Peter the Great

During his stay in the Netherlands, Peter was employed in a shipyard belonging to the East India Company as a simple laborer, demanding to call him Peter Timmerman van Zaandam (Peter, the carpenter of Zaandam).

An excerpt from the article 32 facts about Peter the Great

He settled in the enclosed area of the shipyard. Every day he went to work together with the craftsmen building the 30-foot frigate, which the Company named after the apostles Peter and Paul. He ate meals with his fellow workers, who addressed him by his first name, although everyone knew who he actually was.