Alexandra von Engelhardt

Countess Alexandra Branitskaya ( von Engelhardt, , [Braɲit͡ska]; 1754 – 15 September 1838), also known as Sanecka and Countess Branicka, was a leading Russian courtier. She was the niece and confidante of Grigory Potemkin, and Catherine the Great's lady-in-waiting. She was one of the most notable socialites at the Russian Imperial court during Catherine's reign, and was conspicuously treated as a virtual member of the Imperial family. Through her marriage to Branicki she became administrator of the immense estate of Biała Cerkiew (today Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine). Biography Officially, she was the daughter of a Vasily von Engelhardt, member of the Baltic German nobility, and his wife Yelena Marfa, née Potemkin, a sister of Grigory Potemkin, and thus the latter's niece. However, at least one historian has taken a close interest in the gossip swirling around the imperial court at the time of her birth. One theory was that she was the first-born illegitimate child of Catherine with Grigory Potemkin. According to an alternative account, she was Catherine's daughter by Count Sergey Saltykov and that on learning of her arrival, tsarina Elizabeth had her swiftly substituted for a handy male neonate of Estonian parentage, who eventually grew up to be Tsar Paul, Catherine's son and heir. Other historians are more dismissive of the gossip. Even as Alexandra was rumoured to be Catherine's own daughter, they nevertheless repeat that it was merely a claim that Alexandra was the first-born who had been switched with the son of a Kalmyk woman on account of her sex, since a male heir was preferred.