alley_skywalker

This post was originally posted on tumblr in response to another post that asked if anyone knew of various portrayals of German nobles, including those who married into German noble families. Luckily, the Russian royal family starting with the mid-18^th century is a goldmine for German nobility; and, luckily too, Russia loves making period dramas about the Romanovs. (For ease, I’m gonna go in chronological order here.)

[Note that there are gifs in this post.]

 

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Got this ask on Tumblr:

Loool. This is Bain’s book, isn’t it? I mean, look, Bain wrote at the start of the 20th century. Basically: hello, sexism. It’s telling that Peter’s and Elizabeth’s contemporaries were also baffled by Peter’s choice of mistress exactly because she was not pretty and, possibly, not entirely feminine in manner. Like, he’s the Grand Duke/Emperor! He could have almost anyone. Why in the world would he pick an ugly mistress? There are no other things you could possibly value a woman for, right? /sarcasm 

For objectivity’s sake, I’ll point out that some also considered Elizabeth to not be particularly smart either. But these observations are drowned out by everyone’s horror at how unattractive she was. And I wouldn’t be surprised that the men - the contemporary commentators are mostly all men and Catherine, whose bias and its reasons are obvious - making these assessments were influenced by their lack of attraction to her when it came to evaluating any and all of her other traits.

Lots of historians, especially men, have bent over backwards to find an explanation for why an heir to the throne would settle for a partner who was of very average intelligence and not even hot like at all. I’ve seen everything from the idiotic “it proves that Peter was stupid and had bad taste” to the equally idiotic “out of spite because his wife, who didn’t love him, was so beautiful” to “out of lack of self-confidence.”

But I really do think, based on the limited information available, that their relationship was just genuinely loving. The positive evaluations of Liza that do exist say she was kind or goodhearted, cheerful, easygoing. That’s exactly the sort of person someone like Peter would gravitate to. He was goodhearted, awkward but generally amiable (short fuse aside), and desperate for straightforward, genuine relationships which were not exactly available to him at court. While its speculation, but there’s nothing to suggest that Elizabeth didn’t enjoy some of the things he did - music, theater, etc. She was not political and this must have been a relief to him.

Is it possible that he was intimidated by beautiful or very intellectual women? Maybe. Peter’s bravado was apparent but I don’t think he had a lot of actual self-confidence. His relationship with Catherine was near-traumatic. His relationship with Empress Elizabeth (who was considered beautiful, at least in her younger years) was almost certainly so. But, in the end, we all have issues and are all uncomfortable with one thing or another and choose partners who do make us comfortable and happy. That doesn’t mean the relationships we do form are not genuine.

I read a theory once that Elizabeth may have been “nurturing” and Peter was drawn to her because, basically, mommy issues. I think, given Peter’s complete lack of a mother figure in his life and the deterioration of his relationship with the only almost-mother-figure he did have (Elizabeth, his aunt), it’s not a completely absurd theory, but in the end i give it little credence. Not just because there’s a lot of conjecture there, but also because Elizabeth was significantly younger than him, so I doubt that this is what he was projecting on her. I do however think it’s likely that he was drawn to her if she was especially loving and if he perceived it as genuine. Affection wasn’t something he got a lot of and, understandably, must have been desperate for.

And, in the end, she was his only constant and long-standing mistress. They were together for years and the relationship was still going strong (see; some of the rumors/speculations that Peter, after taking the throne, wanted to divorce Catherine in order to marry Liza) in 1762. After being deposed and arrested, Peter asked repeatedly to see Elizabeth. When asking Catherine for permission to leave the country, he also asked for permission to take Elizabeth with him. Tbh, I’m pretty convinced he loved her. And, as it happens, even Bain admits to it, despite dripping disdain all over the place.

It’s fairly well known that Peter III (of Russia) had a “toy” fortress at Oranienbaum. (Although “toy” isn’t really the most appropriate word. The structure was used for training and drilling perfectly real troops.) What is far less known is that there were actually TWO such fortresses built. The one most people think of is Peterstadt (originally St. Peter when it was first built in ~1756). But long before this there was another fortress, This one was built in ~1746, about a year or so after Peter’s marriage to Catherine. He was 18. Allegedly he drew up a lot of the plans and calculations for the structure himself (not unreasonable, since fortification was more or less Peter’s favorite subject). And then he named this pet project of his. He named it Ekaterinburg, in honor of his wife, Ekaterina Alexeyeva (Catherine).