Katy's Corner: Elizaveta Vorontsova, Peter III's Mistress

This week in Katy's Corner, we're talking about one of the most fascinating side characters in Catherine the Great's story: Peter III's longtime mistress, Elizaveta "Eliza" Vorontsova.

History has not been particularly kind to Eliza. Contemporary sources called her ugly, loud, crude, and politically clueless. Catherine herself absolutely could not stand her. But the deeper I dug, the more I started wondering if everyone missed something important.

Because for all of Peter III's many, many flaws, one thing seems clear: he genuinely loved Eliza. And against all odds, she appears to have loved him right back.

Was she an ambitious would-be empress? A victim of circumstance? Peter's soulmate? Or just a young woman who found herself caught in the middle of one of the biggest power struggles in Russian history?

Some interesting reading for this one:

http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/elizaveta-romanovna-vorontsova-mistress-of-peter-iii-emperor-of-all-russia/?fbclid=IwAR0HdCrqMqhoh734VZ0blS7dl32u6rSpcCjlV7soZjxd7FQMiNwvlZcRCz8