For weeks, in a primitive and poorly heated hovel, Elizabeth watched over the stupid and ungrateful heir who had played such a nasty trick, trying to back out of the game just when they were both on the point of winning. And little by little, Peter’s fever diminished and he began to achieve some relative lucidity.
By the end of January 1745, Peter had recovered from the fever and the empress escorted him back to St. Petersburg. He had changed so much during his illness that Elizabeth was afraid the
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Terrible Tsarinas bride-to-be would be shocked - her fiance, never handsome, was now revolting. The small pox had disfigured him terribly. With his shaved head, swollen face, bloodshot eyes and cracked lips, he was a caricature of the young man he had been just a few months before. Catherine was sure to be horrified. Elizabeth put a big wig on Peter’s head in an attempt to improve his disastrous appearance, but topped with a cascade of false curls, he looked even worse. There wasn’t much to do but allow destiny take its course.
As soon as the travelers had arrived and settled into the Winter Palace, young Catherine rushed to visit her miraculously recuperated fiance. Elizabeth, heart in throat, presided over their reunion. At the sight of Grand Duke Peter, Catherine froze. Her mouth half-opened, her eyes wide, she stammered out some pleasantry to congratulate her fiance on his recovery, dropped a quick curtsey and fled as if she had just met a ghost.
February 10 was the Grand Duke’s birthday. The empress, dismayed by his appearance, even advised him against showing himself in public. However, she still harbored the hope that, over time, his physical flaws would begin to fade. What concerned her more, for the time being, was the little interest he showed in his betrothed. According to people in Catherine’s entourage, Peter had boasted to her of having had mistresses. But was he even capable of satisfying a woman? Was he “normal,” in that regard?
And would the delightful Catherine be charming enough, inventive enough to awaken the desire of such an odd husband? Would she give children to the country that was already impatient for them? What could remedy the sexual deficiency of a man who found the sight of a well-trained regiment more exciting than that of a young woman lying languidly in the shadows of the bedroom?
The doctors, taking secret council, decided that the Grand Duke might find the ladies more attractive if he drank less. Moreover, in their opinion, his inhibition was only temporary and he would
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An Autocrat at Work and Play soon go through a “better phase.” Lestocq concurred. But the empress was s urprised that neither Catherine nor Peter was in any hurry. After lengthy discussions, she set the date of the ceremony, irrevocably. The most s uperb weddings of the century would take place on August 21, 1745.
Terrible Tsarinas
Footnotes
2. A pejorative name signifying “Razumovsky’s mother”.
3. K. Waliszewski, op. cit.
4.
Reported by K. Waliszewski: La Derniere des Romanov, Elisabeth Ir e.
5. Cf. Daria Olivier, op. cit.
IX
When it came to organizing these important festivities, Elizabeth left nothing to chance. The morning of the ceremony, she sat in Catherine’s dressing room and examined her, naked, from head to toe. She directed the maids-in-waiting in the selection of underclothes, discussed with the hairdresser the best way of arranging her hair, and chose, unilaterally, the silver brocaded gown with a full skirt, s hort sleeves, and a train embroidered with roses. Then, emptying her jewel case, she supplemented the ornamentation with necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches and elaborate earrings, all of which so weighed down the bride that she was reduced to posing like a hieratic figure, barely able to move. The grand duke, too, was encased in silver fabric and decked out in imperial jewels; but while the bride may have appeared like a celestial vision, he, looking like a monkey disguised as a prince, was liable to provoke a good laugh. The buffoons that had surrounded Her Majesty Anna Ivanovna were never so funny (when they tried to be) as he was when trying to look serious.
The procession traversed St. Petersburg amid a multitude of
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Terrible Tsarinas spectators who prostrated themselves as the carriages went by, making the sign of the cross and calling out their blessings and good wishes for the young couple and the tsarina. Never did so many candles glow in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan.
Throughout the liturgy, Elizabeth was on the lookout for one of her nephew’s little stunts, having come to expect some disruption from him during the most serious occasions. But the service went off without a hitch, including the exchange of rings. After risking ankylosis by standing upright throughout the service, the assembly then flexed its legs at the ball that, of course, capped the day’s festivities.
However, no matter how much she enjoyed dancing, Elizabeth kept her mind on the essential matter - which was not the Church blessing, and far less the minuets and the polonaises, but the coupling which, in theory, should soon take place. By 9:00 in the evening, she decided that it was time for the young couple to withdraw. As a conscientious duenna, she led them to the bridal apartment. The matrons and maids of honor, all a-twitter, gave them escort. The grand duke discreetly disappeared to don his night clothes. The grand duchess’s maidservants took advantage of the husband’s absence to dress the young lady in a chemise that was tantalizingly transparent, and capped her hair with a light bonnet of lace; she was put to bed under the vigilant eye of the empress. When Her Majesty judged that “the little one” was “ready,” she exited - with theatrical slowness. She would have loved dearly to be able to see what happened next. Would her wretched nephew be able to summon up enough manhood to satisfy this poor young girl? Wouldn’t they need her helpful advice?
Catherine looked frightened and had tears in her eyes - a virginal apprehension that must only excite the desire of a normally constituted man. But how would the eccentric grand duke behave?
Might he not harbor an impotence that no woman could cure?
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Elizabethan Russia In the days that followed, she studied Catherine, vainly looking for signs of conjugal satisfaction. The bride appeared increasingly thoughtful and disillusioned. Questioning her chambermaids, Elizabeth learned that, every evening, after having joined his wife in bed, instead of cherishing her, the grand duke would amuse himself with the wooden figurines on his bedside table.