Catherine The Great Had Ivan Killed
In hulu s show about catherine the great there s a lot of allusion and reference to catherine s path to the throne.
Catherine the great had ivan killed. The cause of death is unclear though the official. Here the true story of how she overthrew her husband tsar paul iii. There is a well known legend surrounding empress catherine the great of russia and it involves a horse. Ivan vi was assassinated during an attempt to free him as part of a failed coup.
Ivan vi is the prisoner catherine ii encounters in the first scene of hbo s catherine the great. Their meeting occurs after catherine had taken at least two pages from russian history and staged. After more than twenty years as a prisoner ivan was killed by his guards when some army officers unknown to ivan attempted to free him. The myth is that catherine was crushed to death by a horse while attempting to have sex with it.
Usually the collapse of a harness or lifting mechanism is blamed. Like empress elizabeth before her catherine had given strict instructions that ivan was to be killed in the event of any such attempt. He had a great admiration for prussian king frederick and considering russia and prussia had been on opposing sides of the seven years war that was a decidedly bad look. But the real ivan became emperor at only two months old was deposed by elizabeth just over a year.
The truss holding her equine paramour broke crushing catherine to death. Though catherine was just as prussian as her husband by birth she endeared herself to russians by converting to russian orthodoxy learning the russian language and generally making herself as russian as vodka. Ivan s guards also knew that if there were ever any attempt to free prisoner one he should be killed immediately before he could escape a rule that catherine the great ordered when. Eight days after his abdication peter was assassinated at ropsha by alexei orlov younger brother to catherine s then lover grigory orlov.
According to legend russian empress catherine the great died while attempting to engage in sexual intercourse with a horse.