e Peter's favour, attended him during his last illness, and closed
his eyes when he expired (January 28, 1725). She was at once raised to
the throne by the party of progress, as represented by Prince Menshikov
and Count Tolstoy, whose interests and perils were identical with those
of the empress, before the reactionary party had time to organize
opposition, her great popularity with the army powerfully contributing
to her success. The arch-prelates of the Russian church, Theodosius,
archbishop of Novgorod, and Theophanes, archbishop of Pskov, were also
on her side for very much the same reason, both of them being unpopular
innovators who felt that, at this crisis, they must stand or fall with
Tolstoy and Menshikov.

The great administrative innovation of Catherine's reign was the
establishment of the _Verkhovny Tainy Sovyet_, or supreme privy council,
by way of strengthening the executive, by concentrating affairs in the
hands of a few persons, mainly of the party of Reform (_Ukazoi_ February
26, 1726). As to the foreign policy of Catherine I. (principally
directed by the astute Andrei Osterman), if purely pacific and extremely
cautious, it was, nevertheless, dignified, consistent and independent.
Russia, by the mere force of circumstances, now found herself opposed to
England, chiefly because Catherine protected Charles Frederick, duke of
Holstein, and George I. found that the Schleswig-Holstein question might
be reopened to the detriment of his Hanoverian possessions. Things came
to such a pass that, in the spring of 1726, an English squadron was sent
to the Baltic and cast anchor before Reval. The empress vigorously
protested, and the fleet was withdrawn, but on the 6th of August
Catherine acceded to the anti-English Austro-Spanish league. Catherine
died on the 16th of May 1727. Though quite illiterate, she was an
uncommonly shrewd and sensible woman, and her imperturbable good nature
under exceptionally difficult circumstances, testifies equally to the
soundness of her head and the goodness of her heart.

See Robert Nisbet Bain, _The Pupils of Peter the Great_, chs. ii.-iii.
(London, 1897); _The First Romanovs_, ch. xiv. (London, 1905).
(R. N. B.)

CATHERINE II. (1729-1796), empress of Russia, was the daughter of
Christian Augustus, prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, and his wife, Johanna
Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The exact date and place of her birth
have been disputed, but there appears to be no reas