A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Catharine Alexieona
CATHARINE ALEXIEONA,
A country girl of the name of Martha, which was changed to Catharine when she embraced the Greek religion and became Empress of Russia, was born of very indigent parents, who lived at Ringen, a small village not far from Dorpt, on lake Vitcherve, in Livonia. When only three years old she lost her father, who left her with no other support than the scanty maintenance produced by the labours of an infirm and sickly mother. She grew up handsome, well formed, and possessed of a good understanding. Her mother taught her to read, and an old Lutheran clergyman, named Gluck, instructed her in the principles of that persuasion. Scarcely had she attained her fifteenth year when she lost her mother, and the good pastor took her home, and employed her in attending his children. Catharine availed herself of the lessons in music and dancing given them by their masters; but the death of her benefactor, which happened not long after her reception into his family, plunged her once more into the extremity of poverty; and her country being now the seat of war between Sweden and Russia, she went to seek an asylum at Marienburg.
In 1701, she married a dragoon of the Swedish garrison of that fortress, and, if we may believe some authors, the very day of their marriage, Marienburg was besieged by the Russians, and the lover, while assisting to repel the attack, was killed. The city was at last carried by assault; when General Bauer, seeing Catharine among the prisoners, and being smitten with her youth and beauty, took her to his house, where she superintended his domestic affairs. Soon afterwards she was removed into the family of Prince Menzhikoff, who was no less struck with the attractions of the fair captive, and she lived with him till 1704; when in the seventeenth year of her age, she became the mistress of Peter the Great, and won so much on his affections, that he married her on the 29th. of May, 1712. The ceremony was secretly performed at Yaverhof, in Poland, in presence of General Brure; and on the 20th. of February, 1724, it was publicly solemnized with great pomp at St. Petersburgh, on which occasion she received the diadem and sceptre from the hands of her husband. Peter died the following year, and she was proclaimed sovereign Empress of all the Russias. She showed herself worthy of this high station by completing the grand designs which the Czar had begun. The first thing she did on her accession was to cause every gallows to be taken down, and all instruments of torture destroyed. She instituted a new order of knighthood, in honour of St. Alexander Nefski; and performed many actions worthy of a great mind. She died the 17th. of May, 1727, at the age of thirty-eight.
Catharine was much beloved for her great humanity; she saved the lives of many, whom Peter, in the first impulse of his naturally cruel temper, had resolved to have executed. When fully determined on the death of any one, he would give orders for the execution during her absence. The Czar was also subject to terror and depression of spirits sometimes amounting to frenzy. In these moments, Catharine alone dared to approach him; her presence, the sound of her voice, had an immediate effect upon him, and calmed the agony of his mind. Her temper was very gay and cheerful, and her manners winning. Her habits were somewhat intemperate, which is supposed to have hastened her end; but we must not forget in judging her for this gross appetite, that drunkenness was then the conmon habit of the nobles of Russia.