There are few historical figures whose sex lives have been gossiped about quite as enthusiastically as Catherine the Great.
The Russian empress has been accused of everything from having an insatiable appetite for younger men to collecting erotic furniture — and, naturally, the internet has managed to add another delightfully strange rumour to the pile: that Catherine had a thing for feet.
The problem?
There is no solid historical evidence that she did.
But honestly, the fact that the rumour exists tells us almost as much about Catherine’s reputation as it does about the woman herself.
Catherine was genuinely sexually independent
Let's start with what we actually know.
Catherine had lovers. Quite a few of them.
After her disastrous marriage to Peter III, she entered a series of romantic relationships, including relationships with Sergei Saltykov, Stanislaus Poniatowski, Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Historians generally describe her as having around a dozen significant romantic relationships over several decades — hardly the endless parade of lovers suggested by the more lurid versions of her story.
And that distinction matters.
Catherine wasn't simply a woman who happened to have sex. She was a woman who wielded enormous political power while openly maintaining romantic relationships.
For eighteenth-century Europe, that was a recipe for gossip.
Her enemies portrayed her as sexually voracious, immoral and even perverse. Satirical publications and political attacks increasingly blurred the line between criticism of Catherine's politics and fantasies about her bedroom.
In other words, Catherine didn't just have a sex life.
She had a publicly weaponised sex life.
So where do the feet come in?
This is where things get slippery.
There are modern claims online that Catherine employed so-called “foot ticklers” or had an erotic fascination with feet. These stories are frequently repeated without a clear primary source.
And that's the important bit.
A rumour appearing repeatedly on the internet doesn't magically transform it into an eighteenth-century historical fact.
There is considerably better documentation for Catherine's actual lovers than there is for a supposed foot fetish. Serious historical discussions of Catherine's sexual mythology focus overwhelmingly on her lovers, accusations of sexual excess and — most famously — the completely infamous horse story.
So if you've seen TikToks or listicles confidently declaring that Catherine had a secret team of foot ticklers waiting to prepare her for her lovers, consider that claim with a very healthy pinch of historical salt.
It may make a fabulous headline.
It does not make a fabulous primary source.
The woman who became a sexual punchline
The strangest thing about Catherine's reputation is how quickly her real relationships became overshadowed by fictional ones.
Take the horse.
You've probably heard the story: Catherine supposedly died while attempting to have sex with a horse.
She didn't.
Catherine died in 1796 after suffering a stroke. Contemporary and historical accounts do not support the sensational story that she was killed by a stallion.
In fact, modern scholarship has gone much further in examining where the horse story came from. Historian Ernest Zitser has argued that the famous tale belongs to a much longer history of sexualised folklore and misogynistic representations of powerful women, while questioning the traditional assumption that the story straightforwardly originated as eighteenth-century political propaganda.
So the woman who actually died from a stroke became immortalised in one of history's most ridiculous sex stories.
And the foot fetish?
That belongs in the same category of “sounds deliciously scandalous, but where's the evidence?”
Why Catherine attracted so much sexual gossip
Catherine's reputation wasn't created in a vacuum.
She was a woman who became one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe, expanded the Russian Empire and ruled for more than three decades.
She also had lovers.
That combination proved irresistible to her critics.
Historians have noted that powerful women have repeatedly been subjected to accusations of sexual excess. Catherine was particularly vulnerable because her relationships with younger men were unusually visible and because political enemies had an obvious incentive to portray her as morally corrupt.
A sexually active male ruler could be described as virile.
A sexually active female ruler?
Apparently history needed to invent a fetish.
The real horny history
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Catherine isn't whether she liked feet.
It's that we are still asking.
More than two centuries after her death, people remain fascinated by the private life of a woman whose political achievements were enormous. Her lovers are remembered alongside her reforms. Her bedroom has become almost as famous as her throne room.
And every generation seems to add another rumour.
First came the “nymphomaniac” Catherine.
Then the horse.
Then the erotic furniture.
Now, apparently, the feet.
At this rate, Catherine's ghost is going to need a publicist.
The historical evidence tells us that Catherine was sexually independent, had a series of long-term romantic relationships and refused to let marriage determine the rest of her life.
Whether she had a thing for feet?
The jury is very much still out.
And perhaps that's the most Catherine-the-Great thing of all: two hundred years later, we're still talking about what happened in her bedroom.
Even when absolutely nothing happened there.
Written by VavaViolet Magazine's Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Sophie Blackman
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