[51], In 1768, the Assignation Bank was given the task of issuing the first government paper money. Catherine the Great Facts & Worksheets - School History The Murder of Tsar Paul I | History Today Paul ascended to the throne and was known as Emperor Paul I. Catherine's will was discovered in . In July 1762, barely six months after becoming emperor, Peter lingered in Oranienbaum with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives, while his wife lived in another palace nearby. At the time of Peter III's overthrow, other potential rivals for the throne included Ivan VI (17401764), who had been confined at Schlsselburg in Lake Ladoga from the age of six months and who was thought to be insane. Given the frequency which this story was repeated together with Catherine's love of her adopted homeland and her love of horses, it is likely that these details were conflated into this rumor. Wikimedia Commons. Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. [131], Catherine's life and reign included many personal successes, but they ended in two failures. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy. However, because her second cousin Peter III converted to Orthodox Christianity, her mother's brother became the heir to the Swedish throne[4] and two of her first cousins, Gustav III and Charles XIII, later became Kings of Sweden. Eight days later, the dethroned tsar was dead, killed under still-uncertain circumstances alternatively characterized as murder, the inadvertent result of a drunken brawl and a total accident. The most famous of these rumors is that she died after having sex with her horse. For all her achievements, Catherine is often remembered for the multitude of salacious and slanderous rumours attached to her name, none more famous than the one surrounding her death. Peter also intervened in a dispute between his Duchy of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff). By cleverly surrounding herself with those allied to her cause she strengthened her hold on the throne. 7 Reasons Catherine the Great Was So Great | HowStuffWorks ", [Kazimir Valishevsky. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. [41], Being afraid of the May Constitution of Poland (1791) that might lead to a resurgence in the power of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to refrain from her planned intervention into France and to intervene in Poland instead. The endowments were often much less than the original intended amount. She succeeded her husband as empress regnant, following the precedent established when Catherine I succeeded her husband Peter the Great in 1725. Catherine the Great - Wikipedia Your Privacy Rights Russia inflicted some of the heaviest defeats ever suffered by the Ottoman Empire, including the Battle of Chesma (57 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770). Along the way, she became a very passionate, knowledgeable proponent of painting, sculpture, books, architecture, opera, theater and literature. Following the war and the defeat of Pugachev, Catherine laid the obligation to establish schools at the guberniya a provincial subdivision of the Russian empire ruled by a governor on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.[97]. The event was glorified by the court poet Derzhavin in his famous ode; he later commented bitterly on Zubov's inglorious return from the expedition in another remarkable poem. Yet shed done an enormous amount of amazing things, had been a kid whod come to a country that wasnt her own and taken it over.. Although Catherine did not descend from the Romanov dynasty, her ancestors included members of the Rurik dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs. But whereas she downplayed this background in favor of presenting herself as a Russian patriot, he catered to his home country by abandoning conquests against Prussia and pursuing a military campaign in Denmark that was of little value to Russia. [78] In the third category fell the work of Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, Ferdinando Galiani, Nicolas Baudeau, and Sir William Blackstone. On the night of 8 July (OS: 27 June 1762),[22] Catherine was given the news that one of her co-conspirators had been arrested by her estranged husband and that all they had been planning must take place at once. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government as a way of regulating religious affairs. [CDATA[// >