The rise of pretenders was not related to war or famine as neither appeared consistently with the pretenders. If there tended to be any form of famine during a pretender's rise it was during their claim to power and not inspired by it. Catherine's illegitimate rise to power through the assassination of _her_ husband, Peter III, did not inspire the pretenders since Elizabeth, who came to power in a similar fashion to Catherine, never had the same problem. <sep>, Pronoun: her