nightly visits to the maid of honor of Hamilton. If this coincidence and the suspicions caused by him are justified, then Mary killed her own son with her own hands, and this explains her father’s fury.