NOTES: Empress of Russia (1741-62). She became empress by effectively
staging a palace revolution that deposed the infant emperor Ivan VI and his
mother Anna Leopoldovna (1718-46) who acted as regent. She named her nephew
Peter II as her successor. Elizabeth's nonpolitical achievements include the
establishment of the University of Moscow in 1755 and the Academy of Arts at St.
Petersburg in 1757.
NOTES: Reign: 1645-1676; According to "The First Romanovs" by Virginia
Cowles (1971), there were 13 children from this marriage, but by 1670 only two
sons survived.
NOTES: According to a contemporary account by Adrien de la Neuville, who
encountered Sophia frequently she: " had a shapeless body, monstrously fat, a
head as big as a bushel measure, hairs growing on her face, sores on her legs".
He adds however that, "she is acute, subtle and shrewd in mind, as she is broad,
short and coarse in person. And although she had never read Machiavelli, nor
learned anything about him, all his maxims come naturally to her.
NOTES: She married 2d, Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and became the
mother of, among others, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV; no
surviving issue from this marriage.
NOTES: Widow of Sir Hugh Swynford and dau. of Sir Payn (Payne) Roet. She
was Hugh Swynford's third wife. Catherine (or Katherine) was also the
sister-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer. All her issue legitimated by charter of
Richard II, 1397.
NOTES: a.k.a.: Isabelle of Castille; sister of his brother's 2d wife,
Constance of Castile. She was a dau. of Pedro III, King of Castile and his 1st
wife.
NOTES: His grand palace at Versailles afforded the ideal setting for his
lavish court. Louis razed the city's medieval walls, built the Invalides as a
home for disabled veterans, planned the great avenue of the Champs-Elysees, and
refurbished the Cathedral of Notre Dame. His personal example of long, dedicated
rule made France the bureaucratic model for 18th century, absolutist Europe. His
first wife, Marie-Therese, was his double first cousin.
NOTES: A Moscow lawyer's daughter who was married to a captain in the
Guards regiment of which Michael was commander. She was eventually accorded the
title Countess Brassova. a.k.a.: Nathalia Cheremetevsky.
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