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Peter's second wife, Catherine I's birthplace is in dispute, but the official explanation is that she was born in Reingen, a town in Livonia. At the time the area was part of Sweden. Today, it is in Lithuania. Her name at birth is thought to have been Martha Skavronska, but there is some question about that as well. The date of her birth is thought to be about 1684. She does not appear to have been born into a family of wealth and her parents may have been serfs. Her parents died of plague while she was in her teens and she was taken into the family of Pastor Ernst Gluck in Marienburg. She is said to have been an exceptionally beautiful girl and was briefly married to a Swedish dragoon, before being taken into the household of Russian General Adolf Rudolf Bauer following the Russian victory over Sweden at Marienburg in 1702. Baurer passed her along to his superior, General Boris Sheremetev, who in turn gave, or sold, her to Prince Aleksandr Menshikov, a friend of Peter the Great. In 1703 Peter met Catherine and took her as his mistress.
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