Q 01/05

Catherine the Great's father opposed her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy because he was a devout member of which church?

A) Roman Catholic

B) Lutheran

C) Calvinist

D) Anglican

Answer · why

B) Lutheran

Lutheran: he objected, but his daughter went ahead. In 1744 she was received into the Orthodox Church and took a new name, Catherine, along with her n...

Q 02/05

Catherine was born with which German princely surname?

A) Holstein-Gottorp

B) Saxe-Coburg

C) Anhalt-Zerbst

D) Hesse-Darmstadt

Answer · why

C) Anhalt-Zerbst

Anhalt-Zerbst was a minor German principality with little money. Sophie owed her brilliant match less to her father's title than to her mother's bette...

Q 03/05

The teenage Catherine the Great fell gravely ill in Russia after getting up at night to do what?

A) Pray in the palace chapel

B) Write secret letters home

C) Practise her language lessons

D) Slip out to court balls

Answer · why

C) Practise her language lessons

Practise her language lessons: determined to win over her new country, she got up in the small hours to recite Russian vocabulary in her bedroom.

Q 04/05

How was Sophie related to Peter, the heir she married?

A) Second cousins

B) First cousins

C) Not related at all

D) Uncle and niece

Answer · why

A) Second cousins

Two of her first cousins became kings of Sweden, and her uncle became heir to the Swedish throne.

Q 05/05

On arriving in Russia, Sophie fell so ill she nearly died; what did she credit her survival to?

A) Prayer to Saint Catherine

B) A German herbal remedy

C) Frequent bloodletting

D) Cold baths

Answer · why

C) Frequent bloodletting

Frequent bloodletting was the treatment the empress insisted on, over the protests of Sophie's mother. The quarrel cost the mother her standing at cou...