Town & Country participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. After his abdication, Peter was exiled to a location outside of St. Petersburg. On the night of 8 July 1762, Catherine got word that one of her co-conspirators in the plot had been arrested; the time to act was now. Through her connections, Johanna managed to wangle an invitation to Russia for her 14-year-old daughter Catherine, to be hosted at the court of Empress Elizabeth, the current ruler of Russia. She did her best to eschew her Germanic origins, and endear herself to the Russians as one of them. Myriad movies and TV series, not least HBO's 2019 miniseries Catherine the Great, have dramatized the Empress's ascent to the throne and subsequent reign. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. Catherine the Great was the most powerful woman of her time, whose 34-year reign, the longest by any female in Russian history, transformed her adopted homeland into a global superpower. She then orchestrated a coup to overthrow her husband and became the Empress of the Russian Empire in July 1762. Eight days later he would be declared dead, the coup had seemingly taken a deadly turn. After successfully dethroning him, she emerged from the Winter Palace in a male guardsman’s uniform, proclaiming herself the new Empress. The ill-fated Tsar quickly angered crucial allies, including the Russian Orthodox church and the country's military class. Here, the true story of how Catherine the Great overthrew her husband, Tsar Peter III. Thus Catherine left no one to dispute her claim to the throne. Catherine also became weary of her husband’s intentions as he increasingly humiliated her in court. 'Catherine on the balcony of the Winter Palace welcoming the Guards and the People on the day of the coup.'. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, How to Watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, First Look: The Spanish Princess Series Finale, 'Modern Austen' Will Reimagine Austen Novels, A Sneak Peek at the New Series 'A Suitable Boy', Margaret Thatcher's Order of Merit: The True Story, How Prince Charles Proposed to Princess Diana, Relive Charles and Diana's Royal Tour of Australia, The Crown's Emma Corrin Talks Charles and Diana. At the time, it was widely assumed that Catherine was behind this, but historians aren't so sure. Peter, on the other hand, converted begrudgingly to Russian practices and never hid his admiration of Frederick II of Prussia, the foe of Empress Elizabeth. Born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729, Catherine was the daughter of a German prince and was related to the dukes of Holstein through her mother. Her astonishing rise to power was all the more remarkable considering she didn't have a single drop of Russian blood in her body. Catherine faced down more than a dozen uprisings during her reign. The marital night was an indication of things to come, as Peter abandoned his new wife to drink and party with friends. Catherine then ordered the arrest and forced abdication of her husband. Catherine was particularly taken with the writings of Enlightenment thinkers, like Diderot and Voltaire. With the close ties to the military, noble classes and the church, the bored and humiliated 33-year-old Catherine saw an opportunity for change and began plotting a coup with her military officer lover Grigory Orlov. So how did it all really go down? From a young age, Catherine was groomed by her mother to become the wife of a powerful and wealthy ruler. It was said that Peter gave up the throne like a child being sent to bed. latest additions to Meghan Markle’s staff, How Catherine the Great Used Jewelry as Power, The True Story of 'A Very English Scandal', The True Story of John Paul Getty III's Kidnapping. ", Helen Mirren Will Play Catherine the Great, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. After her successful coup against her ill-matched husband Peter III in 1762, Catherine realised that to marry again would be to relinquish her power. The next day she left the palace and departed for the Izmailovsky regiment, where she asked the soldiers to protect her from her husband. Of the various uprisings that … The official cause of death was announced as severe haemorrhoids and an apoplexy stroke, although it is widely believed he died at the hands of Alexei Orlov, brother of Grigory. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-catherine-great-180974863 Peter III was arrested and forced to sign a document of abdication. On 22 September 1762 at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, Catherine was crowned. Oft-mentioned is his strong interest in playing with toy military figurines, which he apparently sometimes took to bed with him. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. ‘Had it been my fate to have a husband whom I could love, I would never have changed towards him,’ Catherine would later write. "The circumstances and cause of death, and the intentions and degree of responsibility of those involved," Catherine the Great biographer Robert K. Massie wrote, "can never be known. He made no attempts to hide his dislike of Russia and his love of his native Germany. This website uses cookies. Catherine was Czarina for a period of 34 years till her death in November 1796, making her the longest-ruling female leader in the history of Russia. In every aspect, Peter was the opposite of Catherine. There, Catherine pursued her intellectual interests, diving into the writings of Enlightenment thinkers, like Voltaire and Diderot. Peter, on the other hand, is remembered as a strange figure, ill-suited to the throne. Click here to find out more. Despite being born into an impoverished lower-nobility Germanic family, with no claim to the Russian crown whatsoever, Catherine rose the ranks of society and went on to stake a claim as one of Russia’s greatest ever rulers. The empress is remembered as one of Russia’s greatest reformers. Johanna had big dreams for her little girl, but … If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of the Terms and Conditions, Catherine the Great and the coup that made her Empress, History’s greatest love affair: Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin, Chevalier d'Eon and gender non-conformity in the 18th century, The lives of Hitler and Stalin: Two sides of the same coin, The life and death of Rasputin: part 3 - Rasputin's final moments, The drinking session that led to Civil War. To occupy herself during her famously unhappy marriage to Peter, who she'd later describe in her memoirs as stupid and too keen on alcohol, she immersed herself in her studies. ©2020 AETN UK. Elizabeth was herself childless, but selected her nephew, the German-born Peter, to succeed her. The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention o… Catherine the Great was Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796, the country's longest-ruling female leader and arguably the most renowned. The object was to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia, to weaken the influence of Austria and to ruin the chancellor Aleksey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, on whom Russian Empress Elizabethrelied, and who was a known partisan of the Austrian alliance. Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. At first, the coup was bloodless. Peter’s reign had lasted just six months and at first it seemed the coup had been achieved without a drop of blood being shed. We've got more than 1,8 million followers on Facebook. Historians have debated the accuracy of these claims, Paul's striking resemblance to Peter leading many to believe he was the boy's father. During their marriage Catherine took a multitude of lovers and so when her daughter Anna was born (who would live just 14 months), Peter believed the rumours that the child was not his. The Most Powerful Man in Russia Propositioned Her. Born a minor German princess, the royal was never supposed to reign over Russia. Weak-willed, immature, self-absorbed and boorish, Peter disliked traditional learning but loved all things military, including playing with toy figurines. Upon arriving in Russia, Catherine converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, took the name Ekaterina Alexeievna (Catherine) and set about learning the language. Contrarily, Catherine loved reading books and educating herself; the pair shared no common ground. Eventually, in 1754, Catherine gave birth to a son Paul, although she would later imply in her memoirs that Paul was the son of her first lover, Sergei Saltykov. The Great, Hulu's new show about Catherine the Great's less-than-ideal marriage—and her plans to ameliorate that situation—treads on familiar territory. After her conversion to Orthodoxy, she took the name Catherine. After the death of Empress Elizabeth in January 1762, Peter III succeeded to the throne and Catherine became empress consort. Catherine the Great and the coup that made her Empress Russia Kings and Queens Catherine the Great was the most powerful woman of her time, whose 34-year reign, the longest by any female in Russian history, transformed her adopted homeland into a global superpower.

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