The Library › Reel IV · All the Empress’s Men
Did Peter III really court-martial and hang a rat?
VERDICTTRUE
According to Catherine, yes. In her memoirs she describes finding a large rat hanged with full ceremony in his cabinet. Peter told her it had climbed his cardboard fortress and eaten two sentinels made of pith, was caught by his setter, tried by martial law, and would hang three days as an example. She laughed; he sulked. Hers is the only account.
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.
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 Catherine’s husband play with toy soldiers in bed?True
- Did Catherine the Great have her husband Peter III killed?Disputed
- Did Catherine the Great buy Voltaire’s library?True