In the history of the Russian Romanov Dynasty, there was a very talented female ruler, and under the leadership of this person, Russia became a veritable power in Europe at that time, and she was Catherine the Great, who lived in the same period as Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Catherine's evaluation of herself is also worthy of the name, she once wrote in her diary: "If I can live to be two hundred years old, the whole of Europe will crawl at my feet." ”
Catherine in film and television
Catherine was born into a declining Prussian aristocratic family in 1729 and married Prince Peter III of Russia at the age of sixteen. At that time, being able to marry into the royal family was the dream of many young girls, but when Catherine married Peter III, her unhappy life began, and her husband Peter did not like the ordinary-looking Catherine, so the two were separated for a long time after marriage.
Snubbed by her husband, Catherine began to associate with aristocratic men in the court and had many lovers. In 1753, the Empress Dowager began to urge Peter and Catherine to have an heir, and in order to cope with her mother-in-law, Catherine began to approach her husband, and only a year later, Catherine gave birth to a baby boy for Peter III, and named paul.
However, the birth of this child did not ease the relationship between Peter III and Catherine, Peter III was still reluctant to take care of his wife, and Catherine still went her own way and dated her lover. In 1758, Catherine gave birth to Peter's daughter Anna, who was already aware of his wife's infidelity, so he did not want to see the daughter, and told his friends:
"I don't know how she got pregnant or who this daughter is."
This remark by Peter III completely angered Catherine, who later overthrew her husband just six months after Peter III became the new Tsar, and Peter III died in prison shortly after. After the death of Peter III, Catherine became the ruler of the empire,
In retaliation for her husband Peter's snub and ruthlessness toward her, Catherine began to humiliate her dead husband, claiming that Paul was not Peter III's son, but the illegitimate son of her lover named Orlov.
Portrait of Paul
However, this Paul was very similar to his father Peter III in both appearance and personality, and this situation made Catherine very annoyed. She had resented her husband Peter III
Whenever she saw Paul, who looked exactly like her father, Catherine would vent her resentment towards her husband on Paul, which was why Paul was not welcomed by her mother, Catherine.
Even before Catherine's death, in her will she claimed to make Paul's son Alexander the new Tsar, but did not appoint Paul, who was more qualified, as the new Tsar. When Paul learned of this, he immediately went to burn the will, and then he became the new Tsar himself. And was Paul really Peter's son? Or is it really, as Catherine said, the illegitimate son of her and her lover, and this dusty history has not been revealed until the twenty-first century.
Family portrait of Nicholas II
By 2009, Russian archaeologist Rogev had found a bag of blood from the last Tsar, Nicholas II, a direct descendant of Paul, in an archive in Moscow. Rogoff then tested Nicholas II's blood and discovered that Nicholas II's haplogroup of the Y chromosome was R1b.
And this haplogroup of Nicholas II originated from the Oldenburg family,
Catherine's husband Peter III also owned this haplogroup, so it can be basically concluded that Catherine's son Paul was not an illegitimate child at all, but a biological son of Peter III.
Rogev, on the other hand, believes that catherine said that Paul was an illegitimate child was just to get revenge on her ruthless husband.