Maria Cantemir was a Romanian noble, a lady in waiting

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting is the 2nd album by American southern rock band Outlaws, released in 1976. -Track listing:#"Breaker-Breaker" – 2:59#"South Carolina" – 3:05#"Ain't So Bad" – 3:48...

 and salonist

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 and the royal mistress of Peter the Great

Peter I of Russia

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

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Maria was born in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 as the daughter of prince Dimitrie Cantemir

Dimitrie Cantemir

Dimitrie Cantemir was twice Prince of Moldavia . He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer....

. She was very well educated. From 1711, she lived in Russia, and in 1720, she became involved in a relationship with Emperor Peter. Maria followed Peter to Astrakhan

Astrakhan

Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...

 in 1722, were she gave birth to a son by him. The child died in 1723, possibly poisoned by the physician of Empress Catherine

Catherine I of Russia

Catherine I , the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.-Life as a peasant woman:The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Born on...

. Catherine regarded Maria as a threat and was afraid of being replaced as an empress by her. The relationship with Peter continued until his death in 1725, when she was forced to leave court. She was the lady in waiting to princess Natalia

Grand Duchess Natalya Alexeyevna of Russia (1714–1728)

Natalya Alexeyevna of Russia was a Russian Grand Duchess.She was the daughter of Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia and Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg, grandchild of Peter the Great and the sibling of Tsar Peter II. She and her brother were moved to the Russian court in 1719. Her...

 in 1727-28 and to Empress Anna Ivanovna in 1730-31. After this, she hosted a literary salon in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

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She is also mentioned in the famous biography of the Swedish slave Lovisa von Burghausen

Lovisa von Burghausen

Lovisa von Burghausen was a Swedish memoirist who became famous for her story about her time in captivity as a slave in Russia after being taken prisoner by the Russians during the Great Northern War...

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