"He did not have an entirely bad heart," Catherine the Great wrote of her wastrel husband, Czar Peter III, "but a weak man usually does not." That was her nice way of saying he was pitiable as ...

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.

Catherine the Great began her life as Sophie, a lowly German princess who married Peter III and was expected to fill the role of a meek, apolitical baby machine. She instead seized control of the ...

The Great season two officially landed in the UK, bringing plenty more playful power struggles to our screens as Catherine (played by Elle Fanning) took the throne from her inept husband Peter ...