Elizabeth Petrovna

Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine I., was born in the year 1709. Of doubtful legitimacy, and apparently indifferent to everything but the gratification of her passions, she did not oppose the accession of the boy Peter II. in 1727, of Anna, Duchess of Courland, in 1730, and of the infant Ivan VI. in 1740. In 1741 the infant emperor was deposed, and Elizabeth raised to the throne, chiefly by the agency of Lecocq, a surgeon, and the Marquis de Chetardie, the French ambassador. In the following year Elizabeth proclaimed as her successor Peter, the son of her sister the Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp. During this reign a war with Sweden was brought to a successful conclusion by the peace of Abo. The anti-Prussian policy of her advisers and her personal animosity towards Frederick II. led her to take part in the war of the Austrian Succession and in the Seven Years' War, before the close of which she died in January 1762. Though profligate in conduct, she was strict in the observance of the public ordinances of religion. Averse to business, she was guided by favourites, while corruption prevailed in every department of the state. She founded the university of Moscow and the Academy of Art at St Petersburg.