“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 4-5
Commonplace Book – Pages: 144-145
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 4: Betrothal
- Her and her mother return to Moscow, and she is converted to the Greek Orthodox faith with the help of the Bishop of Psau, Simon Theodorski, on June 28. On St. Peter’s Day she is betrothed to the Grand Duke.
- During her conversion ceremony, the Abbess of the Novodevichi Convent is named as her godmother. Catherine is given the name Sophie of Novogorod. Her ring from the Duke is 12,000 rubles while his is 14,000 rubles.
- The Empress, much later, becomes displeased that Catherine has “contracted so many debts,” or so M. Lestocq tells her. Her mother refuses to help her. Here, she spends money buying things for others, especially her mother, the Grand Duke and Countess Runiantseu.
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 5: Catherine, her Fiance, and Her Mother
- November, 1744: The Grand Duke catches the measles.
- December 18, 1744: The Empress’ birthday is celebrated at Tver.
- December 19, 1744: The Grand Duke faints and catches smallpox.
- Count Gyllenburg recommends that Catherine read “Lives of Great Men” by Plutarch, “the Life of Cicero” and the “Causes of Greatness and Decadence of the Roman Republic” by Montesquieu.
- February, 1745: The Grand Duke returns from Shatilovo, and he is horribly pock-marked, swollen, and his head shaven.
- February 10, 1745: The Grand Duke’s birthday. He is 17.
- The Prince August writes to his sister, Catherine’s mother, that he wants to come to Russia. Her mother knows he wants to gain administration of Holstein so she tells him that “instead of forming a cabal against his brother and joining with the enemies of his sister in Russia he had better enter the service of the Dutch and get killed with honor on the battlefield.” The letter is read by Count Bestujev and the Empress, and Prince August is granted permission to come to Russia.
- Araja: The Empress’ Italian choirmaster; clavichord instructor
- Catherine’s maids (all Russian): Maria Petrovna Jukova (kept the key to the jewels); Fraulein Schenk (kept the linen); Mlle Balior (kept the lace); the elder Skorokhodova (the clothes); the younger Skorokhodova (the ribbons); one of the dwarves (the powder and combs); another dwarf (rouge, hairpins, mouches)
- Her mother, two days after the first week of Lent, takes ill and faints from bloodletting
- May, 1745: The Empress and the Grand Duke go to the Summer Palace. Catherine and her mother stay in a stone building on the Fontanka River. After a few weeks they all move to Peterhof.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 3
Commonplace Book – Pages: 143-144
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 3: Invitation au Voyage (1744)
- Jan 1, 1744: Her mother is invited by the Marshal of the Duke of Holstein’s Court, Brummer, on behalf of the Empress Elizabeth to come to Russia.
- At Court, the Count Bestujev wanted the Grand Duke to marry a Princess of Saxony, daughter of August III, King of Poland. Count Brummer, Count Lestocq, Marshall Rumiantsev, and several others, wanted the Grand Duke to marry one of the daughters of the King of France.
- They then go to Court, and Catherine spends much time, a surprise to everyone, talking to His Majesty at dinner.
- In Mitau, she and her mother meet M. Voejkou, a colonel commanding the Russian troops in Kurland. In Riga, they meet M. Naryshkine, Marshal Lascy and General Saltikov and his wife, Princess Anne of Mecklenburg. Then they go from Dorpat to Narva to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
- Vice Chancellor, Count Bestujev: “more feared than loved”; great intriguer; suspicious; firm; “intrepid in principles”; “occasionally tyrannical”; “an implacable enemy”; petty; loyal to his friends; Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs
- At Court, the Marquis de la Chetardie stood for France, Sweden and Prussia.
- Count Lestocq: “one of the principle actors in the revolution that brought Empress Elizabeth”; crafty; full of malice; “his heart is dark and evil”
- 7-8pm, Feb 9, 1744: They arrive at Annenhof Palace (burnt down in 1753, rebuilt in 6 weeks, burnt down again in 1771 during a plague.) She meets the Prince of Hesse-Homburg (A.D.C., Field-Marshal, Chief of Court)
- Empress Elizabeth: beautiful; majestic; large; stout; smooth and “not embarrassed” in her movements
- February 10: The Grand Duke’s birthday
- Count Rasumouski: Master of the Hunt; “handsome”; Elizabeth’s lover; nicknamed the “Night Emperor”
-Grand Duke: Lutheran; childish; was in love with one of the Empress’ ladies-in-waiting, Mme Lopukhin (she had been involved in a plot to dispose Elizabeth, therefore had her tongue cut out and banished to Siberia); imprudent
-13th day after arrival in Moscow: Catherine catches pleurisy. She shivers violently and goes unconscious with a high fever. Her mother refuses the doctors to bleed her. The Empress finally orders the bleeding. For 27 days she goes in and out and meanwhile is bled 16 times. The “abscess that had formed in my right side” had burst.
-April 21, 1744: Catherine’s birthday. Finally strong enough to appear in public.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 2
Commonplace Book – Pages: 141-143
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 2: The School of Life
- 1739: Visits her uncle, the future King of Sweden and then Bishop of Lubeck. (He was the elder brother of Catherine’s mother, Adolf-Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp.) She also meets the Grand Duke, Peter Fedorovich. (His mother was the daughter of Peter the Great and died of consumption two months after his birth. Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein was his father. When he died, Peter was left in the care of Catherine’s uncle.)
- Peter Fedorovich: good-looking; well-mannered; 11 yrs old at this time; courteous; pale; delicate; deceitful and hypocritical; “great inclination for drink”; hot-tempered; rebellious; disliked his tutors; Catherine doesn’t repugn the idea of marrying him
- 8 yrs old onwards: Catherine’s mother often takes her to Brunswick, to visit the Duchess of Brunswick-Luneburg. (She lived to be 80, and died in 1767 or 1768.) In Brunswick she meets “the famous grandmother of the Duke Charles.”
- Bolhagen: Vice-Governor to her father; adviser; intimate friend; Johanna-Elizabeth didn’t like him; extremely thrifty
- 1736: Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Catherine’s second cousin, married the Prince of Wales, son of George II of England.
- Princess Hedwig-Sophie-Augusta: Her mother’s elder sister; Mother Superior of Quedinburg; loves dogs, especially ‘mops’ (a kind of pug); owned 16 dogs at least and a large number of parrots; small in stature; stout; wrote in French and German
- Aunt, father’s sister: over 50; very tall; thin; a heavily corseted waist; maintained that
- “The winter of 1740 was a very hard one; it was compared to that of 1709, the coldest in the memory of man.”
- 1740: Anne, Empress of Russia dies, and shortly after Charles VI, Emperor of the Romans
- 1742: In Stettin, her father has a stroke, “which affected all his left side.” After his recovery, they go to an observation camp near Brandenburg and to Dornburg. Her brother dies, age 12.
- Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau: Commander; his wife, daughter of an apothecary; his daughters, Princess Wilhelmine and Princess Henriette
- 1745: A second daughter dies, age 3. Her father’s second cousin, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Johann-August dies as well.
- 1743: Her family goes on a tour of Jever, and then onto Varel (both in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.) In Varel, her family stays with the mother of Countess Bentinck.
- Countess Bentinck: Rode astride; Catherine (14) becomes very attached which displeases her parents; irresistible; fascinating; “sang, laughed and pranced like a child”; “well into her 30s”; separated from her husband
- Her uncle, Prince Georg-Ludwig, a younger brother of her mother, falls in love with her. He proposes to her, but she will only marry with her parents consent (she was 14, he was 24) It would never be approved of and so the relationship ends (it was all innocent.)
