There Was Something Seriously Wrong With Her Fiance

Even at the tender age of 10, Catherine knew she despised Peter. They say that girls mature faster than boys, but in Peter’s case…this was true tenfold. Pale and sickly, the almost-teenaged Peter still played obsessively with toy soldiers—all while somehow nursing a burgeoning alcohol problem. And that was just the beginning…

When Sophie arrived in Russia in 1744, she spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with Empress Elizabeth but with her husband and with the Russian people as well. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with zeal, rising at night and walking about her bedroom barefoot, repeating her lessons. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made the decision then to do whatever was necessary and to profess to believe whatever was required of her to become qualified to wear the crown. Although she mastered the language, she retained an accent.

Sophie recalled in her memoirs that as soon as she arrived in Russia, she fell ill with a pleuritis that almost killed her. She credited her survival to frequent bloodletting; in a single day, she had four phlebotomies. Her mother's opposition to this practice brought her the empress's disfavor. When Sophie's situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran pastor. Awakening from her delirium, however, Sophie said, "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my Orthodox father [clergyman]." This raised her in the empress's esteem.