Maria Rumyantseva

Who was Maria Rumyantseva?

Countess Maria Andreyevna Rumyantseva née Matveyeva was a Russian lady in waiting and alleged royal mistress of Tsar Peter the Great.

She was the daughter of privy councilor of Count Andrey Matveyev from his first marriage with Anna Stepanovna Anichkov, and paternal granddaughter boyar 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, and the couple were granted valuable gifts from the monarch. In 1725 her husband was in Constantinople 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.