Empress Elizabeth I

Elizabeth was a popular choice to take the throne following years of upsets in the line of the Romanov succession. In her youth, she was beautiful and talented; as Empress she was a patron of the arts and devotee of French and Italian cultures. She saw to the building of the Winter Palace and Peterhof. She was overtaken by her indulgences in sex and alcohol, gained a huge amount of weight, and died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by sexually transmitted diseases.