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Catherine the Great - III: Empress Catherine at Last - Extra History

🕑 Added 2017-02-11 04:27:44 +0000 UTC

Comments

Extra History

You take care of yourself first, that's always and always most important. I hope your break serves you well, and thank you meantime for the kind words!

Nessf

Pst. Just so you know for future - if you accidentally post a message too soon like that, you can edit them. Click the "..." symbol under your message, and then the symbol of a pencil. Best of luck with your depression - it can be hard to deal with.

Bill Lemmond

[Oops, hit Return instead of '.] I think you're doing great work, and hopefully your lessons about how everyone loses when anyone is treated badly will not just preach to the choir. But I come from about 30 years' clinical depression, and to stay even moderately happy, and thuys productive at all, I've been avoiding the news for health reasons. I think I will also have avoid some history , too, alt least for a while. And I'll have to follow it up, right away, with happy fun stuff.

Bill Lemmond

I think you

Extra History

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Tyler McMann

Great job on this episode! It was very informative and it had me laughing at the pop culture references.

Extra History

When she needed to be, Catherine could be very good at the old "Oops, looks like this person that was inconvenient to me has disappeared, I wonder how that could have happened" bit.

SparkyDJM1

I came across it when I decided I wanted to find out more about Catherine. Judging by what I've read (which isn't that much), the connection is an extremely distant one, as most dynastic claims are, but it is interesting to consider :)

Extra History

Glad you're enjoying it! Catherine's a pretty interesting ruler, and we've got some cool stuff ahead.

Extra History

Possibly! I don't promise it; he had a crappy life but not a very exciting one, for the most part. Poor kid. :(

Extra History

Definitely. ;) He'll be back!

Extra History

The devil cat has never been seen, much less captured! Its identity is a mystery, but its effects are felt.

Extra History

I didn't even know that she had a connection to the Rurik dynasty, that's very interesting! But yes, the fact that people saw her as the princess who loved Russia more than life probably helped her secure her position with the people. She was still plagued by pretenders to the throne, though; that never really went away.

Extra History

Thanks! We do like to try new things and see how they work out. :D

Extra History

Check out Jim McGeehin's comments below mine for a few examples of things Peter did right - he wasn't bad all around, but he was a pretty bad leader. As Jensen said, you don't exactly get usurped if you're on the ball.

Extra History

Probably by trying to take advantage or make it about her somehow, based on what we've seen of her. Better for Catherine that she didn't have to deal with that, I imagine!

Jacob Ashton

Oh.........well i guess the question is then, how WOULD she have reacted if she had found out?

General Luigi

She didn't have an opinion; she died in 1760.

Jacob Ashton

What i wonder is how Catherine's mother reacted to the news her daughter was now Empress.

Nessf

Unfortunately, I don't think Melania is going to stage a coup

Jim McGeehin

Not for nothing did Latin have the expression "mobile vulgus" meaning "the fickle mob."

David May

Fair point.... but I was attempting to block out that fact when I typed this (lol)

Sean Sarff

Especially when you have no true legitimate claim over the throne. And your power is because the Russian people want you to be in charge. That kind of legitimacy for a monarchy is incredibly mercurial. As we're likely to see during the peasant revolt.

Jim McGeehin

Well, if you usurp the throne, it's in your best interest to paint the guy as terribly as possible, just to be on the safe side.

Luknai

Yeah i was thinking that the image painted in the videos was...Almost a little TOO caricaturistic? Like half the time in these videos have been spent pointing out how much of a manchild Peter supposedly was.

Jim McGeehin

A lot of the old information of Peter III is actually given by Catherine in her memoirs, so all of Peter's shortcomings have to be taken with a grain of salt. Peter III's actually made some good moves though. He made the killing of a peasant by a landowner punishable by law, he refused a wastefully extravagant golden statue of himself, and established a state bank of Russia. His chief failings were in the lack of regard for the royal image, his cultural insensitivity, his rashly decided move against Denmark, his meekness, and his overwhelming arrogance, which put off the support of the common man.

Farzad Mansouri

Drumpf, nuff said.

David May

I find it hard to believe one man could be so incompetent...

Film Vagabond

I loved the transition, it was like I was watching an episode of 24

SparkyDJM1

Well worth the wait! I love the new format of this episode, counting down the hours and watching the action build until it reaches the conclusion (like the WWI drama 37 Days which I recommend)-I love stuff like that :D It's always interesting how many coups, plots and conspiracies happen without warning, derailing all the careful planning beforehand and making the whole thing touch and go. Also Peter's words about how Catherine could do anything are very poignant to say the least! I'm guessing no one sweated the details because of the fact that Catherine was more Russian than German because of all the stuff she had done earlier and anyone had to be better than Peter. Also, fun fact, she was descended from the Rurik dynasty that came before the Romanovs, the founders of the Tsardom of Russia.

Martin Verran

Did you manage to locate the Electronic Devil Cat and was its Name Talking Tom, by any chance?😉

Aaron hutchinson

Oh Potemkin, probably already jockeying for power.

Alex Kyriacou

Something else interesting, Peter III wasn't the only ex-tsar for Catherine to worry about after seizing power. Maybe in Lies we could get a mention of Ivan VI?

Alex Kyriacou

That's was an interesting format for the video! Some cool facts about the coup, Peter III was held in a house with the Orlov brothers after the coup, chief among them was Alexei Orlov (whose nickname btw was Scarface). Scarface wrote some rather incriminating letters to Catherine just before Peter's (whom Scarface called 'the freak) death, along the lines of 'Oh dear, I'm getting worried about the freak's health, I don't think it's going to make it through the night...' and then a bit later 'Majesty, it looks like he had too much to drink, we got into a little brawl... and well he's dead... our bad'. There's no evidence that Catherine ordered his death, but obviously she didn't punish those responsible (in fact quite the opposite) and it was in her interest for him to be dead and she probably had an implicit understanding with the Orlovs,