Video: Princess Daria Lieven is a Russian spy who seduced the most influential European politicians
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Contemporaries called the princess Daria Lieven "A diplomatic soothsayer." She drove the most influential politicians in Europe crazy, skillfully using them in the interests of the Russian Empire. Many considered the princess ugly, but considered it an honor to be received in her secular salon. Incredible charisma, natural charm and cold calculation allowed Daria Lieven to go down in history as a secret agent, “the first Russian woman diplomat”.
Princess Daria Khristoforovna Lieven (née Dorothea von Benckendorff) was the daughter of the military governor of Riga and the sister of the head of the Russian gendarmerie Alexander Benckendorff. At the age of 12, the princess was left without a mother, so Empress Maria Feodorovna, who was close to their mother, took her and her sister under her care. Daria Khristoforovna received the best education by the standards of that time: she graduated from the Smolny Institute, knew four languages, danced beautifully and understood music.
When the princess grew up, the empress found a suitable match for her. Her husband was the Minister of War and a promising diplomat Christopher Andreyevich Lieven. When in 1809 his wife was sent to Berlin, Princess Lieven followed him.
In Prussia, Daria Khristoforovna was frankly bored. In one of her letters she wrote: "It is cruel to seem like a fool for several more years." When her husband was sent to London three years later, Lieven was very happy. Following the fashion of the time, she opened a secular salon in the capital. Soon all the "cream" of the society entered there. Entertaining guests and maintaining small talk, the princess extracted useful information for herself. As memoirist Philip Vigel recalled, Daria Khristoforovna was much smarter than her husband. It was she who composed the dispatches to her husband that he sent to Russia. Over time, the princess became much more influential than Count Lieven in the political arena.
In 1815, Alexander I entered into an alliance with Prussia and Austria. The emperor hoped that after the Napoleonic wars it was Russia that would play a leading role in the European arena, but Clemens von Metternich (the Austrian chancellor) had his own plans in this regard. They tried to bribe politicians more than once, but to no avail. Then, during the Vienna Congress, the chancellor got to know Daria Lieven as if "by chance". The socialite received a task: to win the trust of Metternich.
At first, the chancellor showed no interest in Daria Khristoforovna, but the princess used all her feminine charm, and Metternich could not resist. Alone with each other, they managed to stay for a very short time. It was a long distance relationship. Their love correspondence lasted for 10 years. In addition to romantic confessions, the messages contained information about the Chancellor's political views on the situation in Europe. The princess gave copies of the letters to the Russian emperor. The princess wrote the most important messages to Russia in sympathetic (invisible) ink.
Until the end, it remains unclear whether Daria Lieven had any feelings for the chancellor, but their break came just at the moment when relations between Russia and Austria-Hungary began to deteriorate. The formal reason for the termination of the correspondence was the new marriage of Clemens von Metternich. Princess Lieven was allegedly furious and demanded that the Chancellor return the 279 letters she had written to him.
When Russia began rapprochement with England, Daria Khristoforovna was summoned to Petersburg for a secret conversation with the emperor. Now the woman had to spy for the good of the fatherland in London, because she was well known in the English secular society. Moreover, King George IV was the godfather of Darya's son Georgy Lieven. But the woman herself was much more interested in George Canning, the foreign minister, the future prime minister. The calculating princess became his mistress.
The cunning woman had a great influence on Canning, which naturally had a positive effect on the allied relations between the Russian Empire and England. Unfortunately, the prime minister died suddenly in 1827. A few years later, the princess was forced to leave the English capital in order to remain undetected, and Emperor Nicholas I appointed her husband as his son's mentor. As a keepsake, secular society presented Lieven with a bracelet studded with jewels, "as a sign of regret about her departure and in memory of the many years spent in England."
For all her 45 years of experience in espionage, the princess did not make a single mistake, the Russian government always listened to her opinion and appreciated the information received. With the approach of the Crimean War, Daria Lieven constantly sent dispatches to the capital with warnings about the impending danger. But Nicholas I, unlike his predecessor, ignored these messages, considering them female gossip. As a result, the Crimean War became an "unexpected" blow for Russia and ended in a shameful defeat. Until the very last days, Princess Daria Khristoforovna Lieven remained faithful to her Fatherland.
During all this time, the princess wrote many letters, in which love relationships, intrigue and the fate of European countries were closely intertwined. She developed vision problems early. On the recommendation of doctors, the woman found an interesting way out of the situation - to write on green paper. Such messages became her "trademark" and even became fashionable for a short time.
Yet Princess Bagration was called one secret agent of Russia. She loved to wear dresses made of translucent Indian muslin, for which fans called the beauty "Naked Angel".
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