The image of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in the essays of British historians (1780-1800s)

The article deals with the image of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna formed in the British historical essays about Russia of the last third of the 18th century: “Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark” (1784) by William Coxe and “History of Russia” (1800) by William Tooke. The author of the article comes to the conclusion these essays marked the beginning of the negative image of Elizabeth Petrovna in the British Rossica of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Coxe`s historical work fixed the controversial image of Her royal Majesty in the literature for a long time. On the one hand, she was presented as both promiscuous and religious empress; on the other hand, as a far from humane and merciful monarch, as Elizabeth allowed the operation of a cruel and unjust punitive machine, which applied cruel tortures and exiles to her subjects in her country.