and empress of Russia,
daughter of a Livonian peasant; "a little stumpy body, very brown,...
strangely chased about from the bottom to the top of the world,... had
once been a kitchen wench"; married first to a Swedish dragoon, became
afterwards the mistress of Prince Menschikoff, and then of Peter the
Great, who eventually married her; succeeded him as empress, with
Menschikoff as minister; for a time ruled well, but in the end gave
herself up to dissipation, and died (1682-1727).

CATHARINE II. THE GREAT, empress of Russia, born at Stettin,
daughter of Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst; "a most-clever, clear-eyed,
stout-hearted woman"; became the wife of Peter III., a scandalous mortal,
who was dethroned and then murdered, leaving her empress; ruled well for
the country, and though her character was immoral and her reign despotic
and often cruel, her efforts at reform, the patronage she accorded to
literature, science, and philosophy, and her diplomatic successes,
entitle her to a high rank among the sovereigns of Russia; she reigned
from 1763 to 1796, and it was during the course of her reign, and under
the sanction of it, that Europe witnessed the three partitions of Poland
(1729-1796).

CATHARINE DE' MEDICI, daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, wife of Henry
II. of France, and mother of his three successors; on the accession of
her second son, Charles IX.--for the reign of her first, Francis II., was
very brief--acted as regent during his minority; joined heart and soul
with the Catholics in persecuting the Huguenots, and persuaded her son to
issue the order which resulted in the massacre of St. Bartholomew; on his
death, which occurred soon after, she acted as regent during the minority
of her third son, Henry III., and lived to see both herself and him
detested by the whole French people, and this although she was during her
ascendency the patroness of the arts and of literature (1519-1589).

CATHARINE OF ARAGON, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of
Spain, and wife of Henry VIII., her brother-in-law as widow of Arthur,
from whom, and at whose instance, after 18 years of married life, and
after giving birth to five children, she was divorced on the plea that,
as she had been his brother's wife before, it was not lawful for him to
have her; after her divorce she remained in the country, led an austere
religious life, and died broken-hearted. The refusal of the Pope to
sanction this divorce led to the final rupture