A young girl sits alone, in a cold room
in a great house, on a German coast
and dreams of being a queen.
{Intro}
That girl's name was Sophia.
Or Sophie, depending on who's writing about her.
She was born in the spring of 1729.
But her mother would never forgive her
for the crime of being a girl.
Her mother, young, ambitious
always wanting to be the center of attention
was deeply discontent on her life
having been married off at 15, to a man 21 years her senior.
Worse still, that man was poor
(at least, by her standards)
and stuffy.
Her life was nothing like the glittering court that she'd known as a girl.
She still had ambition.
She still wanted to escape her husband's
drab military post,
to live in high society
and see the world, and, to her mind, that required
a male heir.
And so, poor Sophia was neglected,
often told that she was ugly,
yelled at for minor offenses
or, simply, left entirely alone.
She was bright, and could memorize things with ease.
But she frequently infuriated her tutors by asking questions like:
"Why were the great men of antiquity damned
just because they lived before Christ?"
...or...
"What was the universe like before creation?"
She found solace only in the lessons she was taught by one of her governesses
who introduced her to French and
brought her books by Racine and Molière.
And all the while her mother doted on her sickly and infirmed brother
who'd been born an year and a half after she'd entered the world
...unwanted.
Sophia would always harbor a resentment over the treatment
she received compared to her brother.
But in 1742, when she was 13
her brother died, succumbing to scarlet fever.
She had one other brother, who would survive their youth
but he was a half decade younger.
And so now, at last,
her ambitious mother's eye finally turned to her.
But she didn't receive the warmth and the affection that she had hoped for.
Her mother's aim was
to see her married.
After all, her mother thought
taking her daughter out in search of a match
to travel and get back to court
might provide a path to escape her drab life.
Unfortunately, her daughter was proud, impertinent and arrogant.
(Or at least, so she felt.)
If there was to be any attempt at matchmaking
she was going have to break Sophia of these habits.
And so, Sophia learned to hide her pride
to hide her talents
and her mother began writing and visiting all of their relatives
in search of a match.
And she made sure that Sophia knew
just what failing to find a match would mean.
From time to time
she would take Sophia to see spinster relatives
locked away in a convent
or shut away in a remote wing of a family house.
One of these encounters Sophia would remember forever.
An aunt, who lived in one small room
with 16 pug dogs.
16 pugs, who did everything that dogs do...
...in that one room.
The smell would hunt her for all her days.
So she rapidly became enamored of the idea of marriage.
She saw it as a way out,
an escape from her mother.
But her prospects were limited.
Her father was not a man of great means.
And though he was a prince of
one of the tiny principalities
that then made up the Holy Roman Empire
he wasn't even THE prince of that domain
having others in the line of succession before him.
Her mother, on the other hand
was of the house Holstein-Gottorp
one of the great houses of the Holy Roman Empire.
And though she was from a minor branch
she could still reach out to all her cousins.
And so it was, that
even before her brother died,
on a visit to her uncle, Sophia met the orphaned duke of Holstein:
Peter Ulrich, 11 years old at the time.
This young man was the heir to the throne of Sweden
and the last surviving grandson of Peter the Great.
He was also sickly though
doughy of features
and even at the age of 11
given to drink.
This meeting would prove fortuitous in years to come...
or disastrous, depending on how you look at it.
But long before that chance encounter
was to change her life
as she was making the rounds, looking for a suitor
attention of this type fell on her much closer to home.
At the age of 14
a 24 year old cuirassier,
her cousin, began to...
(what was called at the time)
...show his affections.
Often finding her in some secluded corner of the house
when no one else was around
to kiss her.
He eventually proposed to her.
Although she expertly put him off
by agreeing to it only if he could get the consent of her parents.
Then in the middle of dinner one night
a letter came.
It was from Russia.
From the Russian empress, Elizabeth
Elizabeth whose sister had married a Holstein.
Elizabeth who was the aunt of Peter Ulrich.
Elizabeth had been betrothed, at one point, to Sophia's uncle.
Elizabeth whose association Sophia's mother had been very careful to cultivate
regularly sending her news and portraits of her daughter.
Elizabeth had recently become the guardian
of young Peter Ulrich
adopting him as her own.
And as such, young Peter had lost the right to the crown of Sweden
BUT had gained a much greater prize:
succession to the crown of Russia.
Elizabeth's letter said nothing of it's purpose
but simply implored Sophia and her mother to travel at once to Russia.
Despite the letter's vagueness
the implications were clear.
Sophia might yet find her way to being a queen
as she had so often daydreamed.
But the night surprises weren't over yet!
Mere hours after the first letter's arrival
a second courier, breathless and panting,
burst into the house.
He too had a letter...
But this one was from Fredrick the Great
summoning to his court in Berlin.
Sophia's mother wasted no time starting to pack.
The invitation to Russia had come with a bank note
for 10,000 rubles to equip them for their journey.
This, of course, went not to making sure that Sophia looked like a bride
that they had both hoped she would be
but instead went towards outfitting her mother with a splendid array of court dresses.
And so, they began their journey.
First to Berlin...
...and then to Moscow.
When they arrived at Berlin
Sophia's mother raced to present herself to Frederick.
But, to her shock
he simply asked where her daughter was.
She hadn't taken Sophia with her to court
thinking that the king couldn't
possibly want to talk to the girl more than to her incredible self.
So she said that Sophia was sick.
The next day too she showed up at court alone
and again Frederick asked where Sophia was.
And again, her mother said that she was sick.
On the third day
Frederick pressed the issue
and Sophia's mother said that
she couldn't come because she had nothing to wear.
At which juncture
a somewhat miffed Frederick the Great
cut her off
and asked one of his sisters to "just lend the poor girl a dress
...please".
Finally, Sophia appeared before the king
in an ill-fitting dress, without jewels or finery.
She was shy, worried about what this great man might think.
But to her surprise
(and, undoubtedly, the surprise of her mother)
she was seated at dinner that night right next to the king.
Her mother wasn't even seated at the same table!
The king tried make her feel comfortable
speaking to her of poetry and of the opera,
plays and ballet.
And though everyone stared at the king
talking to a child
he continued on and she opened up
speaking to him throughout the meal.
By the end, he saw in her,
hidden just below that layer of humility,
an intelligence and a perception.
He wrote to Elizabeth of Russia to say as much.
He had been assessing her.
Because in his bid to make Prussia
a player in the world stage
he had already created
many enemies.
And he knew that he would have to have Russia on his side.
It was his hope that
this German princess could help ensure that.
But his business was not just with Sophia.
In private his agents asked her mother
to be their agent in the Russian court.
They explained how one Count Bestuzhev
was the sworn enemy of Prussia
and that he would stop Sophia's marriage if he could.
So Sophia's mother, Johanna, should do everything on her power
to make him lose favor.
Never again would these two rulers meet in person.
These rulers whom history titles "The Great".
But it's far from the last time that their paths will cross.
Join us next time
as Sophia finally makes her way to Russia
and her mother sets about
trying to destroy Count Bestuzhev.