She was the daughter of the
pantler Matvey Vasilyevich Apraksin and Domna Bogdanovna Apraksina, Lovchikova. Marfa Matveyevna had three brothers, Peter,
Fyodor and Andrey, who all became leading statesmen. Her marriage to the widowed Tsar was arranged by his friend,
Ivan Yazykov, who hoped to strengthen his position at
court. Marfa Matveyevna was approved as a bride by
Metropolitan Hilarion, himself close to the Apraksin family. She received the status of royal
bride in December 1681. The
wedding of seventeen-year-old Marfa Matveyevna to the twenty-year-old Tsar took place on 15 February 1682 (
O.S.; 25 February N.S.). Marfa Matveyevna was
tsarina for only 71 days, from her wedding day to 27 April 1682 (O.S.; 7 May), when the Tsar died of
scurvy. Marfa Matveyevna, being
childless, still a
virgin according to some assumptions, remained in
mourning for more than thirty years. She first lived in
Moscow, then in
Saint Petersburg in her own
palace, at the corner of Admiralty Square and Nevskaya Prospect, near the mansion of her brother,
Admiral General Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin. Today, the
Winter Palace is located there. By her skillful behavior, she created a strong position for herself at court. She retained the trust and respect of her husband's younger brother,
Peter the Great, and the whole royal family, and received an
allowance from the
treasury until the end of her life, without participating in political intrigues. In December 1715, Marfa Matveyevna visited the sick Tsar, but suddenly became ill herself. On 25, 28 and 30 December, the Tsar visited her, and she died on 31 December. According to
Friedrich Christian Weber, the cause of the queen's death was
poisoning from
pickled mushrooms. The Tsar personally attended the
autopsy, as, according to
Pyotr Dolgorukov, he 'wanted to know the truth about [her] short marriage'. Peter 'did not stop before examining the corpse: only having convinced himself of the virginity of his deceased sister-in-law with his own eyes, he handed over to [her brother] the enormous riches bequeathed to [him] for life'. The Tsarina's
funeral took place on 7 January 1716 in the
Peter and Paul Cathedral in
Saint Petersburg, as the fourth
burial there. Marfa Matveyevna was a devout woman, observing the old rituals. She was the last member of the
Romanov family whose funeral and burial were according to the ancient traditions, prohibited by Peter afterwards in the whole country. ==References==