Peter the inebriate

Theme parties were big in the days of the tsars, getting off to a boozy start with Peter the Great, who would rouse himself from his habitual slouch, balanced on the stomachs of his two valets, to launch an evening of practical jokes. Russian royals were fond of laughs at the expense of their guests, whether it was the compulsory toasting of brandy (when drink till you drop really meant something), dwarves' weddings or the marriage arranged between a notoriously ugly noble and a Mongolian woman, which the happy couple were forced to consumate on a bed of ice in a palace of ice. Meals would feature dwarves bursting forth from vats of pâté, culinary excesses and decadence on the dance floor.







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