Catherine wrote her first memoirs around 1756, before she became Empress, during a period of ruthless court politics "Peter III had no greater enemy that himself all his actions bordered on insanity.He took pleasure in beating men and animals.By ascending to the throne, Empress Catherine saved the empire, herself, and her son from the hands of a madman"- Essay on the Life and Reign of Frederick II (1789) Catherine met Peter III for the first time, in 1739, at age ten, and Peter was her second cousin This education allowed her to aspire to a royal marriage Catherine's governess (Elisabeth Cardel) introduced her to the customs of French society and to French classical literature.
Catherine's mother ".had prepared Catherine well for life at a royal court" to an extend as to were "Catherine shows her disappointment in the quality of Russian court life."
Catherine was actually a German princess called Sophie, but then she willingly learnt Russian and converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy in June 1744, in order to marry Peter III
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