Catherine Bagration

Princess Catherine Bagration (;; 7 December 1783 – ) was a Russian princess, married to the general prince Peter Bagration. She was known for her beauty, love affairs and unconventional behavior. Early life She was the daughter of Count Pavel Martinovich Skavronsky (1757-1793), Chamberlain of the Royal Court and Minister Plenipotentiary to Naples, well known for his mental imbalance and extraordinary love of music, and his wife, Catherine von Engelhardt, niece and at the same time favorite of Prince Grigory Potemkin. She was educated at the court of the Empress Catherine II the Great and the Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of her son Emperor Paul I; and later became a maid of honor for the Empress Maria. Marriage to Prince Bagration In 1800 the Paul I of Russia, who was well known for his caprices, found out that General Pyotr Bagration, a Prince of the Bagrationi dynasty, was secretly in love with Catherine. The Emperor often used to marry members of his court off to each other, and one day at the Palace of Gatchina he suddenly announced that it was his intention to attend the marriage of General Bagration and Countess Catherine Skavronskaya. The Countess was said to be in love with Count Peter von der Pahlen, and even the prospective groom was shocked. Nobody however dared to argue with the monarch, and the wedding took place on 2 September in the chapel of the Gatchina Palace, near St. Petersburg.