Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (July 12, 1714 - February 15, 1767) was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who laid foundations for the fortunes of the Vorontsov family. At the age of fourteen, Vorontsov was appointed a kammerjunker at the court of the tsesarevna Yelizaveta Petrovna, whom he materially assisted during the famous coup d'etat of December 6, 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers. On January 3, 1742, Vorontsov married countess Anna Karlovna Skavronskaya, the empress's maternal first cousin, and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor. His jealousy of Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin induced him to participate in Count Lestocq's conspiracy against that statesman. The empress's affection for him (she owed much to his skilful pen and still more to the liberality of his rich kinsfolk) saved him from the fate of his accomplices, but he lived in a state of semi-eclipse during the domination of Bestuzhev.