Pyotr Ivanovich Potyomkin (Potemkin) (died 1700) was a Russian courtier

Courtier

A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

, diplomat

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

 and namestnik of Borovsk

Borovsk

Borovsk is a town and the administrative center of Borovsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located just south from the oblast's border with Moscow Oblast. It is situated on the Protva River, about southwest of Moscow.Population: 12,000 ....

 during the reigns 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...

s Alexis I

Alexis I of Russia

Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov was the Tsar of Russia during some of the most eventful decades of the mid-17th century...

 and Feodor III

Feodor III of Russia

Feodor III Alexeevich of Russia was the Tsar of all Russia between 1676 and 1682....

.

He was a voivode during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)

Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)

The Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667, also called Thirteen Years' War, First Northern War, War for Ukraine was the last major conflict between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Between 1655 and 1660, the Second Northern War was also fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,...

 and took Lublin

Lublin

Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

 in 1655 as well as Nyenschantz and Noteborg in 1656.

Later he became a stolnik

Stolnik

Stolnik was a court office in Poland and Muscovy, responsible for serving the royal table.- Stolnik in Crown of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania : In Crown of Poland under the first Piast dukes and kings, this was a court office....

 working as a Tsar's ambassador. Potemkin led the embassy to Spain

Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

 and France

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

 in 1667-1668. This embassy established regular diplomatic relations between Russia and Spain. A colorful portrait of Pyotr Potemkin by Spanish painter Juan Carreño de Miranda

Juan Carreño de Miranda

Juan Carreño de Miranda was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period.Born in Avilés in Asturias, son of a painter with the same name, Juan Carreño de Miranda. His family moved to Madrid in 1623, and he trained in Madrid during the late 1620s as an apprentice to Pedro de Las Cuevas and Bartolomé Roman...

 is on display in Museo del Prado

Museo del Prado

The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of...

 in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

. During his envoy to France he introduced a new term, Avgardent (Авгардент), into the Russian diplomatic vocabulary . The term meant "distilled spirits", especially Cognacs

Cognac (drink)

Cognac , named after the town of Cognac in France, is a variety of brandy. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente and Charente-Maritime....

 and Armagnacs

Armagnac (drink)

Armagnac is a distinctive kind of brandy or eau de vie produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of Armagnac grapes, including Baco 22A, Colombard, and Ugni Blanc, using column stills rather than the pot stills used in the...

. Potemkin considered them harmful and advocated a complete ban on their import to Russia.

Potemkin travelled to 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...

 in 1674 to discuss common actions against Polish king John III Sobieski

John III Sobieski

John III Sobieski was one of the most notable monarchs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, from 1674 until his death King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Sobieski's 22-year-reign was marked by a period of the Commonwealth's stabilization, much needed after the turmoil of the Deluge and...

. He also was the envoy of Feodor III to France and England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

 in 1681.

Potemkin died in 1700 in the rank of an okolnichy

Okolnichy

Okolnichy was an old rank and a position at the court of Moscow rulers from the Mongol invasion of Rus' until the government reform undertaken by Peter the Great...

.

According to legend, Pyotr Potemkin, as a diplomat, had an eccentric sense of national pride. During his negotiations in Madrid he insisted that the King of Spain take off his hat every time Potemkin mentioned the title of Tsar of All Russias . During his embassy to Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, the Danish

Denmark–Norway

Denmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the originally Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...

 king was ill and could receive Potemkin only lying in bed. Potemkin insisted that the Danes bring a second bed into the chamber and conducted all the talks lying down, thus showing the equality between the countries.

Famous Russian statesman Prince Grigory Potemkin was his descendant.

External links

• History of diplomatic relations between Spain and Russia

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