Catherine the Great, Tsarina of Russia, Part 1

queens of europe catherine the great of russia part 1 thank you to expressvpn for sponsoring this video catherine the great Zarina of Russia clawed her way from child bride to mighty monarch by having her husband deposed and murdered she lived her life her own way taking lovers as she pleased and dragging Russia kicking and screaming into the modern era catherine was born princess Sophie Augusta Frederika on may 2nd 1729 in etting Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia in what is now Poland her father Prince Christian Auguste was a general and younger brother of the childless prince who ruled the modest region of Anheuser her mother Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein goat herb was the seventh of ten children of a much more illustrious Prussian family her elder siblings went on to prestigious positions and marriages one of her brothers became King of Sweden however Johanna was pawned off in marriage at just 15 - Christian August 22 years her senior after her upbringing in the glittering court of Brunswick Johanna found married life to a middle-aged man in a small and sombre town to be a great downfall she was deeply disappointed by the birth of her first child Sophie the labor was difficult nearly killing her and left her bedridden for months if she had given birth to a son her position in the family would have improved significantly but she felt a mere daughter was hardly worth the agony you Anna showed a strong preference for her sons and made it clear to young Sophie what a disappointment she was despite the lack of maternal love the princess showed intelligence and confidence beyond her years when presented to the future king frederick the great at the age of four she was told to kiss his hand and she instead demanded that he bow down to her so that she could reach Frederick was so tickled by this event that he never forgot the impressive child as she grew Sophie received her education from a French governess as was the fashion at the time she was groomed for what was considered her ultimate possible ambition to be a wife and improve the position of her family through a good match and she bagged a husband who far exceeded her impoverished families ambitions her mother received a letter from the czarina of Russia inviting her and her eldest daughter to the imperial court for a visit Zarina Elizabeth desired to make a marriage alliance for her heir Peter with Prussia at the cost of the Austrian Empire and King Frederick of Prussia having no children of his own promoted his subjects Sophie who had so impressed him as a child Sophie first met her future husband Peter when they were 10 and 11 she found him detestable she disliked his pale complexion his fondness for alcohol at such a young age and that he still played with toy soldiers but personal distaste is a mere bump on the track in the path of the free train of 18th century political marriage sophie was moved to Russia at 15 she determined that despite her personal feelings she would do whatever was necessary to ingratiate herself to the czarina her new fiance and the Russian people in order to be qualified to wear the crown in preparation for her marriage Princess Sophie it was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and given the Russian name Yekaterina alekseevna commonly anglicized to catherine she learned the Russian language with great zeal and would often stay up all night pacing her bedroom and repeating her lessons as a result she could speak perfect Russian with a slight accent and also fell ill with pneumonia and nearly died in her delirium her mother asked her if she wanted a priest to which Catherine replied I don't want any Lutheran I want my Orthodox father this act of loyalty to her new religion deeply impressed Zarina Elizabeth Catherine credited her miraculous recovery to bloodletting on one occasion being drained four times in a single day after a year of grooming Catherine and Peter were Wed on August 21st 1745 the couple did not get on well Peter had also been brought up in Prussia until his childless aunt Zarina Elizabeth had called him to Russia to be her air unlike Catherine who embraced her new homeland Peter hated the country he was destined to rule and pretty much despised everything and everyone else including Catherine whom he abused physically verbally and psychologically he lacked intelligence and maturity and still enjoyed staging battles with his toy soldiers on one occasion Catherine found a rat hanging from a makeshift gallows in their bedroom her husband explained that the rodent had committed treason and would hang there for three days as an example it's easy to cast Peter as an inept villain in Catherine's story but it is important to note that he was a deeply disturbed young man having suffered years of abuse at the hands of his own tutor and Guardian while Peter grew to be detested by the court Catherine grew more and more loved by contrast though no great beauty she was witty and charming always ready with the perfect quip or complement for any situation she treated her servants as kindly as her equals Peter would often demand servants perform military drills for his amusement all day and the same men would spend their evenings singing and joking with Catherine after 8 long years together Catherine and Peter had never consummated their unhappy marriage historians argue whether this was due to impotence on peter's part or the couple's complete lack of attraction to one another either way catherine received a stern letter from serena elizabeth reminding her that it was her duty to produce an heir and hinting that she needed to get pregnant as soon as possible by any means necessary so at 24 catherine began an affair with tall dark and handsome army officer sergei koltakov sadly catherine suffered several miscarriages before finally giving birth to her son Paul in an arduous labor as soon as the new heir was born Serena Elizabeth took him away from his mother to raise him herself Catherine was left alone and ignored bedridden for weeks while Elizabeth and Peter celebrated the birth Catherine was heartbroken but she was made of strong stuff she made good use of her convalescence expanding her mind by consuming french enlightenment philosophy she began a correspondence with Voltaire and though the two never met they continued a close friendship via letter for the rest of his life she then moved on to ancient Roman philosopher Tacitus who influenced her greatly with his understanding of power politics and his argument that you should never trust a person's professed motivations but instead look for their hidden self-interest when she was well enough to return to court she came back as a powerful force she crashed her husband's birthday party and wearing the finest regalia snubbed everyone who had ignored her or who tried to get in her way she had bent over backwards to be a good and obedient wife and daughter-in-law and that had gotten her nothing but misery so she carved a new position for herself at court and built up a network of allies informants and spies she also took several strategic lovers including Stanislaw Poniatowski who likely fathered her second child Anna while Catherine was in labour her husband Peter who was well aware the child wasn't his sat by her bed and drunk out of his mind taunted and threatened Catherine saying he could do anything he wanted to her baby Anna was once again snatched away by Serena Elizabeth and though Catherine rarely saw her she was devastated when the baby died at just 15 months old at the funeral Peter told Catherine that her daughter was in hell in 1762 Serena Elizabeth died and Peter and Catherine were crowned Tsar and Tsarina of Russia the nudes are spent his coronation openly celebrating his aunt's death he still hated Russia and loved Prussia and presently the two nations were fighting against each other in the Seven Years War Russia was on the brink of victory but the nudes are handed his idol Frederick the Great a generous peace treaty and gave back much of the land Russian soldiers had died to win to add insult to injury the Tsar wore a Prussian military uniform and changed the color of the Russian Army's coats from green to Prussian blue Peter took every opportunity to humiliate his wife as well dragging her out in public and trying to force her to confess that their son was illegitimate Peters reign of terror and madness steeled Catherine's resolved that she would never be safe unless she got rid of her husband Catherine's new lover Grigory Orlov was everything her husband was not a popular war hero he and his brother Alexei represented a strong faction at court Catherine gave birth to a son Alexei who was most likely fathered by Orlov six months into Peter's reign Catherine and the Orlov brothers hatched a plot to overthrow him Catherine wrote out in a green army uniform and met with troops who were loyal to her they're members of the clergy ordained her as the one true occupant of the Russian throne she gathered support from the military and the public who hated the Czar and before long all of Moscow was behind her she rode to the palace at the head of the army and had her husband arrested he fell on his knees at her mercy and signed his abdication he was delighted at the prospect of leaving Russia and returning to his beloved Prussia but Catherine had no intention of handing him over to her enemy where he might gain support to rise against her she had him placed under house arrest eight days later he was dead officially due to a bout of hemorrhoids but more likely he was strangled by order of his wife's lover or loss in part to will see Catherine blossom out from under the shadow of her malignant husband will learn how well she stuck with her Enlightenment ideals one since Const on the throne and about her infamous reputation as a prolific lover Catherine the Great had to be tough and outsmart her enemies to protect herself back in the 18th century and the best 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Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 578,929

Rating: 4.9371071 out of 5

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, nobility, royalty, sex, bbc, the crown, murder, royal wedding, pregnancy, feminist, women, europe, historic costumes, bride, pincess, royal marriage, marie antoinette, empress, russia, 18th century, 1700s, scandal, russian history, tsarina, Catherine the great, catherine ii of russia, tsar peter iii, hulu the great, romanov, revolution, enlightenment, frederick the great, lovers, horse, adultery, elle fanning, nicholas hoult, 1700, queen, badass, maria theresa

Id: YzlyW9pLOUo

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020