RusPortraits_v2-134_Le_comte_Pierre_Grigoriewitch_Tchernycheff

Count Pyotr Grigoryevich Chernyshev (; 24 March 1712 – 20 August 1773) was a Russian Imperial nobleman, diplomat, privy counsellor, chamberlain, and senator.

Early life

A member of the Chernyshyov family, he was the son of (1672–1745) and Avdotya Rzhevskaya (1693–1747). Among his siblings were mayor of Moscow, Count

Zakhar Chernyshev Zakhar Grigoryevich Chernyshev (; 172231 August 1784) was a Russian noble, courtier to Catherine the Great, Imperial Russian Army officer, and Imperial Russian politician in the 18th century. After made a courtier to then-Princess Sophie of An ...

and Imperial Russian Field Marshal and General Admiral Count

Ivan Chernyshyov Count Ivan Grigoryevich Chernyshyov (1726 – 1797; ) was an Imperial Russian Field Marshal and General Admiral, prominent during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great. Life and career He started his career serving under his more illustrious ...

. His father was a close friend of

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, who was also Pyotr's godfather.

Career

Pyotr enlisted in the

Preobrazhensky Regiment The Preobrazhensky Lifeguard (military), Life-Guards Regiment (, ''Preobrazhensky leyb-gvardii polk'') was a regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard, Imperial Guard of the Imperial Russian Army from 1683 to 1917. The Preobrazhensky Regiment was ...

as a child and from 1722 to 1727 served under the young

Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Charles Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp () (30 April 1700 – 18 June 1739) was a Sweden, Prince of Sweden and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and an important member of European royalty. His dynasty, the Dukes of Schleswig-Holst ...

(1700-1739) as a page, Kammerpage and finally lieutenant-captain. In 1741, during the reign of Empress

Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administratio ...

, he was made ambassador extraordinary to Denmark and soon afterwards ambassador extraordinary to the Kingdom of Prussia, then ruled by

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

. Next, in 1746, he was posted to London, assisting at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle at the end of the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...

between April and October 1748. He helped edit the treaty between

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

and the maritime powers that resulted from the Congress, signed on 18 October 1748 - it settled the succession question and maritime questions and was recognised by Silesia and Prussia.

Personal life

Count Chernyshev married Ekaterina Chernysheva (1715–1779), the daughter of . Ekaterina was

maid of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Tudors and Stuarts Traditi ...

Empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

, as well as

favourite A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...

and confidante of

Anna Leopoldovna Anna Leopoldovna (; 18 December 1718 – 19 March 1746), born Elisabeth Katharina Christine von Mecklenburg-Schwerin and also known as Anna Carlovna (А́нна Ка́рловна), was regent of Russia for just over a year (1740–1741) dur ...

. Together, they were the parents of: * Countess Darya Petrovna Chernyshyova (1739–1802), a friend of the French painter

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (; ; 16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun or simply as Madame Le Brun, was a French painter who mostly specialized in portrait painting, in the late 18th and early 19t ...

; she married

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Ivan Petrovich Saltykov in 1769. * Countess Natalya Petrovna Chernyshyova (1741–1837), inspiration for Pushkin's '' The Queen of Spades''; she married Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn in 1766. Count Chernyshev died of

dropsy Edema (American English), also spelled oedema (British English), and also known as fluid retention, swelling, dropsy and hydropsy, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may inclu ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and was buried at the

Alexander Nevsky Lavra Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, in the belief that this was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Alexa ...

in the Lazarevskoe Cemetery. His tomb inscription reads "His life was cut short by multiplying diseases, to the extreme sorrow of his neighbours and to the sincere grief of his friends and admirers". The later historian

Pyotr Vladimirovich Dolgorukov Prince Pyotr Vladimirovich Dolgorukov () (1816–1868) was a Russian historian and journalist known for his genealogical research and as a critic of the Russian Empire, Imperial Russian government. His father was the general Vladimir Petrovich Dol ...

wrote that "He was an intelligent and talented man, but immensely arrogant, unusually vain and intolerably arrogant; nobody loved him." Записки князя Петра Долгорукова. — СПб, 2007.- 604 с.

Awards

Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky The Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire first awarded on by Empress Catherine I of Russia. History The introduction of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was envisioned by Emperor ...

Order of Saint Andrew The Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called () is the highest order conferred by both the Russian Imperial Family (as an order of chivalry) and by the Russian Federation (as a state order). Established as the first and highest order o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chernyshyov, Pyotr 1712 births 1773 deaths 18th-century diplomats of the Russian Empire Counts of the Russian Empire Burials at Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Saint Petersburg) Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to Prussia Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to Denmark Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to France