QUEEN OF HEARTS When Catherine’s husband Tsar Peter III alienated his people, they instead turned to his wife, and she was proclaimed the rightful ruler
ALAMY X2
When Catherine Alekseyevna, Empress Consort of all the Russians, awoke on 28 June 1762, it was to startling news. She jumped out of bed, hastily got dressed, and rushed to the carriage that was waiting for her in the grounds of her palace, the Peterhof. Such was Catherine’s haste that morning that she didn’t have time to do her hair before jumping in her carriage. Instead, her expensive French hairdresser attended to it while she swept through the streets of Saint Petersburg.
BRIDGEMAN IMAGES X2, GETTY X7