after elizaveta's lover became emperor in january 1762 he invested her with the order of saint catherine and had rooms prepared for her next to his own in the newly-built winter palace. she accompanied peter in all his excursions and adventures, and foreign ambassadors reported to their governments that the emperor intended to banish his wife to a convent in order to marry vorontsova. some claim that these rumors drove catherine to join efforts with vorontsova's own sister, princess ekaterina dashkova and to stage the palace coup which removed her husband from power in july 1762. controversy endures to the present day as to whether catherine took any part in peter's death 8 days later on 17 july 1762. maureeen callahan summarised the marital split as follows: "as for her husband, catherine threw him in jail, and though she couldn't help show some sympathy—allowing him his own bed from home, along with his dogs, violin and even his personal doctor—she refused his most heartfelt and repeated request: she made sure that peter and his mistress never saw each other again.