24 Facts About Dorothea Lieven

Dorothea Lieven became an influential figure among many of the diplomatic, political, and social circles of 19th-century Europe.

Dorothea Lieven von Benckendorff was born into Baltic German nobility in Riga in what is Latvia.

Dorothea Lieven was the paternal granddaughter of Johann Michael von Benckendorff and wife Sophie von Lowenstern.

Dorothea Lieven was the sister of the Russian generals Alexander and Konstantin von Benckendorff.

In St Petersburg on 1 February 1800, at age fourteen, some months after finishing her studies, Dorothea married General Count Christoph von Lieven.

In London, Princess Dorothea Lieven cultivated friendships with the foremost statesmen of her day.

Dorothea Lieven was reputed to have had an affair with Lord Palmerston, although there is no firm proof of this.

Dorothea Lieven was a close friend of Lord Castlereagh, and was one of the first people to voice concerns about his increasingly strange behaviour in the weeks leading up to his suicide.

Dorothea Lieven became a leader of society; invitations to her house were highly sought after, and she was the first foreigner to be elected a patroness of Almack's, London's most exclusive social club, where Lieven introduced the waltz to England.

Dorothea Lieven was something of a snob and made many enemies due to her haughty manner towards those she regarded as social inferiors.

Dorothea Lieven spoke of the "barbarisation project" said to be planned for Greece by the Turkish government, which would have mandated the mass deportation of the Greek Christian population.

Dorothea Lieven passed on to Canning a note written in French as follows:.

The appointment of Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary in 1830 is generally agreed to have been partly due to his friendship with Dorothea Lieven, who lobbied Lord Grey vigorously on his behalf.

Dorothea Lieven was wise enough to use her influence discreetly: as she observed, a foreigner who meddles in English politics "is liable to end up with a broken neck".

In 1834, during a period of bad diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain, Tsar Nicholas I recalled Prince Dorothea Lieven to become governor to the Tsarevitch.

Dorothea Lieven never forgave her former friend Lord Palmerston, whose intransigence over what should have been a minor diplomatic row concerning the choice of the new British Ambassador to Russia, was largely responsible for the tsar's decision to recall her husband.

Dorothea Lieven never saw her husband again, but she was genuinely grieved when he died in January 1839.

Dorothea Lieven died peacefully at her home, 2 rue Saint-Florentin, Paris, aged 71, on 27 January 1857, with Guizot and Paul Lieven, one of her two surviving sons, beside her.

Dorothea Lieven was buried, according to her wish, at the Lieven family estate of Mesothen next to her two young sons who had died in St Petersburg.

Princess Dorothea Lieven "succeeded in inspiring a confidence" with prominent men "until now unknown in the annals of England", wrote Russian foreign minister Count Nesselrode.

Dorothea Lieven was a political force, a position reached by few other contemporary females.

Dorothea Lieven knew "everyone in the Courts and cabinets for thirty or forty years"; she "knew all the secret annals of diplomacy", wrote a French diplomat.

Princess Dorothea Lieven's politically focused correspondence with luminaries across Europe has become primary source material for students of the period.

Dorothea Lieven is a recurring minor figure in many historical novels about the period, notably those of Georgette Heyer.