Maria Alekseyevna did not actively participate in the political plots of the Kremlin, but her open passive sympathy for Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna, Eudoxia Lopukhina and Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia made her relationship with Tsar Peter I tense.
When Alexei Petrovich left Russia in 1716, she encountered him on the way and conveyed a letter from him to his mother.
After the arrest of Alexei in 1718, Maria was taken into custody and accused of having assisted his escape.
She was imprisoned in Shlisselburg and then placed under house arrest in Saint Petersburg.
Maria Alexeyevna outlived all of her sisters and died in 1723, two years before the death of her half-brother.