By marriage to
Stepan Vasiliyevich Lopukhin (a cousin of
Eudoxia Lopukhina and a favourite of Eudoxia's husband
Peter the Great) she was a member of the
Lopukhin family. During the reign of
Anna of Russia, Natalia Lopukhina was described as "the brightest flower of St Petersburg court". Her liaisons with some of the most powerful courtiers and her arrogance toward
Peter I's neglected daughter
Elizaveta Petrovna must have fed the latter's jealousy. Elizaveta's accession to the throne in 1741 was a huge blow to Lopukhina. It was owing to her friendship with
Anna Bestuzheva, wife of
Mikhail Bestuzhev, that she managed to maintain her position at court.
Conspiracy In 1742, the French agents
De la Chétardie and
Lestocq arranged a complicated intrigue to slander both Lopukhina and Bestuzheva, thereby securing the downfall of the Austrophilic chancellor
Aleksey Bestuzhev (Mikhail's brother). Lopukhina's affection for the exiled Count von Löwenwolde being well-known, her correspondence with this odious courtier was brought to light and presented to the Empress in the most unflattering light. Simultaneously, it was reported that her son Ivan Lopukhin, being drunk in a tavern, denounced Elizaveta's taste for English beer and mumbled several phrases which were interpreted calling for restoration of
Ivan VI of Russia. The inquiry that followed established that the Lopukhin house used to be frequented by the Austrian agent Marquis
Botta d'Adorno, who allegedly promised his support for the restoration of Ivan VI on the Russian throne. After a rigid inquisition of twenty-five days, during which every variety of torture was freely employed against the accused, "the terrible plot," wrote the British minister,
Sir Cyril Wych, "was found to be little more than the ill-considered discourses of a couple of spiteful passionate women." Lopukhina and Bestuzheva were publicly punished on September 11, 1743. They were brought onto a scaffold in front of the
Twelve Collegia in
Saint Petersburg, stripped completely naked, and flogged with birch rods and the
knout on their bare buttocks. Bestuzheva unsuccessfully bribed the executioner to only give her a mock flogging. The two women escaped death because before her accession in 1741, Elizaveta had vowed not to sign any
execution warrants as Empress, but were nevertheless flogged, had their tongues torn out, and were exiled to
Siberia. The Russian ambassador to
Austria was instructed to demand Botta's condign punishment. This demand was presented at a special audience; whereupon Empress
Maria Theresa declared that she would never admit the validity of extorted evidence, and issued a manifesto to all the
Great Powers defending Botta and accusing the Russian court of rank injustice. It is generally believed that the savage reprisal was prompted primarily by Elizaveta's personal jealousy of Lopukhina's beauty and hostility towards the
Mons family, who had blocked the ascension of her mother
Catherine I of Russia to the throne. Lopukhina was allowed to return to the Russian capital only after Elizaveta's death on January 5, 1762. ==References==