Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna
Royalty Behaving Badly Series - (well, maybe she wasn't so bad)
Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna (also known as Yelizaveta and Yelisavet) was the Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1761.
Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna (also known as Yelizaveta and Yelisavet)
Born in Moscow in December, 1709, her father tried unsuccessfully to marry Elizabeth to many royal families, including Louis XV of France. However, her illegitimate status made her an unsuitable match (her father did not marry Catherine I until after her birth). Her spinster status did not make her a prude, and Elizabeth enjoyed several dalliances while still in her teens. Although many historians report that she never married (as most of the great Russian Tsarinas were not married), some maintain that she may have been secretly married to Alexis Razumovsky and may have bore a daughter and it is generally agreed upon that she had many lovers over the course of her life.
She spent her first 30 years living the life of a Russian debuatnte. Her education was incomplete, but she was able to speak several European languages and was considered a care-free beauty. However, with the rise to Tsar of her child cousin Ivan VI and his regent mother Anna Leopoldovna, her uncomplicated life came to an abrupt halt. Anna had her under constant surveillance and there was a threat that she would be sent to a nunnery. In 1741, at the age of 33, Elizabeth led a bloodless revolt with the support of the royal guards and crowned herself Empress in the spring of 1742.
Though not a particularly intellectual person, she was smart enough to surround herself with gifted advisers, such as Aleksey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, as vice chancellor. Although she dealt harshly with Anna Leopoldovna’s family, she abolished the death penalty across Russia. Despite criticism that her court was a hotbed of misconduct and transvestite balls, and that Elizabeth was better known for her penchant for dresses and laziness than her politic prowess, her reign was also marked by dramatic advances in Russian culture, economics and military victories.
Elizabeth set up the government as it had been under Peter I (ousting most of the Germans who held government offices in the process), and continued his program of the westernization of Russia. She founded the University of Moscow in 1755, the Academy of the Arts in 1757 and she spent large sums of money on her favorite architects, who played a role in revitalizing St. Petersburg. Her economic policy was both beneficial and hurtful to Russia. While she unified the domestic market by eliminating several excise taxes, she also set up the first noble land bank in 1753. Under this bank, landlords could borrow money at exceptionally low rates but did not have to use the money to improve their estates. This ultimately led to direct state subsidies of Russia’s elite and would eventually lead to bankruptcy in the 19th century.
Several important wars and land acquisitions marked Elizabeth’s reign, including the ceding to Russia of part of Southern Finland from her negotiated peace with Sweden. In 1748, she was instrumental in ending the Austrian war of succession, but her distrust of Prussia eventually led to the Seven Years’ War from 1756 - 1763. This conflict saw Russia, Austria and France pitted against Prussia and Britain (although Russia refused to fight against their trade partner, Britain). The war dragged on longer than it’s support in Russia and her sudden death on Christmas Day, 1761 gave Russia it’s chance to pull out of the conflict. Her nephew, Peter III, became Czar after her death.
In popular culture, Empress Elizabeth is generally noted in works focusing on Catherine the Great, the wife of Peter III. Flora Robson played Elizabeth in the 1934 film Catherine the Great and Vanessa Redgrave was featured in the role in the 1991 mini series Young Catherine. The 1995 movie had Jeanne Moreau playing the role of Elizabeth.
For Further Reading:
Biography of Elizabeth Petrovna from Answers.com
Biography of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna from the Academic International Press
