Word: empress
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Russia's Empress Elizabeth summoned 14-year-old Sophia to Moscow to marry Grand Duke Peter (later Tsar Peter III), Elizabeth's nephew and heir. Peter, a German-born second cousin of his bride-to-be, at 16 was a pockmarked, childish lad who prattled only of soldiers and toys, and in the next 18 years expanded his interests to include mistresses, hounds and drinking. Catherine, as Sophia was rechristened when she entered the Russian Orthodox Church, soon sized him up: "I believe that the Crown of Russia attracted me more than his person...
Susceptible Skin. In the 16 years of waiting for the aging Empress Elizabeth to die. Catherine had ample time for self-study. Isolated by sycophants and informers, the young Duchess had no friends to turn to in the Russian court, which, for all its Frenchified airs, was a bear pit of intrigue and malevolence. "One could lay a wager that half the court could hardly read, and I would be surprised if more than a third could write," noted Catherine, who was soon wading through the classics of courtcraft (Tacitus, Plutarch, Montesquieu) and such French philosophers as Voltaire...
...first to concede her womanly charms, admitted - in a passage expurgated from the 1907 Russian edition - that these were "the halfway house to temptation." But she intimates strongly that Peter never consummated their marriage, and that her first affairs during the years of waiting were instigated, apparently by the Empress, to perpetuate the dynasty...
...first lover. Courtier Serge Saltikov, was "handsome as the dawn; there was no one to compete with him in that." But as soon as the required heir, the future Tsar Paul II, was born, Saltikov was snatched away by Empress Elizabeth and discreetly dispatched to Sweden...
...Empress will make her maiden voyage next spring and will sail weekly between Canada and Britain, catering especially to the economy-minded family trade. She will carry only 150 first-class passengers, but will have tourist accommodations for 900. Her predecessor of the same name was famed for her luxurious ballrooms and bars; the new Empress will advertise its battery of washing machines, dryers and ironing rooms for parents traveling with children...