Elizabeth, Empress of Russia

Elizaveta Petrovna, empress of Russia (born 29 December 1709)

For most of the eighteenth century, the Russian empire was ruled not by a series of emperors but by four empresses: 

• Catherine I was the empress consort of Peter the Great. After his death, she ruled, briefly, as empress in her own right, from 8 February 1725 until 17 May 1727, about sixteen months. 
• Anna of Russia, Peter the Great's niece, was empress of Russia from 30 January 1730 until her death, 28 October 1740. After her death, she was succeeded--briefly--by her grandnephew, Ivan VI, but the one-year-old was overthrown rather quickly by Catherine I's daughter, Elizabeth.
• Elizabeth was empress of Russia for some twenty years, from 6 December 1741 until 5 January 1762.
• Catherine II of Russia--Catherine "the Great"--ruled the Russian empire for more than thirty years, from 9 July 1762 until 17 November 1796.

In his essay on portraits of these empresses, John T. Alexander uses the term "Amazon autocratrixes"--love it!!!! The four women all had themselves painted as Amazons and, as Alexander explains "autocratrixes," they "all came to power via palace revolutions of varied sorts" and all four "maintained the idea (or fiction) of autocracy."

The third of these empresses was Elizaveta Petrovna--or, more simply, Elizabeth, born in Moscow in 1709. Because her parents had married secretly in 1707, their marriage only made known publicly in 1712, her legitimacy would later be questioned, her marriage prospects nullified, her right to govern as empress challenged. 

Elizabeth of Russia,
about 1720

Her father, the emperor known as Peter “the Great,” seemed to have cherished an idea that Elizabeth would marry Louis XV of France, and her education, supervised by a French governess, focused on European languages, social skills and etiquette, music, and riding. She was praised as a beauty and for her vivacity.

There is some indication that Elizabeth’s father intended to name his older daughter, Anna, as his successor at the time of his death in 1725 (she had just been betrothed to Charles Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, their marriage taking place just months after the emperor's death). But the emperor had been unable to find a suitable match for his younger daughter, Elizabeth, before he died--perhaps, in part, because of lingering questions about her legitimacy, the Bourbons had rejected the idea of a match with the French Louis.

After the brief reign of Elizabeth's mother, Catherine, as empress of Russia, Elizabeth's half-nephew succeeded as emperor, becoming Peter II. (Catherine had been Peter the Great's second wife--Peter II was Peter the Great's grandson, the child of his son by his first wife.) Although Elizabeth was named as joint regent for Peter II, just twelve at the time, court politics and intrigues kept her from any real power or influence.

But after Peter II's brief reign (1727-30), Elizabeth suffered once Anna Ivanovna assumed the throne of Russia. (Anna's father, Ivan V, had been tsar and co-ruler of Russia with his younger brother, Peter, but their joint rule ended with Peter assuming complete power.)

During Anna's ten year reign as empress of Russia, no marriage possibilities were considered for Elizabeth--so she began a series of affairs. As a result, the Empress Anna threatened to send her to a convent. Elizabeth's finances were cut, and she was kept under surveillance, but during this time she also gathered support.

Anna adopted her eight-week-old grandnephew just days before her death and named him as her successor, the boy becoming Ivan VI. But thirteen months later, Elizabeth staged a coup d’état, removing Ivan and naming herself empress. (The boy and his mother/regent, Anna Leopoldovna, were imprisoned in a fortress near Riga, then exiled. Anna Leopoldovna died in 1746, but Ivan lived into the reign of Catherine the Great--in 1764, after more than twenty years of imprisonment, Ivan was executed after an unsuccessful effort to free him.)

Elizabeth as empress,
1760

Once she became empress, and despite the fact that she had not been trained to rule, Elizabeth's tact, good judgment, and sense of diplomacy ensured her successes. She reorganized the government, refocused Russia's foreign policy, supported educational and cultural developments (under her reign the first university was founded in Russia, and she founded the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences).

She abolished capital punishment, patronized artists, architects, composers, and writers, hosted lavish pageants and parties, and spent a lot of time and money on elaborate clothing, including menswear. 

In her 1970 biography of the empress, historian Tamara Talbot Rice recorded this description of Elizabeth: "the laziest, most extravagant and most amorous of sovereigns." Given all the horrors of so many rulers throughout history, I'd say this assessment wasn't bad, all things considered.

Elizabeth of Russia never married. Well aware that the deposed Ivan VI might be used as a puppet ruler after her death, she selected her nephew, Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, as her heir. He was her sister Anna's son, though Anna had died when the boy was just a few months old, his father when the boy was eleven. In 1742, she proclaimed him heir and brought him to St. Petersburg, where he was given Russian tutors and a bride, his second cousin Sophia Augusta Frederica, who was renamed Catherine.

On her death, Elizabeth was in fact succeeded by her nephew--but Peter III was only emperor of Russia for six months. He was forced to abdicate, succeeded by his wife, Catherine--you know, the one who became Catherine the Great.

There are several well detailed biographical essays about Elizabeth of Russia online, including John T. Alexander's entry from the Encyclopedia of Russian History and Olga Prodan's entry on Elizabeth Petrovna Romanovna from the online Russiapedia.

There are two out-of-print but widely available multiple biographies: Philip Longworth's 1973 The Three Empresses: Catherine I, Anne, and Elizabeth of Russia and Robert Coughan's 1974 Elizabeth and Catherine: Empresses of All the Russias. Rice's seems to be the only individual biography--but used copies are readily available of this as well as of the Longworth and Coughan books.

Catherine the Great

Catherine II, empress of Russia (born 2 May 1729)

A few weeks ago, we noted the birth of the first Catherine to rule Russia as its empress--today we note the birth of the second, the Catherine known as "the Great," who ruled as empress from 9 July 1762 until her death, 17 November 1796.

Catherine about the time of her marriage,
1745, in a portrait by Louis Caravaque

Born Sophia Augusta Fredericka, the daughter of the impoverished German prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, the young princess met her future husband, who would become Peter III, when she was just a child--neither the girl nor her future husband was impressed.

Despite their mutual dislike, the match was made; Sophia Augusta Fredericka's mother wanted a marriage between the two, and the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Peter's aunt, liked the girl, who arrived in Russia in 1744.

Once in Russia, Sophia Augusta Fredericka was determined to do whatever she needed to do in order to become empress of Russia--she devoted herself to the study of Russian, and she converted from Lutheranism to the Eastern Orthodox faith. That's when Sophia Augusta Fredericka became Catherine (or, in Russian, Ekaterina). No matter how little she like her proposed bridegroom, she married him when she was sixteen, on 20 August 1745. Now husband and wife, both took lovers. 

Nevertheless, Catherine gave birth to several children, including a son, Paul, in 1754; three other children, two daughters who did not survive infancy, and a son who did, either were or might have been fathered by various lovers. (There were many pretenders to the Russian throne during and after Catherine's life--the dynastic situation was complicated by, among other things, Catherine's supposed illegitimate children.)

Catherine as "legislator" in 

The Temple of the Goddess of Justice, 1783,

by Dmytry Levytsky

Empress Elizabeth of Russia died on 5 January 1762--by 9 July, Peter III had been removed from the throne in a coup d'etat, his empress consort, Catherine, proclaimed as his successor. Eight days later, on 17 July, Peter was assassinated. Catherine's coronation as empress regnant followed two months later, on 12 September 1762.

Catherine would remain on the throne for more than thirty years--she died at the age of sixty-seven.

Her accomplishments as ruler of Russia were many--for some, her reign represents a "golden age": the country succeeded in territorial expansion to the south and the west; Catherine developed the economy of Russia, particularly in the area of banking; arts and education flourished.

There is a vast literature about Catherine the Great, who is one of the most well-known figures in history, and my own knowledge about her is very limited--but Robert Massie's Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is very well reviewed and has been highly recommended to me. You might be interested in the BBC In Our Time podcast on Catherine the Great--it's a very good introduction. 

Less well known than her political life is her literary life. Catherine found the time to write a huge number of letters; she wrote plays, both comedy and tragedy; she began (but didn't finish) a reply to a French astronomer's less-than-complimentary book, the Voyage en Sibérie, about his travels in Russia; and she completed a work of political theory, The Instruction of Catherine the Great. But you might want to start with her Memoirs, available in a very affordable Modern Library edition.

Catherine of Russia: Rags to Riches

Catherine I, empress of Russia (born 15 April 1684)

She's not the Catherine who is known as "the Great," but Catherine I of Russia is pretty damn great as well. Born to a peasant father, Marta Skowrońska was taken into the home of an educated Lutheran pastor and scholar after she was orphaned--the pastor might also have adopted her--though he offered her no education and she remained illiterate throughout her storied life.

At age seventeen, she was married off to a Swedish dragoon, left behind eight days later when Russian troops overran the town of Marienburg, and taken to Russia, where she worked as either a laundress or as someone's mistress; eventually, having passed through the hands of a number of Russian military men, she wound up in the household of Prince Alexander Menshikov--who might have been her lover and who might have bought her. 

Catherine of Russia,
a portrait from 1717

Those might-haves aside, through Prince Menshikov the young woman met Peter the Great. Born to a Roman Catholic family and raised by a Lutheran pastor, Marta Helena Skowrońska converted to the Greek Orthodox faith, took the name Catherine Alexeyevna, and married the Russian tsar secretly in 1707. (They were married formally in 1712.)

Catherine proved to be a loving and soothing partner for the volatile Peter, a "successful" wife, providing her husband with twelve children (though all but two died in infancy or childhood). She was also a "successful" tsarina--she didn't meddle in governmental affairs. When Peter elevated himself from tsar to emperor in 1724, Catherine became empress consort of Russia. 

After Peter's death in 1725, various political factions decided that it was in their best interest to have Catherine remain on the imperial throne. She was duly named empress in her own right, becoming the first woman to rule Russia. She died after sixteen months as empress, in 1727, just forty-three years old.

While Catherine's powers may have been limited, she set a precedent for female rule in Russia. In 1730, Anna, Peter the Great's niece, reigned as empress of Russia until her death in 1740. She was succeeded by Ivan IV, but the infant was overthrown less than a year later by Catherine's daughter Elizabeth, who became empress of Russia, ruling until until her death in 1762. Empress Elizabeth was succeeded by Peter III--and after six months, he was replaced by his wife, Catherine II, Catherine the Great, who ruled from 1762 until her death in 1796--we'll meet her again, later this year.

Given her improbably successful life, it's surprising that there is no full-length biography of Catherine I of Russia, though there are, of course, biographies of her husband. There is an intriguing group portrait of three Russian empresses, however, Philip Longworth's 1973 The Three Empresses: Catherine I, Anne, and Elizabeth of Russia; the book is out of print, but used copies are readily available.