Catherine the Great - Not Quite Catherine Yet - Extra History - Part 1 — Transcript

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1. 0:00A young girl sits alone, in a cold room
2. 0:02in a great house, on a German coast
3. 0:04and dreams of being a queen.
4. 0:07{Intro}
5. 0:13That girl's name was Sophia.
6. 0:15Or Sophie, depending on who's writing about her.
7. 0:17She was born in the spring of 1729.
8. 0:20But her mother would never forgive her
9. 0:22for the crime of being a girl.
10. 0:24Her mother, young, ambitious
11. 0:26always wanting to be the center of attention
12. 0:28was deeply discontent on her life
13. 0:30having been married off at 15, to a man 21 years her senior.
14. 0:35Worse still, that man was poor
15. 0:37(at least, by her standards)
16. 0:38and stuffy.
17. 0:39Her life was nothing like the glittering court that she'd known as a girl.
18. 0:43She still had ambition.
19. 0:44She still wanted to escape her husband's
20. 0:46drab military post,
21. 0:48to live in high society
22. 0:50and see the world, and, to her mind, that required
23. 0:52a male heir.
24. 0:54And so, poor Sophia was neglected,
25. 0:56often told that she was ugly,
26. 0:58yelled at for minor offenses
27. 1:00or, simply, left entirely alone.
28. 1:02She was bright, and could memorize things with ease.
29. 1:05But she frequently infuriated her tutors by asking questions like:
30. 1:08"Why were the great men of antiquity damned
31. 1:11just because they lived before Christ?"
32. 1:13...or...
33. 1:14"What was the universe like before creation?"
34. 1:16She found solace only in the lessons she was taught by one of her governesses
35. 1:20who introduced her to French and
36. 1:22brought her books by Racine and Molière.
37. 1:24And all the while her mother doted on her sickly and infirmed brother
38. 1:28who'd been born an year and a half after she'd entered the world
39. 1:31...unwanted.
40. 1:32Sophia would always harbor a resentment over the treatment
41. 1:35she received compared to her brother.
42. 1:37But in 1742, when she was 13
43. 1:39her brother died, succumbing to scarlet fever.
44. 1:43She had one other brother, who would survive their youth
45. 1:45but he was a half decade younger.
46. 1:47And so now, at last,
47. 1:49her ambitious mother's eye finally turned to her.
48. 1:52But she didn't receive the warmth and the affection that she had hoped for.
49. 1:56Her mother's aim was
50. 1:57to see her married.
51. 1:58After all, her mother thought
52. 2:00taking her daughter out in search of a match
53. 2:02to travel and get back to court
54. 2:04might provide a path to escape her drab life.
55. 2:07Unfortunately, her daughter was proud, impertinent and arrogant.
56. 2:10(Or at least, so she felt.)
57. 2:12If there was to be any attempt at matchmaking
58. 2:15she was going have to break Sophia of these habits.
59. 2:18And so, Sophia learned to hide her pride
60. 2:20to hide her talents
61. 2:22and her mother began writing and visiting all of their relatives
62. 2:25in search of a match.
63. 2:26And she made sure that Sophia knew
64. 2:28just what failing to find a match would mean.
65. 2:31From time to time
66. 2:32she would take Sophia to see spinster relatives
67. 2:35locked away in a convent
68. 2:36or shut away in a remote wing of a family house.
69. 2:39One of these encounters Sophia would remember forever.
70. 2:42An aunt, who lived in one small room
71. 2:44with 16 pug dogs.
72. 2:4616 pugs, who did everything that dogs do...
73. 2:49...in that one room.
74. 2:50The smell would hunt her for all her days.
75. 2:53So she rapidly became enamored of the idea of marriage.
76. 2:57She saw it as a way out,
77. 2:58an escape from her mother.
78. 2:59But her prospects were limited.
79. 3:02Her father was not a man of great means.
80. 3:04And though he was a prince of
81. 3:05one of the tiny principalities
82. 3:07that then made up the Holy Roman Empire
83. 3:09he wasn't even THE prince of that domain
84. 3:11having others in the line of succession before him.
85. 3:14Her mother, on the other hand
86. 3:16was of the house Holstein-Gottorp
87. 3:18one of the great houses of the Holy Roman Empire.
88. 3:20And though she was from a minor branch
89. 3:23she could still reach out to all her cousins.
90. 3:25And so it was, that
91. 3:26even before her brother died,
92. 3:28on a visit to her uncle, Sophia met the orphaned duke of Holstein:
93. 3:32Peter Ulrich, 11 years old at the time.
94. 3:34This young man was the heir to the throne of Sweden
95. 3:37and the last surviving grandson of Peter the Great.
96. 3:40He was also sickly though
97. 3:42doughy of features
98. 3:43and even at the age of 11
99. 3:45given to drink.
100. 3:46This meeting would prove fortuitous in years to come...
101. 3:49or disastrous, depending on how you look at it.
102. 3:51But long before that chance encounter
103. 3:53was to change her life
104. 3:54as she was making the rounds, looking for a suitor
105. 3:57attention of this type fell on her much closer to home.
106. 4:00At the age of 14
107. 4:02a 24 year old cuirassier,
108. 4:04her cousin, began to...
109. 4:05(what was called at the time)
110. 4:06...show his affections.
111. 4:08Often finding her in some secluded corner of the house
112. 4:11when no one else was around
113. 4:12to kiss her.
114. 4:13He eventually proposed to her.
115. 4:15Although she expertly put him off
116. 4:16by agreeing to it only if he could get the consent of her parents.
117. 4:20Then in the middle of dinner one night
118. 4:22a letter came.
119. 4:24It was from Russia.
120. 4:25From the Russian empress, Elizabeth
121. 4:27Elizabeth whose sister had married a Holstein.
122. 4:30Elizabeth who was the aunt of Peter Ulrich.
123. 4:33Elizabeth had been betrothed, at one point, to Sophia's uncle.
124. 4:36Elizabeth whose association Sophia's mother had been very careful to cultivate
125. 4:41regularly sending her news and portraits of her daughter.
126. 4:44Elizabeth had recently become the guardian
127. 4:46of young Peter Ulrich
128. 4:47adopting him as her own.
129. 4:49And as such, young Peter had lost the right to the crown of Sweden
130. 4:53BUT had gained a much greater prize:
131. 4:55succession to the crown of Russia.
132. 4:58Elizabeth's letter said nothing of it's purpose
133. 5:00but simply implored Sophia and her mother to travel at once to Russia.
134. 5:05Despite the letter's vagueness
135. 5:06the implications were clear.
136. 5:08Sophia might yet find her way to being a queen
137. 5:11as she had so often daydreamed.
138. 5:13But the night surprises weren't over yet!
139. 5:16Mere hours after the first letter's arrival
140. 5:18a second courier, breathless and panting,
141. 5:21burst into the house.
142. 5:22He too had a letter...
143. 5:23But this one was from Fredrick the Great
144. 5:25summoning to his court in Berlin.
145. 5:28Sophia's mother wasted no time starting to pack.
146. 5:31The invitation to Russia had come with a bank note
147. 5:33for 10,000 rubles to equip them for their journey.
148. 5:36This, of course, went not to making sure that Sophia looked like a bride
149. 5:40that they had both hoped she would be
150. 5:41but instead went towards outfitting her mother with a splendid array of court dresses.
151. 5:46And so, they began their journey.
152. 5:48First to Berlin...
153. 5:49...and then to Moscow.
154. 5:50When they arrived at Berlin
155. 5:52Sophia's mother raced to present herself to Frederick.
156. 5:55But, to her shock
157. 5:56he simply asked where her daughter was.
158. 5:58She hadn't taken Sophia with her to court
159. 6:01thinking that the king couldn't
160. 6:02possibly want to talk to the girl more than to her incredible self.
161. 6:05So she said that Sophia was sick.
162. 6:07The next day too she showed up at court alone
163. 6:10and again Frederick asked where Sophia was.
164. 6:13And again, her mother said that she was sick.
165. 6:15On the third day
166. 6:16Frederick pressed the issue
167. 6:18and Sophia's mother said that
168. 6:19she couldn't come because she had nothing to wear.
169. 6:22At which juncture
170. 6:23a somewhat miffed Frederick the Great
171. 6:25cut her off
172. 6:25and asked one of his sisters to "just lend the poor girl a dress
173. 6:28...please".
174. 6:29Finally, Sophia appeared before the king
175. 6:32in an ill-fitting dress, without jewels or finery.
176. 6:35She was shy, worried about what this great man might think.
177. 6:38But to her surprise
178. 6:40(and, undoubtedly, the surprise of her mother)
179. 6:42she was seated at dinner that night right next to the king.
180. 6:45Her mother wasn't even seated at the same table!
181. 6:48The king tried make her feel comfortable
182. 6:50speaking to her of poetry and of the opera,
183. 6:52plays and ballet.
184. 6:54And though everyone stared at the king
185. 6:56talking to a child
186. 6:57he continued on and she opened up
187. 6:59speaking to him throughout the meal.
188. 7:01By the end, he saw in her,
189. 7:03hidden just below that layer of humility,
190. 7:06an intelligence and a perception.
191. 7:08He wrote to Elizabeth of Russia to say as much.
192. 7:11He had been assessing her.
193. 7:12Because in his bid to make Prussia
194. 7:14a player in the world stage
195. 7:16he had already created
196. 7:17many enemies.
197. 7:18And he knew that he would have to have Russia on his side.
198. 7:21It was his hope that
199. 7:22this German princess could help ensure that.
200. 7:25But his business was not just with Sophia.
201. 7:28In private his agents asked her mother
202. 7:30to be their agent in the Russian court.
203. 7:32They explained how one Count Bestuzhev
204. 7:34was the sworn enemy of Prussia
205. 7:36and that he would stop Sophia's marriage if he could.
206. 7:39So Sophia's mother, Johanna, should do everything on her power
207. 7:43to make him lose favor.
208. 7:45Never again would these two rulers meet in person.
209. 7:48These rulers whom history titles "The Great".
210. 7:51But it's far from the last time that their paths will cross.
211. 7:54Join us next time
212. 7:55as Sophia finally makes her way to Russia
213. 7:57and her mother sets about
214. 7:59trying to destroy Count Bestuzhev.