Beauty who was slaughtered the by Tsar
Stunning Scots noblewoman whose racy exploits ended in tragedy and royal scandal
IT was a grisly sight. Peter the Great, the dashing and controversial Tsar of Russia stood on the scaffold, his former lover’s head cradled in his hands. Turning to the crowd who had just witnessed the young woman’s execution, the tsar proceeded to give an anatomical lecture, pointing out the sliced vertebrae, open windpipe and dripping arteries. Then he kissed the bloody lips and tossed the head away.
The life and death of Mary Hamilton, a Scottish noblewoman who was a mistress of Peter the Great, lady in waiting to Catherine and ultimately executed for murder, is one of the most astonishing tales of 18th century Russia.
Beautiful and tempestuous, Mary captured the tsar’s heart before almost destroying the reputation of the court when she killed her own child.
So notorious is her story that a number of paintings were made of her and her story was immortalised in the ancient ballad Mary Hamilton.
Not much is known about her early life, except her Scottish family had emigrated to Russia during the time of Ivan the Terrible. They had served the tsar’s court for decades and were traders, likely wealthy ones. Her father’s name was believed to be William Hamilton.
In 1713, Mary became a lady in waiting to Peter’s wife, Catherine I. Life in the court was competitive, particularly among the women. Catherine herself had once been one of Peter’s mistresses, during his first marriage, before the two married in secret in 1707, and was aware that he took other lovers.
It was also a rather boozy place. In the 1690s Peter founded a society entitled the All Drunken All Jesting assembly, devoted to mocking the Orthodox Church while under the influence.
He also invented what was known as the ‘vodka penalty shot’, which those who arrived late to a feast had to drink. Not so bad, you might think, until you learn the shot came from a 2.5 pint goblet intimidatingly named ‘the big eagle’.
Perhaps it is no great surprise that in later life the tsar developed a bladder illness and cirrhosis of the liver. He died in 1725, aged 52, apparently from syphilis contracted from one of his mistresses.
Yet even in the heady court environment of 1713, Mary stood out. She was stunning, charming, full of life and, it is said, rather racy. Before long she attracted the attention of Peter. As one chronicler of the times put it: ‘He saw some features in her that provoked lust in him.’
But Peter was not her only dalliance. Mary also fell for the tsar’s aide-decamp, Ivan Orlov. He was said to be a drunkard who was often abusive and regularly beat her. He also took another mistress, which devastated Mary. In an effort to keep him, she gave him gifts such as gold coins to win his affection.
All this bed-hopping was to have consequences. In 1715 Mary became pregnant. She was horrified, knowing she would probably be cast from the court, and so secretly had an ‘abortion’, which then meant taking constipation medicine.
In 1717, a scandal gripped the court when Peter himself happened to discover a baby’s corpse strangled and wrapped in a handkerchief, having been drowned in an outhouse. The baby’s identity was a mystery. None of the ladies in the court had appeared to be pregnant and none confessed to having given birth.
Meanwhile, Mary had fallen out of favour with Peter, who had several new mistresses, while her affair with Orlov continued. She kept giving Orlov gifts, although they, too, hid a secret: she had stolen them from Catherine.
The two women were friends, Catherine relatively relaxed that Mary had been her husband’s lover. But in 1719, Orlov betrayed
Mary. According to the Russian Biographical Dictionary, ‘one day the emperor got angry with Orlov for losing a document’.
Peter’s temper was legendary and Orlov did not want to be at the wrong end of it. He was convinced Peter was furious with him because of his relationship with Mary, so he told him about her abortion. Peter, remembering the dead baby he had found two years before, grew suspicious. Children were a soft spot for him – of the 14 he fathered legitimately, only three survived childhood.
Scenting blood, another of his mistresses, Avdotya Chernysheva, accused Mary of spreading a rumour at court that Catherine ate wax to keep her skin pale.
Mary’s quarters were searched and several objects she had stolen from Catherine were found. She was arrested – as was Orlov – and flung into the Fortress of St Petersburg. Mary was brought before the tsar, interrogated and – some accounts state – tortured. She admitted to provoking the miscarriage, before tearfully confessing to killing the baby that had been drowned in the outhouse.
Extraordinarily, she remained loyal to Orlov, claiming he had nothing to do with her crimes. All of which raises the question: whose baby was it? Historians are not sure. Perhaps even Mary herself did not know. Catherine, meanwhile, despite their differences and Mary’s affair with her husband, appealed for clemency. Her cries fell on deaf ears, however, and her lady in waiting was sentenced to death.
The penalty for killing a royal was being buried alive. Peter spared Mary that and agreed to her request to be beheaded by sword. On the day of her execution, Mary climbed the scaffold in a white silk gown trimmed with black ribbons, only to be followed by Peter. He kissed her and told her: ‘Without breaking the laws of God and the state, I can’t save you from death, so take your execution and believe that God will forgive you.’
There is a bizarre postscript to Mary’s extraordinary story. While Peter initially tossed her head away, he later had it preserved, pickled and placed in a glass jar.
It was put on display in the Kunstkamera of St Petersburg, a museum founded by Peter and devoted to natural curiosities – from a stuffed pangolin to pickled foetuses – which is still open today. There, Mary’s head sat for decades on a shelf, later joined by Catherine’s, who died in 1727, to be peered at by the public.
It was only in 1785 when Catherine the Great – wife of Peter’s grandson – spotted the heads and remarked on their great beauty that something was done.
Both were eventually buried, although where is unclear.
Thus, the two women – rivals and friends in life – were finally given their dignity in death.