Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. On his name
Speaker 1: Day celebration, the Emperor of Russia, Peter the Third, rode
Speaker 1: with a large entourage from one palace to another to
Speaker 1: meet his wife Katherine at peter Hof, where a large
Speaker 1: celebration that evening was to take place. Since their wedding
Speaker 1: in seventeen forty five, Peter had grown to despise his wife,
Speaker 1: and he'd been making snide remarks about his intentions to
Speaker 1: divorce Katherine and marry his mistress, a woman whom people
Speaker 1: might generously call charmless and truthfully might call absolutely boorish.
Speaker 1: The mistress Elizabeth Voronstova, was traveling with him that afternoon
Speaker 1: from Iranian Baum, along with Mikhail Voranstove, the Russian Chancellor
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth's uncle, a number of dignitaries and their wives,
Speaker 1: and a gaggle of Elizabeth vorn's Stova's ladies in waiting.
Speaker 1: At this point, Peter and his wife Catherine lived almost
Speaker 1: entirely separate lives with entirely separate lovers, but for a
Speaker 1: large state event like his name Day celebration, they would
Speaker 1: make an appearance together. She was still his wife, and
Speaker 1: her job was to meet him outside the palace that
Speaker 1: day and congratulate him on his name day. There was
Speaker 1: only one problem. When the entourage arrived at Peterhof, no
Speaker 1: one was there to greet them. Where Catherine was supposed
Speaker 1: to be waiting with open arms and a forgiving heart,
Speaker 1: there is instead only locked doors and closed windows. The
Speaker 1: Empress was gone. Peter and his mistress searched the bedrooms,
Speaker 1: under the mattresses. In the closets, they saw the gown
Speaker 1: that had been laid out for Catherine to wear at
Speaker 1: the ball that evening, but there was no other sign
Speaker 1: of Catherine. At that very moment. While Peter and his
Speaker 1: mistress swept through the palace looking for her, the Empress
Speaker 1: was fifteen miles away in St. Petersburg, taking an oath
Speaker 1: in front of hundreds of regiments of soldiers, declaring herself
Speaker 1: to be the new Sovereign of Russia. Back at Peterhoff,
Speaker 1: the servants could only say that they saw Katherine leave
Speaker 1: for St. Petersburg that morning, and that she hadn't returned
Speaker 1: and hadn't sent word. After an hour of frantically running
Speaker 1: from room to room, Peter's chancellor, Michael varon Stove, volunteered
Speaker 1: to ride to the city to find out about Katherine's whereabouts.
Speaker 1: When Michael varn Stove made it to the winter Palace,
Speaker 1: he saw Katherine on the balcony waving to the hordes
Speaker 1: of people below, cheering her name, cheering for Russia, for
Speaker 1: their new monarch. It didn't take Michael too long to
Speaker 1: understand what he was seeing. What about your husband, he sputtered.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't take up arms against your husband. Katherine only mild,
Speaker 1: She gestured back at the screaming crowd outside her palace window,
Speaker 1: a sound that roared along with the echoing of the
Speaker 1: church bells, which had been tolling for her all afternoon.
Speaker 1: Give your message to them, sir, she replied, I only obey.
Speaker 1: Mcalvern Stove promptly returned to his home, where he wrote
Speaker 1: Catherine a letter celebrating the inevitability of her ascension to
Speaker 1: sovereign Empress and politely asking permission to formally retire and
Speaker 1: disappear off forever into seclusion, which he then did. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Peter still searched the empty rooms at peter Hof for
Speaker 1: his missing wife, not believing the servants when they told
Speaker 1: him that she was actually gone. I can't believe she
Speaker 1: would do this to me, he fumed, Ruining my moment,
Speaker 1: ruining my name, day, ruining my night. He turned to
Speaker 1: his mistress and exhaled, didn't I tell you she was
Speaker 1: capable of anything. Peter the third was not right about
Speaker 1: very much, but he was right about that. I'm Dana
Speaker 1: Schwartz and this is noble blood. One evening, a few
Speaker 1: years after they were married, but before Peter Ulrich ascended
Speaker 1: to the throne as Peter the Third, Katherine entered the
Speaker 1: chamber of her husband to find him playing with toys.
Speaker 1: A dead rat was hanging from the wall. The two
Speaker 1: of them still hadn't produced an air, and the failure
Speaker 1: had begun to weigh on Katherine. She saw it reflected
Speaker 1: in the faces of courtiers and in the snide comments
Speaker 1: and increasingly cruel outbursts of the Empress Elizabeth. Creating an
Speaker 1: air a clear dynastic legacy was the only reason Elizabeth
Speaker 1: plucked Katherine out from her minor Prussian family to bring
Speaker 1: her to Russia to marry her nephew in the first place.
Speaker 1: The two of them, Katherine and Peter, had been married
Speaker 1: for seven years, and there were still murmurs that the
Speaker 1: marriage was unconsummated. When Katherine opened the doors to their
Speaker 1: chambers that day, she could barely walk without disturbing her
Speaker 1: husband's intricate toy soldier military maneuvers. Though he was the
Speaker 1: future Emperor of Russia, all of his toy soldiers and
Speaker 1: Peter himself, we're wearing the blue of the Holstein military uniform.
Speaker 1: Peter had come to Russia as Empress Elizabeth's heir when
Speaker 1: he was thirteen, but he never gave up his obsession
Speaker 1: with the memory of his homeland, nor his childish fixation
Speaker 1: on the Prussian King Frederick the third. The toy soldiers
Speaker 1: were in their intricate lines, but Katherine couldn't stop looking
Speaker 1: at the hanging rat, a string noose wrapped around its neck.
Speaker 1: Why did you do that to the rat, Catherine asked.
Speaker 1: Peter didn't look up from the regiment that he was
Speaker 1: rearranging on the floor. He was hanged after a military
Speaker 1: tribunal found him guilty for treason. Katherine was silent, so
Speaker 1: Peter continued. I found him climbing up the rampart invasion.
Speaker 1: He ate two of my soldiers. Catherine stared at the rath,
Speaker 1: hanged by a string loop, its tiny eyes open and bulging,
Speaker 1: a small bloom of a red tongue protruding from its mouth.
Speaker 1: Playing with toy soldiers was the closest Peter ever came
Speaker 1: to military service. Peter spent every night in Catherine's bed,
Speaker 1: but as soon as the lights were out, he would
Speaker 1: pull from beneath the mattress a box of soldiers. He'd
Speaker 1: arrange on the bed sheets, playing for hours, spreading them
Speaker 1: across the dubai until Catherine couldn't move without disturbing them.
Speaker 1: Early in their marriage, she had tried to please Peter,
Speaker 1: to appease his whims and childishness by listening to him
Speaker 1: and opening her heart to his complaints. He rewarded her
Speaker 1: by telling her on their wedding night that he was
Speaker 1: in love with one of her ladies in waiting, and
Speaker 1: spending next half a dozen years treating Catherine like a
Speaker 1: wearisome acquaintance, forcing her to listen to his middling violin recitals,
Speaker 1: and making her stand guard an oppression uniform when he
Speaker 1: wanted to play toy soldiers with human beings. That incident
Speaker 1: with the rat reveals just about how seriously. Peter took
Speaker 1: military justice. A rat that to paper machee soldiers was
Speaker 1: sentenced to death, and as the future Emperor, he was judge,
Speaker 1: jury and executioner. Catherine knew Peter well enough that upon
Speaker 1: seeing the scene, she couldn't say what she was thinking,
Speaker 1: so instead she went back and wrote it with a
Speaker 1: sly smile in her own memoirs. Maybe the rat had
Speaker 1: committed treason, but it hadn't been allowed to speak in
Speaker 1: its own defense. On its own behalf. Even pitiable creatures,
Speaker 1: Catherine thought, should be permitted a chance to save themselves.
Speaker 1: That was the key difference between Catherine and Peter. Catherine
Speaker 1: understood that, and power wasn't something confined to silly play
Speaker 1: acting in private chambers, and that's why less than a
Speaker 1: year after her husband Peter took the throne as Emperor
Speaker 1: Peter the Third, she would usurp him, becoming the Empress
Speaker 1: of Russia, the figure that would pull Russia into the
Speaker 1: modern age. Peter loved toys, but Katherine knew how to
Speaker 1: play the game. Though her fiance remained indifferent to her,
Speaker 1: the entire Russian Empire fell in love with the future
Speaker 1: Katherine the Great when she was unconscious in her bed chamber.
Speaker 1: Back then, she was just Sophia, a young German princess
Speaker 1: brought to Russia to marry the Archduke Peter Elra. She
Speaker 1: wouldn't become a Katarina or Katherine until she was baptized
Speaker 1: in the Russian Orthodox Church, when she would be given
Speaker 1: a new name, a new Russian identity. But unlike her
Speaker 1: fiance Peter, the young Sophia devoted herself to learning all
Speaker 1: that she could about the new country to which she
Speaker 1: now belonged. She begged her Russian tutors for longer lessons,
Speaker 1: and then spent the evenings pacing the icy stone floors
Speaker 1: of the Palace in St. Petersburg, studying. That's how she
Speaker 1: got sick, walking barefoot in the cold in her flimsy
Speaker 1: night dress, her eyes straining to make out the letters
Speaker 1: by candle light. Her servants had seen her, and when
Speaker 1: she got sick, the whisper of Sophia's devotion spread quickly
Speaker 1: throughout the palace. When Sophia's illness worsened, and when it
Speaker 1: seemed as though she was close to death, her mother
Speaker 1: inquired about bringing in a Lutheran pastor for her final rights.
Speaker 1: Why would you call a Lutheran? Sophia chirped from her bed,
Speaker 1: still too weak to sit upright. Instead, she asked for
Speaker 1: her tutor in the Russian Orthodoxy. Words spread quickly. There
Speaker 1: had been doubts about bringing in a German princess to
Speaker 1: marry the heir to the Russian throne, whether a foreigner
Speaker 1: would accept Russian culture and language, or whether she would
Speaker 1: always be secretly loyal to her homeland over all else.
Speaker 1: After Sophia's illness, there were no more doubts. Sophia was
Speaker 1: just a minor princess from a middling family, but Russia,
Speaker 1: she understood, was her great opportunity. She devoted herself to
Speaker 1: the land, its language, its people, and its religion. Even
Speaker 1: if her husband never really loved her, Russia would she
Speaker 1: would leave Sophia behind entirely and walk into history as Katherine.
Speaker 1: When embrass Elizabeth, the woman who had named her nephew
Speaker 1: Peter as her heir and selected Catherine to be his bride, died,
Speaker 1: Catherine sat respectfully in mourning throughout the entire funeral, While
Speaker 1: Peter couldn't resist rolling his eyes and walking around the church.
Speaker 1: He refused to kneel or say the prayers, murmuring the
Speaker 1: entire time that the Russian Orthodox Church was ridiculous. Though
Speaker 1: he had technically converted, Peter never gave up his conviction
Speaker 1: that Lutheranism was far superior to the as he saw them,
Speaker 1: primitive and frivolous traditions of the Russian religion. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't just his religion that worried the noblemen about their
Speaker 1: brand new emperor, and for Peter the Third was almost
Speaker 1: thirty four years old and still acting like a child
Speaker 1: in almost every way, not limited to his lack of
Speaker 1: interest in his wife. During Elizabeth's funeral procession, Peter was
Speaker 1: tasked with walking behind the casket, wearing a long formal
Speaker 1: black robe with a long train carried by elder noblemen.
Speaker 1: During the procession, Peter would slow down, letting the coffin
Speaker 1: pull a distance in front of him, then stop entirely,
Speaker 1: letting it pull ahead even further. Then all at once,
Speaker 1: Peter would sprint up ahead to catch up, causing the
Speaker 1: elderly nobleman at his train to he even pant and
Speaker 1: ultimately give up, letting the rope flap in the wind
Speaker 1: behind the giggling emperor. He repeated this routine. Several times,
Speaker 1: even foolishness could have been forgiven, though, if Peter didn't
Speaker 1: still seem loyal to Prussia and Frederick the Third over Russia,
Speaker 1: the country of which he had just been made emperor.
Speaker 1: Russia had been fighting and winning the Seven Years War
Speaker 1: against Prussia with the help of their Austrian allies, but
Speaker 1: with Elizabeth barely cold in the ground, Peter declared that
Speaker 1: the war would be over and that there would be peace,
Speaker 1: and all of the victories Russia had made, all of
Speaker 1: the spoils of war that the Russian soldiers were finally
Speaker 1: enjoying after years of battle, would be returned to Prussia.
Speaker 1: The soldiers were dumbfounded, Russia's allies were flabbergasted, and, as
Speaker 1: if to add insult to injury, Peter insisted that his
Speaker 1: elite regiments where not the traditional Russian military uniform but
Speaker 1: the tight fitting Prussian costumes that he had always personally preferred.
Speaker 1: He further humiliated his officers by forcing them to act
Speaker 1: out the soldier drills he had once perfected with his toys,
Speaker 1: and so Peter's long suffering wife, the charming, slender, good
Speaker 1: looking Catherine, who had worked so hard to learn Russian,
Speaker 1: who by that point had already born Peter a son
Speaker 1: and an heir. Well she became a martyr, it didn't
Speaker 1: matter that the son's paternity might be in dispute, and
Speaker 1: for the record, the paternity of her next two children
Speaker 1: would not be in dispute. There was no dispute necessary.
Speaker 1: They weren't Peter's. It didn't matter. No, the nation loved
Speaker 1: Catherine in all the ways they hated Peter, and when
Speaker 1: Peter forced his wife to pin the ribbon of the
Speaker 1: Order of St. Catherine on the gown of his dull
Speaker 1: and common boorish mistress, the nation fell further in love
Speaker 1: with her. It's a cliche to point out that someone
Speaker 1: is so shorted that they failed to see what's in
Speaker 1: run of their own nose. But Peter was so shortsighted
Speaker 1: he completely failed to see the woman he was married to.
Speaker 1: He knew she was there, but he didn't know who
Speaker 1: she was. Within six months of Peter taking the throne,
Speaker 1: plans for a coup began to take shape with Katherine
Speaker 1: as she conspired with her lover Gregory Orlov and Orlov's
Speaker 1: brother Alexei. Both of them were well liked and high
Speaker 1: ranking soldiers and Russian forces. The Orlov brothers had been
Speaker 1: convertly converting soldiers to Katherine's cause, sharing bottles of wine
Speaker 1: and messages of her benevolence and wisdom. Catherine just needed
Speaker 1: to garner the support of a few other key statesmen, which,
Speaker 1: given her husband's general incompetence, wasn't difficult. Next, they just
Speaker 1: needed to plan when they would make their strike, But
Speaker 1: as it happens, they didn't get to make that choice.
Speaker 1: A soldier who had heard about the coming coup asked
Speaker 1: an officer if the rumors were true, whether Catherine had
Speaker 1: been taken into custody and the planned revolt was over.
Speaker 1: The rumor was not true, and the officer that the
Speaker 1: soldier happened to ask was not involved in the coup.
Speaker 1: He promptly had the soldier and his superior officer arrested.
Speaker 1: As soon as the conspirators got word of the arrests,
Speaker 1: they knew the clock had begun ticking. It was only
Speaker 1: a matter of time before the soldiers were tortured and
Speaker 1: turned over more names. It had to be now. The
Speaker 1: officer who had made the arrests sent a message to
Speaker 1: Emperor Peter at Iranian bomb warning him of the conspiracy.
Speaker 1: Peter dismissed the message and began practicing his violin. Later,
Speaker 1: a second messenger came bearing news of even more unrest
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg. Peter, who hated to be disturbed when
Speaker 1: he was playing his violin, asked the messenger to leave
Speaker 1: the note on a small table for him to look
Speaker 1: at later. He never did like a proverbial nero, He
Speaker 1: literally fiddled as his empire crumbled around him. Alexei or
Speaker 1: Love rode from St. Petersburg to Peterhof, where Katherine was staying,
Speaker 1: to alert the Empress that the revolution was beginning. He
Speaker 1: arrived at five am and opened the curtains to let
Speaker 1: the light in. Matuchka, He said, little mother, the time
Speaker 1: has come. Wordlessly, Catherine emerged from her bed and threw
Speaker 1: on the nearest clothes she could find, a simple black dress.
Speaker 1: Applying no makeup or powder to her hair, she knew
Speaker 1: that there was no time to waste. She and Alexei
Speaker 1: began their ride back to St. Petersburg and his carriage,
Speaker 1: but the horses were still tired for making the journey
Speaker 1: from there that morning. Fortunately, they happened to pass a
Speaker 1: peasant farmer in his cart. They begged and emptied the
Speaker 1: coins in their pockets, and the farmer agreed to swap horses,
Speaker 1: so Alexey and Catherine contin nude on their frantic journey
Speaker 1: to the city, with two fresh farm horses leading the way.
Speaker 1: With the Orlov brothers by her side, Katherine stood before
Speaker 1: the guard regiments outside St. Petersburg and said that she
Speaker 1: was forced to take on the mantle of Empress for
Speaker 1: love of the Russian people and the Russian Church. The
Speaker 1: men cheered, their colonel, who was loyal to Katherine, kissed her,
Speaker 1: hen the chaplain blessed her. There thus began an afternoon
Speaker 1: of regiments, one by one declaring their loyalty for Katherine,
Speaker 1: culminating in her heroic march to the Winter Palace, where
Speaker 1: the archbishop blessed her and declared her to be Sovereign
Speaker 1: Empress Katherine. The second senior regiments shed the Prussian uniforms
Speaker 1: that Peter had forced them to wear and put on
Speaker 1: as many of their old Russian uniforms as they could find.
Speaker 1: They arrested the few officers who didn't support the new Empress.
Speaker 1: Katherine had St. Petersburg, the Senate, and the Church behind her.
Speaker 1: She had the crowds, but victory wasn't complete. Peter was
Speaker 1: still alive, was still miles away somewhere, convinced that he
Speaker 1: was still the emperor. He still had the loyalty of
Speaker 1: his army back in Holstein and at least temporarily a
Speaker 1: fleet at the island naval base of Kronstadt. It had
Speaker 1: been a long day, but it wasn't over yet. Catherine
Speaker 1: would need to capture her husband before she would truly
Speaker 1: become the sovereign leader of Russia. Peter first got word
Speaker 1: that something regarding his wife was going on in St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg from the man on the barge delivering fireworks to
Speaker 1: peter Hoff Palace for the scheduled gala that night. At
Speaker 1: nine am, when the fireworks man was leaving St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: there were rumors going around that soldiers were declaring Catherine
Speaker 1: to be the empress. But then it was time for
Speaker 1: the fireworks man to leave and come deliver his fireworks,
Speaker 1: so he didn't hear anything else. But then word began
Speaker 1: to trickle in and Peter surrounded himself with advisers debating
Speaker 1: what to do. Someone sent a messenger to Kronstadt, the
Speaker 1: naval base, to make sure that the fortress was still
Speaker 1: loyal to Peter. In the meantime, they dug up a
Speaker 1: Russian military uniform and had Peter change out of the
Speaker 1: Prussian one that he was wearing. One faction of advisors
Speaker 1: told Peter that he should march into Saint Petersburg in
Speaker 1: full military regalia and remind people of their loyalty to
Speaker 1: the emperor. Another faction advised Peter to go seventy miles
Speaker 1: to the west, away from the city, to meet up
Speaker 1: with a larger group of soldiers that he could lead back.
Speaker 1: A third faction, perhaps the wisest faction, advised Peter just
Speaker 1: to retreat to the safety of Holstein, the soon to
Speaker 1: be former Emperor. Peter, in classic Peter fashion, did nothing,
Speaker 1: but good news arrived. The messenger who had been sent
Speaker 1: to Kronstad returned with word that it was still loyal
Speaker 1: to the Emperor. The messenger was half right. The fortress
Speaker 1: had been loyal to Peter when the messenger got there,
Speaker 1: but in the few hours since he left and returned
Speaker 1: to Peter half the admiral of the Russian navy, loyal
Speaker 1: to Catherine, had arrived and taken command of the fortress personally.
Speaker 1: All of the soldiers inside had followed his lead all
Speaker 1: the while. In Saint Petersburg, Catherine changed into a borrowed
Speaker 1: military uniform and began to lead her guards out of
Speaker 1: the city on a white stallion. The only part of
Speaker 1: the uniform that she was missing was a sword knot
Speaker 1: and impertinently, a young soldier of twenty two rode up
Speaker 1: to the empress and handed her his own. She asked
Speaker 1: his name, Gregory Petempken, he said, bowing before quickly returning
Speaker 1: to his ranks. Catherine would remember that name. With very
Speaker 1: few options, Peter got into a boat with his mistress
Speaker 1: and sailed for a fort that he thought would be safe.
Speaker 1: When they arrived at Cronstadt, they found the entrance to
Speaker 1: the harbor closed. Peter stood on the deck of the ship.
Speaker 1: Don't you recognize your emperor, He shouted at the guards.
Speaker 1: We have no emperor. The guards shouted back, long live
Speaker 1: Empress Catherine. The second. Peter's boat retreated back towards Iranian Baum,
Speaker 1: where he quickly composed a letter apologizing to his wife
Speaker 1: for everything he had done wrong in their marriage and
Speaker 1: the way he had treated her, and generously offering to
Speaker 1: share the throne with her. Catherine received the message, and,
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century version of leaving him on read,
Speaker 1: sent no reply. Peter wrote a second time, offering his
Speaker 1: abdication if only he could bring his mistress with him
Speaker 1: to the safety of Holstein. This time Catherine sent word
Speaker 1: back that she would agree if she got the abdication
Speaker 1: in writing, which he did, Peter declared himself incapable of
Speaker 1: ruling and officially renowned the throne of Usha for eternity.
Speaker 1: Catherine's guards captured Peter and his mistress and brought them
Speaker 1: in an old carriage back to peter Hoff, where they
Speaker 1: said goodbye for the final time. The next day, Peter
Speaker 1: was spirited off to Ropsha, a summer house of states
Speaker 1: some fourteen miles away that Peter selected for his own
Speaker 1: temporary safe keeping while rooms were being prepared for him
Speaker 1: at a more permanent fortress. Though he was a prisoner,
Speaker 1: Katherine did her best to make his stay comfortable. When
Speaker 1: he wrote to her, Katherine had Peter's own four poster
Speaker 1: bed from Iranian bomb sent to him by carriage so
Speaker 1: he could at least get a good night's sleep. But
Speaker 1: just eight days after the coup that put his wife
Speaker 1: on the imperial throne of Russia. Peter the third was dead,
Speaker 1: killed in a drunken brawl or in a vert assassination
Speaker 1: by the men assigned to be his guards men, which
Speaker 1: included Alexei or Love, the brother of Catherine's lover Gregory.
Speaker 1: There's no evidence that Katherine knew about the murder beforehand,
Speaker 1: and she did seem genuinely shocked hearing of it, but
Speaker 1: it was convenient that Peter was dead. Nonetheless, though he
Speaker 1: had been strangled, Catherine had the doctors declare that Peter
Speaker 1: had died of hemorrhoidal colic, just to keep things simple
Speaker 1: so people wouldn't ask too many questions. Since Peter had
Speaker 1: never formally been crowned emperor, he wasn't permitted to lie
Speaker 1: in the Fortress Cathedral, where the consecrated emperors and empresses
Speaker 1: of Russia were buried, so instead his remains were placed
Speaker 1: in the Nevsky Monastery. But first Catherine prudently decided to
Speaker 1: display the body to the public so they would know
Speaker 1: that the former emperor was actually dead, that he wasn't
Speaker 1: still secretly alive somewhere waiting to reclaim power. A giant,
Speaker 1: three cornered hat covered most of the corpses swollen face
Speaker 1: and a wide cravat circled the neck to cover what
Speaker 1: might have been bruising from strangling. And of course, Peter's
Speaker 1: body was put in the blue Holstein uniform that he
Speaker 1: had so cherished during his lifetime, so that even in death,
Speaker 1: people who saw his body would remember that he had
Speaker 1: been at heart a foreigner all along. Catherine may not
Speaker 1: have been born in Russia, but she was one of them.
Speaker 1: That's the story of Catherine the Great's rise to power.
Speaker 1: But keep listening for a brief debunking of one of
Speaker 1: history's most pervasive rumors about her. This part verges on sexual.
Speaker 1: So if there are extremely young children listening with you,
Speaker 1: and you don't want now to be the moment that
Speaker 1: you have to explain the concept of beast reality, it's
Speaker 1: probably best that they stopped listening about ten seconds ago. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I had to do it. I had to
Speaker 1: bring up the terrible, everlasting, decades long, century long rumor
Speaker 1: that Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, who wrote
Speaker 1: letters with Voltaire and brought the Enlightenment to her empire,
Speaker 1: died having sex with her horse. She didn't the historians
Speaker 1: tend to paint Catherine the Great as an incredibly sexual
Speaker 1: person thanks to a handful of love affairs that she
Speaker 1: had with younger men when she was empress. Like many
Speaker 1: women in power, a number of rumors then circulated about
Speaker 1: her to try to undermine and discredit her consensual relationships
Speaker 1: with the young men. Yes, horses now. Catherine the Great
Speaker 1: died of a stroke when she was sixty seven years
Speaker 1: old in her bed at the Winter Palace. Rarely in
Speaker 1: this podcast is the truth less fun than fiction, And
Speaker 1: I take no pleasure in reporting a fairly standard end
Speaker 1: to an extraordinary figure if it cushions the blow here's something.
Speaker 1: Although she did make it to her bed before her
Speaker 1: actual death, some historians say that the stroke she suffered
Speaker 1: before she actually occurred while she was on the toilet.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. The show is written and hosted by Dana
Speaker 1: Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at
Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the
Speaker 1: show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts,
Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: M