Watch Soap2day. Little Elizabeth thought her future was predestined: she was to marry Louis XV and become the Queen of France – that was the promise given to her by her father, Emperor of Russia Peter the Great. When Peter dies in 1725 without naming a successor, an era of palace coups and power struggles begins in Russia. For some tumultuous years it remains to be seen whether the young Russian Empire and its new capital St. Petersburg would stand, and what future lies in store for the country of Russia. Peter's widow, Catherine I, becomes Empress - the first woman to rule Imperial Russia. She wishes to fulfil the promise her late husband had given to their daughter, but fails. Young Louis XV refuses to marry Elizabeth after learning that she was born before her parents were officially married. That, in his eyes, made her illegitimate.