For Catherine the Great, jewelry was about much more than adornment. The formidable Russian empress - who reigned from 1762 to 1796 after overthrowing her own husband, Peter III - understood that ...

In 1745, after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, and changing her name to Catherine, she married Grand Duke Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the Russian throne.

the Russian czar deposed by his better-known wife, Catherine the Great. Perhaps motivated by the prospect of this unflattering legacy, the Russian noblewoman—commonly called Princess Dashkova ...