![]() ![]() Proof in this case is lacking, 2 but Catherine certainly produced further children from subsequent illicit relationships. Catherine implied in her memoirs that it was Saltykov who fathered her son Paul, born after two miscarriages on 20 September 1754. Soon deprived of her new husband’s affections, she sought solace in a series of clandestine affairs, beginning in 1752 with Sergei Saltykov. Baptised into Orthodoxy shortly after her arrival in St Petersburg, the teenage grand duchess was rechristened Ekaterina (Catherine) Alekseevna. ![]() Elizabeth transformed Sophie’s life by making her Peter’s consort in 1744. It was at Wolfenbüttel that Sophie first met her future husband, Grand Duke Peter, nephew of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Sophie’s childhood was divided between Stettin, where her father’s regiment was stationed, and protracted visits to the cosmopolitan court of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel, where she enjoyed the protection of her mother’s benefactress, the dowager Duchess Elisabeth Sophia Maria. ![]()
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