Catherine Dolgorukov

Who was Catherine Dolgorukov?

Princess Yekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova, also known in English as Catherine Dolgorukova, Catherine Dolgoruki, or Catherine Dolgorukaya, was the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and Vera Vishnevskaya. She was a long-time mistress of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and later, as his morganatic wife, was created Princess Yurievskaya.

Alexander and Catherine already had three children when they formed a morganatic marriage on 18 July [O.S. 6 July] 1880, after the death of the Emperor's wife, Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, on 3 June [O.S. 22 may] 1880. A fourth child had died in infancy. Catherine became a widow with the assassination of Alexander II on 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881 by members of Narodnaya Volya.