Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. In private, says Jaques, she balanced a constant craving for affection with a ruthless determination to paint Russia as a truly European country. The British ambassador James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, reported back to London: Her Majesty has a masculine force of mind, obstinacy in adhering to a plan, and intrepidity in the execution of it; but she wants the more manly virtues of deliberation, forbearance in prosperity and accuracy of judgment, while she possesses in a high degree the weaknesses vulgarly attributed to her sexlove of flattery, and its inseparable companion, vanity; an inattention to unpleasant but salutary advice; and a propensity to voluptuousness which leads to excesses that would debase a female character in any sphere of life. Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt. Firstly I was very surprised at her small stature; I had imagined her to be very tall, as great as her fame. . She was especially impressed with his argument that people do not act for their professed idealistic reasons, and instead she learned to look for the "hidden and interested motives". Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the 28 June 1762 coup d'tat against her husband, but she preferred to remain the dowager empress of Russia rather than marrying anyone. After the "Toleration of All Faiths" Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build mosques and practise all of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to Mecca, which previously had been denied. Central to the institute's philosophy of pedagogy was strict enforcement of discipline. King Augustus III of Poland died in 1763, so Poland needed to elect a new ruler. The peasants were discontented because of many other factors as well, including crop failure, and epidemics, especially a major epidemic in 1771. When Sophie's situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran pastor. Catherine was worried that Potemkin's poor health would delay his important work in colonising and developing the south as he had planned. Catherine separated the Jews from Orthodox society, restricting them to the Pale of Settlement. [CDATA[// >