A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Catherine I.
CATHERINE I. (Empress of Russia),
Was the natural daughter of a country girl, and was born at Ringen, a small village upon the lake Virtcherve, near Dorpt, in Livonia. The year of her birth is uncertain; but, according to her own account, it was on the fifth of April, 1687. Her original name was Martha, which she changed for Catherine, when she embraced the Greek religion. Count Rosen, a lieutenant-colonel in the Swedish service, who owned the village of Ringen, supported, according to the custom of the country, both the mother and the child; and was for that reason, supposed by many persons to have been her father. She lost her mother when but three years old; and as he died about the same time, she was left in so destitute a situation, that the parish-clerk received her into his house. Soon afterwards, Gluck, a Lutheran minister of Marienburgh, happening, in a journey through these parts, to see the foundling; either to relieve the poor clerk from a burthen he could not well support, or from a particular prepossession in favour of the little orphan, took her under his protection, brought her up in his family, and employed her in attending his children.
In 1701, and about the fourteenth year of her age, she espoused a dragoon, of the Swedish garrison of Marienburgh. Many different accounts are given of this transaction: one author of great credit affirms, that the bride and bridegroom remained together eight days after their marriage; another, of no less authority, asserts, on the contrary, that the morning of their nuptials, her husband was sent with a detachment for Riga. Thus much is certain, that the dragoon was absent when Marienburgh surrendered to the Russians, and that Catherine never saw him more.
General Bauer, upon the taking of the place, saw Catherine among the prisoners; and being smitten with her youth and beauty, took her to his house, where she superintended his domestic affairs, as a sort of house-keeper. Soon after she was removed, still acting in the same capacity, into the family of prince Menzikoff, who was no less struck with the attractions of the fair captive: with him she lived until 1704, when, in the seventeenth year of her age, she became the servant, or as some say, the mistress of Peter the Great, and won so much upon his affections, that he espoused her on the 29th of May, 1711. The ceremony was secretly performed at Jawerof, in Poland, in the presence of general Bruce; and, on the 20th of February, 1712, it was publicly solemnized with great pomp at Petersburgh.
Catherine, by the most unwearied assiduity and unremitted attention, by the softness and complacency of her disposition, but, above all, by an extraordinary liveliness and gaiety of temper, acquired a wonderful ascendancy over the mind of Peter. The latter was subject to occasional horrors, which at times rendered him gloomy and suspicious, and raised his passions to such a height, as to produce a temporary madness. In these dreadful moments, she was the only person who durst venture to approach him; and such was the kind of fascination she had acquired over his senses, that her presence had an instantaneous effect, and the first sound of her voice composed his mind and calmed his agonies. From these circumstances, she seemed necessary, not only to his comfort, but even to his existence: she became his inseparable companion in his journeys into foreign countries, and even in all his military expeditions.
Peter, in his campaign of 1711, against the Turks, having imprudently led his troops into a disadvantageous situation, where they were not only desitute of forage and provisions, but even of the means of quenching their thirst, the grand vizier determined to reduce the czar and his exhausted army by famine. In this desperate extremity, when the loss of his army seemed the least evil that could befal him, the czar, on the approach of night, retired to his tent in violent agitation of mind; giving positive orders, that no person whatever, upon pain of death, should be admitted to disturb his privacy, to behold his exquisite distress, or shake a resolution he had formed of attempting, next morning, to force his way through the enemy with fixed bayonets. Catherine, boldly exposing her person to every danger, thought proper to break through these orders. She ventured for once to disobey, but it was to save him and his whole camp from death or slavery. Entering the melancholy abode of her husband, and throwing herself at his feet, she entreated the czar to permit her to offer, in his name, proposals of peace to the grand vizier. Peter, after some hesitation, consented, signed the letter she presented to him, which Shafirof, the chancellor, and the generals, had before concerted, and the peace of Pruth was concluded upon. This action gained Catherine great popularity, and the emperor particularly specified it as one of the reasons which induced him to crown her publicly at Moscow with his own hand. This ceremony was performed in 1724, and although designed by Peter only as a proof of his affection, was the principal cause of her subsequent elevation.
Towards the latter end of 1714, the czar instituted the new order of St. Catherine, in her honour, and to perpetuate the memory of her love to him on the banks of the river Pruth. He invested her with full power to bestow it on such of her own sex as she should think proper. The ensigns of this order are, a broad white ribband worn over the right shoulder, with a medal of St. Catherine adorned with precious stones, and the motto—"Out of love and fidelity."
She had one son by the emperor, who was to have succeeded him, but died young. Catherine's influence, however, was not shaken by this event. The most noble part of her character was her peculiar humanity and compassion for the unfortunate. Motraye has paid a handsome tribute to this excellence. "She had, in some sort, the government of all his (Peter's) passions, and even saved the lives of a great many more persons than Le Fort was able to do: she inspired him with that humanity, which, in the opinion of his subjects, nature seemed to have denied him. A word from her mouth, in favour of a wretch just going to be sacrificed to his anger, would disarm him; but if he was fully resolved to satisfy that passion, he would give orders for the execution when she was absent, for fear she should plead for the victim." In a word, to use the expression of the celebrated Munich, She was truly the mediatress between the monarch and his subjects.
A coolness, however, is said to have happened between them a little before his deaths occasioned by the emperor's suspicions, on conviction, of a secret connection between Catherine and her first chamberlain, whose name was Mons. The emperor, who was suspicious of this, by a feigned absence surprized her in an arbour in the garden with him, whose sister, first lady of the bed-chamber, in company with a page, stood on the outside. Peter was so enraged, that he is reported to have struck Catherine with his cane, and Mons, with his sister, &c. were taken into custody. They were accused of having received bribes, and making their influence over the empress subservient to their own mercenary views. Mons being threatened with the torture, confessed the corruption laid to his charge, and was beheaded. His sister received five strokes of the knout, and was banished into Siberia, from whence the empress afterwards recalled her. On the day after the execution of the former sentence, Peter conveyed Catherine in an open carriage under the gallows, to which was nailed the head of Mons. The empress, without changing colour, exclaimed—"What a pity it is there is so much corruption among courtiers!"
This event happened in the latter end of the year 1724. Peter's last sickness came on soon after; and while he was laying in the agonies of death, several opposite parties were caballing to dispose of the crown. At a considerable meeting of many among the principal nobility, it was secretly determined, on the moment of his dissolution, to arrest Catherine, and place Peter Alexievitch, his grandson, on the throne. Bassevitz, apprized of this resolution, repaired in person to the empress, although it was already night. "My grief and consternation," replied Catherine, "render me incapable of acting myself: do you and prince Menzikof consult together, and I will embrace the measures which you shall approve in my name." Bassevitz, finding Menzikof asleep, awakened and informed him of the pressing danger which threatened the empress and her party. As no time remained for long deliberation, the prince instantly seized the treasure, secured the fortress, gained the officers of the guards by bribes and promises, also a few of the nobility, and principal clergy. These partizans being convened in the palace, Catherine made her appearance. She claimed the throne in right of her coronation at Moscow: she exposed the ill effects of a minority; and promised, that "so far from depriving the grand-duke of the crown, she would receive it only as a sacred deposit, to be restored to him, when she should be united, in another world, to an adored husband, whom she was now upon the point of losing." The pathetic manner in which she uttered this address, and the tears which accompanied it, added to the previous distribution of money, produced the desired effect, and the remainder of the night was employed in making the necessary preparations to ensure her succession in case of the emperor's death.
Peter at length expired in the morning of the 28th of January, O. S. 1725. This event being made known, the senate, the generals, the principal nobility and clergy, hastened to the palace to proclaim the new sovereign. The adherents of the great-duke seemed secure of success, and the friends of Catherine were avoided as persons doomed to destruction. At this juncture, Bassevitz whispered one of the opposite party, "The empress is mistress of the treasures and the fortress; she has gained over the guards and the synod, and many of the chief nobility, and even here she has more followers than you imagine; advise, therefore, your friends to make no opposition, as they value their heads." This information being rapidly circulated, Bassevitz gave the appointed signal, and the two regiments of guards, who had been gained by a largess to declare for Catherine, and had already surrounded the palace, beat to arms. "Who has dared," exclaimed Prince Repnin, the commander in chief, "to order out the troops without my knowledge?"—"I," returned general Butterlin, "without pretending to dispute your authority, in obedience to the commands of my most gracious mistress." This short reply was followed by a dead silence. In this moment of suspense arid anxiety, Menzikof entered, preceding Catherine, who came supported by the duke of Holstein. She attempted to speak, but was at first prevented by sighs and tears from giving utterance to her words; but at length recovering herself, said, that in obedience to the will of her husband, she was ready to devote her days to the painful occupations of government. She desired them to deliberate maturely on this important subject, and promised to adopt whatever was the result of their decisions.
In fine, Catherine was unanimously declared empress of all the Russias. About eight o'clock in the morning they were introduced to the empress by prince Menzikof (the first instrument of her elevation, and to whose advice she afterwards paid great deference), when they presented the act of their submission in writing, and took the usual oaths of fidelity. She received them very graciously, and assured them she would be a mother to her country, as the emperor had been its father. The general grief which appeared amongst all ranks and degrees of people is not to be expressed; even the soldiers were dissolved in tears, and would not be comforted till they were informed that the empress Catherine was proclaimed their sovereign; which they no sooner heard, than they flocked in crowds to the palace to take the accustomed oaths, crying out as they went, "If our father is dead, our mother still lives!"
Her first care was to pay the last duties to her husband's ashes, with a pomp becoming the greatest monarch that Russia had ever known; and though there is no court in Europe where splendour and magnificence is carried to a greater height, on these occasions, than in that of Russia, it may with great truth be said, that she even surpassed herself in the funeral honours paid to her great Peter. She purchased the most precious kinds of marble, and employed some of the ablest sculptors of Italy to erect a mausoleum to this hero, which might, if possible, transmit the remembrance of his great actions to the most distant ages.
Catherine reigned two years and three months, in a manner which became the wife of so great a man; took all proper steps to secure the quiet of her dominions, to find out the revenues of the clergy, and to settle the succession. She established the academy of sciences at Petersburgh, increased her marine, and carried on the project of discovering the north-east passage to China.[1] A cancer and dropsy accelerated her death, and she expired on the 17th of May, 1727, in about the 40th year of her age.
She was, in her person, under the middle size, and in her youth delicate and well formed, but inclined to corpulency as she advanced in years. She had a fair complexion, dark eyes, and light hair, which she was always accustomed to dye with a black colour. Colonel Bruce affirms, that the clerk of Ringen taught her to read, but others say, she could neither read nor write. Her daughter Elizabeth usually signed her name for her, and particularly to her last will and testament, and count Osterman generally put her signature to the public decrees and dispatches. Gordon, who had frequently seen her, says, "She was a very pretty well-looking woman, of good sense, but not of that sublimity of wit, or rather that quickness of imagination, which some people have believed. The great reason why the czar was so fond of her, was her exceeding good temper; she never was seen peevish or out of humour; obliging and civil to all, and never forgetful of her former condition; withal, mighty grateful." Catharine maintained the pomp of majesty with an air of ease and grandeur united, and Peter used frequently to express his admiration at the propriety with which she supported her high station, without forgetting she was not born to that dignity.
She reigned little more than two years alone; She had several daughters by the czar, the youngest of whom, Elizabeth, after the heirs of the elder branches were extinct, ascended the throne in December, 1741.
Voltaire, in his history of the czar Peter, speaks of her in the following terms. "The lenity of this princess, (says he) has been carried to a degree unparallelled in the history of any nation. She had promised, that during her reign nobody should be put to death, and she has kept her word. She is the first sovereign that ever shewed this regard to the human species, malefactors are now condemned to serve in the mines, and other public works; a regulation not less prudent than humane, since it renders their punishment of some advantage to the state."
Coxe's Travel's into Russia, &c. Russel's Modern Europe.
Universal History. Biographical Dictionary. Memoirs of Peter
Henry Bruce, Esq. Ann. Reg.
- ↑ Before she came to the throne, the women were in a state of bondage, but she undertook to introduce mixed assemblies, as in other states of Europe, and by this policy made the first step towards polishing the manners of her uncultivated people.