10 



CATHARINE 



superstition, she disliked the Protestants, chiefly 

 because their principles were opposed to the abso- 

 lute despotism which she desired to maintain. Yet 

 she sought to rally the Protestant leaders around 

 the throne in order to serve as a counterpoise to 

 the Guises. This attempt having failed, and the 

 civil war which ensued having ended in the peace 

 of Amboise, highly favourable to the Protestants, 

 she became alarmed at the increase of their power, 

 and entered into a secret treaty with Spain for the 

 extirpation of heretics ; and subsequently into a 

 plot with the Guises, which resulted in the fearful 

 massacre of St Bartholomew's Day. This event 

 brought the whole power of the state into the 

 hands of the queen-mother, who boasted of the 

 deed to Roman Catholic governments, and excused 

 it to Protestant ones, for she now managed all the 

 correspondence of the court. About this time she 

 succeeded, by gold and intrigues, in getting her 

 third son, afterwards Henry III., elected to the 

 Polish throne. But her arbitrary and tyrannical 

 administration roused the opposition of a Roman 

 Catholic party, at the head of which was her own 

 fourth son, the Duke of Alencon. It was very 

 generally believed that she was privy to the machina- 

 tions that led to his death. When, after the death 

 of Charles IX., Henry III. returned from Poland to 

 be king of France, his mother still ruled the court, 

 and had the principal share in all the intrigues, 

 treacheries, and political transactions of that 

 wretched time. Having betrayed all who trusted 

 them, she and her son found themselves at last for- 

 saken and abhorred by all. The League and the 

 Guises had no more confidence in them than had 

 the Protestants and Henry of Navarre. Vexation 

 on this account preyed on the proud heart of the 

 queen-mother in her last days ; and amidst the 

 confusion and strife of parties, she died at Blois 

 on 5th January 1589, unheeded and unlamented. 

 Catharine de' Medici may fairly be regarded as a 

 representative woman of an age when the first prin- 

 ciples of human conduct were hopelessly con- 

 founded by religious strife and the intrigues and 

 corruptions of courts. Virtue had given place 

 to luxury, extravagance, cunning sensuality, and 

 cruelty. She was only a prominent example of 

 qualities which the prevailing conditions of the 

 time tended to develop. See Reumont's Jugend 

 Caterinas de' Medici (Berlin, 1854), T. A. Trollope's 

 Girlhood of Catharine de' Medici ( 1856), Capefigue's 

 Catherine de Medicis (Paris, 1856), and La Fer- 

 riere's Lettres de Catherine de Medicis ( 4 vols. Paris, 

 1880-92). 



Catharine I. wife of Peter the Great, and 

 Empress of Russia. She was a peasant's daughter, 

 and her original name was Martha Skavrouska. 

 The date of her birth is about 1680. Being 

 left an orphan, she was brought up chiefly by a 

 Lutheran pastor, Gliick, in Marienburg, Livonia. 

 In 1702 she married a Swedish dragoon, but Marien- 

 burg being taken by the Russians in the same year, 

 she was made prisoner, and became the mistress of 

 Prince Menschikoff. She then attracted the notice 

 of Peter the Great. In 1703 she went over to the 

 Greek Church, and took the name of Catharina 

 Alexievna. After being for some years the em- 

 peror's mistress, she was privately married to him 

 in 1707 ; and the marriage was publicly avowed in 

 1711. When Peter the Great and his army seemed 

 entirely in the power of the Turkish army on the 

 Pruth in 1711, Catharine, according to the common 

 account, managed by skilful bribery to procure the 

 deliverance of the Russians. Catharine was now 

 received into greater favour than ever, and was 

 solemnly crowned in 1712. The story, however, 

 does not rest on sufficient evidence. At anyrate 

 Catharine continued to enjoy her high position till 

 the death of Peter in 1725. The new party con- 



cerned in promoting the reforms of Peter the Great 

 supported Catharine's claim to be his successor, and 

 she was acknowledged Empress and sole Ruler of 

 All the Russias. Under MenschikofFs direction, 

 the affairs of government went on well enough for 

 a time ; but the empress ere long began to yield to 

 the influence of a number of favourites, addicted 

 herself to drunkenness, and lived such a life as 

 could not fail to hurry her to the grave. She died 

 17th May 1727. See PETER THE GREAT. 



Catharine II.. Empress of Russia, was born 

 at Stettin in 1729. Her father, the Prince of Anhalt- 

 Zerbst, was a Prussian field-marshal, and governor 

 of Stettin. She received the name of Sophia 

 Augusta ; but the Empress Elizabeth of Russia 

 having selected her for the wife of 'her nephew and 

 intended successor, Peter, she passed from the 

 Lutheran to the Greek Church, and took (like 

 the Empress Catharine I. ) the name of Catharina 

 Alexievna. In 1745 her marriage took place. 

 She soon quarrelled with her husband, and 

 both of them lived a life of unrestrained vice. 

 Among his attendants was a Count Soltikoff, with 

 whom her intimacy soon became scandalous ; and 

 Soltikoff was sent on an embassy abroad. But the 

 young Polish count, Stanislaus Poniatowski, almost 

 immediately supplied his place. After the death of 

 the Empress Elizabeth in 1761, Peter III. ascended 

 the Russian throne ; but the conjugal differences 

 became continually wider. Catharine was banished 

 to a separate abode ; and the emperor seemed to 

 entertain the design of divorcing her, declaring her 

 only son, Paul, illegitimate, and marrying his 

 mistress, Elizabeth Woronzoff. The popular dis- 

 like to Peter, however, rapidly increased ; and at 

 length, he being dethroned by a conspiracy, 

 Catharine was made empress. A few days after- 

 wards Peter was murdered (July 1762). What 

 participation his wife had in his murder has never 

 been well ascertained. 



Catharine now exerted herself to please the 

 people, and among other things, made a great 

 show of regard for the outward forms of the Greek 

 Church, although her principles were, in reality, 

 those prevalent among the P rench philosophers of 

 the 18th century. The government of the country 

 was carried on with great energy ; and her reign 

 was remarkable for the rapid increase of the 

 dominions and power of Russia. Not long after 

 her accession to the throne her influence secured 

 the election of her former favourite, Stanislaus 

 Poniatowski, to the throne of Poland. In her own 

 empire, however, discontentment was seriously 

 manifested, the hopes of the disaffected being 

 centred in the young prince Ivan, who was forth- 

 with murdered in the castle of Schliisselburg. 

 From that time the internal politics of Russia con- 

 sisted chiefly of court intrigues for the humiliation 

 of one favourite and the exaltation of another. 

 The revolt of the Cossack Pugatcheff in 1773, 

 though for a time it looked serious, only served to 

 fortify her throne. The first partition of Poland in 

 1772, and the Turkish war which terminated in the 

 peace of Kainardji in 1774, vastly increased the 

 empire. In 1787 she made a progress in her southern 

 provinces through flourishing towns, villages, and 

 festive scenes ; but the whole was a sham, having 

 been got up for the occasion by Potemkin to impress 

 Catharine with the prosperity of her empire. The 

 Turkish war which terminated in the peace of Jassy 

 in 1792 had similar results, and also the war with 

 Sweden, which terminated in 1790. The second 

 and third partitions of Poland, and the incorpora- 

 tion of Courland with Russia, completed the 

 triumphs of Catharine's reign. She also began a 

 war with Persia, and cherished a scheme for the 

 overthrow of the British power in India ; but a 

 stroke of apoplexy cut her off, 17th November 1796. 



