Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov - Royal Favourite

Royal Favourite

The Orlovs were rewarded after Catherine's accession, and Alexei was promoted to the rank of major-general, and given the title of count. He and his brother received 50,000 roubles and 800 serfs. Despite a lack of formal education and his ignorance of foreign languages, he maintained an interest in science, patronizing Mikhail Lomonosov and Denis Fonvizin, and corresponding with Jean Jacques Rousseau. He was one of the founders of the Free Economic Society and its first elected chairman. Rewarded with large estates, he took an interest in horse breeding, developing the Orlov Trotter, and popularising the breed of chicken now know as the Orloff.

He became involved in military operations during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74, organising the First Archipelago Expedition, and commanding of a squadron of the Imperial Russian Navy. He fought and won the Battle of Chesma against an Ottoman fleet on 5 July 1770, with the help of British naval expertise, and received the right to add the honorific 'Chesmensky' to his name. He was also awarded the Order of St. George First Class. His expedition sparked off the Orlov Revolt in Greece, which despite initial successes, lacked continued Russian support, and was eventually put down by the Ottomans. Orlov was sent as plenipotentiary to the talks at Focşani in 1772, but his impatience caused the breaking off of negotiations, which led to dissatisfaction from the Empress.

Catherine then commissioned Orlov to make contact with Yelizaveta Alekseyevna, a pretender to the throne claiming to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and deliver her to Russia. Orlov did so by pretending to be a supporter of hers, and successfully seduced her. He then lured her aboard a Russian ship at Livorno in May 1775, where she was arrested by Admiral Samuel Greig and taken to Russia, where she was imprisoned and later died. Shortly after this service, the Orlovs fell from favour at court, and Alexei and Grigory were dismissed from their positions. Orlov retired to the Neskuchni Palace near Moscow, and gave luxurious balls and dinners, making himself 'the most popular man in Moscow.'

After Catherine's death in 1796 the new ruler, Tsar Paul I ordered that his father, Peter III, be reburied in a grand ceremony. Alexei Orlov was ordered to carry the Imperial Crown in front of the coffin. Orlov left Russia during the reign of Paul I, but returned to Moscow after his death and the accession of Tsar Alexander I. Orlov commanded the militia of the fifth district during the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806-7, which was placed on a war footing almost entirely at his own expense.

He died in Moscow on 5 January 1808. He left an estate worth five million roubles and 30,000 serfs.