Have been into historical fiction for a while now. Started with the Tudors with a view to understanding the country that is my home now. Read and understood the metamorphosis of England to Great Britain and was hooked. So started reading the histories of other countries as well.
By chance - came to admire two historical figures quiet a lot! Isabella of Castille and Catharine the Great of Russia. Isabella of Castille had one great failing though. Her pedantic and ruthless commitment to Catholicism as the only true faith. This one weakness not only be-smirched her rule by robbing it off the excellent moorish medical and astronomical knowledge it also played it's part in ruining the life of her grand daughter - Mary I of England. Just a little broad mindedness that accommodated other faiths would have stood them both in good stead and written history differently.
But Catharine the Great of Russia - is a truly phenomenal woman in every way. Brought to Russia from Germany at a mere 15 year old,, her practical outlook catapults her from a mere consort of the heir to the Empress of one of the greatest powers of Europe in the 1700's.
Her response for every adversity in her life is measured and practical. According to her memoirs she is influenced by Voltaire's thoughts about God only much later in life. As I interpret it Voltaire says to her - There is no God but nature. To worship God is to live your best in the ecosystem that you were born in - adjusting, growing, accommodating, overcoming and surviving- . That is all that is there to it.
But she seems to have the instinct to survive well before that.
She is hated by her mom - she learns to accept that but focus instead on her own intellectual and physical well being. She is made the Grand Duchess of Russia - an orthodox Christian country against her own Lutheran faith - she chooses to accept it and convert and learn the language of Russia - recognizing her need to survive and grow in this new country. She is married to Peter - an overgrown, insecure tantrum throwing child who fights his future - she chooses to try and guide him to prepare to be an emperor than fight her fate and his.
When the time comes, her husband plans to discard her and ill treats her - she lets her popularity place her in the throne of Russia in a coup d'etat that against her wishes ends up killing her husband. And once an empress - she sets out to do the best for her country. Be it inviting the best artists of her age and building an eclectic art collection for Russia, establishing an architectural landscape and a knowledge base of books that places Russia firmly in the higher echelons of the intelligentsia, or publishing the 'Nakaz' a political and constitutional commentary that was way ahead of her time - this woman never stopped trying to better herself and hence her country.
What impresses me most is the she balances passion and practicality. She never allows her passion to undermine her authority/mortality as an empress.
When the whole world saw torture as an acceptable form of questioning, she sees the absurdity of it and bans it; When serfdom/slavery was an accepted way of life she challenges it - but is also wise enough to sense that the time is not right and back out graciously. But it is these seeds of thought that allow her great grandson Alexander II to abolish serfdom completely through his Emancipation Reform of 1861.
Robert K Massie chronicles her history out of memoirs and other historical documents interspersed with his own comments. But the books was extremely interesting and captivating - more than highly fictionalized history of the ilk of Philippa Greggory or Jean plaidy.
A wonderful read.
By chance - came to admire two historical figures quiet a lot! Isabella of Castille and Catharine the Great of Russia. Isabella of Castille had one great failing though. Her pedantic and ruthless commitment to Catholicism as the only true faith. This one weakness not only be-smirched her rule by robbing it off the excellent moorish medical and astronomical knowledge it also played it's part in ruining the life of her grand daughter - Mary I of England. Just a little broad mindedness that accommodated other faiths would have stood them both in good stead and written history differently.
But Catharine the Great of Russia - is a truly phenomenal woman in every way. Brought to Russia from Germany at a mere 15 year old,, her practical outlook catapults her from a mere consort of the heir to the Empress of one of the greatest powers of Europe in the 1700's.
Her response for every adversity in her life is measured and practical. According to her memoirs she is influenced by Voltaire's thoughts about God only much later in life. As I interpret it Voltaire says to her - There is no God but nature. To worship God is to live your best in the ecosystem that you were born in - adjusting, growing, accommodating, overcoming and surviving- . That is all that is there to it.
But she seems to have the instinct to survive well before that.
She is hated by her mom - she learns to accept that but focus instead on her own intellectual and physical well being. She is made the Grand Duchess of Russia - an orthodox Christian country against her own Lutheran faith - she chooses to accept it and convert and learn the language of Russia - recognizing her need to survive and grow in this new country. She is married to Peter - an overgrown, insecure tantrum throwing child who fights his future - she chooses to try and guide him to prepare to be an emperor than fight her fate and his.
When the time comes, her husband plans to discard her and ill treats her - she lets her popularity place her in the throne of Russia in a coup d'etat that against her wishes ends up killing her husband. And once an empress - she sets out to do the best for her country. Be it inviting the best artists of her age and building an eclectic art collection for Russia, establishing an architectural landscape and a knowledge base of books that places Russia firmly in the higher echelons of the intelligentsia, or publishing the 'Nakaz' a political and constitutional commentary that was way ahead of her time - this woman never stopped trying to better herself and hence her country.
What impresses me most is the she balances passion and practicality. She never allows her passion to undermine her authority/mortality as an empress.
When the whole world saw torture as an acceptable form of questioning, she sees the absurdity of it and bans it; When serfdom/slavery was an accepted way of life she challenges it - but is also wise enough to sense that the time is not right and back out graciously. But it is these seeds of thought that allow her great grandson Alexander II to abolish serfdom completely through his Emancipation Reform of 1861.
Robert K Massie chronicles her history out of memoirs and other historical documents interspersed with his own comments. But the books was extremely interesting and captivating - more than highly fictionalized history of the ilk of Philippa Greggory or Jean plaidy.
A wonderful read.
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