Willem Mons
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Willem Mons (1688 in Russia - 1724) was the brother of Anna Mons and a secretary of Catherine I of Russia.
[edit] Willem Mons Affair (1724)
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).
