How did Elisabeth Petrovna die?
Princess Maria of Romania (1870–1874)
The death of their only child worsened the relationship between Carol and Elisabeth and they did not have any further children. In 1875, Karl Storck created a bust of the sleeping princess which was erected by her tomb. This bust inspired Elisabeth to write many emotional poems. When Queen Elisabeth died in 1916, according to her wishes, her daughter's remains were exhumed and the casket placed on her coffin for the public procession. Mother and daughter were then buried together in the same tomb at the Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș. At the Elisabeta Palace, one can still see an 1880s style piece of furniture that contains a plaster-mold of the infant princess.
Elisabeth of Romania
Elisabeth settled firstly in Zurich and then in Cannes, at the "Villa Rose Alba". In France, she met a handsome young seducer named Marc Favrat. Having fallen in love with the young man, the princess asked her cousin, Frederick, Prince of Hohenzollern, to bestow a title on him, but Frederick refused. The princess then decided to adopt her lover; which she did three months before her death. She died at her home on 14 November 1956.
Elisabeth of Hesse, Hereditary Princess of Saxony
After the defeat of the Schmalkalden League, Elisabeth had left her retirement home in Rochlitz. Her brother gave her the Hessian part of Schmalkalden as a widow seat. She lived here from 1547 at court in Hesse. Her brother fell into imperial captivity, and his wife, Christine of Saxony (1505–1549) took steps to get him released. During this time, Elizabeth was often in Kassel, in order to care for the education of Philip's children. In 1556 Elisabeth fell seriously ill, after which her brother set up the first pharmacy in the city of Schmalkalden. She died on 6 December 1557 in Schmalkalden and was buried in the St. Elisabeth's Church in Marburg. It was one of the last Landgrave burials in the St. Elisabeth's Church.
Elizaveta Polonskaya
After the war, she suffered both personal and professional setbacks. In December 1945 her beloved mother had a stroke, dying in January 1946, and her projected novel about the rebuilding of Leningrad, "Gorod" [The city], was rejected by the publisher, forcing her to return an advance she had already spent (she managed to get Litfond, the writers' literary fund, to pay the advance in exchange for literary work). Furthermore, the zhdanovshchina of the late 1940s was not only painful for her because of the vicious attacks on friends like Mikhail Zoshchenko, it was dangerous for her because of her association with the Serapion Brothers, whose principles were now considered heretical by the Party, and the persecution of Jews and doctors involved in the Doctors' plot of early 1953 added to her peril. Although she continued to work as a translator and journalist (her sketches were published almost exclusively in "Gudok" [Train Whistle]), her only book published between 1945 and 1960 was "Na svoikh plechakh" [On their own shoulders] (1948), a collection of short prose pieces about the heroism of young Red Cross nurses in Leningrad during the war which was favorably reviewed. In the late 1950s she was abruptly dismissed from her post as head of the Translators' Section of the Writers Union. However, by 1960 she was able to publish a collection of her poetry, and another followed in 1966 (both consisted mostly of earlier work, with a few new poems). She also began publishing selections from her memoirs, though she was never able to publish them in book form (a collection was finally published in 2008). Illness forced her to stop writing in 1967, and she died in January 1969.
Sophia Palaiologina
On 11 April 1502 the dynastic struggle came to an end. According to chronicles, Ivan III suddenly changed his mind and imprisoned both Grand Prince Dmitry and his mother Elena, placing them under house arrest surrounded by guards. Three days later, on 14 April Vasili was crowned the new Grand Prince and co-ruler; soon Dmitry and his mother were transferred from house arrest to prison. Thus the winner of the dynastic conflict was Vasili. The downfall of Dmitry and Elena also determined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod Reformation movement in the Orthodox Church: a council in 1503 finally defeated it, and many prominent and progressive leaders of this movement were executed. Elena of Moldavia died in prison on 18 January 1505. Her son Dmitry died a few years later on 14 February 1509, either by hunger and cold, or, as others claim, suffocated by orders of his uncle.
Jennings, Elizabeth
During his FBI interview, Father Victor states that he believes Father Andrei is associated with the KGB. Oleg picks up the dead drop, which requires him to lose his FBI tail. However, upon being notified, Dennis orders an immediate "Terry" stop. The FBI finds the dead drop and arrests Oleg for spying. Elizabeth remembers being instructed as a trainee not to leave a comrade to die in the streets of Moscow, despite her mission. While following Nesterenko, Elizabeth notices a suspicious woman approaching him and kills her with a silenced gunshot to the back at point-blank range; the woman turns out to be a disguised Tatiana, armed with the same type of cyanide gun, who was sent as the substitute assassin. Elizabeth escapes into the crowd.
Miracle of the House of Brandenburg
During the war the Prussians had lost 120 generals, 1,500 officers (out of 5,500) and over 100,000 men. Most Prussians now supported peace and Frederick was trying unsuccessfully to bring the Ottoman Empire into the war. Her ally England was pressuring for a peace that would diminish Prussia. Then, in January 1762, Frederick received the news that the Empress Elizabeth of Russia had died on 5 January: "The Messalina of the North is dead. "Morta la Bestia"", wrote Frederick on 22 January. Her nephew Peter succeeded her and was a strong admirer of Frederick the Great. He therefore reversed Elizabeth's anti-Prussian policy and negotiated peace with Prussia, with an armistice in March and a treaty of peace and friendship signed on 15 May.
Hélène Iswolsky
Then, in 1961 made the journey by car along the route Leningrad - Novgorod - Moscow - Vladimir - Tula - Eagle -Kharkiv - Poltava - Kiev. In Moscow, she visited the tomb of Vladimir Solovyov, where have some land (in December 1975 in Tivoli, New York, the land has been put in her grave. In the United States Elena joined the social movement Catholic Worker. In her 60's Izvolskaya lived at times in Tivoli that housed the village community movement. Not far from the Tivoli was a small Benedictine monastery, and Elena began to take an active part in the spiritual life of the monastery. In 1972, the monastery was moved to Cold Spring, near Tivoli. Izvolskaya help his brother when moving. In the summer of 1974 she finally moved from New York to Cold Spring, to be closer to the monastery. The brothers helped her carry things, a library, an extensive archive. Elena Izvolskaya died in 1975, on Christmas Eve, in a hospital near Cold Spring. Shortly before her death, she took vows as a nun in the Benedictine monastery of Regina Laudis with the name Olga.
Elizabeth of Pomerania
Elisabeth outlived Charles IV by 15 years. She died on 14 February 1393 in Hradec Králové ("Königgrätz") and was buried next to her husband in St. Vitus Cathedral.
Elizabeth of Austria (1436–1505)
Elisabeth became ill in 1505, but her symptoms are unknown. She died on 30 August 1505. She was buried on 21 September in Wawel Cathedral next to her husband and two daughters.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)
Catherine and Francis are later informed by Dr. Leon that Isabella in fact was not tortured to death, rather she was entombed behind a brick wall while still alive. Dr. Leon explains, "The very thought of premature interment is enough to send your brother into convulsions of horror." Nicholas fears that Elizabeth may have been interred prematurely. The doctor tells Nicholas that "if Elizabeth Medina walks these corridors, it is her spirit and not her living self."
Isabella of Austria
In the spring of 1525, Isabella caught some kind of serious illness, which worsened after she travelled through a storm later that year, and lasted all summer. The former queen died at the castle of Zwijnaarde near Ghent aged twenty-four. She received both Protestant and Catholic communion, but the Habsburgs declared that she had died a convinced Catholic. Her religious sympathies, and whether she was a Protestant or a Catholic after 1524, have been debated. At her deathbed, she gave the cause of her husband's restoration to her aunt, the regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria.
Elizabeth of Russia
As an unmarried and childless empress, it was imperative for Elizabeth to find a legitimate heir to secure the Romanov dynasty. She chose her nephew, Peter of Holstein-Gottorp. Elizabeth was only too aware that the deposed Ivan VI, whom she had imprisoned in the Schlusselburg Fortress and placed in solitary confinement, was a threat to her throne. Elizabeth feared a coup in his favour and set about destroying all papers, coins or anything else depicting or mentioning Ivan. Elizabeth had issued an order that if any attempt were made for him to escape, he was to be eliminated. Catherine II upheld the order and when an attempt was made, he was killed and secretly buried within the fortress.
Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg
Elisabeth died on 25 March 1650 in Altenburg and was buried in the Brethren Church in Altenburg, to which she had donated a beaker. The motto of the Duchess, who was with both an Albertine and an Ernestine, was: "All my delight is in God". An oval gold ducats exists, depicting Elisabeth exists, showing her effigy on the obverse and a crowned "E" on the reverse. Elisabeth was a member of the virtuous society under the name "the Pious".
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
The death of her only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had a palace built on the Greek Island of Corfu that she visited often. The palace Achilleion, featuring an elaborate mythological motif, served as a refuge. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria at 44 years.
Galina Petrova
Galina Petrova () was a Chief Petty Officer in the medical service of the 386th Independent Naval Infantry Battalion of the Black Sea Fleet during the Second World War. She died in a bombing on 4 December 1943 less than a month after she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and an Order of Lenin on 17 November 1943 for her bravery in the Kerch-Eltigen operation.
Elisabeth of the Palatinate
Elisabeth died on February 12, 1680. She was buried in the Abbey Church of Herford.
Evdokia Petrova
To help protect their identities in Australia, the Petrovs took the names "Sven" and "Anna Allyson". Although the press agreed not to identify them, they did not always observe this voluntary protection order. She became an Australian citizen in 1956. She found work as a typist for William Adams Tractors. Vladimir Petrov died in 1991, but she was not able to attend his funeral due to media attention.
Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France
Back in Vienna, Elisabeth lived at first in the residence of her childhood, Stallburg. On 12 October 1576, her beloved father Maximilian II died, and her brother Rudolf II succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor. Her last great tragedy came on 2 April 1578, when her five-and-half-year-old daughter Marie Elisabeth died. When a new proposal of marriage was made to her, this time from King Philip II of Spain after the death of his wife Anna in 1580, she again refused; according to Brantôme, she replied to the offer with the famous phrase: "The Queens of France do not remarry" ("Les Reines de France ne se remarient point"), once said by Blanche of Navarre, widow of King Philip VI.
Paddle steamer Genève
"Genève" was the scene of the assassination of Elisabeth of Bavaria on 10 September 1898. Elizabeth was stabbed just before boarding the vessel in Geneva to travel to Montreux. The wounded Empress, came on board and the boat departed. But her condition was soon seen to be life-threatening, and "Genève" turned around to return her to the Hôtel Beau-Rivage, where she died shortly afterwards.
Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth Elliot died in Magnolia, Massachusetts on June 15, 2015, at the age of 88. Shortly after her death, Steve Saint, the son of one of the other missionaries who were killed alongside Elliot's first husband, Jim, posted on Facebook about her final victory over "the loss of her mind to dementia" and "her ten year battle with the disease which robbed her of her greatest gift." She was interred at Hamilton Cemetery in Hamilton, Massachusetts. She was survived by her third husband, Lars Gren, a daughter, Valerie Elliot Shepard and husband Walter, and eight grandchildren.
Countess Palatine Elisabeth of Simmern-Sponheim
Elisabeth died on 8 February 1594 in the armory of Wiener Neustadt. Her body was repatriated to Coburg at the end of the year and buried in the Morizkirche on 30 December 1594. In 1598, Duke John Casimir had a twelve-meter-high alabaster epitaph by the sculptor Nikolaus Bergner erected on the tomb of Elisabeth and John Frederick, who had died in 1595.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (1899–1918)
The first volley of gunfire killed the Tsar, the Empress and two male servants, and wounded the family's doctor and the empress' maidservant. Maria tried to escape through the doors at the rear of the room, which led to a storage area, but the doors were nailed shut. The noise as she rattled the doors attracted the attention of the drunken military commissar Peter Ermakov. A heavy layer of smoke had accumulated in the room from the gunfire and from plaster dust released from the walls by errant bullets, and the gunmen could see only the lower bodies of those who were still alive. Ermakov fired at Maria, and his bullet struck her in the thigh. She fell to the floor with Anastasia and Demidova and lay there moaning. The assassins then left the room for several minutes to let the haze clear, and when they returned they killed Dr Botkin, Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana. Ermakov then turned on the wounded Maria and Anastasia, who was still unharmed. He struggled with Maria and tried to stab her with a bayonet. The jewels sewn into her clothes protected her, and he said he finally shot her in the head. But the skull that is almost certainly Maria's has no bullet wound. Perhaps the drunken Ermakov inflicted a scalp wound, knocking her unconscious and producing a considerable flow of blood, leading Ermakov to think he had killed her. He then struggled with Anastasia, whom he also claimed he shot in the head. As the bodies were being removed from the house, Maria regained consciousness and screamed. Ermakov tried to stab her again but failed, and struck her in the face until she was silent. The facial area of Maria's skull was indeed destroyed, but Yurovsky wrote that the victims' faces were shattered with rifle butts at the burial site. Though Maria unquestionably died with her family, the exact cause of her death remains a mystery.
The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
After some time the evil tsarina reveals that her stepdaughter is still alive with the help of the magic mirror. She orders Chernavka to get rid of the tsarevna under pain of death. The servant girl dresses as a nun and travels to the house of the seven bogatyrs. She is met by the barking dog that doesn't let her approach the mistress who throws her some bread anyway. In return the nun throws her an apple and disappears. As soon as the tsarevna bites the apple, she gets poisoned and dies. The dog leads bogatyrs to her, bites the poisoned apple in anger and also dies, revealing the cause of the tragedy. They put the girl into a crystal coffin and bring to a cave. Same day the tsarina learns of her death.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
The "Yurovsky Note", an account of the event filed by Yurovsky to his Bolshevik superiors following the killings, was found in 1989 and detailed in Edvard Radzinsky's 1992 book, "The Last Tsar". According to the note, on the night of the deaths the family was awakened and told to dress. They were told they were being moved to a new location to ensure their safety in anticipation of the violence that might ensue when the White Army reached Yekaterinburg. Once dressed, the family and the small circle of servants who had remained with them were herded into a small room in the house's sub-basement and told to wait. Alexandra and Alexei sat in chairs provided by guards at the Empress's request. After several minutes, the guards entered the room, led by Yurovsky, who quickly informed the Tsar and his family that they were to be executed. The Tsar had time to say only "What?" and turn to his family before he was killed by several bullets to the chest (not, as is commonly stated, to the head; his skull, recovered in 1991, bears no bullet wounds). The Tsarina and her daughter Olga tried to make the sign of the cross, but were killed in the initial volley of bullets fired by the executioners. The rest of the Imperial retinue were shot in short order, with the exception of Anna Demidova, Alexandra's maid. Demidova survived the initial onslaught, but was quickly stabbed to death against the back wall of the basement, while trying to defend herself with a small pillow she had carried into the sub-basement that was filled with precious gems and jewels.
Sofia Petrovna
Based on her experiences during the Great Purge of 1938-39, it was written in 1939-40 but remained unpublished due to the critical and honest nature of the piece. Originally written in a school exercise book, it was hidden, as its discovery could have endangered Chukovskaya. With the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, and his subsequent denunciation by Nikita Khrushchev, Chukovskaya reexamined the work, edited out a no-longer-relevant introduction, and sought publication in 1962. The book was nearly published in 1963, but was pulled before it could be released due to a changing political climate. It finally saw release in France in 1965 in Russian but with a changed title ("The Deserted House") and different character names. It was then published in the United States, in Russian, with the correct title, in "Novy Zhurnal". However, the book was not published in Chukovskaya's native country, and she forbade publication of any other work until after the release in Russia of "Sofia Petrovna". The book was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988 amidst Glasnost.
Isaac Babel
After her husband's return to Moscow in 1935, Yevgenia Gronfein Babel remained unaware of his other family with Antonina Pirozhkova. Based upon statements made by Ilya Ehrenburg, Yevgenia further believed that her husband was still alive and living in exile. In 1956, however, Ehrenburg told her of her husband's execution while visiting Paris. After also informing Mrs. Babel of her husband's daughter with Antonina Pirozhkova, Ehrenburg asked Yevgenia to sign a false statement attesting to a pre-war divorce from her husband. Enraged, Yevgenia Babel spat in Ehrenberg's face and then fainted.
Elena Gilbert
Much of Elena's story revolves around her relationships with vampires Stefan Salvatore and his older brother, Damon. It is revealed that Elena is a Petrova Doppelgänger, which is thus responsible for her being identical to her ancestor, Katherine Pierce (née Katerina Petrova). This also has the implication of making her a supernatural creature. Dobrev portrayed the "conniving" Katherine as well, who is opposite of Elena. The actress stated that it has been a challenge distinguishing the two, and enjoys playing them both. In the television series's fourth season, Elena becomes a vampire and deals with the struggles that come with her change. She took the cure and became human again towards the end of the sixth season. In the finale of the sixth season, Kai linked Elena to Bonnie's life by magic. Elena will only wake up when Bonnie dies in around 60 years. She was locked inside the Salvatore tomb, then relocated to a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York in the seventh season, then back to Mystic Falls. In late 2016, when it was announced that the eighth season would be the final season, Dobrev was in talks about returning to the television series to reprise her role in the final episode. After much speculation. Dobrev's return was confirmed on January 26, 2017, via an Instagram post. Dobrev appeared in the final episode of the show as both Elena and her evil doppelgänger Katherine Pierce.
Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1865–1927)
The untimely death of their son led her husband to an early grave in 1915. That same year her son-in-law (Princess Tatiana's husband) was also killed in action. After the revolution, she managed to escape Russia, but several of her sons were caught by the Soviet forces. In fact, three (Ioann, Konstantin and Igor) were shot together by Bolsheviks in Alapaievsk, Siberia, in July 1918 along with several other members of the family. Her brother-in-law, Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich was shot in Petrograd the following year.
Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1865–1927)
She outlived most of her children. In 1905 her daughter Natalia died aged exactly two months. When World War I broke out, she found herself fighting on the opposite side of her native Germany. However, several of her sons, who were trained soldiers, joined the army and fought bravely. One, her son Oleg, was killed in 1914 in Lithuania, where Elizaveta quickly went to see her dying son.
Élisabeth de Rothschild
Elisabeth reportedly died of epidemic typhus on March 23, 1945 at Ravensbrück. Her second husband's memoir, however, states that she was thrown into a concentration-camp oven, alive. She was the only Rothschild to die in the Holocaust or during World War II.
Military history of the Russian Empire
Anna I died in autumn 1740. Shortly before her death, she had appointed her infant grandnephew, son of her niece, Princess of Mecklenburg, Ivan VI, as tsar, and nominated her old favorite Biron as the regent. The gesture did not save Biron from the many enemies he had made over the course of Anna's rule, and he was exiled to Siberia within three weeks of her death. Regency was taken up by Ivan's mother Anna Leopoldovna. This arrangement did not either. Noting her cousin's distaste for her and consolidating her control over the guards, Peter the Great's daughter, Elizabeth, executed a bloodless coup and took the throne. Anna and the infant Ivan were carried away and imprisoned, and Elizabeth arrested all her known and suspected opponents along the way.
Elisabeth of Brunswick-Calenberg
Elisabeth died on 19 August 1566 and was buried in the castle church in Schleusingen. Her grave was decorated with an epitaph which had been crafted during her lifetime. Prior to her death, the Henneberg family buried their dead in Vessra Abbey, however, George Ernest decided to move the family burial location to the Schleusingen.
Yelena Kolesova
Kolesova was killed in action on 11 September 1942 while leading a raid on a fortress in Krupki that proved to be successful. The eleven girls parachuted in over Borisov on the first of May, but because they had never been trained to use parachutes before three died before they could continue and one suffered a broken spinal column and died a short time later. The guerillas bombed bridges and even derailed a military train in broad daylight, but after the Germans found their campsite they had to relocate their de facto headquarters into the deep forest. On the 11 September raid she was mortally wounded while trying to take out a machine gun nest; her dying wish was to buried with the four members of her unit that died in parachuting in. She was buried in a mass grave for partisans in Migovshchina but after the end of the war her remains and those of the other four members of her unit were transferred to a grave with a memorial in Krupki. In total her detachment derailed eleven trains, killed 30 German soldiers, three cars, and bombed six police stations.
Elisabeth of Valois
Philip was very attached to Elisabeth, staying close by her side even when she was ill with smallpox. Elisabeth's first pregnancy in 1564 ended with a miscarriage of twin girls. She later gave birth to Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain on 12 August 1566, and then to Isabella's younger sister Catherine Michelle of Spain on 10 October 1567. Elisabeth had another miscarriage on 3 October 1568, and died the same day, along with her newborn infant daughter.
Michael Peterson (criminal)
Elizabeth Ratliff, the friend of the Petersons who died in Germany in 1985, had also been found dead at the foot of her staircase with injuries to the head. Her death had been investigated by both the German police and U.S. military police. An autopsy at the time of her death concluded she died from an intra-cerebral haemorrhage secondary to the blood coagulation disorder Von Willebrand's disease, based on blood in her cerebrospinal fluid and reports that she had been suffering severe, persistent headaches in the weeks leading up to her death. The coroner determined that the hemorrhage resulted in immediate death followed by Ratliff falling down the stairs after collapsing. The Petersons had dinner with Ratliff and her daughters, and Peterson had stayed and helped Ratliff put the children to bed before going home. The children's nanny, Barbara, discovered the body when she arrived the next morning. Peterson was the last known person to see her alive.
Elisabeth of Świdnica
Elisabeth died in 1348, it is believed to have had something to do with the birth of her last child, Anna. Elisabeth left her husband a widower and he never remarried. Bolko died nine years after Elisabeth.
Yelena Stempkovskaya
There are two versions of the events leading up to her death; one states that she attempted to fend of the Nazis by throwing two grenades but was eventually captured due to being heavily outnumbered and tortured for information, her captors having stabbed her with bayonets and cut off her hands before they left her to bleed to death after she refused to reveal military secrets. The other version of her death, according to more recent sources, is that after the Nazis approached the trench holding several remaining Soviet soldiers, Stempkovskaya entered the battlefield with a machine gun in her last stand and was killed by gunfire, even though radio operators were at high risk of being captured by the Axis to reveal the information they received and transmitted and weren't supposed to be at the front of the fighting. All remaining members of the battalion that did not flee when the Germans began closing in were killed in the battle.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
In 1889 Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son Rudolf, who was found dead together with his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera, in what was suspected to be a murder-suicide on Rudolf's part. The scandal was known as the Mayerling Incident after the location of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where they were found.
Elisabeth never recovered from the tragedy, sinking further into melancholy. Within a few years, she had lost her father, Max Joseph (in 1888), her only son, Rudolf (1889), her sister, Helene (1890) and her mother, Ludovika (1892). After Rudolf's death she was thought to have dressed only in black for the rest of her life, although a light blue and cream gown discovered by The Hofburg's Sisi Museum dates to this time. To compound her losses, Count Gyula Andrássy died a year later, on 18 February 1890. "My last and only friend is dead," she lamented. Marie Valerie declared, "...she clung to him with true and steadfast friendship as she did perhaps, to no other person." Whether their personal relationship was an intimate one or not, her feelings for him were ones she also felt for his country, and that she knew were wholeheartedly reciprocated by the Magyars.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
As Geneva shuttered itself in mourning, Elisabeth’s body was placed in a triple coffin: two inner ones of lead, the third exterior one in bronze, reposing on lion claws. On Tuesday, before the coffins were sealed, Franz Joseph's official representatives arrived to identify the body. The coffin was fitted with two glass panels, covered with doors, which could be slid back to allow her face to be seen.
Nina Petrova
While fighting on the 2nd Belorussian Front in the battle for the control of Elbing in February 1945 she provided cover to her unit by attacking enemy positions with sniper fire, killing 32 enemy soldiers in that engagement and bringing her kill tally to 100 with her victories in Leningrad, Lepassaare, and other battles. For her actions in Elbing she was nominated to be awarded the Order of Glory 1st Class but did not live to receive it. She was killed in action on 1 May 1945, just days before the end of the war, when a mortar attack pushed her off a cliff. Throughout her career she trained 512 other snipers, killed 122 enemy soldiers, and took three enemy combatants hostage.
Elisabeth Targ
She was diagnosed with and ultimately died from one of the diseases whose treatment she had been studying, the malignant brain tumour glioblastoma multiforme. Targ's decline and death was watched with great interest by the community of remote healers she worked with, who prayed for her, often arriving at her house to offer their assistance while she was undergoing treatment. Targ died on July 18, 2002 – weeks short of her 41st birthday and after several unsuccessful attempts to treat the cancer with radiation and surgery.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia
In September 1803, Elena Pavlovna fell gravely ill and died suddenly on 24 September. She was buried with great sorrow in the Helena Paulovna Mausoleum in Ludwigslust which was named in her memory. Several members of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin dynasty, including her husband's second and third wife, are buried there.
Anna Vyrubova
Vyrubova started a hospital with the money she received from the train company as compensation. Protopopov came to visit the hospital almost every day. She also planned to build a church dedicated to Seraphim of Sarov on her property. (Rasputin would be buried on the spot.) On Friday evening 16 December 1916 Rasputin told Vyrubova, who presented him a small icon, signed and dated at the back by the Tsarina and her daughters, of a proposed midnight visit to Prince Yusupov in his Moika Palace to meet his wife. The next morning Rasputin's disappearance was reported by his daughter to Vyrubova. When Vyrubova spoke of it to the Empress, Alexandra pointed out that Irina Aleksandrovna Romanova was absent from Petrograd. An investigation followed and Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri were placed under house arrest in the Sergei Palace. The Tsarina had refused to meet the two, but told by Anna they could explain what had happened in a letter. Two days later Rasputin's body was found near Bolshoy Petrovsky Bridge. His body was taken to the Chesmensky Almshouse for autopsy. In the middle of the night Vyrubova and the Tsarina brought some clothes to the almshouse. On 21 December Rasputin's body was taken in a zinc coffin from the Chesme Church to be buried on a secret location in a corner on the property of Vyrubova adjacent to the palace. The burial was attended by the Imperial couple with their daughters – the tsesarevich was too ill, Vyrubova, her maid, and a few of Rasputin's friends, as Colonel Loman and Lili Dehn.
The Green Ring
Savina, not just a turn of the centuries Russian theatre superstar, but also the legendary 'Turgenev's last true love' has been following Stanislavski throughout the 1900s trying (unsuccessfully) to convince him she could be useful to his MAT troupe, making much of her 'Turgenev connection'. Her having the Elena Ivanovna's part in the Alexandrinka's production promised to become a statement of defiance and provide the final chord to her artistic career. Indeed, this happened to become the final part for the actress, who died in November 1915.
Leon Trotsky
In the summer of 1902, at the urging of his wife, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in a load of hay on a wagon. Aleksandra later escaped from Siberia with their daughters. Both daughters married and Zinaida had children, but the daughters died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died from tuberculosis, cared for in her last months by her older sister. Zinaida Volkova died after following her father into exile in Berlin. She had taken her son by her second marriage, and left her daughter in Russia. Suffering also from tuberculosis, then a fatal disease, and depression, Volkova committed suicide. Their mother Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during the Great Purges in the Soviet Union under Stalin, and was murdered by Stalinist forces three years later.
Elizabeth of Töss
According to the "Schwesternbuch", Elizabeth died on 6 May 1338. However, her gravestone, a part of which still exists, records that she died on 31 October 1336 but also records that she lived in Töss for 28 years. Her death meant the extinction of the House of Árpád. The "Schwesternbuch" records that Elizabeth died after a life of extraordinary suffering and uncommon grace, her great-aunt, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, having appeared to her on three occasions. Also that Queen Agnes went to Töss eight days later and her stepdaughter appeared to her. From then on, it is said, the queen donated much more to the monastery.
Isabella Elder
Isabella died at her home in Glasgow on 18 November 1905 of heart failure, gout and bronchitis. Her death certificate was signed by Dr Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to graduate in medicine in Glasgow, and on 22 November she was buried in the family tomb in Glasgow Necropolis. Her will left more than £125000 for charitable purposes including the Ure Elder Fund for Indigent Widows of Govan and Glasgow.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Although Lucheni boasted that he acted alone, because many political refugees found a haven in Switzerland, the possibility that he was part of a plot and that the life of the emperor was also in danger, was considered. Once it was discovered that an Italian was responsible for Elisabeth's murder, unrest swept Vienna and reprisals were threatened against Italians. The intensity of shock, mourning, and outrage far exceeded that which occurred at the news of Rudolf's death. An outcry also immediately erupted over the lack of protection for the empress. The Swiss police were well aware of her presence, and telegrams to the appropriate authorities advising them to take all precautions had been dispatched. Police Chief Virieux of the Canton of Vaud had organized Elisabeth's protection, but she had detected his officers outside the hotel the day before the assassination and protested that the surveillance was disagreeable, so Virieux had no choice but to withdraw them. It is also possible that if Elisabeth had not dismissed her other attendants that day, an entourage larger than one lady-in-waiting could have discouraged Lucheni, who had been following the Empress for several days, awaiting an opportunity.
Princess Elizabeth of Sweden
Elizabeth died suddenly and unexpectedly 10 November 1597. Elizabeth had a grave monument constructed for herself and her spouse in the Cathedral of Schwerin, but in the end she was buried in her father's family grave in Uppsala Cathedral.
Elizabeth Tudor (1492–1495)
Elizabeth died at Eltham Palace in Kent on 14 September 1495 at the age of three years and two months. She was brought from Eltham in state and buried on the north side of the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey on 27 September. Elizabeth was the first of four of Henry and Elizabeth's children to die prematurely and they were greatly affected. The large sum of £318 (£155,479.74 in today's money) was spent on her funeral, and Henry erected a small tomb to his daughter in the abbey made from Purbeck and black marble. On top of the monument is a finely polished slab of black Lydian, upon which were placed inscriptions to Elizabeth and her effigy of copper gilt, both of which have now disappeared with time. The Latin from the inscription can be translated:
Elena Apreleva
In 1890 she married Pyotr Vasilyevich Aprelev, a state official with whom she spent some 15 years first in Central Asia, first Samarkand and then Tashkent. In 1906 she witnessed her husband being murdered in his own Petrovskoye estate nearby Sochi by a group of Imereti revolutionaries. The traumatic effect of this horror was such that she all but lost her sight and stopped writing altogether. In 1920 Apreleva left Soviet Russia for Serbia via Novorossiysk. She died in Belgrade on 4 December 1923 and is interred in the Topčider Cemetery.
Katharina Schratt
After Elisabeth's murder in 1898, their relationship continued, with one interruption (1900/01, due to a difference in opinions), until the emperor's death in November 1916. She was rewarded with a generous lifestyle including a mansion on Vienna's Gloriettegasse, near Schönbrunn Palace and a mansion in Bad Ischl. In addition, her gambling debts were paid by him. Upon her husband's death in 1909, she also inherited Palais Königswarter, a three-story palace on Vienna's Kärntner Ring boulevard, just across from the State Opera.
Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria
During a visit to her sister, Queen Amalie of Saxony, Elisabeth died in 1873 in Dresden. She was buried next to her husband on 21 December at the Friedenskirche in Potsdam.
Elisabeth of Austria, Duchess of Lorraine
Elisabeth died in Nancy, capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, on 19 May 1353 and was buried in the cemetery of the Poor Clare monastery in Königsfelden in the County of Tyrol.
Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich of Russia
Their relationship further deteriorated when on 15 November 1581, the Tsar, after seeing his pregnant daughter-in-law wearing unconventionally light clothing, physically assaulted her. Hearing her screams, the Tsarevich rushed to his wife's defense, angrily shouting, "You sent my first wife to a convent for no reason, you did the same with my second, and now you strike the third, causing the death of the son she holds in her womb." Yelena subsequently suffered a miscarriage. The Tsarevich confronted his father on the matter, only to have the topic changed to his insubordination regarding Pskov. The elder Ivan accused his son of inciting rebellion, which the younger Ivan denied, but vehemently stuck to the view that Pskov should be liberated. Angered, Ivan's father struck him on the head with his sceptre. Boris Godunov, who was present at the scene, tried to intervene but received blows himself. The younger Ivan fell, barely conscious and with a bleeding wound on his temple. The elder Ivan immediately threw himself at his son, kissing his face and trying to stop the bleeding, whilst repeatedly crying, "May I be damned! I've killed my son! I've killed my son!" The younger Ivan briefly regained consciousness and was reputed to have said "I die as a devoted son and most humble servant". For the next few days, the elder Ivan prayed incessantly for a miracle, but to no avail, and the Tsarevich died on 19 November 1581.
Princess Tarakanova (1910 film)
The story of the alleged daughter of the secret marriage of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, who allegedly died tragically during the flood in the casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she was transferred by the will of Yekaterina II II after a life sentence.
Princess Tatiana Constantinovna of Russia
After the outbreak of World War I, Konstantin enlisted in Russia's armed forces, and was killed in action in 1915. She became close to Elisabeth Feodorovna at the time, and refused to wear black at her husband's funeral. She moved with her brother Igor to the Caucasus after praying on Kostantin's funeral, she received the blessing of her father for the last time as she left. Just two days after the funeral of her husband her father died.
Natalia Brasova
In Moscow, Natalia continued to badger Bolshevik Commissars, including Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov, for Michael's release, but to no avail. In June 1918, her husband and Johnson were shot by their captors on the outskirts of Perm. To cover their tracks, the Perm authorities distributed a concocted story that Michael was abducted by unidentified men and had disappeared. Natalia went to Uritsky in a quest for an explanation, but Uritsky ordered her arrest and incarceration. The Soviet disinformation about Michael's disappearance led to unfounded rumours that he had escaped and was leading a successful counter-revolution. Natalia heard the rumours in prison, and chose to believe them. Ten weeks after her imprisonment, in early September, Natalia pretended that she had developed tuberculosis, and was moved to a nursing home. Once there, she escaped and took refuge in the apartment above her brother-in-law's with family friend Princess Vyazemskaya. Uritsky had been murdered in late August, and the Bolsheviks were terrorising Petrograd in what was later called the Red Terror. Natalia's daughter, "Tata", was arrested and imprisoned, but released after a few days when it became apparent she had no knowledge of her mother's whereabouts. With no money or food, "Tata" made her way to her uncle's apartment, and so was fortuitously re-united with her mother.
Anna of Russia
Anna died on October 17, 1740 at the age of 47 from a terrible kidney stone that made for a slow and painful death. The tsaritsa's final words focused on Biron. Ivan VI was only a two-month-old baby at the time, and his mother, Anna Leopoldovna, was detested for her German counsellors and relations. As a consequence, shortly after Anna's death, Elizabeth Petrovna, legitimized daughter of Peter the Great, managed to gain the favor of the populace, locked Ivan VI in a dungeon, and exiled his mother. Anna was buried three months later on January 15, 1741, leaving behind uncertainty for the future of Russia.
Isabella de Beaumont
In 1330, Edmund of Kent attempted to lead an uprising against Queen Isabella, with the aim of restoring Edward II, whom many believed still to be alive at this time. Isabella had a key part in this conspiracy, using her confessor to send messages between Edmund and William Melton, the archbishop of York. Queen Isabella and Mortimer uncovered the plot and executed Edmund, but Isabella herself escaped arrest. Edward III overthrew Mortimer later in the year, and Isabella de Beaumont therefore found herself back in royal favour for the last few years of her life, receiving additional lands in North Wales. Isabella died without issue in 1334, being buried at the Black Friars abbey at Scarborough; her brother Henry inherited her lands.
Alapayevsk
On July 18, 1918, the day after the shooting at Yekaterinburg of the last Tsar, Nicholas II and family, members of the extended Russian royal family, the Romanovs, including a nun, and their servants, met a brutal death here being thrown down a mineshaft near Alapayevsk by Bolsheviks. All except Grand Duke Sergey Mikhaylovich (who was the first one to die; he was shot before they could throw him in) survived the fall, hand-grenades were thrown down after them killing Grand Duke Sergey's secretary, Fyodor Remez. Other victims died a slow death including the Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia and Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine), a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Grand Duchess Elizabeth was the sister of Empress Alexandra; when her husband, the Tsar's uncle, was murdered in 1905, she gave all her wealth to the poor and became a nun, but she was shown no mercy. Killed with her was a nun who had accompanied her - Varvara Yakovleva.
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958)
In December 1918, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her second husband arrived in Bucharest staying at a local hotel. In January 1919, they were given private apartments at the Cotroceni Palace as guests of the Romanian Queen. Tragic news came from Russia. The following month, Maria Pavlovna learned that her father, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, had been assassinated by the Bolsheviks along with three of his cousins. A couple of weeks later, she received the news that her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and half-brother, Prince Vladimir Paley, had been murdered with several other Romanov relatives in the summer 1918. Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family had been killed a day earlier.
Elisabeth of Bohemia (1358–1373)
Elisabeth married when she was only eight in 1366 to Albert III, Duke of Austria. Elisabeth and Albert had no children and she died aged only fifteen in 1373; she was buried with Albert's parents in Gaming Charterhouse in Lower Austria.
Tatiana (novel)
The fearless investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-story window in Moscow the same week that a mob billionaire, Grisha Grigorenko, is shot and buried with the trappings afforded minor royalty. No one makes the connection, but Arkady is transfixed by the tapes he discovers of Tatiana’s voice, even as she describes horrific crimes concealed by official cover stories.
Sultana Racho Petrova
It is also believed that Petrova was the first woman in Bulgaria to undergo plastic surgery. She died in Sofia on 26 November 1946.
Elisabeth (musical)
Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien (VBW), with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It has been translated into seven languages and seen by over ten million spectators worldwide, making it the most successful German-language musical of all time.
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864–1918)
According to the personal account of Vasily Ryabov, one of the killers, Elisabeth and the others survived the initial fall into the mine, prompting Ryabov to toss in a grenade after them. Following the explosion, he claimed to have heard Elisabeth and the others singing an Orthodox hymn from the bottom of the shaft. Unnerved, Ryabov threw down a second grenade, but the singing continued. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the opening and set alight, upon which Ryabov posted a guard over the site and departed.
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1895–1903)
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (Prinzessin Elisabeth Marie Alice Viktoria von Hessen und bei Rhein) (11 March 1895 – 16 November 1903) was the only daughter of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and his first wife, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, who was born Princess Elisabeth of Prussia. Her paternal aunt had the same name and was also nicknamed Ella. Elisabeth's early death was rumored to be a result of poison meant for her uncle, Tsar Nicholas II, but the court physician said she died of virulent typhoid, probably caused by her taking a drink of water from a contaminated stream.
Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1865–1927)
Elizaveta Mavrikievna and Vera and Georgi lived for the next two years in Sweden first in Stockholm then in Saltsjöbaden, but Sweden was too expensive a place to live so they moved to Belgium by invitation of Albert I of Belgium. Later they moved to Germany, settling in Altenburg where they lived 30 years except they lived couple of years in England. Elizaveta died of cancer on 24 March 1927 in Leipzig. Prince Georgi died in New York City in 1938. Princess Vera lived at Germany until Soviet forces occupied the east part of the country, she fled to Hamburg and in 1951 she moved to United States and died there in 2001, in New York City.
Elisabeth Corvinus
Her father was János Corvinus, an illegitimate son of King Matthias I. Her mother was Beatrice Frankopan, the member of famous Croatian noble family, the Frankopans. Her brother was Christopher, last male member of the Royal House of Hunyadi. After her father's death in 1504, she and her brother were tied to their mother's apron-strings, but Prince Christopher died soon and the royal house was extinct in male line, because he was its last surviving male member. It was rumoured that he had been poisoned. Elisabeth also died soon without issue, and the extinction of the Royal House became total.
Tsarina
Eudoxia Lopukhina was sent to a monastery in 1698 (which was the usual way the Emperor "divorced" his wife), and she died in 1731. In 1712 Peter married in church Catherine I of Russia. The Russian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1721, and Catherine became Empress by marriage. After Peter's death she became ruling Empress by her own right. In following centuries the title "tsarina" was in unofficial informal use – a kind of "pet name" for Empresses – ruling queens and queen consorts. ("Mother dear-tsaritsa" (матушка-царица) was only Catherine the Great, most popular). For a list of Russian empresses in the 18th and 19th centuries see Empress of Russia.
"De jure" tsaritsas in Russia existed from 1547 until 1721. Among the most famous tsaritsas of this period were six or seven wives of Ivan the Terrible, who were poisoned by his enemies, killed or imprisoned by him in monasteries. However, only the first four of them were "crowned" tsaritsas, as the later marriages were not blessed with the Orthodox Church and considered as cohabitation. Polish noblewoman Marina Mnishek also became tsaritsa of Russia by her marriage to an impostor False Dmitry I and later with the False Dmitri II.
Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden)
As empress consort, Elizabeth Alexeievna took part in Court life and the duties of representation, but the role of first lady in the Empire was reserved for her mother-in-law, Maria Feodorovna, who played a more prominent position than the young empress. For almost two decades, Alexander I and Elizabeth lived in harmony, but led separate lives, with both having affairs. She was neither popular in Russia nor much loved by her Romanov relations. Elizabeth Alexeievna did not play any major political role, but during the Napoleonic Wars, she was a reliable supporter of her husband's policies. She joined her husband at the Congress of Vienna in 1814. After many years living apart, Elizabeth and Alexander I reconciled in the early 1820s. By 1824, they were once again the happy couple of their youth. As Elizabeth's health was fragile, they moved to Taganrog, where Emperor Alexander died in December 1825. Empress Elizabeth died on her return journey to the capital, five months after her husband's death.
Isabella of Portugal
In 1539, Isabella became pregnant for the seventh time, but in the third month of her pregnancy, she contracted another fever, which caused antenatal complications and resulted in the Empress giving birth to a stillborn son. She died two weeks later on 1 May 1539 at the age of 35. The Emperor was left so devastated by his wife's death that he could not bring himself to accompany her body to her original burial place in Granada. Instead, he instructed their son Philip to accompany his mother's body with the nobleman Francis Borgia, while Charles locked himself up in a monastery for two months, where he prayed and mourned for his wife alone. Borgia conveyed Isabella's remains to the Royal Chapel of Granada, the burial place of the Catholic Monarchs, and when he saw the effect of death of the beautiful empress, he decided to "never again serve a mortal master". After the death of his own wife in 1541, Borgia retired from court and became a Jesuit priest.
Yelena Polenova
In April 1896, while riding in a cab on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, her carriage's wheels got caught in the tram rails and overturned. She was seriously injured when her head hit the pavement. Complications from this accident would result in her death over two years later.
Emilia Plater
After the Polish units were defeated by the Russians at Šiauliai, Gen. Chłapowski decided to cross the border into Prussia and become interned there. Plater vocally criticized that decision, refused to follow orders and instead decided to try to break through to Warsaw and continue the struggle. However, soon after separating from the main force, accompanied by only two others, including her cousin (or uncle, sources vary), Cezary Plater, she became seriously ill. She never recovered, and she died in a manor of the Abłamowicz family in Justinavas on 23 December 1831. She was buried in the small village of Kapčiamiestis near Lazdijai. After the defeat of the uprising, her estate was confiscated by the Russian authorities.
Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine
Elisabeth Therese died at the Palace of Venaria aged 29, having fallen ill with puerperal fever after childbirth. She was buried in the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista in Turin. She was moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1786 by her stepson Victor Amadeus III.
Sophia Perovskaya
As a member of Zemlya i Volya, Perovskaya went to Kharkov in order to organize the liberation of political prisoners from the central prison. In the fall of 1879, she became a member of the Executive Committee and later a member of the administrative committee of Zemlya i Volya. Perovskaya propagandized among students, soldiers, and workers, took part in organizing the "Worker's Gazette", and maintained ties with political prisoners in Saint Petersburg. In November, 1879 she took part in an attempt to blow up the imperial train on its way from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. The attempt failed. On her return to Saint Petersburg she joined Narodnaya Volya.
Perovskaya participated in preparing assassination attempts on Alexander II of Russia near Moscow (November, 1879), in Odessa (spring of 1880), and Saint Petersburg (the attempt that eventually killed him, 1 March 1881). She was the closest friend and later the wife of Andrei Zhelyabov, a member of the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya. Perovskaya was arrested on 10 March 1881. Just before her trial, she wrote in a letter to her mother:
She was the first woman in Russia sentenced to death for terrorism. Four other Pervomartovtsy, including Zhelyabov, were hanged with her.
Eva Perón
Immediately after Perón's death, the government suspended all official activities for two days and ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff for ten days. It soon became apparent, however, that these measures fell short of reflecting popular grief. The crowd outside of the presidential residence, where Evita died, grew dense, congesting the streets for ten blocks in each direction.
The morning after her death, while Evita's body was being moved to the Ministry of Labour Building, eight people were crushed to death in the throngs. In the following 24 hours, over 2,000 people were treated in city hospitals for injuries sustained in the rush to be near Evita as her body was being transported, and thousands more would be treated on the spot. For the following two weeks, lines would stretch for many city blocks with mourners waiting hours to see Evita's body lie in state at the Ministry of Labour.
Elisabeth of Romania
After the death of the Queen Mother Marie in 1938 and the deposition of Carol II in 1940, Elisabeth played the role of First Lady of Romania. Ambitiously, the princess had indeed no remorse to follow her brother's policy, even when she showed herself tyrannical with other members of the royal family. After the return to the throne of Michael I and the establishment of the dictatorship of Marshal Ion Antonescu, Elisabeth stayed out of politics. However, from 1944, she forged links with the Romanian Communist Party and openly conspired against her nephew, who now considered her a spy. In early 1947, she received in her domain of Banloc the Marshal Tito, who deposed another of her nephews, the young King Peter II of Yugoslavia. Finally, through Alexandru Scavani, the Princess participated in the financing of the guerrilla who fought against her former brother-in-law, the now King Paul I, in Greece.
Elisabeth Congdon
On June 27, 1977, Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse Velma Pietila (born April 26, 1911) were found murdered. Elisabeth was found suffocated with a satin pillow in her bed and Velma, who was lying on a window seat, had been beaten to death with a candlestick. The motive was initially unclear because few valuables were looted from the room.
Elisabeth of Nassau-Hadamar
During her tenure, Elisabeth was responsible for many new- and reconstruction works on the cathedral of Essen, which were already begun under her predecessors. She died on 30 December 1412 after a tenure of 12 years and was buried in the cathedral.
Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov
Together with his brother Grigory, Alexei Orlov became involved in the palace coup to overthrow Tsar Peter III and place his wife, Catherine, on the Russian throne. In the coup, carried out in July 1762, Alexei went to meet Catherine at the Peterhof Palace, and finding her in bed, announced 'the time has come for you to reign, madame.' He then drove her to St Petersburg, where the guards regiments there proclaimed their loyalty to her. The Tsar was arrested and imprisoned at Ropsha, under the guard of Alexei Orlov. There Peter died in mysterious circumstances on . Orlov is popularly supposed to have murdered him, either on his own initiative or on Catherine's orders. One account has Orlov giving him poisoned wine to drink which caused ... flames [to course] through his veins. This aroused suspicion in the overthrown emperor and he refused the next glass. But they used force, and he defended himself. In that horrible struggle, in order to stifle his cries, they threw him on the ground and grabbed his throat. But he defended himself with the strength that comes from final desperation, and they tried to avoid wounding him. They placed a rifle strap on the emperor's neck. Alexei Orlov kneeled with both legs on his chest and blocked his breathing. He passed away in their hands. Orlov apparently wrote a letter to Catherine after Peter's death, confessing that Peter had been killed in a drunken brawl with one of his jailers, Feodor Bariatynsky, and taking the blame. The authenticity of this letter has been questioned. It was announced that the Tsar had died from an attack of haemorrhoidal colic.
Evelina Petrova
«At the Queen Elizabeth Hall, I found myself listening open-mouthed to a Russian woman playing the piano accordion while making wordless vocal sounds into a microphone. Her name was Evelina Petrova and the sounds varied from whoops and bird-like twitterings to a kind of demented lamentation. God knows what it was all about, but it had me transfixed..»
Dave Gelly,
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
Other lesser known claimants were Nadezhda Ivanovna Vasilyeva and Eugenia Smith. Two young women claiming to be Anastasia and her sister Maria were taken in by a priest in the Ural Mountains in 1919 where they lived as nuns until their deaths in 1964. They were buried under the names Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna.
Rumors of Anastasia's survival were embellished with various contemporary reports of trains and houses being searched for "Anastasia Romanov" by Bolshevik soldiers and secret police. When she was briefly imprisoned at Perm in 1918, Princess Helena Petrovna, the wife of Anastasia's distant cousin, Prince John Constantinovich of Russia, reported that a guard brought a girl who called herself Anastasia Romanova to her cell and asked if the girl was the daughter of the Tsar. Helena Petrovna said she did not recognize the girl and the guard took her away. Although other witnesses in Perm later reported that they saw Anastasia, her mother and sisters in Perm after the murders, this story is now widely discredited. Rumors that they were alive were fueled by deliberate misinformation designed to hide the fact that the family was dead. A few days after they had been murdered, the German government sent several telegrams to Russia demanding "the safety of the princesses of German blood". Russia had recently signed a peace treaty with the Germans, and did not want to upset them by letting them know the women were dead, so they told them they had been moved to a safer location.
Elisabeth Kulmann
She was buried in the Smolensky Cemetery in St. Petersburg, ina tomb bearing a carving by Alexander Triscorni - a marble sculpture of a girl on a bed of roses. The monument bears inscriptions in several languages, including Latin: "Prima Russicarum operam dedit idiomati graeco, undecim novit linguas, loquebatur octo, quamquam puella poetria eminens" (The first Russian young girl, who knew the Greek language, and learned eleven languages, spoken in eight, and was an excellent poet).
Suzanna Catharina de Graaff
Suzanna Catharina de Graaff, born Suzanna Catharina Hemmes, (5 May 1905, in Rotterdam – 25 November 1968), was a Dutch woman who claimed to be a fifth daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Her claim was accepted by Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, but by few others. The Russian Imperial family was killed by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918. After the reported murders, a number of people claimed to be surviving members of the family.
Elisabeth of Świdnica
Elisabeth was the third of five children. Her brothers were: Bolko II the Small and Henry II of Świdnica. Elisabeth's eldest and only surviving sister was Constance; she was wife of Przemko II of Głogów. Elisabeth also had another sister, Beata; she died aged ten or eleven.
Elisabeth Congdon
The murder happened in Elisabeth's older sister Helen's bedroom. Some think it happened in Elisabeth's room, which was furnished with expensive articles of furniture from France. After her elder sister moved out of the mansion, Elisabeth took over her room as it was bigger. This room is recognizable by the gray color scheme and the pink tile around the fireplace.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Countess Sztáray noticed a small brown stain above the empress's left breast. Alarmed that Elisabeth had not recovered consciousness, she informed the captain of her identity, and the boat turned back to Geneva. Elisabeth was carried back to the Hotel Beau-Rivage by six sailors on a stretcher improvised from a sail, cushions and two oars. Fanny Mayer, the wife of the hotel director, a visiting nurse, and the countess undressed Elisabeth and removed her shoes, when Sztáray noticed a few small drops of blood and a small wound. When they then removed her from the stretcher to the bed she was clearly dead; Frau Mayer believed the two audible breaths she heard the Empress take as she was brought into the room were her last. Two doctors, Dr. Golay and Dr. Mayer arrived, along with a priest, who was too late to grant her absolution. Mayer incised the artery of her left arm to ascertain death, and found no blood. She was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. Everyone knelt down and prayed for the repose of her soul, and Countess Sztáray closed Elisabeth's eyes and joined her hands. No matter how reluctant or resentful she was of the title, Elisabeth had been the Empress of Austria for 44 years.
When Franz Joseph received the telegram informing him of Elisabeth's death, his first fear was that she had committed suicide. It was only when a later message arrived, detailing the assassination, that he was relieved of that notion. The telegram asked permission to perform an autopsy, and the answer was that whatever procedures were prescribed by Swiss Law should be adhered to.
Alexandra Petrova
On 16 September 2000, Petrova was killed by a single gunshot to the head while outside of her apartment in Cheboksary, two days before her 20th birthday. Her boyfriend, Konstantin Chuvilin, and his friend, Radik Akhmetov, were also killed in the attack. It was believed that the assailant had intended to assassinate Chuvilin, a crime boss, and that Petrova was simply a witness to the killing.
Isabella de' Medici
On 16 July 1576 Isabella died unexpectedly at the Medici villa in Cerreto Guidi during a hunting holiday. According to her brother, the grandduke, this occurred "while she was washing her hair in the morning ... She was found by Signor Paolo Giordano on her knees, having immediately fallen dead." However, the official version of events was not generally believed, and the Ferrarese ambassador, Ercole Cortile, obtained information that Isabella was "strangled at midday" by her husband in the presence of several named servants. Isabella was the second sudden death in an isolated country villa in the Medici family, her cousin Leonora, having died of a similar "accident" only a few days before. Most historians assume that Paolo Giordano killed Isabella, in reprisal for carrying on a love affair with Troilo Orsini, or that he acted on instructions of the Grandduke Francesco, Isabella's brother. One scholar, Elisabetta Mori, has argued that Isabella de' Medici died of natural causes and that the rumour that Paolo Giordano murdered her was spread by enemies of the Medici.
Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia
The almost-three-year-old Grand Duchess died on . A letter to Catherine the Great stated:
The same year, Gavrila Derzhavin dedicated a poem to her death, entitled "On the death of Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna", just as he had dedicated a poem to her when she was born. Out of the ten children born to Paul and Sophia, Olga was the only one that died during her childhood years. The funeral was held at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Olga's burial place. The Empress herself was at the funeral, dressed in a white dress, with gray hair disheveled, pale and silent. In 1800, when Olga would have been eight, Gerhard von Kügelgen painted a portrait of Paul I's family. Behind the family, a bust of Olga stood high in front of a forest.
Polina Strepetova
In 1886 Ostrovsky, who invariably supported Strepetova in her feuds with the theatre administration, died. Unpopular with the troupe, she found herself in isolation, and in 1890 had to leave Alexandrinka. Her final success was Matryona in Lev Tolstoy's "Power of Darkness", at the Literature and Art Circle theatre, in 1895. Strepetova spent the last years of her life in Petersburg, where in 1896-1897 she played at the Maly Suvorinsky Theatre and later worked on a book of memoirs called "Minuvshiye dni" (Минувшие дни, Days Long Gone), which remained unfinished.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia
Elena and Friedrich Ludwig had two children:Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (now Hereditary Grand Duchess Elena) moved to Schwerin with her husband. There she was introduced to a whole new court, quite different from the opulence of Saint Petersburg. She was quite content with her married life and soon after the wedding she was with child. In September 1800 she gave birth to a son, Paul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1837 till 1842, who was named so after his grandfathers, the Tsar of Russia and the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
The year 1801 had been especially hard for Elena, for she lost two close members of her family in just a few days. On 16 March her sister Alexandra died in Buda after giving birth to a daughter Alexandrine, who died a few days before. Just eight days later her father, the tsar, was assassinated. The following year Elena became pregnant again and in March 1803 produced a daughter whom they named Marie Louise after her grandmothers, the Dowager Tsarina and Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, Tsesarevna of Russia (Anna Petrovna Romanova) ; 27 January 1708, in Moscow – 4 March 1728, in Kiel) was the elder daughter of Emperor Peter I of Russia and Empress Catherine I of Russia. Her sister, Elizabeth of Russia, ruled as Empress between 1741 and 1762. While a potential heir in the reign of her father and her mother, she never acceded to the throne due to political reasons. However, her son Peter would rule as Emperor in 1762, succeeding Elizabeth. She was the "Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp" by marriage.
Barbara (Yakovleva)
Varvara Alexeyevna Yakovleva (; died July 18, 1918), called Nun Barbara (), was a Russian Orthodox nun in the convent of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna. She was killed by the Bolsheviks along with the grand duchess and Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia, Fyodor Remez, Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, and Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley at Alapaevsk.
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
Rudolf's death plunged his mother into despair. She wore black or pearl grey, the colours of mourning, for the rest of her life and spent more and more time away from the imperial court in Vienna. Empress Elisabeth was murdered while abroad in Geneva, Switzerland in 1898 by an Italian anarchist, Luigi Lucheni.
Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin
Elisabeth died during her stay at the Warsaw court, where her husband was to be awarded the ducal title by the Polish king Stefan Batory. Elizabeth was buried in Königsberg Cathedral. Her husband ordered the Dutch sculptor Willem van Bloche to create a grave monument for her. It was completed in 1582 and was erected as a "governor monument" in the Cathedral.
Peter Pomerantsev
Pomerantsev investigated the suicide of Russian model, Ruslana Korshunova, for a documentary. He revealed that Korshunova's death was linked to the Rose of the World. The cult-like group's "training sessions" are modeled after the defunct Lifespring. Participants go through grueling physical and mental sessions. Korshunova lost weight and became aggressive, her friends reported after months of training. Korshunova then went to New York City, looking for work. On 28 June 2008, Korshunova jumped from the balcony of her apartment. She died instantly. No signs of a struggle were found in her apartment. Her death was ruled as a suicide. She was buried at Khovanskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
Elisabeth Plainacher
Elisabeth Plainacher, or Elsa Plainacher (1513 – 27 September 1583), was an alleged Austrian witch. She was the only person executed for sorcery in the city of Vienna.