Avdotya (Yevdokiya) Ivanovna Chernysheva (Russian: Авдотья Ивановна Чернышева; née Rzhevskaya; February 12, 1693 – June 17, 1747) was a Russian noblewoman and lady-in-waiting. She was a royal mistress of Peter the Great.[1]
Life
She was the daughter of Prince Ivan Ivanovitch Rzhevsky and Daria Gavrilovna, and in 1710, she married Prince Grigory Chernyshev (1672–1745).[2][3]
Her relationship with Russian tsar Peter the Great continued on and off from 1708 until his death in 1725. In 1717, she was involved in the fall of her rival Mary Hamilton. It is rumored that Peter died of syphilis after having been infected by Chernysheva, but there is nothing to indicate that she was herself ill.[3] She was a state lady of Empress Anna of Russia from 1730 to 1745.
References
- Kamenskii, Alexander (2020-09-15). Catherine the Great: A Reference Guide to Her Life and Works. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-3028-5.
- Frank-Kamenetskaya, Olga V.; Vlasov, Dmitry Yu; Rytikova, Vera V. (2018-10-06). The Effect of the Environment on Saint Petersburg's Cultural Heritage: Results of Monitoring the Historical Necropolis Monuments. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-79072-5.
- Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2016-05-03). The Romanovs: 1613-1918. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-94697-8.
Sources
- Еловский, Б. (1905). Русский биографический словарь. Т. 22: Чаадаев — Швитков. Русский биографический словарь. pp. 279–280.