In reality, Catherine was indeed passionate about education, particularly the arts and sciences. In The Great, Fanning’s Catherine arrives at the Russian Court brimming with ideas to reform education, well-versed in the writings of Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but Peter destroys her plan to build a school when he realizes she intends to educate women. This statement accurately alludes to overarching sentiments of the time: Catherine was expected to provide a male heir for Peter, rather than pursue her own ambitions. “Women are for seeding, not reading,” Peter tells Catherine in The Great. Mystery remains as to how he died, although it’s likely to have been at the hand of one of Catherine’s supporters. The same day, Peter was forced to abdicate eight days later, he was assassinated. A mere six months into Peter’s reign, in June 1762, Catherine launched her coup with the support of public opinion, the aristocratic class and the military, and was proclaimed Empress by the Russian Church. Rumors also started to circulate that Peter was planning to get rid of Catherine, and momentum quickly gathered to arrange a coup d’état that would force him to abdicate and install her as ruler. A series of military missteps badly damaged his reputation throughout Europe, as well as cementing his unpopularity at home, and the alliances that Catherine had worked to build were betrayed by Peter’s decisions. In January of that year, Peter became Emperor after the death of the Empress Elizabeth. In reality, the plot was not set in motion until 1762, when the couple had been married for 18 years. With the help of her maid and confidante, Catherine starts plotting to overthrow Peter, an objective which quickly emerges as the series’ central storyline. Her writing described Peter variously as a “drunkard,” “good-for-nothing” and an “idiot.” The Great relies on this interpretation of Peter, played by Nicholas Hoult (also of The Favourite), who is openly obnoxious about having an affair with his best friend’s wife, forces his advisers to do ridiculous tasks and orders murders on impulse. One of the reasons historians know so much about Catherine’s experiences and feelings during her life is because of the extensive and detailed memoirs she left behind. The couple’s arranged marriage was instantly an unhappy one, as depicted in The Great, and both had affairs with other lovers. The Great plays creatively with the facts here when Fanning’s Catherine arrives at the Russian court, Peter is already emperor, a role in which is portrayed as completely inept. At the time, Russia was ruled by Peter’s aunt Elizabeth, and Peter was heir to the throne. To prepare for her new royal life in Russia, she converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, changed her name to Yekaterina Alekseyevna and learned to speak Russian. It won’t surprise viewers to learn that series creator Tony McNamara was the co-writer of The Favourite, another historical comedy with a sardonic bent, for which Olivia Colman won an Oscar, for her turn as Queen Anne of England.īorn Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica on in Stettin, Prussia (now modern-day northwestern Poland), Catherine married heir to the Russian throne Charles Peter Ulrich in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the age of 16. Billed as “an occasionally true story,” the series takes liberties with the the truth in favor of a darkly humorous, farcical approach viewers are privy to the sex lives, secrets and debauchery of Catherine, Peter and their inner circle in the Russian court. Set in 18th-century Russia, The Great, which premieres on Hulu on May 15, tells the story of a young Catherine the Great as she enters a disastrous marriage to Emperor Peter III of Russia and eventually succeeds in overthrowing him in a coup. “For comedy, I guess,” Catherine wryly replies. “Why did he make you a woman then?” asks her maid. That I was here for a reason, a purpose.” “Like God himself had spat me forth to land on this earth and in some way transform it. “Ever since I was a child, I’ve felt like greatness was in store for me,” says Catherine, played by Elle Fanning, in the new Hulu series The Great.
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