And so Catherine looked elsewhere, which brings us to the second of the four main charges laid against her: her promiscuity.Д¬atherine probably had 12 lovers in her lifetime, including several before she came to the throne. It is impossible to know how PeterвЂ™s reign would have evolved but those officers and officials who engineered the coup could, in later years, look back at CatherineвЂ™s record and believe, with some justification, that they had acted in the countryвЂ™s best interests as well as their own.Д¬atherine once wrote: вЂњHad it been my fate to have a husband whom I could love, I would never have changed towards him.вЂќ She had little in common with the boorish and immature emperor, who soon made it clear that he was indifferent to her and repeatedly humiliated her in public. Catherine herself was at risk, as her husband threatened to divorce her, marry his mistress and disinherit her son.

The emperor appeared capricious and unstable, which led to plots against him by top officials. Peter III had done just that, and in particular had offended the patriotic feelings of the army officer corps by switching sides in the Seven YearsвЂ™ War, signing a peace deal with Frederick the Great of Prussia, and abandoning Russian conquests in East Prussia. A common saying about Russian tsardom is that it was вЂњautocracy tempered by assassinationвЂќ that is, the ruler had almost unlimited powers but was always vulnerable to being dethroned if he or she alienated the elites. A few days after the coup, Peter was killed by OrlovвЂ™s brother, supposedly in a drunken brawl.Д¬atherine wasnвЂ™t the only member of RussiaвЂ™s elite to benefit from her husbandвЂ™s downfallД¬atherine certainly benefited from her husbandвЂ™s downfall, but she was far from the only one. The coupleвЂ™s marriage was tempestuous and, just over six months after Peter had become tsar (as Peter III), he was overthrown by Catherine with the support of army officers from the elite guardsвЂ™ regiments, including CatherineвЂ™s own lover, Grigory Orlov. They married in 1745 and Peter became tsar in 1761.

The key to CatherineвЂ™s rise was her betrothal to Empress ElizabethвЂ™s heir, Peter, the Duke of HolsteinВGottorp. Yet her elevation was as much the product of her motherвЂ™s opportunism, the diplomatic intrigues of the royal court, and her ability to impress the Russian ruler, Empress Elizabeth, as her own naked ambition. ItвЂ™s also true that her rise вЂ“ from anonymous aristocrat to empress of Russia by the age of 33 вЂ“ was utterly remarkable. ItвЂ™s true that Catherine had no claim to the Russian throne вЂ“ she was the product of a German princely family that had fallen on hard times. Take the first of her major вЂcrimesвЂ™: her seizure of power.

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