Lopukhina Evdokia Fedorovna (1670-1731)

Lopukhina Evdokia Fyodorovna (1670-1731), the last Russian queen, the first wife of Peter I. Born Avdotya Illarionovna Lopukhina, daughter of the streltsy head Illarion (Fedor) Avraamovich Lopukhin.

The name and patronymic of the royal bride was changed before the wedding, which was supposed to ward off damage from her.

The Lopukhins were close to the Naryshkins, and Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, on the advice of her brother Lev Kirillovich, chose Evdokia Lopukhina as her son's bride, seeking to rely on an influential family popular among the rifle troops.

Evdokia Lopukhina was brought up in the strict traditions of Orthodoxy and Domostroi. She was pretty and was chosen as the bride by Peter's mother without any agreement on this issue with the groom - and at that time the consent of the young was not required - everything was decided by the parents of the newlyweds.In February 1690, Lopukhina had her first son, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, in October 1691 - the second son, Tsarevich Alexander Petrovich, who died soon after. Finally, Peter I left his wife in 1694 after the death of his mother. Lopukhina was still called the queen, she lived with her son in the Kremlin, but her relatives, the Lopukhins, who held prominent government posts, had already fallen into disgrace. After the return of Peter I from abroad in 1698, Queen Evdokia was exiled by Peter I to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery and forcibly tonsured into a nun under the name Elena.