Catherine Bagration was a Russian noble, salonist and informal diplomat. She was known in contemporary Europe for her beauty, love affairs and adventurous life style. She acted as an informal diplomat in influenced Austrian policy in a Pro-Russian and anti-French fashion, and is credited with having influenced Austria to join the coalition against Napoleon.

She was the daughter of count Paul Martynovich Skavronsky and Yekaterina von Engelhardt

Yekaterina von Engelhardt

Yekaterina von Engelhardt was a Russian lady in waiting and noble. She was the niece and lover of Grigory Potyomkin, and the favored lady-in-waiting of Catherine the Great....

, niece of Grigory Potyomkin, and married prince Pyotr Bagration

Pyotr Bagration

Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was a general of the Russian army. He was a descendant of the Georgian royal family of the Bagrations.- Life :...

 in 1800. She separated from her spouse in 1805, and spent rest of her life in Europe. In 1810-15, she lived in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, where she hosted a political salon which functioned as a center of anti-Napoleonic opposition. She also had a relationship with Klemens von Metternich. She moved to Paris in 1815 and married Baron Howden

Baron Howden

Baron Howden was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. John Caradoc, the former Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, was created Baron Howden, of Grimston and of Spaldington and of Cradockstown in the County of Kildare, in the Peerage of Ireland on 19 October...

in 1830.