WI: Empress Catherine the Great remarried?

I don't think I have to tell anyone here who Catherine the Great is so I'll get right to the point. Catherine took many lovers but never remarried. Probably to help reserve her rights on the throne. So my question is what if she had decided to remarry, and for arguments sake openly, not a secret husband like Empress Elizabeth had. Who would she marry? One of her lovers? A foreign Prince? Perhaps even the deposed Ivan VI? And assuming she had children what would happen to them? Would they have rights to the throne? Would they be Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses? Would they still be called Romanovs? Would Paul be conveniently done away with?
 
I don't think she would, she was power hungry to the point of taking away her grandson from her son. Besides her husband Peter the 3rd didn't love her and why would she settle into something that could lead to a similar situation. Ivan VI is flat out when she went to his jail after she took power, he said he was the Grand Duke despite being imprisoned since he was 6, there were also rumors about him being insane or an idiot.
 
Ivan would be way too big a risk: at the first opportunity he'd depose her and seize the throne for himself as sole ruler.

Anyone else would be impossibly inferior in rank for a reigning Empress to marry. I guess she could, if she really wished, install her new husband as co-Emperor, but most likely it'd result in an uprising or coup to ensure the native dynasty doesn't get replaced by foreigners - especially if she married a German or Scandinavian princeling.
 
Ivan was likely more than a little damaged from his long imprisionment. He was basically fed, cleaned, and watered. But the guards were ordered not to talk to him nor do I think they provided anything for him to do. A documentary on Catherine showed him as playing with shadows and hiding when someone came in to check on him.

So he is likely developmentally disabled, as well as severely disturbed. Nothing breaks a human mind like isolation.
 
There's no reason Ekaterina can't marry one of Ivan's brothers - Pyotr or Alexei. Although, one of them had a humped back as a result of a childhood fall (intentional/accidental who can say). Ekaterina might actually go through with the wedding, since she married one idiot, killed him and took his throne, marrying his dolt of a cousin (who can only read and write Russian) and maybe having one or two kids by him - sort of as security should anything happen to Pavel.

Pyotr/Alexei were perhaps not idiots, but Ekaterina was a very smart woman with a very strong will. I could see her constantly reminding her husband that he owes his position to her and only her.
 
Ivan would be way too big a risk: at the first opportunity he'd depose her and seize the throne for himself as sole ruler.

Anyone else would be impossibly inferior in rank for a reigning Empress to marry. I guess she could, if she really wished, install her new husband as co-Emperor, but most likely it'd result in an uprising or coup to ensure the native dynasty doesn't get replaced by foreigners - especially if she married a German or Scandinavian princeling.

Ivan was a drooling idiot - with all respect to drooling idiots anywhere - who'd barely learned to read/write. He knew he was rightfully emperor. His brothers, on the other hand - probably wouldn't.
 
Ivan was a drooling idiot - with all respect to drooling idiots anywhere - who'd barely learned to read/write. He knew he was rightfully emperor. His brothers, on the other hand - probably wouldn't.

If he was an idiot - Catherine would not have killed him.
 
Who would she marry? One of her lovers? A foreign Prince? Perhaps even the deposed Ivan VI? And assuming she had children what would happen to them? Would they have rights to the throne? Would they be Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses? Would they still be called Romanovs? Would Paul be conveniently done away with?
1) The Russian monarchy followed some certain traditions and ways. Some traditions were never written down and one of the reasons was that it was not necessary because they were so obvious. Everybody knew them and these traditions were expected to be followed.

You know why the second marriage of Catherine the Great was never discussed or even rumored or hinted in Russia?
- Because it was out of the question. If a woman is a wife of a Russian tsar that marriage is her last one. Period.

2) As for Catherine the Great marrying some of the Romanovs, the male relatives of her late husband...
I guess there is no one in this thread who is an Orthodox Christian or who belongs to an Orthodox tradition.

The Russian Orthodox marriage laws were much much(!) more strict than those in the Western Christianity. The marriage between relatives were forbidden. Sometimes families themselves forgot that they were related as it was so long ago and planned a wedding but when it came to the local Orthodox priest and he found the long forgotten kinship between a fiancé and a fiancée - the marriage was prohibited.

But what important for us here is that according to the Orthodoxy the relatives of your husband (or your late husband) are your relatives - that's why you cannot marry male relatives of your late husband. It was prohibited and followed very severely. All Orthodox Russia lived according to these marriage laws, knew them and followed them.
These rules were complicated and I myself do not know them for sure but my Grandmother knew them all.
So if Catherine had married a relative of her late husband that would have looked like marring your own Father or full Brother - disgusting outrageous incest. That would be illegal.


So if she had married a Non-Romanov she would have been murdered for an attempt to change the dynasty.
If she had married a Romanov she would have been killed for a repulsive filthy incest.
 
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Yes, there was only a handful of second cousin matches in later Romanov history and the only one idea of incest match - to marry Peter II to Elisabeth. Though I don't know how Osterman would have justified this - aunt to nephew match is directly prohibited in Old Testament as incest.
And "dispensations" in Russian Orthodox Church mostly limited tosay allowing Tsar to remarry more times than three (Ivan the Terrible case). But yes, in marriage law husband and wife were treated as one unit. Third to second cousin was enough for dispensation through. The totally banned marriages included first cousins and first cousins once removed. Secondd cousins IIRC were allowed under the same condition as fourth remarriage - that's the closest Russian royalty even got to incest.
There is a wonderful TL "Austria Hungary of XVI century" (in Russian but Russian and Aley are probably familiar with it) where a MASSIVE scandal was caused by uncle marrying to widow of his nephew in House of Rurikid -for Russian Orthodox Church it was bona fide incest.
 
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Anna Leopoldovna and Peter III were second cousins. So actually second cousins once removed for Peter III and Ivan VI. That's on the verge of acceptable but due to unpopularity of Brunswick dynasty in general that will be a VERY last ditch move. Only in case Tsesarevich Successor Pavel dies.
Technically the dispensation can be granted - second cousins once removed with Peter I and Ivan V being half-brothers shall be enough under the letter of canonic law to grant it. However the prince in case was highly unpopular and shall be considered only if there's no other opinion.
Not to mention point one - Tsarinas never ever remarried. And entire legitimacy of Catherine was tied to Pavel. That was more important that the legality of second cousin matches (allowed for Royals as Catherine II and Peter III were second cousins and yet their marriage was not objected by clergy).
 
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Interestingly enough, there is correspondence from Catherine herself from 1784 in which she refers to her favorite Gregory Potemkin as her 'husband'. Now, whether there was a secret morganatic union or she was expressing her emotional feelings towards him is debatable. True, after she overthrew Peter III, she had openly been ruling in her own right rather than even pretending to rule in the name of her minor son Paul . However; even considering that bold step, it's somewhat doubtful she'd risk jeopardizing her claim as Peter III's widow by taking that actual step.
 
Interestingly enough, there is correspondence from Catherine herself from 1784 in which she refers to her favorite Gregory Potemkin as her 'husband'. Now, whether there was a secret morganatic union or she was expressing her emotional feelings towards him is debatable. True, after she overthrew Peter III, she had openly been ruling in her own right rather than even pretending to rule in the name of her minor son Paul . However; even considering that bold step, it's somewhat doubtful she'd risk jeopardizing her claim as Peter III's widow by taking that actual step.

What language? What word? German, for instance uses Mann/Frau for husband/wife literally man/woman, iirc. I dont know what Russian does, but Catherine might well not have been writing in Russian, anyway.
 
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