The wackiest stories are not completely canonical (also, a lot of things _everyone_ knows about Peter comes from Alexei Tolstoy's novel about him, which, I think, was translated into English). Buuut... there are stories that he loved kissing his orderlies a lot (I mean, doing like a hundred kisses in a row) and also slept with an orderly in the sense of using him as a pillow.
More seriously, Peter's arrival to the throne was a bit wacky (and his response to this was to make the inheritance issues even wackier - he insisted the emperor can choose his own heir (yes, he set himself up as an emperor) and the whole 18th century became completely off-kilter as for inheritance (until Paul I who really disliked his mother Catherine II set it up so women could not rule. Which was then a factor in the Russian revolution in 1917, as in, if Nicholas II stopped at, say, two or three daughters and never had a hemophilic son, maybe the monarchy would not become so off-kilter).
Back to Peter, sorry. His elder brother inherited after their dad and died in about 5 years without leaving issue. There were then two remaining princes: Peter, aged about 10, healthy and intelligent boy, son of his father's second wife, and his older brother Ivan, aged about 15, son of the first wife, sickly and generally considered to be unfit for rule (I don't know what was wrong with him - he was ill a lot but also was very passive and not very bright. He did have kids though! His daughter Anna Ioannovna ruled Russia from 1730 to 1740). So... the solution was to crown both Peter and Ivan (and let the fractions centered around their mothers' families fight it out) and have the oldest sister Sofia as a regent. So Peter had a co-ruler for about 10 years or so, and also saw a lot of political infighting and also outright violence.
Re: Peter
The wackiest stories are not completely canonical (also, a lot of things _everyone_ knows about Peter comes from Alexei Tolstoy's novel about him, which, I think, was translated into English).
Buuut... there are stories that he loved kissing his orderlies a lot (I mean, doing like a hundred kisses in a row) and also slept with an orderly in the sense of using him as a pillow.
More seriously, Peter's arrival to the throne was a bit wacky (and his response to this was to make the inheritance issues even wackier - he insisted the emperor can choose his own heir (yes, he set himself up as an emperor) and the whole 18th century became completely off-kilter as for inheritance (until Paul I who really disliked his mother Catherine II set it up so women could not rule. Which was then a factor in the Russian revolution in 1917, as in, if Nicholas II stopped at, say, two or three daughters and never had a hemophilic son, maybe the monarchy would not become so off-kilter).
Back to Peter, sorry. His elder brother inherited after their dad and died in about 5 years without leaving issue. There were then two remaining princes: Peter, aged about 10, healthy and intelligent boy, son of his father's second wife, and his older brother Ivan, aged about 15, son of the first wife, sickly and generally considered to be unfit for rule (I don't know what was wrong with him - he was ill a lot but also was very passive and not very bright. He did have kids though! His daughter Anna Ioannovna ruled Russia from 1730 to 1740). So... the solution was to crown both Peter and Ivan (and let the fractions centered around their mothers' families fight it out) and have the oldest sister Sofia as a regent. So Peter had a co-ruler for about 10 years or so, and also saw a lot of political infighting and also outright violence.