Her marriage to the widowed Tsar was arranged by his friend, Ivan Yazykov, who hoped to strengthen his position at court.

Marfa Matveyevna, being childless, still a virgin according to some assumptions,[clarification needed] remained in mourning for more than thirty years.

[3] She first lived in Moscow, then in Saint Petersburg in her own palace, at the corner of Admiralty Square and Nevskaya Prospect,[4] near the mansion of her brother, Admiral General Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin.

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.

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'.