Elizabeth of Russia
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Elizabeth or Elizaveta Petrovna (
The second-eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725), Elizabeth lived through the confused successions of her father's descendants following her half-brother Alexei's death in 1718. The throne first passed to her mother Catherine I of Russia (r. 1725–1727), then to her nephew Peter II, who died in 1730 and was succeeded by Elizabeth's first cousin Anna (r. 1730–1740). After the brief rule of Anna's infant great-nephew, Ivan VI, Elizabeth seized the throne with the military's support and declared her own nephew, the future Peter III, her heir.
During her reign Elizabeth continued the policies of her father and brought about a remarkable
Elizabeth led the
Early life
Childhood and teenage years
Elizabeth was born at Kolomenskoye, near Moscow, Russia, on 18 December 1709 (O.S.). Her parents were Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia and Catherine.[2] Catherine was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński, a subject of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although no documentary record exists, her parents were said to have married secretly at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Saint Petersburg at some point between 23 October and 1 December 1707.[3] Their official marriage was at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 9 February 1712. On this day, the two children previously born to the couple (Anna and Elizabeth) were legitimised by their father[3] and given the title of Tsarevna ("princess") on 6 March 1711.[2] Of the twelve children born to Peter and Catherine (five sons and seven daughters), only the sisters survived to adulthood.[4] They had one older surviving sibling, crown prince Alexei Petrovich, who was Peter's son by his first wife, noblewoman Eudoxia Lopukhina.[citation needed]
As a child, Elizabeth was the favourite of her father, whom she resembled both physically and temperamentally.
From her earliest years, Elizabeth was recognised as a vivacious young woman, and was regarded as the leading beauty of the Russian Empire.[2] The wife of the British ambassador described Grand Duchess Elizabeth as "fair, with light brown hair, large sprightly blue eyes, fine teeth and a pretty mouth. She is inclinable to be fat, but is very genteel and dances better than anyone I ever saw. She speaks German, French and Italian, is extremely gay, and talks to everyone..."[8]
Marriage plans
With much of his fame resting on his effective efforts to modernise Russia, Tsar Peter desired to see his children married into the royal houses of Europe, something which his immediate predecessors had consciously tended to avoid. Peter's son Aleksei Petrovich, born of his first marriage to a Russian noblewoman, had no problem securing a bride from the ancient house of
In 1724, Peter betrothed his daughters to two young princes, first cousins to each other, who hailed from the tiny north German principality of
By the end of May 1727, 17-year-old Elizabeth had lost her fiancé and both of her parents. Furthermore, her half-nephew Peter II had ascended the throne. Her marriage prospects continued to fail to improve three years later, when her nephew died and was succeeded on the throne by Elizabeth's first cousin Anna, daughter of Ivan V. There was little love lost between the cousins and no prospect of either any Russian nobleman or any foreign prince seeking Elizabeth's hand in marriage. Nor could she marry a commoner because it would cost her royal status, property rights and claim to the throne.[10] The fact that Elizabeth was something of a beauty did not improve marriage prospects, but instead earned her resentment. When the Empress Anna asked the Chinese minister in Saint Petersburg to identify the most beautiful woman at her court, he pointed to Elizabeth, much to Anna's displeasure.[11]
Elizabeth's response to the lack of marriage prospects was to take Alexander Shubin, a sergeant in the
Imperial coup
While
During the reign of her cousin Anna (1730–1740), Elizabeth was gathering support in the background. Being the daughter of Peter the Great, she enjoyed much support from the Russian Guards regiments. She often visited the elite Guards regiments, marking special events with the officers and acting as godmother to their children. After the death of Empress Anna, the regency of Anna Leopoldovna for the infant Ivan VI was marked by high taxes and economic problems. [1] The French ambassador in Saint Petersburg, the Marquis de La Chétardie was deeply involved in planning a coup to depose the regent, whose foreign policy was opposed to the interests of France, and bribed numerous officers in the Imperial Guard to support Elizabeth's coup.[14] The French adventurer Jean Armand de Lestocq helped her actions according to the advice of the marquis de La Chétardie and the Swedish ambassador, who were particularly interested in toppling the regime of Anna Leopoldovna.[1]
On the night of 25 November 1741 (O.S.), Elizabeth seized power with the help of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. Arriving at the regimental headquarters wearing a warrior's metal breastplate over her dress and grasping a silver cross, she challenged them: "Whom do you want to serve: me, your natural sovereign, or those who have stolen my inheritance?" Won over, the regiment marched to the Winter Palace and arrested the infant Emperor, his parents, and their own lieutenant-colonel, Count Burkhard Christoph von Munnich. It was a daring coup and, amazingly, succeeded without bloodshed. Elizabeth had vowed that if she became Empress, she would not sign a single death sentence, an extraordinary promise at the time but one that she kept throughout her life.[1]
Despite Elizabeth's promise, there was still cruelty in her regime. Although she initially thought of allowing the young tsar and his mother to leave Russia, she imprisoned them later in a Shlisselburg Fortress, worried that they would stir up trouble for her in other parts of Europe.[15] Fearing a coup on Ivan's favour, Elizabeth set about destroying all papers, coins or anything else depicting or mentioning Ivan. She had issued an order that if any attempt were made for the adult Ivan to escape, he was to be eliminated. Catherine the Great upheld the order, and when an attempt was made, he was killed and secretly buried within the fortress.[16]
Another case was Countess Natalia Lopukhina. The circumstances of Elizabeth's birth would later be used by her political opponents to challenge her right to the throne on grounds of illegitimacy. When Countess Lopukhina's son, Ivan Lopukhin, complained of Elizabeth in a tavern, he implicated his mother, himself and others in a plot to reinstate Ivan VI as tsar. Ivan Lopukhin was overheard and tortured for information. All the conspirators were sentenced to death.[17][18] The female conspirators had their sentences commuted to having their tongues removed and being publicly flogged. The men were broken on the wheel.[19]
Reign
Elizabeth crowned herself Empress in the Dormition Cathedral on 25 April 1742 (O.S.), which would become standard for all emperors of Russia until 1896. At the age of thirty-three, with relatively little political experience, she found herself at the head of a great empire at one of the most critical periods of its existence. Her proclamation explained that the preceding reigns had led Russia to ruin: "The Russian people have been groaning under the enemies of the Christian faith, but she has delivered them from the degrading foreign oppression."
Russia had been under the domination of German advisers, so Elizabeth exiled the most unpopular of them, including Andrey Osterman and Burkhard Christoph von Münnich.[20] She passed down several pieces of legislation that undid much of the work her father had done to limit the power of the church.[21]
With all her shortcomings (documents often waited months for her signature),[22] Elizabeth had inherited her father's genius for government. Her usually keen judgement and her diplomatic tact again and again recalled Peter the Great. What sometimes appeared as irresolution and procrastination was most often a wise suspension of judgement under exceptionally difficult circumstances. From the Russian point of view, her greatness as a stateswoman consisted of her steady appreciation of national interests and her determination to promote them against all obstacles.[citation needed]
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The Elizabeth portrait by Charles-André van Loo in Peterhof Palace
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The Elizabeth portrait by Ivan Vishnyakov in Tretyakov Gallery
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The Elizabeth portrait in Rostov museum
Educational reforms
Despite the substantial changes made by Peter the Great, he had not exercised a really formative influence on the intellectual attitudes of the ruling classes as a whole. Although Elizabeth lacked the early education necessary to flourish as an intellectual (once finding the reading of secular literature to be "injurious to health"),
Internal peace
A gifted diplomat, Elizabeth hated bloodshed and conflict and went to great lengths to alter the Russian system of punishment, even outlawing capital punishment.[26] According to historian Robert Nisbet Bain, it was one of her "chief glories that, so far as she was able, she put a stop to that mischievous contention of rival ambitions at Court, which had disgraced the reigns of Peter II, Anna and Ivan VI and enabled foreign powers to freely interfere in the domestic affairs of Russia."[27]
Construction projects
Elizabeth enjoyed and excelled in architecture, overseeing and financing many construction projects during her reign. One of the many projects from the Italian architect
The expedited completion of buildings became a matter of importance to the Empress and work continued throughout the year, even in winter's severest months. 859,555
Selection of an heir
As an unmarried and childless empress, it was imperative for Elizabeth to find a legitimate heir to secure the
There is considerable speculation as to the actual paternity of Paul. It is suggested that he was not Peter's son at all but that his mother had engaged in an affair, to which Elizabeth had consented, with a young officer,
Foreign policy
Bestuzhev
The concessions to Russia can be credited to the diplomatic ability of the new vice chancellor,
Bestuzhev had many achievements. His effective diplomacy and 30,000 troops sent to the Rhine accelerated the peace negotiations, leading to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (18 October 1748). He extricated his country from the Swedish imbroglio and reconciled his imperial mistress with the courts of Vienna and London. He enabled Russia to assert herself effectually in Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Sweden and isolated the King of Prussia by forcing him into hostile alliances. All this would have been impossible without the steady support of Elizabeth who trusted him completely in spite of the Chancellor's many enemies, most of whom were her personal friends.[35]
However, on 14 February 1758, Bestuzhev was removed from office. The future Catherine II recorded, "He was relieved of all his decorations and rank, without a soul being able to reveal for what crimes or transgressions the first gentleman of the Empire was so despoiled, and sent back to his house as a prisoner." No specific crime was ever pinned on Bestuzhev. Instead, it was inferred that he had attempted to sow discord between the Empress and her heir and his consort. Enemies of the pro-Austrian Bestuzhev were his rivals; the Shuvalov family, Vice-Chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov, and the French ambassador.[37][clarification needed]
Seven Years' War
The great event of Elizabeth's later years was the
The serious illness of the Empress, which began with a fainting-fit at
From the end of 1759 to the end of 1761, the eagerness of the Russian Empress was the one constraining political force that held together the heterogeneous, incessantly jarring elements of the anti-Prussian combination. From the Russian point of view, her greatness as a stateswoman consisted of her steady appreciation of Russian interests and her determination to promote them against all obstacles. She insisted throughout that the King of Prussia must be reduced to the rank of a
Frederick himself was quite aware of his danger. "I'm at the end of my resources," he wrote at the beginning of 1760. "The continuance of this war means for me utter ruin. Things may drag on perhaps till July, but then a catastrophe must come." On 21 May 1760, a fresh convention was signed between Russia and Austria, a secret clause of which, never communicated to the court of
Simultaneously, Elizabeth had conveyed to Louis XV a confidential letter in which she proposed the signature of a new treaty of alliance of a more comprehensive and explicit nature than the preceding treaties between the two powers without the knowledge of Austria. Elizabeth's object in the mysterious negotiation seems to have been to reconcile France and Great Britain, in return for which signal service France was to throw all her forces into the attack on Prussia. This project, which lacked neither ability nor audacity, foundered upon Louis XV's invincible jealousy of the growth of Russian influence in
The campaign of 1761 was almost as abortive as the campaign of 1760. Frederick acted on the defensive with consummate skill, and the capture of the Prussian fortress of Kolberg on Christmas Day 1761, by Rumyantsev, was the sole Russian success. Frederick, however, was now at the last gasp. On 6 January 1762, he wrote to Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein, "We ought now to think of preserving for my nephew, by way of negotiation, whatever fragments of my territory we can save from the avidity of my enemies." A fortnight later, he wrote to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, "The sky begins to clear. Courage, my dear fellow. I have received the news of a great event." The Miracle of the House of Brandenburg that snatched him from destruction was the death of the Russian empress, on 5 January 1762 (N.S.).[39]
Siberia
In 1742, the imperial government at Saint Petersburg ordered a Russian military expedition to conquer the Chukchi and Koryaks, but the expedition failed and its commander, Major Dmitry Pavlutsky, was killed in 1747.[40] On 12 March 1747, a party of 500 Chukchi warriors raided the Russian stockade of Anadyrsk.[41] By 1750, it had become clear the Chukchi would be difficult to conquer. The Empress then changed her tactical approach and established a formal peace with them.
Court
Elizabeth's court was one of the most splendid in all Europe.[22] As historian Mikhail Shcherbatov stated, the court was "arrayed in cloth of gold, her nobles satisfied with only the most luxurious garments, the most expensive foods, the rarest drinks, that largest number of servants and they applied this standard of lavishness to their dress as well".[42] A great number of silver and gold objects were produced, the most the country had seen thus far in its history.[43] It was common to order over a thousand bottles of French champagnes and wines to be served at one event and to serve pineapples at all receptions, despite the difficulty of procuring the fruit in such quantities.[44]
French plays quickly became the most popular and often were performed twice a week. In tandem, music became very important.[45] Many attribute its popularity to Elizabeth's supposed husband, the "Emperor of the Night", Alexei Razumovsky, who reportedly relished music.[45] Elizabeth spared no expense in importing leading musical talents from Germany, France, and Italy.[46] She reportedly owned 15,000 dresses, several thousand pairs of shoes and a seemingly unlimited number of stockings.[22]
Attractive in her youth and vain as an adult, Elizabeth passed various decrees intended to make herself stand out: she issued an edict against anyone wearing the same hairstyle, dress, or accessory as the Empress. One woman accidentally wore the same item as the Empress and was lashed across the face for it.[47] Another law required French fabric salesmen to sell to the Empress first, and those who disregarded that law were arrested.[47] One famous story exemplifying her vanity is that once Elizabeth got a bit of powder in her hair and was unable to remove it except by cutting a patch of her hair. She made all of the court ladies cut patches out of their hair too, which they did "with tears in their eyes".[48] This aggressive vanity became a tenet of the court throughout her reign, particularly as she grew older. According to historian Tamara Talbot Rice, "Later in life her outbursts of anger were directed either against people who were thought to have endangered Russia's security or against women whose beauty rivalled her own".[29]
Despite her volatile and often violent reactions to others regarding her appearance, Elizabeth was ebullient in most other matters, particularly when it came to court entertainment. It was reported that she threw two balls a week; one would be a large event with an average of 800 guests in attendance, most of whom were the nation's leading merchants, members of the lower nobility and guards stationed in and around the city of the event. The other ball was a much smaller affair reserved for her closest friends and members of the highest echelons of nobility.[49] The smaller gatherings began as masked balls, but evolved into the famous metamorphoses balls by 1744.[50] At these metamorphoses balls, guests were expected to dress as the opposite sex, with Elizabeth often dressing up as Cossack or carpenter in honour of her father.[50] Costumes not permitted at the event were those of pilgrims and harlequins, which she considered profane and indecent respectively.[51] Most courtiers thoroughly disliked the balls, as most guests by decree looked ridiculous, but Elizabeth adored them; as Catherine the Great's advisor Potemkin posited, this was because she was "the only woman who looked truly fine and completely a man.... As she was tall and possessed a powerful body, male attire suited her".[52] Kazimierz Waliszewski noted that Elizabeth had beautiful legs, and loved to wear male attire because of the tight trousers.[53] Though the balls were by far her most personally beloved and lavish events, Elizabeth often threw children's birthday parties and wedding receptions for those affiliated with her Court, going so far as to provide dowries for each of her ladies-in-waiting.[54]
Death
In the late 1750s, Elizabeth's health started to decline. She suffered a series of
The Empress died the next day,
Ancestry
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See also
- Tsars of Russia family tree
- Bibliography of Russian history (1613–1917)
References
- ^ a b c d e Antonov 2006, p. 105.
- ^ a b c d Antonov 2006, p. 104.
- ^ a b Coughlan 1974, p. 46.
- ^ a b c Coughlan 1974, p. 50.
- ^ Coughlan 1974, p. 23.
- ^ Bain 1911, p. 283.
- ^ Cowles 1971, p. 66.
- ^ Cowles 1971, pp. 66–67.
- ^ a b Coughlan 1974, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Coughlan 1974, p. 59.
- ^ Cowles 1971, p. 67.
- ^ Coughlan 1974, p. 52.
- ^ Bain 1911, pp. 283–284.
- ^ Cowles 1971, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Sebag Montefiore 2016, p. 268.
- ^ a b Antonov 2006, p. 103.
- ^ Sebag Montefiore 2016, p. 269.
- ISBN 9781139055833.
- ^ Sebag Montefiore 2016, Act II Scene 3.
- ^ Antonov 2006, p. 106.
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 149.
- ^ a b c d Antonov 2006, p. 107.
- ^ Bain 1899, p. 137.
- ^ Hoetzsch 1966, p. 83.
- ^ "The Russian Academy of Arts – History". Retrieved 13 November 2022.
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 150.
- ^ Bain 1899, p. 142.
- ^ Bain 1899, p. 138.
- ^ a b Talbot Rice 1970, p. 148.
- ^ Antonov 2006, p. 110.
- ^ Antonov 2006, p. 119.
- ^ Coughlan 1974, p. 108.
- ^ Coughlan 1974, p. 111.
- ^ Coughlan 1974, p. 112.
- ^ a b c d e f Bain 1911, p. 284.
- ^ a b Coughlan 1974, p. 57.
- ^ Rounding 2006, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Hoetzsch 1966.
- ^ a b c Hoetzsch 1966, p. 93.
- ^ Forsyth, James (1992), A history of the peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colong 1581–1990, Cambridge University Press, p. 146
- ISBN 9781605981062.
- ^ "The Iron-Fisted Fashionista" Russian Life Nov.–Dec. 2009 by Lev Berdnikov, p. 54
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 164.
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 134.
- ^ a b Talbot Rice 1970, p. 160.
- ^ Bain 1899, p. 151.
- ^ a b 'The Iron-Fisted Fashionista' Russian Life Nov.–Dec. 2009 by Lev Berdnikov, p. 59
- ^ Sebag Montefiore 2001, p. 24.
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 135.
- ^ a b Talbot Rice 1970, p. 136.
- ^ Bain 1899, p. 154.
- ^ Sebag Montefiore 2001, p. 26.
- ^ Kazimierz Waliszewski "La Dernière Des Romanov, Élisabeth Ire, Impératrice De Russie, 1741–1762". Plon-Nourrit et cie, 1902
- ^ Talbot Rice 1970, p. 138.
- ^ a b Antonov 2006, p. 109.
- ^ a b Sebag Montefiore 2016, p. 193.
Works cited
- Antonov, Boris (2006). Russian Tsars. Saint Petersburg: Ivan Fiorodov Art Publishers. ISBN 5-93893-109-6.
- Bain, Robert Nisbet (1899). The Daughter of Peter the Great: A History of Russian Diplomacy and of the Russian Court Under the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, 1741–1762. Westminster.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Cowles, Virginia (1971). The Romanovs. London: William Collins.
- Coughlan, Robert (1974). Jay Gold (ed.). Elizabeth and Catherine: Empresses of All the Russias. London: Millington Ltd. ISBN 0-86000-002-8.
- Hoetzsch, Otto (1966). The Evolution of Russia. trans. Rhys Evans. London: Thames and Hudson.
- Longworth, Philip (1972). Three Empresses: Catherine I, Anne and Elizabeth of Russia. London: Constable.
- ISBN 0-09-179992-9.
- Sebag Montefiore, Simon (2001). Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 9780312278151.
- Sebag Montefiore, Simon (2016). The Romanovs: 1613–1918. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0307280510.
- ISBN 978-0297001096.
- public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Elizabeth Petrovna". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 283–285. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. VIII (9th ed.). 1878. p. 145. .
- Romanovs. The fourth film. Anna Ioannovna; Elizabeth Petrovna on YouTube– Historical reconstruction "The Romanovs". StarMedia. Babich-Design (Russia, 2013)