Maria Cantemir

Maria Dmitrievna Cantemirovna (Russian: Мария Дмитриевна Кантемир, 1700–1754) was a Romanian noblewoman, Princess of Moldavia, a lady in waiting and salonist, and a mistress of Peter the Great, the Emperor of Russia.

Maria Cantemir
Princess of Moldavia
Portrait by Ivan Nikitin
Born	Мария Дмитриевна Кантемир 1700 Iași
Died	1754
House	Cantemirești
Father	Dimitrie Cantemir
Mother	Princess Cassandra Cantacuzino
Occupation	Lady-in-waiting

Early life

Maria, born in Iași as the eldest daughter of the Dimitrie Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia and his first wife, Princess Cassandra Cantacuzino (1682–1713). By birth, she was member of the House of Cantemir.

Biography

From an early age, she received an excellent education. From 1711 she lived in exile in Russia, and in 1720, she became involved in a relationship with Tsar Peter. Maria followed Peter to Astrakhan in 1722, where she gave birth to a son by him. The child died in 1723, possibly poisoned by the physician of Empress Catherine.^{[citation needed]}

Catherine regarded Maria as a threat and feared that Maria might replace her as empress. The relationship with Peter continued until his death in January 1725, when Catherine became Empress regnant and Maria was forced to leave court. She was a lady in waiting to princess Natalia in 1727–28 and to Empress Anna Ivanovna in 1730–31. Later she hosted a literary salon in Saint Petersburg.

The Swedish slave Lovisa von Burghausen mentions Maria in her autobiography. Burghausen, as the prisoner of Dimitrie Cantemir in 1713–1714, credited Maria and her sister Smaragda Catarina with saving her from freezing to death during a punishment by allowing her to sleep in their bedroom instead of in an unheated stone room in the middle of winter.^[1][2]

References

1. Alf Åberg: Karolinska Kvinnoöden (Fates of women in the Carolinian age) (in Swedish)
2. Alf Åberg: Fångars elände. Karolinerna i Ryssland 1700-1723 (The misery of prisoners. The Carolinians in Russia 1700-1723) (in Swedish)