Peter III of Russia
Empress Elizabeth arranged for Peter to marry his second cousin, Sophia Augusta Frederica (later Catherine the Great), daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The young princess formally converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Ekaterina Alexeievna (i.e., Catherine). They married on 21 August 1745. The marriage was not a happy one but produced one son, the future Emperor Paul, and one daughter, Anna Petrovna (20 December 1757 – 19 March 1759). Catherine later claimed that Paul was not fathered by Peter: that, in fact, they had never consummated the marriage. During the sixteen years of their residence in Oranienbaum, Catherine took numerous lovers, while her husband did the same in the beginning.
Catherine Vasa of Sweden
After the death of Edzard in 1599, Catherine lived at Berum Castle and took control over her dower lands Norden, Pewsum, Woquard Loquard, Campen and Neeuwarden. These lands were only given to her as her dower lands, but Catherine instead took control over them as an autonomous ruler: the refused to acknowledge her son Enno III and his right to collect taxes and exert authority in her fiefs, and declared herself a vassal directly under the emperor. This caused a conflict with her son which remained unsolved until her death. When the council of Enno III reprimanded him for being to submissive to her and pointed out to him that Catherine abused her rights as a mother to demand obedience, he excused himself by saying: "Because she is a woman, because she is a widow, already seventy, because she is the daughter of a king and, which is the greatest reason to show her respect, because she is a mother."