Perhaps today, though, even more than for her reforms, it is for her passionate love affairs that Catherine is most remembered. The number of her affairs was wildly distorted by European nobility, who attacked her for political reasons. In reality, it is estimated that Catherine had between 12 and 20 romances, each lasting between one and 12 years. While some of the objects of her affection (officially known as her "favorites") were officers and nobility, others weren't famous at all. Her love letters show her eagerness to abandon herself completely:"My minfortune," she wrote, "is that my heart cannot be happy, even for an hour, without love.