Did Catherine the Great Kill Her Husband?
Historians have long urged Peter III of Russia's death was once ordered via his spouse. But did Catherine the Great actually kill her husband?
History has a lot of chilly instances, even amongst the nobles, and one in every of the largest unsolved mysteries in royal history involves the loss of life of Russia's Peter III, who, only six months after becoming emperor, used to be overthrown in a military coup led by way of his wife, the Empress Consort Catherine. Shortly after his ouster, he was useless, and history still hasn't decided for sure who's answerable for Peter III of Russia's death.
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So, did Catherine the Great kill her husband?
There's no question Catherine used to be in the back of the coup that ended in her husband's overthrow and her eventual coronation as Empress Yekaterina Alekseyevna Romanova, aka Catherine II. And there's additionally no question Catherine despised her husband in existence and did not mourn his dying. Her memoirs said as a lot, as early as their betrothal when she used to be most effective 10, and her feelings toward Peter didn't thaw once they married.
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Catherine found the prince infantile and loathsome, at the same time as an adult. She kept to her side of the fort and he his. While they had two kids, Paul and Anna, the paternity of both has been wondered all through history, with experts feeling almost certain Anna was once not his.
The consensus is less clear on Paul. Catherine implied in her diaries that Peter used to be now not the father, however moderately it was once the first of her many enthusiasts, Sergei Saltykov. However, many felt the long term emperor used to be too like Peter in looks and temperament to not be his son.
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After Peter's coronation following the dying of his predecessor and aunt, Empress Elizabeth, Catherine quickly noticed that the Russian other people were not in love with their new monarch. He had a great admiration for Prussian King Frederick, and making an allowance for Russia and Prussia have been on opposing facets of the Seven Years' War, that was once a decidedly unhealthy look.
Though Catherine was once just as Prussian as her husband by way of beginning, she endeared herself to Russians by means of converting to Russian Orthodoxy, studying the Russian language, and normally making herself as Russian as vodka.
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On July 8, 1762, Peter found out his spouse's plot to overthrow him and had one of Catherine's co-conspirators arrested. The next day, the empress consort delivered a speech asking the Russian Army to protect her from Peter. Then she had a Russian Orthodox clergy ordain her as the sole ruler of Russia. She ordered her husband arrested and then forced him to abdicate the throne to her, which would save you one in all the many conceivable challengers to the throne from ascending.
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Here's why the dying of Peter III remains a mystery.
Peter was exiled to his palace at Ropsha, and that may have been that — most effective he was once discovered lifeless eight days later. The cause of his death, in step with the post-mortem, used to be "hemorrhoidal colic" and an "apoplexy stroke," which historian Simon Sebag Montefiore known as "an absurd diagnosis." Considering the post-mortem used to be performed underneath Catherine's supervision, it is no wonder people query its legitimacy.
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One theory is that Peter was killed via Alexei Orlov, the more youthful brother of Catherine's lover and top conspirator, Grigory Orlov. The principle seems to be supported via the indisputable fact that Catherine later gave the estate to Grigory. However, additionally it is imaginable that Peter — who used to be known to drink a lot and who was once, according to recent accounts, doing relatively a large number of it after the coup — were given right into a drunken brawl and succumbed to his accidents. It's no longer like he used to be a well-liked man, so it is believable.
Either manner, Catherine benefitted, however it didn't utterly protected her reign, and there is no question she ordered the assassination of one in every of her potential rivals, Ivan VI. This effectively ended a coup that sought to overthrow her and securing her reign till her dying in 1796.
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