Ukase dated April 16, 1776, announcing the sudden death of the Great Princess Natalia Alekseevna (Princess Wilhelmina Luisa of Hessen-Darmstadt).
St. Petersburg: Senate, 1776. Single leaf of laid paper with watermark and woodcut printer's device (unresized, ca. 34 × 21 cm). Apparently disbound from a Sammelband, with crease and old sewing holes; large stain to upper right corner.
A solemn ukase occasioned by the sudden death in childbirth of the wife of heir apparent, and later Emperor Paul I, Natalia Alekseevna (1755-1776). The Empress exhorts her loyal subjects to pray for the soul of the deceased. By all accounts, however, Wilhelmina had been a rather trying daughter-in-law, who exerted a strong will over her husband and soon attempted to challenge Catherine's own authority. Because of her affair with Count Andrei Razumovsky, who was said to be the father of her stillborn child, contemporaries rumored that Catherine, who was present during the Tsarevna's ordeal, refused to allow her medical treatment. Not in Bitovt.
Book ID: P002325
Price: $250.00