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Catherine and Peter lived together in a two room log cabin while he built his new city - St. Petersburg. In 1711, Catherine accompanied Peter during his disastrous military campaign against the Ottoman Empire which ended in his defeat in the Battle of Pruth in the Ukraine. Legend has it that Catherine offered her jewels as a bribe to the Grand Vizier that made it possible for Peter to negotiate his retreat. Peter married Catherine in St. Petersburg in 1712. When he assumed the title emperor, he made Catherine empress, but did not give her any actual power. In 1724 she was officially named co-ruler. Following Peter's death in 1725, Menshikov and Peter Tolstoy led a group of nobles who supported Catherine's continuation as ruler of Russia. These nobles, led and dominated by Menshikov, formed a Supreme Privy Council that was extremely powerful during her short reign. She died in 1727.
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