During the first few months of her marriage, Natalia's gaiety and spontaneity animated the whole court. The Empress was delighted with her initially, but as time passed difficulties started to appear. The new Tsarevna's union was a failure: although Paul Petrovich loved his wife, Natalia was disappointed with her life as a married woman; for this, she began several political intrigues against Catherine II in order to help her husband to take the throne, because she felt such a need to accede to power due to her disastrous conjugal life. In addition, the Tsarevna refused to learn Russian and, being raised in modern Europe, showed certain independence in her statements, adhering to liberal ideas and even occasionally advocated the liberation of the peasants. Catherine II clearly didn't like her daughter-in-law's behavior. She wrote: