In 1745, after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, and changing her name to Catherine, she married Grand Duke Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the Russian throne.

Taken from Catherine at birth and raised by his great aunt, Empress Elizabeth, and tutor, Minister Panin, Paul never formed a loving relationship with Catherine. The brutal, conniving and ambitious ...

Catherine the Great dragged Russia into the modern world ... Rumour had it he was also very well endowed, as British historian Sebag Montefiore writes in his 2001 biography The Prince of Princes: The ...

Born without a drop of Russian blood inside her veins, the German-born Sophie Friederike Auguste died as Catherine the Great of Russia, whose successful 34-year reign became known as the ‘Golden Age ...