The Library › Reel IV · All the Empress’s Men
Did Catherine’s husband play with toy soldiers in bed?
VERDICTTRUE
In her memoirs Catherine writes that a chambermaid, Madame Krause, smuggled toys to Grand Duke Peter, hid them under the marriage bed, and locked the door at night so he could play with them until one or two in the morning, the bed “covered and filled with playthings.” He also kept a room of toy soldiers whose guard he changed daily, in full uniform.
The receipts
- Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II, ed. Alexander Herzen, Project Gutenberg
The comedy version
The untold story of Catherine the Great, inventor of the job interview.
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