The Library › Reel IV · All the Empress’s Men
Did Catherine the Great have her husband Peter III killed?
VERDICTDISPUTED
Peter died at Ropsha in July 1762, days after his abdication, in the custody of Alexei Orlov. The official cause was “hemorrhoidal colic.” Catherine’s own letter claims an autopsy found no poison. He may have been killed by Orlov, but there is no proof that Catherine knew of it beforehand, and the question is still argued.
The receipts
- 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Catherine the Great, HISTORY (A&E Networks)
- Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II (incl. her letter to Poniatowski), ed. Alexander Herzen, Project Gutenberg
The comedy version
The untold story of Catherine the Great, inventor of the job interview.
Play All the Empress’s Men ☞More from this shelf
- Did Catherine the Great die having sex with a horse?Invented
- Were the “Potemkin villages” really fake?Rumor
- Did Catherine the Great seize the throne in a borrowed military uniform?True
- Did Peter III really court-martial and hang a rat?True
- Did Catherine’s husband play with toy soldiers in bed?True
- Did Catherine the Great buy Voltaire’s library?True