Marta was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński (also spelled Samuil Skavronsky), a Roman Catholic farmer from the eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, his parents were born in the area of Minsk (now Belarus).

Some biographies state that Marta's father was a gravedigger and handyman, while others speculate that he was a runaway landless serf.

According to one popular version of the story, at the age of three Marta was taken by an aunt and sent to Marienburg, Swedish Livonia (now Alūksne, Latvia) where she was raised by Johann Ernst Glück, a Lutheran pastor and Bible translator.

Marta was considered a very beautiful young girl, and there are accounts that Glück's wife became fearful that she would become involved with their son.

When Russian forces captured the town, Pastor Glück offered to work as a translator, and Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev agreed to his proposal and took him to Moscow.

There are unsubstantiated stories that Marta worked briefly in the laundry of the victorious regiment, and also that she was presented in her undergarments to Brigadier General Rudolph Felix Bauer to be his mistress.

The relationship was the most successful of the tsar's life and a great number of letters exist demonstrating the strong affection between Catherine and Peter I.

Surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Turkish troops, Catherine suggested before surrendering, that her jewels and those of the other women be used in an effort to bribe the Ottoman grand vizier Baltacı Mehmet Pasha into allowing a retreat.

She was the second wife of Tsar Peter I; he had previously married and divorced Eudoxia Lopukhina, who had borne him the Tsarevich (heir apparent), Alexis Petrovich.

Willem Mons and his sister Matryona had begun selling their influence to those who wanted access to Catherine and, through her, to Peter.

Catherine represented the interests of the "new men", commoners who had been brought to positions of great power by Peter based on competence.

For that reason during a meeting of a council to decide on a successor, a coup was arranged by Menshikov and others in which the guards regiments with whom Catherine was very popular proclaimed her the ruler of Russia.

Supporting evidence was "produced" from Peter's secretary Makarov and the Bishop of Pskov, both "new men" with motivation to see Catherine take over.

At the time of Peter's death the Russian Army, composed of 130,000 men and supplemented by another 100,000 Cossacks,[10] was easily the largest in Europe.

[citation needed] The Supreme Privy Council concentrated power in the hands of one party, and thus was an executive innovation.

In foreign affairs, Russia reluctantly joined the Austro-Spanish league to defend the interests of Catherine's son-in-law, the Duke of Holstein, against Great Britain.

Catherine and Peter had twelve children, all of whom died in childhood except Anna and Elizabeth: Upon Peter's death, Catherine found her four siblings, Krystyna, Anna, Karol, and Fryderyk, granted them the newly created titles of Count and Countess, and brought them to Russia.