Name	Bo Welch
Birth date	November 30, 1951
Birth name	Robert W. Welch III
Birth place	Yardley, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Production designer, director
Spouse	Catherine O'Hara (m.1992)
Children	Matthew Welch (b.1994) Luke Welch (b.1997)

Robert W. "Bo" Welch III (born November 30, 1951 in Yardley, Pennsylvania) is an American motion picture production designer and director.

Welch worked as a production designer on the Tim Burton films Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Batman Returns, as well as A Little Princess and Men in Black, among other films. He made his directorial debut with The Cat in the Hat. Welch has been nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, three of them shared with set decorator Cheryl Carasik and another one with J. Michael Riva and Linda DeScenna. These four films are: Men in Black, The Birdcage and A Little Princess (with Carasik), and The Color Purple (with Riva and DeScenna).

Welch married SCTV comedian Catherine O'Hara in 1992, with whom he had two sons, Matthew (b.1994) and Luke (b.1997).

Filmography

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Production designer |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Other notes |- | 2011 | Thor | |- | 2009 | Land of the Lost | |- | 2008 | Space Chimps | |- | 2002 | Men in Black II | |- | 2000 | What Planet Are You From? | |- | 1999 | Wild Wild West | |- | 1998 | Primary Colors | |- | 1997 | Men in Black | |- | 1996 | The Birdcage | |- | 1995 | A Little Princess | |- | 1994 | Wolf | |- | 1992 | Batman Returns | |- | 1991 | Grand Canyon | |- | rowspan="2"| 1990 | Edward Scissorhands | |- | Joe Versus the Volcano | |- | 1989 | Ghostbusters II | |- | rowspan="2"| 1988 | The Accidental Tourist | |- | Beetlejuice | |- | 1987 | The Lost Boys | |- | 1986 | Violets are Blue... | |- {| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Director |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Other notes |- | 2003 | The Cat in the Hat |Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Director |- |}

External links

Category:American film directors Category:American production designers Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:English-language film directors Category:University of Arizona alumni Category:People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Name	Catherine II
Succession	Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias
Reign	9 July 1762 - 17 November 1796 ()
Coronation	12 September 1762
Predecessor	Peter III
Successor	Paul I
Succession1	Empress consort of All the Russias
Reign1	25 December 1761 – 9 July 1762
Reign-type1	Tenure
Full name	Sophie Friederike Auguste
Spouse	Peter III of Russia
Spouse-type	Consort to
Issue	Paul I Anna Petrovna Aleksey Bobrinsky
House	House of RomanovHouse of Ascania
Father	Christian Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
Mother	Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
Birth date	May 02, 1729
Birth place	Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire
Death date	November 17, 1796
Death place	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Place of burial	Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg
Signature	SignatureEkaterina II.jpg
Religion	Lutheranism, then Eastern Orthodox

Catherine II (, Yekaterina II Velikaya), also known as Catherine the Great (), was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. She reigned as Empress of Russia from after the assassination of her husband, Peter III, just after the end of the Seven Years' War until her death on .

Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule re-vitalized Russia, which grew stronger than ever and became recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. She had successes in foreign policy and oversaw sometimes brutal reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably Pugachev's Rebellion).

Early life

Catherine's father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst belonged to the ruling family of Anhalt, but held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as Governor of the city of Stettin ( Szczecin, Poland). Born as Sophia Augusta Frederica (German: Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, nicknamed "Figchen") in Stettin, Pomerania, and two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden: Gustav III and Charles XIII. In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors.

The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsar Peter of Holstein-Gottorp resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq, Peter's aunt (the ruling Russian Empress Elizabeth) and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in order to weaken Austria's influence and ruin the Russian chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Empress Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation.

The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophie's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Historical accounts portray Catherine's mother as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centered on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia. The empress knew the family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take place. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with such zeal that she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.

Princess Sophia's father, a very devout German Lutheran, strongly opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite his objection, on 28 June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at Saint Petersburg. Sophia had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for her wedding. The bridegroom, known then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.

The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.

Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs. Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), Stanisław August Poniatowski, Alexander Vasilchikov, and others. She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband.

The reign of Peter III and the coup d'état of July 1762

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 1761), Peter, the Grand Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, succeeded to the throne as Peter III of Russia, and his wife, Grand Duchess Catherine became Empress Consort of Russia. The imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

The new tsar's eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the Prussian king, Frederick II alienated the same groups that Catherine had cultivated. Besides, Peter intervened in a dispute between his Duchy of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff).

Peter's insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760 but now suggested partitioning the Polish territories with Russia, eroded much of his support among the nobility. (Russia and Prussia fought each other during the Seven Years War (1756–1763) until Peter's accession.)

In July 1762, barely six months after becoming the Tsar, Peter committed the political error of retiring with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to Oranienbaum, leaving his wife in Saint Petersburg. On 8 and 9 July the Leib Guard revolted, deposed Peter from power, and proclaimed Catherine the Empress of Russia. The bloodless coup succeeded; Ekaterina Dashkova, a confidante of Catherine who became President of the Russian Academy in 1783, the year of its foundation, seems to have stated that Peter seemed rather glad to have rid himself of the throne, and requested only a quiet estate and his mistress.

But eight days after the coup, on 17 July 1762 – just six months after his accession to the throne – Peter III died at Ropsha, at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Gregory Orlov, then a court favorite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no evidence for Catherine's complicity in the supposed assassination. (Note that at that time other potential rival claimants to the throne existed: Ivan VI (1740–1764), in closed confinement at Schlüsselburg, in Lake Ladoga, from the age of 6 months; and Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775).)

Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor, succeeded her husband as Empress Regnant. She followed the precedent established when Catherine I (born in the lower classes in the Swedish East Baltic territories) succeeded her husband Peter I in 1725.

Legitimists debate Catherine's technical status: seeing her as a Regent or as a usurper, tolerable only during the minority of her son, Grand Duke Paul. In the 1770s a group of nobles connected with Paul (Nikita Panin and others) contemplated the possibility of a new coup to depose Catherine and transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of constitutional monarchy. However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.

Reign (1762-1796)

Foreign affairs

During her reign Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward and westward to absorb New Russia, Crimea, Northern Caucasus, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. All told, she added some 200,000 miles² (518,000 km²) to Russian territory.

Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–1781), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland, and Sweden, to counter the power of the Bourbon–Habsburg League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favor and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 1781–1797).

Catherine agreed to a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1766, but stopped short of a full military alliance. Although she could see the benefits of Britain's friendship, she was wary of Britain's increased power following their victory in the Seven Years War, which threatened the European Balance of Power.

Russo-Turkish Wars

While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on the edge of the Black Sea in the Azov campaigns, Catherine completed the conquest of the south that Peter had begun. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire (1768–1774), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history, including the Battle of Chesma (5–7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).

The Russian victories allowed Catherine's government to obtain access to the Black Sea and to incorporate the vast steppes of present-day southern Ukraine, where the Russians founded the new cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnepropetrovsk), and Kherson. The Treaty of Kutschuk Kainardzhi, signed 10 July 1774, gave to the Russians the "new" territories at Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn and the small strip of Black Sea coast between the rivers Dnieper and Bug. The treaty also removed restrictions on Russian naval or commercial traffic in the Azov Sea, granted to Russia the position of protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.

Catherine annexed the Crimea as late as 1783, a mere nine years after the Crimean Khanate had gained nominal independence, which had been guaranteed by Russia, from the Ottoman Empire as a result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1786, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo-Turkish War.

The Ottomans re-started hostilities in the second Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). This war proved catastrophic for the Ottomans and ended with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), which legitimized the Russian claim to the Crimea and granted the Yedisan region to Russia.

Relations with Western Europe

Ever conscious of her legacy, Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the nineteenth and early twentieth century as an international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war. Accordingly, she acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779) between the German states of Prussia and Austria. In 1780, she established a League of Armed Neutrality designed to defend neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution.

From 1788 to 1790 Russia fought in the Russo-Swedish War against Sweden, a conflict instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden, who expected to simply overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks and hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. But Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in a tied battle off Hogland (July 1788), and the Swedish army failed to advance. When Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theater War), things looked bleak for the Swedes. After the decisive defeat of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790) returning all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of Abo, and peace ensued for 20 years, aided by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.

The partitions of Poland

In 1764 Catherine placed Stanisław Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne. Although the idea of partitioning Poland came from the Prussian king Frederick the Great, Catherine took a leading role in carrying this out in the 1790s. In 1768 she formally became protectress of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (1768–1772). After smashing the uprising she established in the Rzeczpospolita a system of government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys.

After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many principles of the Enlightenment that she had once viewed favorably. Afraid that the May Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and that the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish War in Defense of the Constitution (1792) and in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795).

Relations with Japan

In the Far East, Russians became active in fur-trapping in Kamchatka and in the Kuril Islands. This spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783 storms drove a Japanese sea-captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine granted Kōdayū an audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade-mission led by Adam Laxman to Japan. The Tokugawa government received the mission, but negotiations failed.

Banking and finance

In 1768, the Assignation Bank was instituted in Russia to issue the first government paper-money. It opened in St. Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes.

The emergence of these Assignation rubles was due to large government spending on military needs, leading to a shortage of silver in the treasury (as all the calculations, especially in foreign trade, were conducted exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation ruble circulated on equal footing with the silver ruble; there was an ongoing market exchange rate for these two currencies. The use of these notes continued until 1849.

Arts and culture

(1789–1790), by Fedot Shubin.]]

Catherine's patronage furthered the evolution of the arts in Russia more than that of any Russian sovereign before or after her.

Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature and education. The Hermitage Museum, which occupies the whole Winter Palace, began as Catherine's personal collection. At the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoi, she wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded (1764) the famous Smolny Institute, admitting young girls of the nobility.

She wrote comedies, fiction and memoirs, while cultivating Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert all French encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She lured the scientists Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin and Anders Johan Lexell from Sweden to the Russian capital.

Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. He lauded her accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon, a subject on which he published a tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face-to-face, she mourned him bitterly when he died, acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and placed them in the National Library of Russia.

in the background.]]

Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard that the French government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French Encyclopédie on account of its irreligious spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in Russia under her protection.

Four years later, in 1766, she endeavoured to embody in legislation the principles of Enlightenment she learned from studying the French philosophers. She called together at Moscow a Grand Commission—almost a consultative parliament—composed of 652 members of all classes (officials, nobles, burghers and peasants) and of various nationalities. The Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. The Empress herself prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria.

As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and experienced advisers, she refrained from immediately putting them into execution. After holding more than 200 sittings the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.

In spite of this, Catherine did begin issuing codes to address some of the modernization trends suggested in her Nakaz. In 1775 the Empress decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws, and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she long desired for her country. Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordnance of 1782, and the Statue of National Education of 1786. In 1777, the Empress described her legal innovations within a backward Russia, to Voltaire, as progressing "little by little".

During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and European influences that inspired the Russian Enlightenment. Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin and Ippolit Bogdanovich laid the groundwork for the great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for Alexander Pushkin. Catherine became a great patron of Russian opera (see Catherine II and opera for details).

When Alexander Radishchev published his Journey from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 1790 (one year after the start of the French Revolution) and warned of uprisings because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as serfs, Catherine exiled him to Siberia. (The same sort of censorship also happened at that time in many other European countries as a reaction to the civil violence in France.)

Education

Catherine embraced a life of enlightened ideals. She held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia. She believed a ‘new kind of person’ could be created by inoculating Russian children with proper European education. Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people, and turn them away from inherent backwardness. This meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.

Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her adviser on educational matters. Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions. In addition to appointing Betskoy as her educational adviser, she established a Commission composed of T.N. Teplov, T. con Klingstedt, F.G. Dilthey, and the historian G. Muller. She also sought advice on her educational projects from British education pioneers, particularly Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr. John Brown. In 1764, Catherine sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to the educational Commission. The Commission studied the reform projects previously installed by I.I. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III. They then submitted their own recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs. However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the Commission due to the calling of the Legislative Commission. In July 1765 Dumaresq wrote to Dr. John Brown about the commission’s problems and received a long reply containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social reforms in Russia. Dr. Brown argued that in a democratic country, education ought to be under the state’s control and based on an education code. He also placed great emphasis on the “proper and effectual education of the female sex,” which was bound to impress Catherine because, two years prior, she had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the General Program for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes. This work emphasized the fostering of the creation of a ‘new kind of people’ raised in isolation from the damaging influence of a backward Russian environment. The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. It was charged with admitting destitute and illegitimate children in order to educate them in any way the state deemed fit. Since the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state funded institution, the Home represented an opportunity to experiment with new educational theories. However, the Moscow Foundling Home proved not to be very successful mainly due to the extremely high mortality rates preventing many of the children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the state desired.

Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, Catherine established the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls to educate females. The Smolny Institute emerged as the first of its kind in Russia. At first the Institute only admitted young girls of the noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie as well. The girls that attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the Smolny buildings. Within the walls of the Institute they were taught impeccable French, musicianship, dancing and complete awe of the Monarch. At the Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy. Running and games were forbidden and the building was kept particularly cold because it was believed that too much warmth was harmful to the developing body, just like excess play.

During the years 1768-1774, there was no progress made in setting up a national school system. However, Catherine herself continued to investigate educational theory and practice in other countries. She made many educational reforms despite the lack of establishment of a national school system. The remodeling of the Cadet Corps 1766 initiated her many educational reforms. It then began to take children from a very young age and educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from the professional military curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, international law, etc. This policy in the Cadet Corps influenced the teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps, and in the Engineering and Artillery Schools. After the war and the defeat of Pugachov, 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.

By 1782, Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the information gathered about various models of educational systems in many different countries. A system produced by a mathematician, F Aepinus stood out in particular. He was strongly in favor of the adoption of the Austrian three tier model of trivial, real and normal schools at village, town and provincial capital level. In addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of National Schools under P.I. Zavadovsky. This commission was charged with organizing a national school network, training the teachers and providing the textbooks. Finally, on August 5, 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was promulgated. The Statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes (non-serfs), and co-educational. It also regulated, in detail, the subjects to be taught at every age and the method of teaching it. In addition to the textbooks translated by the Commission, teachers were provided with the Guide to Teachers. This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, the subjects taught, the behavior of the teacher, and the running of a school. Two years after the implementation of Catherine’s educational program, a member of the National Commission inspected the institutions being established. Throughout Russia, the inspectors encountered a patchy response. While the nobility put up appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send their children to private, more prestigious institutions. Also, the townspeople tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical methods. When all was said and done, it is estimated that about 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state institutions near the end of Catherine’s reign. This was only a minuscule amount of people compared to the size of the Russian population.

Religious affairs

Catherine's apparent whole-hearted adoption of all things Russian (including Orthodoxy) may have prompted her personal indifference to religion. Politically, Catherine exploited Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy, promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule. Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for re-grouping to the Society of Jesus following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in 1773. Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts, if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy. However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith. This Commission promised (but did not protect) their religious rights. Even with this sense of equality, many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure. Catherine created the Spiritual Muslim Assembly to help regulate Muslim-populated regions, as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of Mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government, as a way of regulating the religious affairs of her nation. In 1785, Catherine approved the subsidization of new mosques and subsequently, of new town settlements for Muslims. This was another attempt to organize and passively control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people that wandered through southern Russia. In 1786, Catherine assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school system, to be regulated by the government. The plan was another attempt to force nomadic people to settle. This allowed the Russian government to control more people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of Russian law.

Judaism

In contrast to the assimilation of Islam, Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Although the government knew that Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of ‘Jew,’ since the term meant many things during her reign. Judaism was a small, if not nonexistent, religion in Russia until 1772. When Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland, Jews were treated as a separate people, defined by their religion. In keeping with their treatment in Poland, Catherine allowed the Jews to separate themselves from Orthodox society, with certain restrictions. She levied taxes only on the followers of Judaism; if a family converted to the Russian faith, that tax was lifted. This tax doubled the amount that Jewish members of society were required to pay, in comparison to their Orthodox neighbors. In addition, converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and farm as free peasants under Russian rule. In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia’s economy, Catherine included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782. While this presented some benefits for Jews - they received recognition as equal to any Orthodox citizen - many people attempted to take advantage of this equality. Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for economic reasons; many Jews also practiced as bankers and merchants. Catherine tried to keep the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even with a ruse of equality; in 1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow’s middle class. In 1785, Catherine declared that Jews were officially foreigners, with foreigners’ rights. This reestablished the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia throughout the Jewish period of failed assimilation. Catherine’s decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalized citizen of Russia. Taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

Russian Orthodoxy

In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started; the church’s lands were appropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the College of Economy. Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. The endowments were often much less than the original intended amount. She closed 569 out of 954 monasteries and only 161 got government money. Only 400,000 rubles of church wealth was paid back. By bringing these lands into the care of the government, Catherine officially placed secular government ahead of religion. The invitations extended by Catherine to her Commission show this new secular superiority. While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat. While claiming religious toleration, she intended to recall the believers into the official church. Unfortunately they refused to comply, and in 1764 Catherine deported over twenty-thousand Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith.

Religious education was also strictly reviewed. At first, she simply attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786, Catherine chose to simply exclude all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education. By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularization of the day to day workings of Russia. She transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation. for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with large estates and gifts of serfs. The percentage of state money spent on the court increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795. Catherine gave away 66,000 serfs 1762-72, 202,000 1773-93 and 100,000 in one day: 18 August 1795. Just as the church supported her hoping to get their land back, Catherine bought the support of the Bureaucracy by making promotion up the 14 ranks automatic after a certain time period, regardless of position or merit. Thus, the bureaucracy was populated with time servers.

After her affair with her lover and capable adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov). Some of these men loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after the affair ended. One of her lovers, Zavadovsky, received 50,000 rubles, a pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in the Ukraine after she dismissed him in 1777. The last of her lovers, Prince Zubov, was 40 years her junior. Her sexual independence led to many of the legends about her.

In her memoirs, Catherine indicated that her first lover, Sergei Saltykov, had fathered Paul, but Paul physically resembled her husband, Peter. Catherine kept near Tula, away from her court, her illegitimate son by Grigori Orlov, Alexis Bobrinskoy (later created Count Bobrinskoy by Paul).

Poniatowski

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador to Russia, offered Stanisław Poniatowski a place in the embassy in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother's side, came from the Czartoryski family, prominent members of the pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in 1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. Two years later, in 1757, Poniatowski served in the British forces during the Seven Years' War, thus severing close relationships with Catherine. She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in December 1757 (not to be confused with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the daughter of Peter I's second marriage).

King August III of Poland died in 1763, and therefore Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king.

Catherine sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes right away. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight and forcing Poniatowski to become king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put himself under Catherine's control. News of Catherine's plan spread and Frederick II (others say the Ottoman sultan) warned her that if she tried to conquer Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her strongly.

She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov's child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. She told Poniatowski to marry someone else to remove all suspicion. Poniatowski refused; he never married.

Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the Partitions of Poland. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split between them. Russia got territories east of the line connecting, more or less, Riga–Polotsk–Mogilev.

In the second partition, in 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of Minsk almost to Kiev and down the river Dnieper leaving some spaces of steppe down south in front of Ochakov, on the Black Sea.

After this, uprisings in Poland led to the third partition, 1795, one year before Catherine's death.

Orlov

Grigory Orlov, the grandson of a rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. By 1759, he and Catherine had become lovers although no one in the know told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the July 1761 coup d’état against her husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than marrying anyone.

-Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky, (11 April 1762 – 20 June 1813 in his estate of Bogoroditsk, near Tula). Born three months before the deposition and assassination by the Orlov brothers of her husband Peter III]]

Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles as Counts, money, swords and other gifts. But Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. He received a palace in St. Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Orlov died in 1783. His and Catherine's son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky, (1762–1813) had one daughter, Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky (Bobrinskaya), (1798–1835) who married aged 21 in 1819 the 34-year-old Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (London, England, 12 July 1784 – 25 July 1842, assassinated by a furious servant he employed) who took part in the Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812) against the Napoleonic forces, and later served as Ambassador in Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy .

Potemkin

in Novgorod]] Grigory Potemkin had had involvement in the coup d'état of 1762. In 1772, Catherine's close friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. By the winter of 1773 the Pugachev revolt had started to grow threatening. Catherine's son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help mostly military and he became devoted to her.

In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an uprising in the Volga region. She appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy.

Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favor, and his family moved into the palace. He later became governor of New Russia.

In 1780 the son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Emperor Joseph II of Austria, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and traveling with him to Saint Petersburg.

Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists.

Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried that he would not finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age of 52 in 1791.

Death

On , Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers at her study. Her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, had asked the Empress if she had slept well, and Catherine reportedly replied that she had not slept so well in a long time.

Sometime after 9:00 a.m. that morning, Catherine went to her dressing room and collapsed on the floor. Worried by Catherine's absence, her attendant Zakhar Zotov opened the door and peered in. Catherine's body was sprawled on the floor where she had fallen. Her face appeared purplish, her pulse was weak, and her breathing shallow and labored. Despite all attempts to revive the Empress, she fell into a coma from which she never recovered. With no hope of recovery, Catherine was given the Last Rites and died the following evening at approximately 9:45 p.m.

Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 by her secretary Alexander Vasilievich Khrapovitsky among her papers while the Empress was still grieving the death of Potemkin, gave specific instructions should she die: "Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on it inscribe my Christian name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six months, and no longer: the shorter the better." In the end, the Empress was laid to rest with a gold crown on her head and clothed in a silver brocade dress. On 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning, designed and decorated by Antonio Rinaldi. Catherine was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.

The claim that her death was caused by a sexual incident involving a horse is an urban myth and has no basis.

Romanov dynastic issues

Pretenders and potential pretenders to the throne

Ivan VI of Russia (born 1740), as a former Tsar (reigned as an infant, 1740–1741) represented a potential focus of dissident support for successive rulers of Russia, who held him in prison. When she became Empress in 1762 Catherine tightened the conditions of his incarceration. His jailers in the prison of Shlisselburg killed Ivan, as per standing instructions, in the course of an attempt to free him in 1764.

Yemelyan Pugachev (1740/1742–1775) identified himself in 1773 as Tsar Peter III of Russia (Catherine's late husband). His armed rebellion, aiming to seize power and to banish the Empress to a monastery, became a serious menace until crushed in 1774. The authorities had Pugachev executed in Moscow in January 1775.

Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775) declared herself in Paris in 1774 as Elizabeth's daughter by Alexis Razumovsky and as the sister of Pugachev. The Empress Catherine dispatched Alexey Orlov to Italy, where he captured Tarakanova in Livorno. When brought to Russia in 1775, Tarakanova went to prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died of tuberculosis in December 1775. There are rumors that this death was faked and that she was, in 1785 and confined in a nunnery in Moscow where she died in 1810.

Succession to the throne

It seems highly probable that Catherine intended to exclude Paul from the succession, and to leave the crown to her eldest grandson Alexander (whom she greatly favored, and who subsequently became the emperor Alexander I in 1801). Her harshness towards Paul probably stemmed as much from political distrust as from what she saw of his character. Whatever Catherine's other activities, she emphatically functioned as a sovereign and as a politician, guided in the last resort by reasons of state. Keeping Paul in a state of semi-captivity in Gatchina and Pavlovsk, she resolved not to allow her son to dispute or to share in her authority during her lifetime.

Titles and styles

Her Serene Highness Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (1729–1745)

Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseievna of Russia (1745–1761)

Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of all the Russias (1761–1762) (as Empress consort)

Her Imperial Majesty The Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias (1762–1796) (as Empress regnant)

Ancestors

In popular culture

Catherine commissioned "The Bronze Horseman" statue, which stands in Saint Petersburg on the banks of the Neva River. She had the large boulder it stands on transported from several leagues away. Catherine had it inscribed with the Latin phrase "Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII," meaning "Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782," to gain legitimacy by connecting herself to the "Founder of Modern Russia." This statue later inspired Pushkin's famous poem The Bronze Horseman (1833).

Numerous dramatizations based on the life of Catherine II have appeared:

* The 1934 film Catherine the Great (based on the play The Czarina by Lajos Biró and Melchior Lengyel) stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine.

* Also in 1934 the film The Scarlet Empress appeared: directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich.

* In 1945 A Royal Scandal, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and Otto Preminger, starred Tallulah Bankhead and Charles Coburn.

* A 1991 TV miniseries Young Catherine features Julia Ormond in the role of Catherine.

* Catherine Zeta-Jones portrayed Catherine in the 1995 television movie Catherine the Great.

*In 2005, Emily Bruni portrayed the empress in the feature length PBS documentary Catherine the Great.

One of Serbia's most famed New Wave bands, Ekatarina Velika (which translates as "Catherine the Great") (1982–1994) took its name from Catherine II of Russia.

Folk-rock songwriter Freddy Blohm's "Catherine, You're Great!" relates Catherine's most infamous urban myth from an equine point-of-view.

The Barenaked Ladies song "Go Home" has a line concerning this urban legend as well: "If you think of her as Catherine the Great // Then you should be the horse to help her meet her fate."

The Grateful Dead song "Hell In a Bucket" has the line "Well we know you're the reincarnation of the ravenous Catherine the Great."

In the 2002 television series Clone High the clone of JFK supposedly has sex with Catherine's clone, complaining when someone disturbs his activities that he's "trying to nail Catherine the Great" – but quickly corrects himself, adding "Or should I say, Catherine the So-So." Catherine's clone appears several times in the series, depicted as having an hourglass figure, blonde curly hair and speaking with a California Valley Girl accent. She usually wears white pedal pushers and a light blue midriff top.

German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly has a picture of Catherine II in her office, and characterises her as a "strong woman".

The Russian slang word for money "babki" (literally: "old women") refers to the image of Catherine II printed on pre-Revolution 100-ruble banknotes.

In the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon, a young Catherine the Great appears under her Russian name of Ekaterina. As in real life, she takes over Russia from Peter (Pyotr). She despises him and has no problems overthrowing him. Jessica Boone voices the character in the English adaptation, and Sachiko Takaguchi in the Japanese version.

In the 39 Clues series universe, it has been noted that Catherine was a member of the Cahill family branch, Lucian.

Gallery

See also

Legends of Catherine the Great

Potemkin village

Tsars of Russia family tree

List of prominent Catherinians

Pre-eminent figures in Catherinian Russia include:

Ivan Betskoy

Alexander Bezborodko

Yakov Bulgakov

Gavrila Derzhavin

Dmitry Levitsky

Aleksey Orlov

Nikita Panin

Grigory Potemkin

Nicholas Repnin

Peter Rumyantsev

Mikhailo Shcherbatov

Alexander Suvorov

Fyodor Ushakov

Catherine Vorontsova

John Paul Jones – the American sea-captain and admiral served under Catherine in naval actions against the Turks in the Black Sea in 1788.

References

Notes

Annotated bibliography

De Madariaga, Isabel. (born 1919). Catherine the Great: A Short History (Paperback). Yale University Press, New Haven and London, (1993).ISBN 0-300-04845-9 (hardbook), ISBN 0-300-05427-0 (paperback), 240 pages. De Madariaga, of Spanish/Scottish extraction, holds the position of Professor Emeritus of Slavonic Studies at the University of London, (England). "De Madariaga´s book will be the standard and essential guide for all students and scholars of Russian and European history of the second half of the eighteenth century" . Opinion of Prof. Marc Raeff, in Journal of Modern History. – "A remarkably fresh, lucid and well-paced survey....As a single volume introduction, this study is unlikely to be bettered , and it deserves the widest readership" , Opinion of Prof. H. M. Scott in Slavonic and East European Review.

Dixon, Simon. Catherine the Great (Profiles In Power) (Paperback).

Kolchin, Peter. "Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (U. S. A.), (1987). Some interesting conclusions from this comparison. Kolchin has worked for many years as a Professor of History and holds many professional awards at the University of Delaware, (U. S. A.). He has become well known for his lengthy studies in American slavery and Russian serfdom.

Reddaway, W.F. "Documents of Catherine the Great.The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruction of 1767 in the English Text of 1768" . Cambridge University Press, (England), (1931), Reprint (1971).

Rounding, Virginia. (2008). Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power, New York: St. Martin's Press. 501 pages. An extensive biography; not as saucy as the title might imply. Rounding has relied heavily on primary source materials and her extensive bibliography includes (amongst other material): letters written both by Catherine and her associates (many of them foreign ambassadors, who played a large role in the Russian court) as well as Catherine's own memoirs. Rounding, an established author, has written a book on 19th century courtesans and edited volumes of poetry. This readable book addresses itself to the layperson interested in Russian rulers and perhaps to students of women's studies. This text includes 16 pages of color photos.

Further reading

Brickner Alexander Gustavovich. History of Catherine the Great. Saint Petersburg: Typography of A. Suvorin, 1885. At Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats

Bogdanovich Modest I. Russian army in the age of the Empress Catherine II. Saint Petersburg: Printing office of the Department of inheritance, 1873. At Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats

Bilbasov Vasily A. History of Catherine the Great. Berlin: Publishing Frederick Gottgeyner, 1900. At Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats

Alexander, John T. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 1988 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-505236-6); 1989 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-506162-4).

Cronin, Vincent. Catherine, Empress of All the Russias. London: Collins, 1978 (hardcover, ISBN 0-00-216119-2); 1996 (paperback, ISBN 1-86046-091-7).

Elena Palmer."Peter III. Der Prinz von Holstein". Sutton, Germany, 2005 (ISBN 3-89702-788-7).

Dixon, Simon. Catherine the Great (Profiles in Power). Harlow, UK: Longman, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 0-582-09803-3).

Herman, Eleanor. Sex With the Queen. New York: HarperCollins, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-06-084673-9).

Madariaga, Isabel de. Catherine the Great: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-04845-9); 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-300-09722-0).

The Memoirs of Catherine the Great by Markus Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom (translators). New York: Modern Library, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-679-64299-4); 2006 (paperback, ISBN 0-8129-6987-1).

Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II, written by herself, with a preface by A. Herzen. London, Trübner, 1859 (same source as above, in an older translation -from French- and edition; digitized copy available online for free in full view in English and in French -for this French version: same publisher, same year-)(print copies of these digitized books available).

Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner. New York: Vintage, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 1-4000-7717-6).

* Reviewed by Charlotte Hobson in The Spectator, 15 April 2006.

*Reviewed by Catriona Kelly in The Guardian, 1 April 2006.

* Reviewed by Simon Sebag Montefiore in The Daily Telegraph, 17 April 2006.

Smith, Douglas, ed. and trans. Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois UP, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-87580-324-5); 2005 (paperback ISBN 0-87580-607-4).

Troyat, Henri. Catherine the Great. New York: Dorset Press, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0-88029-688-7); London: Orion, 2000 (paperback, ISBN 1-84212-029-8).

Troyat, Henri. Terrible Tsarinas. New York: Algora, 2001 (ISBN 1-892941-54-6).

External links

Catherine the Great @ Chronology World History Database

Some of the code of laws mentioned above, along with other information

Manifesto of the Empress Catherine II, inviting foreign immigration

Information about the Battle of Svenskund and the war

Historical Myths: The Death of Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great of Russia

Briefly about Catherine: The Enlightened Despots

Family tree of the ancestors of Catherine the Great

The Princess Who Become Catherine the Great @ the Ursula's History Web

Filmography:

* The Scarlet Empress (1934): Directed by Josef von Sternberg; starring Marlene Dietrich

* The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934): Directed by Paul Czinner; starring Elisabeth Bergner

Douglas Smith, Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin

Photos Empress Catherine II of Sevastopol

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/Catherine.html

Category:Russian empresses Category:Empresses regnant Category:Duchesses of Holstein-Gottorp Category:Russian grand duchesses by marriage Category:House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Category:House of Ascania Category:Russian art collectors Category:Orthodox monarchs Category:Russian Orthodox Christians Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Category:German Russians Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia Category:People from Szczecin Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Burials at Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint George I Class Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:1729 births Category:1796 deaths Category:18th-century female rulers Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Protestantism

Type	monarch
Name	Edward VII
Imgw	210
Caption	Coronation portrait
Reign	22 January 1901 – 6 May 1910 ()
Coronation	9 August 1902
Cor-type	britain
Coronation1	1 January 1903
Cor-type1	Imperial Durbar
Succession	King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India
Moretext	(more...)
Predecessor	Victoria
Successor	George V
Reg-type	Prime Ministers
Regent	See list
Spouse	Alexandra of Denmark
Issue	Prince Albert Victor, Duke of ClarenceGeorge VLouise, Princess Royal and Duchess of FifePrincess VictoriaMaud, Queen of NorwayPrince Alexander John of Wales
Full name	Albert Edward
House	House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Mother	Queen Victoria
Birth date	November 09, 1841
Birth place	Buckingham Palace, London
Death date	May 06, 1910
Death place	Buckingham Palace, London
Date of burial	20 May 1910
Place of burial	St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Signature	EdwardVII Signature.svg

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. He was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor by his son, George V.

Before his accession to the throne, Edward held the title of Prince of Wales and was heir apparent to the throne for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long widowhood of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism and the Labour movement. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services, and the reorganisation of the British army after the Second Boer War. He fostered good relations between the UK and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, Wilhelm II of Germany, was poor. Edward presciently suspected that Wilhelm would precipitate a war, and four years after Edward's death, World War I brought an end to the Edwardian way of life.

Early life

, 1846.Royal Collection, St James's Palace.]] Edward was born at 10:48 am on 9 November 1841 in Buckingham Palace. His mother was Queen Victoria, the only daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His father was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, first cousin and consort of Victoria. He was christened Albert Edward (after his father and maternal grandfather) at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 25 January 1842. His godparents were the King of Prussia, his paternal grandfather's wife the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (for whom the Duchess of Kent, his maternal grandmother, stood proxy), his great-uncle the Duke of Cambridge, his great-grandfather's wife the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg (for whom the Duchess of Cambridge, his great-aunt, stood proxy), his great-aunt the Princess Sophia (for whom Princess Augusta of Cambridge, his first cousin once-removed, stood proxy) and his great-uncle Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as Bertie to the family throughout his life.

As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth. As a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony. Queen Victoria created her son Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 8 December 1841. He was created Earl of Dublin on 17 January 1850, a Knight of the Garter on 9 November 1858, and a Knight of the Thistle on 24 May 1867. In 1863, he renounced his succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother, Prince Alfred.

Education

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were determined that their eldest son should have an education that would prepare him to be a model constitutional monarch. At age seven, Edward embarked on a rigorous educational programme devised by Prince Albert, and under the supervision of several tutors. However, unlike his elder sister, Edward did not excel in his studies. He tried to meet the expectations of his parents, but to no avail. Although Edward was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent and of sweet manner.

After an educational trip to Rome, undertaken in the first few months of 1859, he spent the summer of that year studying at the University of Edinburgh under, amongst others, Lyon Playfair. In October he matriculated as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. Now released from the educational strictures imposed by his parents, he enjoyed studying for the first time and performed satisfactorily in examinations. In 1861, Edward transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was tutored in history by Charles Kingsley, Regius Professor of Modern History. Kingsley's efforts brought forth the best academic performances of Edward's life, and Edward actually looked forward to his lectures.

Early adulthood

, 1860]]

In 1860, Edward undertook the first tour of North America by an heir to the British throne. His genial good humour and confident bonhomie made the tour a great success. He inaugurated the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, across the St Lawrence River, and laid the cornerstone of Parliament Hill, Ottawa. He watched Charles Blondin traverse Niagara Falls by highwire, and stayed for three days with President James Buchanan at the White House. Buchanan accompanied the Prince to Mount Vernon, to pay his respects at the tomb of George Washington. Vast crowds greeted him everywhere. He met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Prayers for the royal family were said in Trinity Church, New York, for the first time since 1776.

Upon his return, Edward hoped to pursue a career in the British Army, but this was denied him because he was heir to the throne. His military ranks were honorary. In September 1861, Edward was sent to Germany, supposedly to watch military manoeuvres, but actually in order to engineer a meeting between him and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the eldest daughter of Prince Christian of Denmark and his wife Louise. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had already decided that Edward and Alexandra should marry. They met at Speyer on 24 September under the auspices of his elder sister, the Crown Princess of Prussia. Edward's elder sister, acting upon instructions from their mother, had met Princess Alexandra at Strelitz in June; the young Danish princess made a very favourable impression. Edward and Alexandra were friendly from the start; the meeting went well for both sides, and marriage plans advanced.

From this time, Edward gained a reputation as a playboy. Determined to get some army experience, Edward attended manoeuvres in Ireland, during which an actress, Nellie Clifden, was hidden in his tent by his fellow officers. Prince Albert, though ill, was appalled and visited Edward at Cambridge to issue a reprimand. Albert died in December 1861 just two weeks after the visit. Queen Victoria was inconsolable, wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life and blamed Edward for his father's death. At first, she regarded her son with distaste as frivolous, indiscreet and irresponsible. She wrote to her eldest daughter, "I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder."

Marriage

Once widowed, Queen Victoria effectively withdrew from public life. Shortly after Prince Albert's death, she arranged for Edward to embark on an extensive tour of the Middle East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut and Constantinople. As soon as he returned to Britain, preparations were made for his engagement, which was sealed at Laeken in Belgium on 9 September 1862. Edward and Alexandra married at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 10 March 1863. Edward was 21; Alexandra was 18.

at their wedding. St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, 1863]]

Edward and his wife established Marlborough House as their London residence and Sandringham House in Norfolk as their country retreat. They entertained on a lavish scale. Their marriage met with disapproval in certain circles because most of Queen Victoria's relations were German, and Denmark was at loggerheads with Germany over the territories of Schleswig and Holstein. When Alexandra's father inherited the throne of Denmark in November 1863, the German Confederation took the opportunity to invade and annex Schleswig-Holstein. Queen Victoria was of two minds whether it was a suitable match given the political climate. After the couple's marriage, she expressed anxiety about their socialite lifestyle and attempted to dictate to them on various matters, including the names of their children.

Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with actress Lillie Langtry; Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of Winston Churchill); Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; actress Sarah Bernhardt; noblewoman Susan Pelham-Clinton; singer Hortense Schneider; prostitute Giulia Barucci; wealthy humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and Alice Keppel. At least fifty-five liaisons are conjectured. How far these relationships went is not always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this did not prevent society gossip or press speculation. One of Alice Keppel's great-granddaughters, Camilla Parker Bowles, became the mistress and subsequently wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, one of Edward's great-great grandsons. It was rumoured that Camilla's grandmother, Sonia Keppel (born in May 1900), was the illegitimate daughter of Edward, but she was "almost certainly" the daughter of George Keppel, whom she resembled. Edward never acknowledged any illegitimate children. Alexandra is believed to have been aware of many of his affairs and to have accepted them.

In 1869, Sir Charles Mordaunt, a British Member of Parliament, threatened to name Edward as co-respondent in his divorce suit. Ultimately, he did not do so but Edward was called as a witness in the case in early 1870. It was shown that Edward had visited the Mordaunts' house while Sir Charles was away sitting in the House of Commons. Although nothing further was proven and Edward denied he had committed adultery, the suggestion of impropriety was damaging.

Heir apparent

During Queen Victoria's widowhood, Edward pioneered the idea of royal public appearances as we understand them today—for example, opening Thames Embankment in 1871, Mersey Tunnel in 1886, and Tower Bridge in 1894. However, his mother did not allow Edward an active role in the running of the country until 1898. He was sent summaries of important government documents, but she refused to give him access to the originals. Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone sent him papers secretly. However, in the winter of 1871, a brush with death led to an improvement both in Edward's popularity with the public as well as in his relationship with his mother. While staying at Londesborough Lodge, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Edward contracted typhoid, the disease that was believed to have killed his father. There was great national concern, and one of his fellow guests (Lord Chesterfield) died. Edward's recovery was greeted with almost universal relief. From 1886, Foreign Secretary Lord Rosebery sent him Foreign Office despatches, and from 1892 some Cabinet papers were opened to him. At the end of the tour, his mother was given the title Empress of India by Parliament, in part as a result of the tour's success.

Edward was a patron of the arts and sciences and helped found the Royal College of Music. He opened the college in 1883 with the words, "Class can no longer stand apart from class ... I claim for music that it produces that union of feeling which I much desire to promote." He also laid out a golf course at Windsor. By the 1870s the future king had taken a keen interest in horseracing and steeplechasing. In 1896, his horse Persimmon won both the Derby Stakes and the St. Leger Stakes. In 1900, Persimmon's brother, Diamond Jubilee, won five races (Derby, St. Leger, 2,000 Guineas Stakes, Newmarket Stakes and Eclipse Stakes) and another of Edward's horses, Ambush II, won the Grand National.

He was regarded worldwide as an arbiter of men's fashions. He made wearing tweed, Homburg hats and Norfolk jackets fashionable, and popularised the wearing of black ties with dinner jackets, instead of white tie and tails. He pioneered the pressing of trouser legs from side to side in preference to the now normal front and back creases, and was thought to have introduced the stand-up turn-down shirt collar. A stickler for proper dress, he is said to have admonished the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, for wearing the trousers of an Elder Brother of Trinity House with a Privy Councillor's coat. Deep in an international crisis, the Prime Minister informed the Prince of Wales that it had been a dark morning, and that "my mind must have been occupied by some subject of less importance." The tradition of men not buttoning the bottom button of suit-coats is said to be linked to Edward, who supposedly left his undone due to his large girth. He introduced the practice of eating roast beef, roast potatoes, horseradish sauce and yorkshire pudding on Sundays, which remains a staple British favourite for Sunday lunch.

, Princess Maud, Alexandra, Edward, Princess Louise, Prince George and Princess Victoria.]] In 1891, Edward was embroiled in the Royal Baccarat Scandal, when it was revealed he had played an illegal card game for money the previous year. The Prince was forced to appear as a witness in court for a second time when one of the players unsuccessfully sued his fellow players for slander after being accused of cheating. In the same year Edward was involved in a personal conflict, when Lord Charles Beresford threatened to reveal details of Edward's private life to the press, as a protest against Edward interfering with Beresford's affair with Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick. The friendship between the two men was irreversibly damaged and their bitterness would last for the remainder of their lives. Usually, Edward's outbursts of temper were short-lived, and "after he had let himself go ... [he would] smooth matters by being especially nice".

In 1892, Edward's eldest son, Albert Victor, was engaged to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. Just a few weeks after the engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia. Edward was grief-stricken. "To lose our eldest son", he wrote, "is one of those calamities one can never really get over". Edward told Queen Victoria, "[I would] have given my life for him, as I put no value on mine". Albert Victor was the second of Edward's children to die. In 1871, his youngest son, John, had died just 24 hours after being born. Edward had insisted on placing John in his coffin personally with "the tears rolling down his cheeks".

On his way to Denmark through Belgium on 4 April 1900 Edward was the victim of an attempted assassination, when Jean-Baptiste Sipido shot at him in protest over the Boer War. Sipido escaped to France; the perceived delay of the Belgian authorities in applying for extradition, combined with British disgust at Belgian atrocities in the Congo, worsened the already poor relationship between the United Kingdom and the Continent. However, in the next ten years, Edward's affability and popularity, as well as his use of family connections, assisted Britain in building European alliances.

Accession

.]] When Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominions. He chose to reign under the name Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use, declaring that he did not wish to "undervalue the name of Albert" and diminish the status of his father with whom among royalty the name Albert should stand alone. The number VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had "been excluded from Scotland by battle".

He donated his parents' house, Osborne on the Isle of Wight, to the state and continued to live at Sandringham. He could afford to be magnanimous; it was claimed that he was the first heir to succeed to the throne in credit. Edward's finances had been ably managed by Sir Dighton Probyn, Comptroller of the Household, and had benefited from advice from Edward's Jewish financier friends, such as Ernest Cassel, Maurice de Hirsch and the Rothschild family. At a time of widespread anti-Semitism, Edward attracted criticism for openly socialising with Jews.

, and grandsons, the future King Edward VIII and King George VI.]]

Edward VII and Alexandra were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 9 August 1902 by the 80-year-old Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, who died only four months later. Edward's coronation had originally been scheduled for 26 June, but two days before on 24 June, Edward was diagnosed with appendicitis. Thanks to developments in anaesthesia and antisepsis in the preceding 50 years, he underwent a life-saving operation, performed by Sir Frederick Treves. This was at a time when appendicitis was generally not treated operatively and carried a high mortality rate. Treves, with the support of Lord Lister, performed a then-radical operation of draining the infected appendix through a small incision. The next day, Edward was sitting up in bed, smoking a cigar. Two weeks later, it was announced that the King was out of danger. Treves was honoured with a baronetcy (which Edward had arranged before the operation) and appendix surgery entered the medical mainstream.

Edward refurbished the royal palaces, reintroduced the traditional ceremonies, such as the State Opening of Parliament, that his mother had forgone, and founded new orders of honours, such as the Order of Merit, to recognise contributions to the arts and sciences. In 1902, the Shah of Persia, Mozzafar-al-Din, visited England expecting to receive the Order of the Garter. Edward refused to give this high honour to the Shah because the order was meant to be his personal gift and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, had promised the order without his consent. Edward also objected to inducting a Muslim into a Christian order of chivalry. His refusal threatened to damage British attempts to gain influence in Persia, but Edward resented his ministers' attempts to reduce the King's traditional powers. Eventually, he relented and Britain sent a special embassy to the Shah with a full Order of the Garter the following year.

"Uncle of Europe"

As king, Edward's main interests lay in the fields of foreign affairs and naval and military matters. Fluent in French and German, he made a number of visits abroad, and took annual holidays in Biarritz and Marienbad.

Edward was related to nearly every other European monarch and came to be known as the "uncle of Europe". However, there was one relation whom Edward did not like and his difficult relationship with his nephew, Wilhelm II, exacerbated the tensions between Germany and Britain.

In 1908, Edward became the first British monarch to visit the Russian Empire, despite refusing to visit in 1906, when Anglo-Russian relations were strained in the aftermath of the Dogger Bank incident, the Russo-Japanese war and the Tsar's dissolution of the Duma.

Political opinions

, 1902]] Edward involved himself heavily in discussions over army reform, the need for which had become apparent with the failings of the Boer War. He supported the re-design of army command, the creation of the Territorial Army, and the decision to provide an Expeditionary Force supporting France in the event of war with Germany. Reform of the Royal Navy was also suggested, partly due to the ever-increasing Naval Estimates, and because of the emergence of the Imperial German Navy as a new strategic threat. Ultimately a dispute arose between Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, who favoured increased spending and a broad deployment, and the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir John Fisher, who favoured efficiency savings, scrapping obsolete vessels, and a strategic realignment of the Royal Navy relying on torpedo craft for home defence backed by the new dreadnoughts. Edward lent support to Fisher, in part because he disliked Beresford, and eventually Beresford was dismissed. Beresford continued his campaign outside of the navy and Fisher ultimately announced his resignation in late 1909, although the bulk of his policies were retained. The King was intimately involved in the appointment of Fisher's successor as the Fisher-Beresford feud had split the service, and the only truly qualified figure known to be outside of both camps was Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, who had retired in 1907. Wilson was reluctant to return to active duty, but Edward persuaded him to do so, and Wilson became First Sea Lord on 25 January 1910.

In the last year of his life, Edward became embroiled in a constitutional crisis when the Conservative majority in the House of Lords refused to pass the "People's Budget" proposed by the Liberal government of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. The King let Asquith know that he would only be willing to appoint additional peers, if necessary, to enable the budget's passage in the House of Lords, if Asquith won two successive general elections.

Edward was rarely interested in politics, although his views on some issues were notably liberal for the time. During his reign he said use of the word "nigger" was "disgraceful" despite it then being in common parlance. While Prince of Wales, he had to be dissuaded from breaking with constitutional precedent by openly voting for Gladstone's Representation of the People Bill (1884) in the House of Lords. On other matters he was less progressive: he did not, for example, favour giving votes to women, although he did suggest that the social reformer Octavia Hill serve on the Commission for Working Class Housing. He was also opposed to Irish Home Rule, instead preferring a form of dual monarchy. Between moments of faintness, the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon. The King replied, "I am very glad": his final words. is possibly a myth that Alice herself propagated. Mrs Keppel was asked at the King's request and, in a fit of hysterics, she was reportedly ejected shrieking, "I never did any harm, there was nothing wrong between us. What is to become of me?"

Legacy

The lead ship of a new class of battleships, launched in 1903, was named in his honour. Many schools in England are named after Edward; two of the largest are in Melton Mowbray and Sheffield. King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, South Africa, is one of the oldest schools in that country, and was named in honour of Edward after his death. King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Mumbai, India, the King Edward Medical University in Pakistan, King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Subiaco, Western Australia, and King Edward VII Hall at the National University of Singapore carry King Edward's name. The Parque Eduardo VII in Lisbon, King Edward Avenue in Vancouver, Rue Edouard VII in Paris and King Edward Cigars are also named after him.

Statues of Edward can be found throughout the former empire, such as those in Waterloo Place, London, Union Street, Aberdeen, Queen's Park, Toronto, North Terrace, Adelaide, Franklin Square, Hobart, Queen Victoria Gardens, Melbourne, and outside the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

As king, Edward VII proved a greater success than anyone had expected, but he was already an old man and had little time left to fulfil the role. In his short reign, he ensured that his second son and heir, George V, was better prepared to take the throne. Contemporaries described their relationship as more like affectionate brothers than father and son, and on Edward's death George wrote in his diary that he had lost his "best friend and the best of fathers ... I never had a [cross] word with him in my life. I am heart-broken and overwhelmed with grief". Edward received criticism for his apparent pursuit of self-indulgent pleasure but he received great praise for his affable and kind good manners, and his diplomatic skill. As his grandson wrote, "his lighter side ... obscured the fact that he had both insight and influence." "He had a tremendous zest for pleasure but he also had a real sense of duty", wrote J. B. Priestley. Lord Esher wrote that Edward was "kind and debonair and not undignified – but too human". Edward VII is buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral marked "the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last".

Edward had been afraid that his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, would tip Europe into war. Four years after Edward's death, World War I broke out. The naval reforms and the Anglo-French alliance he had supported, as well as the relationships between his extended royal family, were put to the test. The war marked the end of the Edwardian way of life.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Name	Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Dipstyle	His Majesty
Offstyle	Your Majesty
Altstyle	Sir

Titles and styles

9 November – 8 December 1841: His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall

8 December 1841 – 22 January 1901: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

*in Scotland: His Royal Highness The Prince Albert Edward, Duke of Rothesay

*17 January 1850 – 22 January 1901: The Earl of Dublin (merged with the Crown in 1901)

22 January 1901 – 6 May 1910: His Majesty The King

*with regard to India: His Imperial Majesty The King-Emperor

Honours

9 November 1858: Knight of the Garter

24 May 1867: Knight of the Thistle

Arms

When he was created Prince of Wales, Edward was granted a coat of arms. These were those of the kingdom (and his mother), differenced by a label argent, of three blank points, and an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, representing his father. When he acceded as King, he gained the arms of the kingdom, undifferenced.

Ancestry and descent

Ancestors

Children

See also

Cultural depictions of Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII 2d Tyrian plum, a rare stamp

1908 Summer Olympics, which he opened

Notes and sources

References

Matthew, H. C. G. (September 2004; online edition May 2006) "Edward VII (1841–1910)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, , retrieved 24 June 2009 (Subscription required)

Further reading

External links

Macaulay, James (editor) (1889). Speeches and addresses of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales: 1863–1888 London: Murray.

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