Catherine The Great
Catherine the II of Russia was born Sophie Aguasta Fredericka on April 21, 1729. German by birth.
"Catherine the Great" by Henry Troyat starts off with Catherine's birth and skims over her early childhood years by naming events such as Adolphus Frederick of Helstein-Gottop (the future King of Sweden) in 1739 and other important events. The book gets into "the meat of things" so to speak in chapters two or three, when Sophie/Catherine and her mother me...
