Empress Catherine II

[TimM]

Which some people thought was true for some reason.

[CountessKate]

For some reason my high school history teacher believed that old wives tale about Catherine dying while, *ahem*, trying to get it on with a horse.

Really, how could anyone believe that, it isn't even physically possible.  Any see that episode of Friends in which Chandler posts on Ross's alumni page that Ross cloned a dinosaur and was having sex with it?  Ross, when he found out, told Chandler that it would be physcially impossible (still it was a funny episode).  The same would be the same for a horse and a human.

Powerful women who did not bother to conceal their love lives were very rare in the eighteenth century, and Catherine, with her steady succession of lovers, was always a prime target for prurient stories.  That she had effectively the same sort of serial relationships with (increasingly younger) men as a male ruler might have had with women, was sufficient for her contemporaries to think she was capable of anything - orgies, bestiality - though as far as I know, she wasn't accused of being a lesbian unlike Marie Antoinette.  In fact, she was a pretty straightforward hetrosexual woman who tended to be faithful for the duration of a relationship until towards its end - very much in a modern way, but deeply incomprehensible to her contemporaries.

[TimM]

Sounds like the garbage the tabloid rags print against the modern royal families.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

Effectively, modern day tabloid didn't invent nothing of new, it's just a repetition of something that has always existed...and perhaps, the rumors of the past were even more cruel than the rumors of today.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Catherine, her son Pavel interoducing her his new bride, the future Empress Maria Feodorovna

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Cartoon of the Empress

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

The Empress wearing a kokoshnik

[AGRBear]

http://english.ruvr.ru/tag_3924648/2010/07/

New statue of Cath. II in Zerbst


AGRBear

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

The empress

[violetta]

The last Polish King Stanislaw August Ponyatovski was ead over heels in love with Empress Catherine. In fact, she was the Grand Duchess then. It was a feeling that he had for her till the end of his life.

His love for the future Empress was expressed in his diaries. Though a romance with the wife of the heir to te throne was dangerous for Ponyatovskiy he was not scared because, in his own words", "my entire existence was devoted to her. this devotion surpassed the extent of feeling that other people feel in similar circumstances".

This is how S.A.Ponyatovski describes Catherine:

She was 25. While she was recovering from her first childbirth her beauty was in full bloom...Black hair, exquisitely wite skin, big blue expressive eyes....Her mouth encouraged you to kiss her, her arms and shoulders were absolutely perfect. she was of medium height, she was walking gracefully, but her manner of walking was also full of dignity.

[violetta]

They became lovers in December 1855 but had to part quite soon.Ponyatovski  had to go home  where his mother repeatedly express her dissatisfaction with this romance. Catheirne turned to the Chancellor Bestuzhev to bring Ponyatovski back to St. Petersburg. "Please be sure, - she wrote,  - I will keep turning to you until I get what I desire:.

Ponyatovski came back, and in December 1857 their daughter Anna was born. She died when she was 2.

Ponyatovski had to leave again due to political problems. He was not to come back any more. Catherine did suffer but her sufferings were soon superceded by the forthcoming changes in court. Empress Elizabeth was feeling worse and worse so Catherine was really worried about her position after her husband inherit the throne. After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Ponyatovski offered to come to comfort her. After Catherine had overthrown Peter III Ponyatovski gave her a lot of pieces of advice. And constantly reminded her that he was still deeply in love with her. Catherine ignored his letters:she was polite but  didn`t respond to is feelings. At last she decided to state openly that it was all over:

You don`t read my letters with enough attention...You tell me how desperate you are but don`t you know that every sensible person has to accept what life brings? I can`t and won`t explain anything. Let me repeat again: I can`t respond to your feelings. Good-bye. Let me asure you that I will think about you warmly but I`ll solve my own problems myself.

[violetta]

It was Catherine`s idea to make Ponyatovski Polish king. He , however, didn`t crave for  power. If he had had a choice, he would have chosen Catherine instead of the crown. According to his wish, coronation took place on St. Catherine day.

 

[violetta]

S.A. Ponyatovski

[shepherd]

I am a descendant of Catherine II and Count Orlov, and I have a question that my daughter asked: How tall was Catherine the Great?  Accounts in books do not agree.  They say that she was short, medium, and tall.

A google search leads to a web page that says that she was 5'9".  I don't believe this, because this seems extraordinarily tall for the era.

Can anyone help with this?  Thanks so much in advance.

[aleksandr pavlovich]

I am a descendant of Catherine II and Count Orlov, and I have a question that my daughter asked: How tall was Catherine the Great?  Accounts in books do not agree.  They say that she was short, medium, and tall.

A google search leads to a web page that says that she was 5'9".  I don't believe this, because this seems extraordinarily tall for the era.

Can anyone help with this?  Thanks so much in advance.

 Hello, "shepherd," and welcome to the Forum!  I find your stated descent fascinating - i.e. "descendant of Catherine II and Count Orlov....."  
 For clarification, to which of the Counts Orlov brothers are you referring?  Apart from the rather ubiquitous family legends that tend to run and multiply over time within families' so-called "oral histories," have you any supporting authorative, extant, PUBLISHED documentation of the formative liaison, et seq., that leads specifically to you from the 18th century?  There is already a thread here on the Forum re the "Orlov Family." I should think that the "Orloff Family Archives" of the various branches (most likely able to be easily found, but in Russian) would potentially be most help/informative, but perhaps you have already sought out some of these sources?
  As to the height of the Empress, I am certain that it would have been a bit variable with her age at any given time.  I have personally seen the Coronation dress, etc, of the Empress in the collections of the Moscow Kremlin, which is rather wide and grand, thereby tending to distort the impression of one's actual height.  I frankly was MUCH more impressed by the "Orlov Diamond" in the Imperial Regalia kept at the "Diamond Fund," again, at the Moscow Kremlin. If you have not had the opportunity to visit there, I would most certainly recommend such a trip/visit, especially if there exists this descendancy with your family history.                                              Regards,  Alexsandr Pavlovich.