Mons family
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The Mons family is a Dutch family associated with two trials that shocked the court of Peter I of Russia in 1704 and 1724.
[edit] Anna Mons Affair (1704)
In 1691, during one of his visits to the German Quarter, young Peter I of Russia became 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. After finally divorcing 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 acquaintances 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.
[edit] Willem Mons Affair (1724)
Anna's handsome brother, Willem Mons, was born in Russia in 1688. After his sister's trial, he joined the Russian Army and took part in the Battle of Poltava. In 1711, he was appointed personal adjutant to the tsar. His other sister Matryona Balk, in the meantime, became the closest friend of Peter's wife Catherine.
In 1716, on Catherine's behest, Peter entrusted Willem with administering 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 (embezzlement) and betrayal of trust and, after a brief and brutal inquest by Pyotr Tolstoy, was publicly drawn and quartered on November 16. His head has been preserved in alcohol in the Kunstkamera up to the present. There is a legend that Peter forced his wife to contemplate this gruesome exhibit for hours.
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, which would give her name to the related Lopukhina Conspiracy (1742–43).
