Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman The daughter of an
impoverished aristocrat, Catherine was married aged 16 to Grand
Duke Peter, heir to the throne of all the Russias, a feckless
... Show synopsis The daughter of an impoverished aristocrat,
Catherine was married aged 16 to Grand Duke Peter, heir to the
throne of all the Russias, a feckless teenager with a weakness
for drink. Catherine was only able to give him an heir by
passing off her lover's son as his own. In 1762, Catherine rode
out of St Petersburg at the head of an army to arrest her
husband. Three months later she became sole empress of the
largest empire on earth. She was 33 years old. She ruled Russia
as a benevolent autocrat for 34 years,fighting the Turks abroad
and rebellion at home, and shepherding her people through the
upheavals of the French Revolution. She took on many lovers but
gave her heart to General Potemkin, the foremost statesman of
her time. She died in 1796 aged 67, revered by her people as
'our mother', praised by Voltaire