Countess Maria Andreyevna Rumyantseva née

NEE

NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...

 Matveyeva (1699–1788) was a Russian lady in waiting and alleged royal mistress of Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 Peter the Great.

She was the daughter of privy councilor of Count Andrey Matveyev

Andrey Matveyev

Count Andrey Artamonovich Matveev was a Russian statesman of the Petrine epoch best remembered as one of the first Russian ambassadors and Peter the Great's agent in London and the Hague....

 (1666–1728) from his first marriage with Anna Stepanovna Anichkov (1666–1699), and paternal granddaughter boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

 Artamon Matveyev. She received a European education, living the first years of her life in Vienna and The Hague, where her father served as ambassador until 1710.

Fluent in French, a skillful dancer, beautiful and lively she attracted the attention of Peter I. Peter was severely jealous, reportedly threatened her with corporal punishment if she had another lover, placed her first among his mistresses and is said to have loved her until his death. She married 10 July 1720 Alexander Rumyantsev

Alexander Rumyantsev

Count Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev was an assistant of Peter the Great and father of Field Marshal Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. He came from the Rumyantsev family which, though little known and documented in the 17th century, later claimed descent from a prominent 14th-century boyar.Alexander...

, and the couple were granted valuable gifts from the monarch.
In 1725 her husband was in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 and then to the Persian frontier to the disengagement, but Mary remained in Moscow and gave birth to a fourth child, a son, baptized in honor of Tsar Peter Alexandrovich. Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich reported that the boy's father was not her spouse, but Tsar Peter himself was.

When Anna Ivanovna stripped her spouse of rank and exiled him to Kazan village, she and the children were sent to live in Alatyr

Alatyr

Alatyr may refer to:*Alatyr River, a river in Russia*Alatyr, Chuvash Republic, a town in the Chuvash Republic, Russia*Alatyr, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, a village in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia...

 village, where they spent about three years. In 1735 her husband had been restored to the rank of lieutenant general and made of Astrakhan, and then the Kazan governor, and appointed commander of the troops sent against the rebellious Bashkir. In 1738 Rumyantsev was appointed governor of the Ukraine, and the family moved to Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 where, with the help of Mavra Shuvalova, Rumyantsev liaised with the disgraced Princess Elizabeth.

She was given the title countess and made lady in waiting to Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and had a lot of influence at court during her reign: reportedly, foreign powers paid her bribes for her influence. In 1744 Empress Elizabeth ordered her to head the court of princess Catherine. During the reign of Empress Catherine II, she continued to take part in court life and be present at ceremonies.

Sources