*review copy* *contains affiliate links* In October 1771, the Vrouw Maria merchant ship sank off the coast of Finland. She carried lots of cargo, including several works of art that Empress Catherine the Great had bought at auction in Amsterdam from the collection of Gerrit Braamcamp. The lost works included Paulus Potter’s Large Herd of [read more]
Read part four here. Catherine saw her son as her rival, and she never gave him a role in government. Despite this, he and his wife were required to appear at official ceremonies. He and his mother had very little contact otherwise. Catherine even began to consider skipping Paul all together and making her eldest [read more]
Read part three here. Catherine enforced her success by rewarding those who helped to put her on the throne, including the church and the army. She also cancelled the unpopular alliance with Prussia but assured them she had no wish for a new war. She also called on Russia’s two most experienced statesmen. She settled [read more]
Read part two here. As Empress Elizabeth’s health deteriorated, Catherine found herself pregnant with Gregory Orlov’s child, and she began to seclude herself. Peter was already talking of repudiating her and Catherine did not want to fuel the fire by appearing in public while pregnant. On 3 January 1762, Empress Elizabeth suffered a massive stroke, [read more]
Read part one here. Sophie had arrived at the Russian court as a 14-year-old German Princess to marry the 15-year-old Grand Duke Peter – heir and nephew of Empress Elizabeth of Russia – accompanied by her mother, Johanna. They were received like Queens, much to Johanna’s delight who considered the match her personal triumph. Sophie [read more]
In the early hours of 2 May 1729, 16-year-old Princess Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein Gottorp, wife of the 39-year-old Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, gave birth to her first child in a merchant’s house in Szczecin (in present-day Poland). The house served as temporary quarters for her husband, who was stationed there as a general [read more]
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