The Peasant Girl Who Became An Empress | Catherine I of Russia

The Peasant Girl Who Became An Empress | Catherine I of Russia | Ekaterina I of Russia

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Күн бұрын

Ekaterina I of Russia (better known in some places as Catherine I of Russia) had an extraordinary life. Plucked from obscure peasant beginnings, she would go on not to merely be the royal mistress then wife of Peter the Great, but to actually rule Russia in her own right for two years. This video takes a look at her life, her journey to the Russian court, and how she became an Empress...
***NOTE ABOUT PRONUNCIATION! I always try where possible to use the names and placenames native to the place where the history is set, in this case, Russia! However, it's not my first language, and I do try to pronounce things properly, but please let me know (gently!) if I can improve it.
For my images and footage, thanks to:
Pexels
Pixabay
Wikimedia Commons, especially:
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Ninara
Meladina
Сайт Алексея Павликова
Florstein
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Many of my images in this video were made with Midjourney, see if you can spot which ones!
I strive to always credit everyone whose images I use, and try as much as possible to use images freely in the public domain (purchased where not possible) - please let me know if I have missed you so I can give you due credit.

Пікірлер: 61

@lfgifu296 5 ай бұрын

Even though she was a puppet Empress, the mere fact that she rose from peasant to Empress is astounding! Really fascinating!!

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Right? It makes you realise all those fairytales like Cinderella might actually have a little bit of truth to them. 🤣

@user-fg9xz4bz3b 2 ай бұрын

Was she at all responsible for her stepson's death at his father's hands?

@King_Steffon_II 5 ай бұрын

"BABE!! History's Forgotten People has dropped another commoner to monarch video!! Stop EVERYTHING." Thank you so much for all of your content and all you provide for your viewers. We sincerely appreciate you!!!

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Aww, thank you so much! You guys are all very much appreciated as well, I love making videos for you guys to enjoy. 😊

@user-fg9xz4bz3b 5 ай бұрын

Will Paul ii two wives be portrayed soon?

@leeannproctor2966 3 ай бұрын

Was catherine denied getting an education by her husband?

@helpinyerdasellavon 5 ай бұрын

Fascinating history. Loved to know more about her. Beautiful work as always. Thank you 💕

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! ☺

@JangianTV 5 ай бұрын

Fascinating! Lovely to see you branching out with your subject choices. 🙂

@user-fg9xz4bz3b 5 ай бұрын

I didn't know she was married before peter the great.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! 😊 It is a lot of fun researching all the different histories from places outside my comfort zone.

@leeannproctor2966 3 ай бұрын

I wonder if she loved her first husband at all ?

@shanianicole8393 5 ай бұрын

I loved this, and I appreciate the way you cover all of these women. May I suggest you cover Alexandra Feodorovna? I just read a historical fiction book based on Maria Feodorovna, in which she was one of the main character. A profile on either of these women would be awesome! Alexandra specifically, such a complex person. I struggle with whether shes a “villain” or not, and whether she caused the end of a dynasty.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

I will definitely add her to my growing list! ☺

@leeannproctor2966 3 ай бұрын

Please do the lost 4 grand duchesses.

@jeromesullivan4015 5 ай бұрын

I read biographies of her many years ago. She was very interesting. Peter was as well.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Peter definitely also had a very interesting life! I'd have to do more than one video on Peter if I ever covered him, that's for certain.

@whimgarden 5 ай бұрын

Another excellent work, thank you!

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! ☺

@liapix4249 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video I love your videos😊

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

You're welcome, I'm glad you're enjoying them! 😊

@zabrinna6554 5 ай бұрын

❤

@lfgifu296 5 ай бұрын

Ooh I love her story! Ngl, I thought this week’s video was going to be on Anne Boleyn, and was… dreading it a bit?😭 Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still watch it for sure, but the mix of not liking her and her life being so famous made it a bit of a… beige prospect?😭 Good luck to you for preparing it, as you said you don’t like her very much either!

@DarthDread-oh2ne 5 ай бұрын

Hi friend.

@lfgifu296 5 ай бұрын

@@DarthDread-oh2ne Hello :)

@user-fg9xz4bz3b 5 ай бұрын

Can't blame her for how she got through life, existence for women was unequal and injust.

@di3486 5 ай бұрын

Don’t you think is weird having so strong feelings about someone born more than 500 years ago and that we don’t know much?

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

LOL she is the next one! To be fair, I think there's always a new way of presenting someone from history, so I'll try to find it. 😅

@zackhalter9571 5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! 😊

@lfgifu296 5 ай бұрын

In keeping with the Russian theme, who’s your favourite and least favourite Russian Czar? I’d say, for favourite, probably Catherine II, cliche, Ik, but she earned her moniker. Honourable mention goes to Alexander II and Peter the Great. As for least favourite… Alexander III and Nicholas II- the former paved the way, with his absolutism and disdain for his father’s liberal ideas of bettering the Empire, for the train wreck of a reign that Nicholas II had.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

OMG, I'm so sorry I didn't see this comment! I'm not with it this week lol. 😂 Okay, I'm going to be cliché and say Catherine the Great as my favourite as well! I can't help it, I think she was amazing. She went from this little princess who impressed her mother-in-law but was a bit uncertain, to basically Russia's greatest ruler. Right from the start, she threw herself wholeheartedly into learning Russian, learning the culture, and making friends. She had to put up with an emotionally immature husband who didn't care for her, she overthrew him, took as many lovers as she pleased (after still providing Russia with a future Emperor), brought in culture and science, modernised the country, and opened up Russian borders to allow in people from other places. She was also sharply political, and she understand how to fight militarily, even if she never fought personally. What's not to like? ☺ Now, as for least favourite, that has to be Nicholas II as well. It's pretty difficult to not choose him! I mean, Ivan the Terrible was also not a great Tsar, but he did at least unify Russia. (Although he is definitely my second-to-last choice) Nicholas didn't have a clue about how to rule, but was also arrogant enough to assume he didn't need his advisors. He faffed about in regards to WW1, went off to lead the troops despite not having the military experience for it, AND left his equally inexperienced and unpopular wife in charge of Russia. He also chose not to get his family out of Russia when it became pretty obvious they were going to be targeted by those wanting rid of a monarchist system, and that choice led, sadly, to the deaths of his entire family. He did give support to economic reforms proposed by his government, and he did advocate modernity for his country, but Nicholas' main problem was that he didn't fully embrace 'being' an autocratic emperor, not did he give major roles within his government to the right people, which would have still strengthened his position. I don't think he was actually a bad person in himself, but he made a series of bad choices.

@bobhill3941 5 ай бұрын

Even though Catherine was a puppet Empress, she used that position to her advantage, raising herself and her daughters up in status and making money for her family. I'm glad she was the first, but not the last. It sounds like she had a good head on her shoulders, using her intelligence and charisma to achieve her ultimate goal. Thank you for the origin history, I only knew of Catherine the great played by Helen Mirren on the HBO miniseries, I had a feeling they were related.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it! ☺Well, I'm also going to cover Catherine the Great at some point, but I think she'll need more than one video dedicated to her.

@bobhill3941 5 ай бұрын

@@HistorysForgottenPeopleYes, I loved it, keep up the great work. Yes, Catherine the great deserves a whole video dedicated to her.

@MichelleBruce-lo4oc 5 ай бұрын

Hi, awesome live history video I enjoyed it. How are you doing? I'm doing well and so is my cat Benjamin. We finally have snow in Ontario Canada. Today is one of our coldest months. How's the weather where you are? Do you have snow. Have a great day see you next video 😊 I was wondering if you could do a video on elizabeth boleyn sometime in the future

@user-fg9xz4bz3b 5 ай бұрын

Wonder why only 2 children survived into adulthood? Wonder if std had something to do with it?

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Hi Michelle, I'm glad you and Benjamin are doing well! Canada is probably a lot colder than here in England, but it's freezing here too (for us, anyway!) We've gone into minus temperatures (celsius), so it's officially 'winter' now LOL. No snow yet, but I'm happy as long as it's not wet! 😂 Elizabeth Boleyn would be an interesting lady to do - I hadn't planned on it, but you've given me an idea now for 'mothers of famous noblewomen', so I'll definitely put some thought into that! Thank you for the idea. 😊

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

I'm not sure, but I would wager it was something to do with Peter more than his wives - he had numerous mistresses and only one surviving illegitimate child from these liaisons as well, so it's likely it was more something to do with him.

@Elora445 5 ай бұрын

@@user-fg9xz4bz3b It wasn't really unusual by this time that people had lots of kids but sadly only a few would survive. More or less everything we have either antibiotics or vaccines to, they simply didn't. Hence, many kids didn't survive their childhood for one reason or the other.

@DarthDread-oh2ne 5 ай бұрын

I feel sorry for Peter’s first wife.

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Me too, I thought it was awful how she was just tossed aside - if it had been mutual, it might have been different, but it wasn't. 😔

@altinaykor364 5 ай бұрын

I never heard of her (Russian history, outside of 1900s for obvious reasons, isn't my thing) there's always talking about Catherine The Great and although Ekaterina was more of a puppet empress, but thanks so her, Catherine The Great had a chance to achieve the amount of successes she did and be probably become one of the most famous and powerful women of 18th century

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Catherine the Great definitely comes up more often! (And for good reason, to be fair). Ekaterina definitely laid out the framework, whether she realised it or not, to make it easier for women like Catherine II to later take the throne of Russia. I think some of it is also down to the court being made up of a lot of 'new men' at the time. Had it mostly been aristocracy, I'm not sure Ekaterina would have been allowed to maintain her position, puppet or not.

@SSRT_JubyDuby8742 5 ай бұрын

Very enjoyable 😊 Like deployed 👍

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, as always! I'm glad you liked it. 😊

@crocodiledundee8685 5 ай бұрын

Is Empress Dowager Cixi on your list too?

@HistorysForgottenPeople 5 ай бұрын

Oh, she definitely is! I haven't forgotten her - it's going to be one of those enormously big videos though, when I've got a week without school holidays or something, haha. 😂