I first stumbled across this extraordinary character when staying in Venice for the Biennale.
Tucked away from tourist streams in a truly Venetian grand flat, I read about the San Michele cemetery island and its fascinating personalities buried there and ending their lives in a sometimes rather unexpected fashion.
The tale I want to share is about a Russian Princess. Famed for her beauty, she was apparently an incredible player, unconventional, not really fitting in the early 19th century this young woman found herself thrown into. She was Princess Catherine Bagration.
We hear she was quite fun, was her own person. Against the odds of the then-existing belief of women being only rather seen as wife and mother, Catherine played the field like men of her time: She chose for herself. What to do next in her life. Which men to take as lovers, which as friends.
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Of course, her freedom to make those choices was supported by her wealth. Good for her. She realised her fortune and made good use of her privilege. But it wasn’t only her wealth guiding her in her life’s decisions. It was also her upbringing and her family background.
When reading more about her, I found out that Catherine had prominent family examples how to be unusual: Her mum Yekaterina was both the niece and lover of THE Grigory Potemkin. Grigory was an important military leader and statesman. And he was a lover and favorite of THE remarkable Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Our Wandering Princess’ mum Yekaterina was eventually married off to some Count but it appears Yekatarina’s relationship with her uncle Grigory was an on-off affair for the rest of his life.
Nowadays, if you’d be seducing your niece that would be a total no-go. Yet, as we know, this Potemkin guy was such a powerful player at the Russian Court that a triangle (or more!) of relationships was installed and Yekaterina eventually became a favoured lady-in-waiting at the court of Catherine the Great. So it appears our Wandering Princess Catherine was potentially both the daughter and grandniece of power player Grigory Potemkin. We will never know for sure.
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This relationship bonanza at St. Petersburg Court seemed to have a lasting effect on our Wandering Princess Catherine. Maybe she realised from early on that all those man-wife-marriage-consort-lover-etc thingies were just made up and were seen as opportunities to be formed to one’s benefit and pleasure rather than being perceived as unquestioned duty or as unchangeable obligation.
It seems Catherine saw that nothing was written in stone when it came to relationships and what to accept as the norm. Especially what not to accept as woman. Our Wandering Princess who grew up at the royal court had a grand example in Russian Empress “Catherine the Great” who changed her lovers as she pleased and once she got tired of one, moved on to the next. Onwards and upwards was the credo of those two Catherines when it came to men.
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You think now that this is the story? Oh, no, on the contrary, this is really only where our story starts: Our Wandering Princess (she didn’t have this title yet, by the way, she was only known as Countess Catherine at this time) eventually got married off to a highly decorated Russian General, an esteemed prince of an established Russian dynasty. He was called Prince Bagration and was almost 20 years her senior. Though called ugly and uptight by some of his contemporaries, let’s give Mr Bagration some credit, he was a triumphant middle-aged military leader prince and rumored to be an alleged lover of one of the granddaughters of Catherine the Great. Long story short, Prince Bagration wasn’t the right man to gain our Wandering Princess’ heart.
Why, you ask? Well, our Wandering Princess Catherine was only 17 years old at the time of her wedding, she was in love with another man, and had no say in her marriage. She was too strong-willed and too surprised (as was her husband-to-be, credible sources tell us) when they got suddenly both told at a royal event that they were to be married to each other. Right, that was that. Off you go and get married.
And this is how our young Countess Catherine suddenly became Princess Catherine Bagration and a member of a distinguished family of the Russian Empire. Bang! Finally Princess. End of story and happy for the rest of her life as most of our romantic royal fairy tales tell us.
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Nope. Not the case for our Wandering Princess. Catherine only got emotionally started with the arrangements of her first nuptials. This teenage princess was on fire from this point of time on. It took her some years to figure out that this marriage wasn’t working for her and by the time she was 22 years old, she just … left. Good bye, husband.
She didn’t make a big fuss. She didn’t request her independence. She didn’t cry out for help. No, she just left. For Europe. And removed herself from a situation she wasn’t content with. A move made easier by the fact that the couple didn’t have any children.
The next years following her escape from an undesirable life were kind of crazy for our heroine. Well, maybe not crazy in our social media recorded times but for the 19th century, it was. It appears someone acted out on her desires, and just went for it. Ha!
As Catherine traveled so extensively around Europe, she had commissioned a customised carriage to be made, with a bed inside, an elegant ladder to climb into it and facilities to store her luggage outside. And this is when the “Wandering Princess” was born. She duly ignored any requests from her obviously still smitten husband to return.
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Princess Bagration (as Catherine was known in Europe) had other fish to fry. She was a blazing success amongst well-bred European aristocracy. Our Wandering Princess put on quite a show, she became notorious! Catherine appeared in translucent dresses during society events, showed off her admirable body and became known as a free-spirited nude “angel”. She promoted herself.
Her affairs were legendary; she was subject to gossip and rumours about her connections to princes and high-ranking diplomats devoted to her. Goethe admired her beauty and became a life-long friend.
Now make no mistake thinking it was all plain sailing. Catherine lived 200 years ago in a man’s world. As woman at that time there was no way of earning her own money. Catherine was a society star, Instagram or YouTube weren’t invented yet, and opportunities for women were shall we say narrow: Wife. Mistress. Whore. Nun. Take your pick. She was constantly dependent on funds provided by her admirers. She was the eternal mistress. And let’s not forget she was still married. Her generous husband paid her extravagant travel bills and settled her incessant streams of outrageous debts she claimed being caused by treatments of a “sickness”.
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The next move our Wandering Princess made was a strategic masterpiece. She got involved with the Austrian diplomat Count Klemens von Metternich. Important to know that at the beginning of the 19th century, Austria was the centre of the famed Habsburg Monarchy, called the Austrian Empire. Its dynastic capital was Vienna. Klemens was soon made Prince and Foreign Minister and even Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: Introducing “His Most Serene Highness, The Prince Klemens von Metternich-Winneburg”. Married. Philandering. Power-thirsty.
And with this guy our Wandering Princess got herself installed as a commanding society figure in Vienna. They had a daughter who was officially acknowledged. A strong move. A triumphant move. Elevating her social status into mighty political spheres of (back then) Europe dominating forces.
Life in Vienna as the socially connected mistress opened new operating ranges for our Catherine: She installed a “Salon”. A networking venue for the rich and famous. A highly political exercise, pro-Russian and anti-Napoleonic. It seems Catherine was a constant source of information for Russian Intelligence during and after the Napoleonic Wars and she greeted the defeat of Napoleon with a grand ball in Vienna.
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In the meanwhile, Catherine’s left behind husband had died during the fights for Russia in the Napoleonic War so it was time for our Wandering Princess to move on – as if to mark this milestone in her life. She ended up in Paris. Installed in a luxurious mansion at central Paris, she launched yet again a “Salon” and counted famous, rich and notorious celebrities as her visitors. Writer Balzac seemed to have based one of his play characters on Catharine as well as Victor Hugo referencing Catherine’s Salon in “Les Misérables”.
And Catherine apparently found love. She got married to General and Diplomat Sir John Hobart Caradoc, a British Baron. Catherine was fifteen years his senior. She was 47, he 32.
The alliance didn’t last a life time as we can expect of our Wandering Princess. Maybe she got bored, maybe he got tired of her, who knows? 19 years after their marriage she took to travelling around Europe for almost another decade.
During a trip to Venice in 1857 Catherine died.
Seventy-three years of restless curiosity had ended.
Farewell, Wandering Princess! You are in eclectic company at the Venice San Michele cemetery island: Composer Igor Stravinsky, Tiffany & Co’s Jewelry Designer Jean Schlumberger and controversial literary figures like Ezra Pound will be watching over you.
A last bow to this woman’s entertaining bloody-mindedness, her thirst for life and her determination of shaping her existence to her own blueprint.
Rest In Peace, formidable Catherine.