Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy, and today we
Speaker 1: were talking about our favorite royal monikers and also our
Speaker 1: least favorite royal monikers. Mine is Henry the Impotent Sarah,
Speaker 1: which Letty Mary is pretty bad. Louis the Indolent also bad,
Speaker 1: but at least Letty Mary has a drink named after her,
Speaker 1: and you cannot say that about Henry the Impotent. That's
Speaker 1: a good point, Katie. But there is a name that
Speaker 1: everyone knows, and that is Catherine the Great, and like Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: the first subject of many of our past episodes, she
Speaker 1: is a strong woman who ruled an empire and made
Speaker 1: it greater. She's known not only for her political acumen,
Speaker 1: which really kept her in the public imagination, but also
Speaker 1: for her many love affairs, which we'll get into that
Speaker 1: a little bit later, actually a little bit on this podcast.
Speaker 1: And of course that long standing rumor that she met
Speaker 1: her death copulating with a horse. That's that's quite the
Speaker 1: resume we have, I think. So this is part one
Speaker 1: of the life of Catherine the Great. We will have
Speaker 1: a follow up episode, because you know, we love a series.
Speaker 1: So no one is born the great obviously, maybe the cute,
Speaker 1: or the fat or the crying, but not the great.
Speaker 1: And this baby was born Sophia Auguste Frederica, a German
Speaker 1: princess before there was really a Germany, on May second,
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty nine. Her father, Christian August is referred to
Speaker 1: as an obscure princeling in more than one source, which
Speaker 1: made me WinCE for him just a little bit. He's
Speaker 1: always referred to as minor, and he's very much love
Speaker 1: by his daughter. But her mother, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: was a bit of a handful, and she was Princess
Speaker 1: Joanna Elizabeth of Holstein Gottorp and her brother had been
Speaker 1: engage to Elizabeth the First of Russia for a time,
Speaker 1: and when he died, Elizabeth kept a soft spot for
Speaker 1: his family. So when the Empress Elizabeth needs a wife
Speaker 1: for her nephew, Peter the Third, she thinks about this
Speaker 1: family that she's always held so fondly, and she thinks
Speaker 1: that young Sophia might be a good bride. So Sophia
Speaker 1: and her mother travel to Russia to curry the Empress's
Speaker 1: favor they're really successful at it. Uh. Elizabeth likes Sophia
Speaker 1: a lot, even though court life proves to be rather difficult.
Speaker 1: It's very expensive to keep up appearances in court, and
Speaker 1: this isn't something that Sophia and her family can do.
Speaker 1: It's very strict, especially the rules of etiquette. And because
Speaker 1: she's under everyone's eye as this possible marriage material exactly,
Speaker 1: and people are always watching her, but she's watching them too,
Speaker 1: and she's learning how to play political game, which is
Speaker 1: something that Peter never learns to do. And although she
Speaker 1: likes him at first, the more she gets to know him,
Speaker 1: she realizes that he's going to be a hindrance and
Speaker 1: not a boon to her successful future at court. He's
Speaker 1: referred to and all the things we were reading as well,
Speaker 1: often as a buffoon. Very often, he's generally considered inapt,
Speaker 1: he's considered not well mannered, not cultured, lazy, and possibly
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. So great personal z exactly. And here's Sophia
Speaker 1: basically bound to to marry this guy. And she's understandably
Speaker 1: a little bit lonely, so she does a lot of reading.
Speaker 1: She becomes acquainted with the ideals of the Enlightenment, and
Speaker 1: she also starts studying Russian, and she studies Russian until
Speaker 1: she's fluent, which is something that definitely impresses her future subjects.
Speaker 1: She's immersing herself in Russian culture, not being this foreign, distant,
Speaker 1: isolated ruler. She's she's going to be involved if she's
Speaker 1: going to play this game. And the same goes for
Speaker 1: studying the Orthodox Church and eventually even leaving her religion
Speaker 1: of Lutheranism and committing to Orthodoxy pretty wholeheartedly, which is
Speaker 1: where we get her name. Katherine changed when she converted,
Speaker 1: and she had to in order to move to the
Speaker 1: next stage of her life marriage with Peter. So, in
Speaker 1: addition to all those stellar qualities that we just mentioned,
Speaker 1: the alcoholism, the poor manners, Peter is also just a
Speaker 1: really really weird guy. He's obsessed with soldiers and military stuff,
Speaker 1: but not in a good sort of air to the
Speaker 1: throne way, more like a little boy, yes, overgrown little
Speaker 1: boy way. He plays poppets in bed and makes her
Speaker 1: play them as well. By the way, like a lot
Speaker 1: of these details I got from Virginia Rounding's biography of
Speaker 1: Katherine the Great, which is pretty great. Puppets in bed
Speaker 1: definitely a good detail to know about someone. He drinks
Speaker 1: a lot, as we mentioned, and it's not just sullen drinking,
Speaker 1: it's carousing until the wee hours of the morning, sometimes
Speaker 1: forcing kath Her to come along with them. And they
Speaker 1: have nothing in common. She's smart, she's charming, she's intellectually curious.
Speaker 1: He's none of those things, and the divide just grows
Speaker 1: the longer that they're together. In her memoirs, she describes
Speaker 1: herself as a miserable creature during this time in her life,
Speaker 1: and she is of course being pressured or even bullied
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth to have a son. They need an air,
Speaker 1: and the court treats her as what she is, just,
Speaker 1: you know, a baby making machine, a vessel for this air,
Speaker 1: and so she's kept fairly isolated. Elizabeth puts spies in
Speaker 1: as her ladies, and she's not really allowed to have friends.
Speaker 1: She's supposed to be concentrating on one thing, and one
Speaker 1: thing only. As soon as she develops the friendship, even
Speaker 1: the lady is sent away and she's supposed to get
Speaker 1: back to the task at hand. The only problem is
Speaker 1: they don't really know how to have sex, and it's
Speaker 1: possible that Peter had impotence problems but he may just
Speaker 1: have not known what he was doing at all. Just
Speaker 1: so Marie Antoinette and her husband, That's all I could
Speaker 1: think of exactly. So their marriage isn't consummated for a
Speaker 1: long time, and only then it's because it was arranged
Speaker 1: for Peter to learn the ropes from this young widow,
Speaker 1: which I can't understand how they drafted someone for that
Speaker 1: job now that he's able to perform. Peter and Catherine
Speaker 1: do engage in conjugal activities, but they hate each other,
Speaker 1: so it must have been really awkward, not to mention,
Speaker 1: not very fun, so they don't do it very often,
Speaker 1: and in the eyes of those watching her so carefully,
Speaker 1: it's not often enough that she'll produce this air. So
Speaker 1: again an arrangement is made, but this time for Katherine.
Speaker 1: She had grown rather close to a man at court,
Speaker 1: Sergei Saltikov, and this relationship is now permitted or even encouraged. So, surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: Catherine gives birth to this much desired son, named him Paul.
Speaker 1: There's a question was it Peter's child, Was it Sarage's bess?
Speaker 1: Are actually that it was Peter's child. He apparently was
Speaker 1: a lot like his father when he had some of
Speaker 1: his some of his similar interests. He like Prussia a lot,
Speaker 1: not that that would necessarily be inherited, but interests in
Speaker 1: the Russia. So immediately after Paul's birth, Elizabeth whisks him
Speaker 1: away and she's the one who raises this spoiled, sickly
Speaker 1: air whatever Catherine may have wanted from him. And she
Speaker 1: had another child, a daughter named Anna Petrovna, not to
Speaker 1: be confused with other Anna Petrovna, as we may have
Speaker 1: talked about in seventeen fifty seven. She probably was not
Speaker 1: Peter's kid um, but handsome Stanislav Poniatowski's another lover, and
Speaker 1: he will come into play in our next podcast. That
Speaker 1: Anna died before she reached her second birthday, and she's
Speaker 1: never spoken of again, which is strange. But speaking of
Speaker 1: more illnesses, a Liz of that the Empress had been
Speaker 1: ill for quite some time. It's possible she had epilepsy.
Speaker 1: She definitely had some form of a dima, and she
Speaker 1: knew she was dying. She died on December seventeen sixty
Speaker 1: one after a nosebleed. She may have hemorrhaged to death,
Speaker 1: and Catherine acted respectfully after the Empress's death, she wears mourning.
Speaker 1: She praised publicly for her and this is a smart
Speaker 1: move people. You know, people like that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Remember how angry people were when Elizabeth the Second of
Speaker 1: England apparently didn't show enough grief after Princess Diana died. Peter,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, thought it was a good idea
Speaker 1: to play a game behind the hearse that involved a
Speaker 1: lot of running and watching his cape swish about, and
Speaker 1: then he would hang back for a little bit so
Speaker 1: he could run some more, and once he caught up,
Speaker 1: he would do the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 1: So picture this. There's his aunt's coffin, people in mourning
Speaker 1: for their most pious autocrat, and then their new ruler
Speaker 1: who's gleefully playing childish games in a funeral procession. It
Speaker 1: was horrifying, and it was a very good example of
Speaker 1: the kind of man that Peter was. So people are
Speaker 1: immediately thinking, how can we get rid of this guy?
Speaker 1: Who can we replace him with? He obviously has problems,
Speaker 1: and so some think it's time to bring back Ivan
Speaker 1: the sixth, who is that sad little baby growing up
Speaker 1: in the prison that we mentioned in an earlier Actually,
Speaker 1: we did a whole podcast on him earlier, and some
Speaker 1: people think that, no, forget, forget this strange boy who
Speaker 1: has grown up in prison. Let's enthrone Catherine because she's
Speaker 1: actually very impressive. And she resists though, and that's because
Speaker 1: she has a little secret. She is pregnant again and
Speaker 1: it is not Peter's. It was her lover, Gregory or
Speaker 1: Loss will talk about him in our second episode and
Speaker 1: a little bit more. The key here is that everybody
Speaker 1: would know it was not Peter's baby either, so she'd
Speaker 1: be put on the national stage, so to say, and
Speaker 1: be revealed as pregnant. It would be devastating for her hopes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the sex ceased as far as Peter the Third goes.
Speaker 1: She manages to hide her pregnancy the entire time. No
Speaker 1: one figures it out. And when Alexei was born in April,
Speaker 1: she hands him over to one of her servants so
Speaker 1: he's out of the way. Maybe we're clearing a path
Speaker 1: to the throne. So Catherine's not going to stage a
Speaker 1: coup quite yet at least, and so we get to
Speaker 1: experience a little bit of Peter the Third on the throne.
Speaker 1: In February seventeen sixty two, there's a bit of a
Speaker 1: class shake up when Peter declares that there will be
Speaker 1: no more compulsory service for nobles during peace time, and
Speaker 1: nobody knows what to think of this. The nobles are wondering,
Speaker 1: is this good for us? Well, yeah, we don't have
Speaker 1: to have service. But on the other hand, this is
Speaker 1: how we would rise in the ranks. The surfs are
Speaker 1: not quite sure how it affects them. It's a decision
Speaker 1: that was made without any thought, which describes a lot
Speaker 1: of things that Peter does. Actually, his first possible mistake
Speaker 1: wasn't angering the church by secularizing monastic property, but his
Speaker 1: biggest one dealt with the Seven Years War. Russia had
Speaker 1: almost beaten Frederick of Prussia after years of fighting and
Speaker 1: so many Russian soldiers dying. Peter stops the war, makes
Speaker 1: peace with Prussia, and they offer him land and he
Speaker 1: won't even take it. You know, no, no, you keep
Speaker 1: it Prussia. So all those soldiers died for nothing, and
Speaker 1: it became clear that Peter cared much more for Prussia
Speaker 1: than he did for Russia, especially when he ignores the
Speaker 1: things that are important to them, like, you know, learning
Speaker 1: their language, and he skips the coronation ceremony, which was
Speaker 1: a huge deal, you know, people want to celebrate when
Speaker 1: there's a new person, and it also had some religious
Speaker 1: overtones that that needed to be there for the Russian
Speaker 1: people to be behind him. So ultimately, even Peter's good
Speaker 1: deeds as emperor, like he does get of the secret police,
Speaker 1: for example, people don't pay any heed to that. It's
Speaker 1: completely ignored because here's this guy making disastrous decisions for
Speaker 1: the country and not even seeming to care. And there
Speaker 1: are more warning signs he won't share his power at
Speaker 1: all with Catherine, and people are beginning to worry that
Speaker 1: he might get rid of her in favor of his mistress.
Speaker 1: And remember, people really do like her. She's devout, she
Speaker 1: clearly loves her country, and the general sentiment is that
Speaker 1: they would be better off with her at the Helm
Speaker 1: than this guy who's now dressing his military in Prussian uniforms.
Speaker 1: Plus he's drinking more than ever, and he doesn't know
Speaker 1: anything about business. He's keeping bad company, he's getting bad advice.
Speaker 1: He's just in this terrible downward spiral. And the last
Speaker 1: straw is a a very fancy dinner with a lot
Speaker 1: of impressive people, at which Peter calls Catherine a fool
Speaker 1: in front of all of them, and then repeats it
Speaker 1: in case everyone hadn't heard, humiliating her in this brutal way,
Speaker 1: she's in tears. Someone else has to distract everyone from
Speaker 1: what's going on. But Peter is the fool and he
Speaker 1: is not cut out for the job of ruling all
Speaker 1: the Rushes. So with everybody hating Peter the third, it's
Speaker 1: time for some action, and there's a conspiracy afoot to
Speaker 1: crown Catherine now that that baby's out of the way,
Speaker 1: and she's the one heading up the conspiracy. Surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: she has thirty officers ten thousands of alterns according to
Speaker 1: Virginia Roundings book, and she has financial support from not
Speaker 1: only Russia but Denmark, and a very detailed plan about
Speaker 1: how this is going to go down. Unless you feel
Speaker 1: bad for Peter, he's been told about the coup, he
Speaker 1: just misses it, not having much respect for the formidable
Speaker 1: ambitions and talents of his neglected wife, and in true
Speaker 1: Peter style, he stays up partying until four am, completely
Speaker 1: unconcerned and just a note on Catherine, she will never
Speaker 1: ever ignore rumors about conspiracies or coup. She knows better,
Speaker 1: and so Peter is not in St. Petersburg when the
Speaker 1: coup takes place, and it doesn't go quite according to Plant.
Speaker 1: Catherine has this great rundown for how everything is supposed
Speaker 1: to go, but things don't fall into place. One conspirator
Speaker 1: is arrested and the others have to hurry away before
Speaker 1: he reveals what they're about to do. Catherine herself leaves
Speaker 1: her apartment so fast that she's still wearing her nightcap.
Speaker 1: She changes out of that nightcap and gets all fancy
Speaker 1: and goes to regiments she already knew supported her, and
Speaker 1: they swear allegiance to her. And it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a domino effect. When she've got the first one, you
Speaker 1: just move on to the second. And at the Church
Speaker 1: of Our Lady of Kazan, site of her wedding, she
Speaker 1: is proclaimed Empress of all the Russias and names her
Speaker 1: son Paul as her successor. More people swear their allegiance
Speaker 1: at the Winter Palace. So Peter's people tell him about
Speaker 1: the coup, but he doesn't even believe it, So he's
Speaker 1: a real an example of a dim historical figure. He
Speaker 1: even looks for Catherine at their house at Montlosier, Well, Russia.
Speaker 1: Is busy trying to crown her. I mean, he's looking
Speaker 1: around for her like a check hivancy, and she is
Speaker 1: long gone, Peter, She's never coming back. She proclaims that
Speaker 1: Peter the Third endangered Orthodoxy, Sully's, Russia's military glory, and
Speaker 1: undermined the Empire's institutions. I think that last one is debatable,
Speaker 1: but I will give her the first two, even if
Speaker 1: she goes on herself to endanger the Orthodox Church, as
Speaker 1: we'll see in our next episode. But when she parades
Speaker 1: in front of the people, it's in a tricorn hat
Speaker 1: and a guards uniform, carrying a saber. This is a
Speaker 1: woman who understands the importance of signifiers and of ceremony,
Speaker 1: unlike Peter. No silly Kate games for her. So you
Speaker 1: might wonder how is Peter dealing with this now that
Speaker 1: he finally has accepted that it might be for real.
Speaker 1: He's not dealing with He's just drinking. He's thinking up
Speaker 1: more out their ideas. And then he finally realizes, yes,
Speaker 1: she really has gotten him, and he starts sending letters
Speaker 1: asking for forgiveness, promising that he'll change, and then simply asking, well,
Speaker 1: can I at least get a Holstein with my mistress
Speaker 1: and back out of the whole thing. She doesn't reply
Speaker 1: to the first few, and to the last she simply
Speaker 1: sends him an abdication letter to sign. It's pretty cold, Katherine.
Speaker 1: He's stripped of his uniform and sent away to an
Speaker 1: estate later to be transported to Schlusselburgh, which is where
Speaker 1: they kept Ivan. Sixth. She does send him his pug
Speaker 1: for company, which made Candice very happy, but she denies
Speaker 1: his request for his mistress. You only get so much Peter,
Speaker 1: and Catherine deposed him on June sixty two. She's crowned
Speaker 1: September seventeen sixty two, and just a little note on
Speaker 1: Catherine's crown, it has more than four thousand diamonds and
Speaker 1: some giant ruby as well. Nice. So the people and
Speaker 1: the soldiers get very very drunk though after the coronation,
Speaker 1: and they almost riot, so sort of an inauspicious start.
Speaker 1: I would say celebration plus vodka sounds very auspicious to me.
Speaker 1: But as far as Peter being imprisoned, he's still drinking
Speaker 1: with his guards, and he's miserable over his reduced circumstances.
Speaker 1: He's getting very very sick, very often with some digestive ailments,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't want to use the bathroom in front
Speaker 1: of his guards, which is understandable. So one of the
Speaker 1: brothers of Catherine's lover or Love writes in a letter
Speaker 1: to her this very cryptic comment, I fear that he
Speaker 1: might die tonight, but even more I fear that he
Speaker 1: might live. And that's supposed. We get another letter from
Speaker 1: the Orlovs that's very vague and almost incoherent, the bottom
Speaker 1: line being there was an argument Peter was killed. They
Speaker 1: don't remember what happened. Sounds like a bad story that
Speaker 1: Catherine doesn't announce Peter's death until the next day and
Speaker 1: gets natural causes colic, inflammation of the bowels, and apoplexy.
Speaker 1: But when his body is displayed, it's obvious that something
Speaker 1: very very bad happened to it. He has a black
Speaker 1: face and you can see the blood through the skin,
Speaker 1: which seems a little like he was poisoned. That would
Speaker 1: explain some of those ailments exactly. And they're also strangulation
Speaker 1: marks on his neck, so clearly not just not so
Speaker 1: natural a case of colic. And she didn't go to
Speaker 1: the burial, and he wasn't allowed to be buried in
Speaker 1: the illustrious burial place of his forebears. Either people think
Speaker 1: that she killed him and their son would grow up
Speaker 1: thinking that she killed him. But did she The consensus
Speaker 1: seems to be that she definitely knew about it, and
Speaker 1: she never said it explicit, please go murder my husband,
Speaker 1: but she okayed it and her wishes were clear, and
Speaker 1: she would protect the men who committed the crime and
Speaker 1: reward them for it. And Catherine believed that it was
Speaker 1: her destiny to rule, that it was God's hand guiding
Speaker 1: her life to that purpose. But I think she did
Speaker 1: her best to help it along. So that brings us
Speaker 1: to our next topic, which is going to be Catherine
Speaker 1: in power will get to discuss all those interesting things
Speaker 1: that happen when she's finally empress in her own right,
Speaker 1: and that brings us to listener mail. Our first letter
Speaker 1: is a correction from Laura and our Oscar Wild podcast.
Speaker 1: We said the Oxford College of Magdalen like Mary Magdalen,
Speaker 1: it should be pronounced Maudlin, and she says it's another
Speaker 1: little Oxford oddity. Not sure if it's done just to
Speaker 1: torture those tourists who don't know and ask after the
Speaker 1: college only to receive the confusing answer there, so Magdalen Bridge,
Speaker 1: but no college. Very weird and very Oxford. So thank
Speaker 1: you Laura, and thank you England. So we've also got
Speaker 1: a lot of really nice Hawaiian postcards since our episode
Speaker 1: on Hawaii, including three so beautiful postcards. I think just
Speaker 1: look at them all day from Vicky from Hawaii, and
Speaker 1: I think it just sort of made us want to
Speaker 1: take a nice island vacation, right I was staring wistfully
Speaker 1: at them for a few minutes at my desk before
Speaker 1: I brought them over to Sarah's. Yes, if you have
Speaker 1: mail you'd like to send us, we have a tricky
Speaker 1: way of making you find our address on the house
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