- 



ORLOV. 



ORLOV 



had torn married during the life of Louis XIV. to Francoise Mario de 

 Bourbon, styled Mademoiselle <le Hloin, nntural daughter of that 

 monarch and Madam* de Itonteapan, by whom he had one son, born 

 in 1703, and cetera] daughters. 



Louiis duke of Orleans, itemed at first disposed to emulate tho vices 

 of his father, whose better tastes for letters and science he also 

 inherited. But his marriage with a princess of Baden, to whom he 

 beocme tenderly attached, weaned him from early habits of dissipation; 

 and her premature death in 1726 affected his mind so deeply, that be 

 withdrew from the world to a monastery. In this retreat he divided 

 the remainder of his life between works of charity, religious exercises, 

 and literary studies ; and here, in 1742. he closed an existence dignified 

 with every virtue that could adorn a recluse. Louis left a son and 

 daughter, of whom the former, Louis Philippe, born in 1725, was his 

 successor in the family honours. His life was remarkable only for 

 bis military service, in the early part of which he fought with gallantry 

 at the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, and subsequently in some 

 of the affairs of the Seven Years' War. He married a princess of the 

 House of Conti, by whom he had a son and a daughter, ar.d died 

 in 1785. 



Louis Philippe Joseph, the only son of tho last duke, who was born 

 in 1747, and known during his father's life as Duke de Chartres, 

 became afterwards more unhappily distinguished as the Duke of 

 Orleans of the National Assembly, the Louis Kg;ilit<? of the Convention, 

 the instrument and the victim of the French revolution. Naturally 

 gifted with a handsome perton and superior talent*, he had disfigured 

 both mind and body by a youth of debauchery ; and in matnrer years 

 his infamous reputation exposed him at the court of Louis XVI. to a 

 contempt which he but too well repaid with deadly hatred to the 

 person and family of that monarch. In the year 1778 he was present 

 in the naval action between the squadrons of Admiral Keppel and 

 Count d'Orvilliers off Cape Ushant; and he was accused of having 

 behaved in that engagement with such shameful cowardice that, 

 iuftead of receiving the advancement to which he aspired in the sea 

 service, he was appointed colonel-general of hussars, a post crented for 

 him by the court with the intention, as it was said, of covering him 

 with ridicule. Having in 1785 succeeded to his father's title, he eagerly 

 entered upon a political career, of which it seems to have been the 

 object, by acquiring popularity, to revenge his injuries upon the court 

 and to raise himself into power. He proved himself however utterly 

 destitute of the qualities of a revolutionary leader, and was soon 

 overwhelmed in the political tempest which lie endeavoured to direct. 

 At the commencement of the revolution he arrayed himself on every 

 occasion against the royal authority : during the progress of events 

 which raised the Jacobin party into power, he became their associate 

 and dope; to render homage to their opinions as a member of the 

 National Convention, he solicited and obtained permission to renounce 

 the name of his family and assume that of Egalit<5 ; and finally, after 

 having voted for the death of Louis XVI., he was himself dragged to 

 the scaffold towards the close of the year 1793. He was married to 

 Louiie Marie de Bourbon-Pentliievre, daughter of the Duke de 

 Pmtl.ievre, grand admiral of France, by whom he left one son, tlie 

 late King of the Fr< nch, and a daughter, styled Mademoiselle d'Orleans. 

 [Louis PHILUTE.] 



(L'Art de Yfriftr lei Data ; Sismondi, Iliitoire da Pranrait ; 

 Hf moire* de Mademouclle de Montpeniier ; Voltaire, Kitck de Louit 

 XlV.etXV.; Thiers, Hittoire de la Mvolution Franfaiic, <tc.) 



OHLOV, sometiii,e< spelt OHI.OFF, snd generally pronounced 

 ARLOFF, is the nan.e of a family remarkable in Kussian history. Its 

 founder was a certain Ivan Orel, or Kngle, who in the reign of Peter 

 the Great was a private soldier among the ' Strelitzes,' or Archers, 

 who fuiiued a body in the Kussian analogous to the Janissaries in the 

 Turkish empire. At the time their destruction was accomplished 

 Peter the Great employed himself in beheading many of them with 

 his own hand on a long beam of wood, which nerved as a block for 

 several at a time. It is a current story in Russia that Ivan was one of 

 those doomed to death, and that on being called on to kneel down to 

 receive the blow he kicked away a head which was still remaining on 

 the beam, with the observation, " If this is my place it ought to bo 

 clear. * Struck with his coolness, Peter spared the intended victim's 

 life, and placed him in a regiment of the line, where by bis bravery be 

 won his way to tho rank of officer, which brought with it that of 

 noble. His son, Gregory Ivxnovich, rose to be governor of Novgorod, 

 and bad five sous, of whom two wen especially remarkable. 



OHBJORT OBIUORTIVICH ORI.OV, born in 1734, entered the army, 

 was engaged in the Seven Years' War, and ws sent to St. Petersburg 

 with Count Sohwerin at the time the count was taken prisoner. The 

 Grand-Laches* Catherine, at that time the wife of the heir to the 

 throne, saw Orlov, who was distinguished for the manly beauty of his 

 perron, and he became her favourite. The Orlovs, both Gregory and 

 bis brothers, took part in the sudden revolution of the 9th of July 

 1762 (DASBKOVA], which put an end to the short n-ign of Peter 111., 

 and raised bis wife toon to become bis widow to the throne, as the 

 Kmprws Catherine. AfUr that event honours were showered upon 

 Oclov, who wss the father of the empreias child, the Count Bobrinski. 

 He aspired to become her acknowledged husband, and share the 

 throne; but this wish, which wss apparently at tiroes near to 

 It* accomplishment, was finally thwarted by the opposition of her 



advisers, if not by her own reluctance. In 1771 Orlov really dis- 

 tinguished himself by the judgment and energy of his measures 

 against the plague in Moscow, whither he repaired in person to give 

 orders on the spot at the time the epidemic was raging. In the next 

 year his haughtiness and assumption in nogociating with the Turks at 

 Fokshani occasioned affairs to take a bad turn, and he himself broke 

 off the conferences to hasten back to St. Petersburg, on hearing that 

 during his absence be was being supplanted by a fresh favourite. He 

 was met on bis way by the empress's orders to repair to his seat at 

 Gatchino, and she afterward. 1 ) sent him to the palace of Tsarekoe Selo, 

 where he lived in oriental splendour, received the title of Prince, and 

 was addressed as ' Your Highness.' When Potemkin rose to tho 

 height of power Orlov married, and travelled abroad, but lost his 

 wife, returned to St. Petersburg, where he resided at the Marble 

 Palace, which had been presented to him by the empress, and finally 

 died in 1783, after having been for some tide out of his senses. 



ALEXIS OHLOV, his brother, was like himself rcnmikable for his 

 handsome and athletic person. Born in 1737 he first came into notice 

 in the revolution of 1762. In that year, wo ore told in BantuMi 

 Kamensky's Biographical Dictionary of remarkable Russians, published 

 iu 1836, "he proved his unlimited devotion to Catherine, justly sur- 

 named the Great." " Not entering here into a minute examination of 

 the events of that period, with respect to which posterity will form a 

 freer judgment, we will," adds the Russian biographer, " only mciiti.ni 

 here what is communicated in official documents." The way in which 

 he " proved his devotion " to the Great Catherine was by murdering with 

 his own hands her dethroned husband, a deed of which he is said to 

 have afterwards publicly boasted at Berlin, to the horror of the 

 Prussian court. In the war with the Turks which broke out in 1768, 

 Alexis Orlov was appointed to the chief command over the two 

 squadrons commanded by the Admirals Spiridov and Elphiustone. 

 The Russian success at the battle of Chesme on the 5th of July 177<l 

 and the burning of the Turkish fleet with fireships in the bay of 

 Cliesme, four days later, ore attributed by Russian biographers with 

 some hesitation to Orlov; by most other writers, not Kussian, to the 

 Scotch and English officers under him, Elphinstone, Greig, ami J in 

 Orlov enjoys the undivided credit of having furnished to Philip 

 Hackert, the German painter, the roost expensive model recordi <! in 

 history. Hackert, who was i ugaged to paint a series of representations 

 of the battles at Chesme, could not delineate to Orlov's satisfaction 

 the blowing up of the Turkish ships, and alleged as a reason for hi< 

 want of success that he had never witnessed anything similar to such 

 a spectacle. To furnish him with the requisite ex[>erieuce, a RII^-JHU 

 frigate was by Orlov's orders, in the month of May, 1772, blown up in 

 the roads of Leghorn, in the presence not only of the painter but of 

 assembled thousands, and the painting was then completed entirely 

 to Orlov's satisfaction. 



Leghorn was the scene of another remarkable incident in the life of 

 Orlov. The Princess Tarakanova, the daughter of tho Empress Eliza- 

 beth by Count Kazumovski, had taken refuge in Italy, and was looked 

 upon with apprehension by the Empress Catherine, who feared she 

 might one day assert a claim to tho crown. Orlov, some say by means 

 of a feigned marriage, succeeded in enticing the princess a girl of 

 sixteen on board his vessel in the harbour, and then threw off the 

 mask, and sent her prisoner to Russia, where she passed the rest of her 

 days in confinement. On the conclusion of the war in 1774, Orlov, 

 who received the name of Chesmensky from the victories at Ci 

 received a brilliant welcome at St. Petersburg ; but disgusted at the 

 disgrace of hia brother, aud the power of Potemkin, withdrew to his 

 palace at Moscow. Immediately after the death of Catherine in 1796, 

 he received a sudden order to repair to St. Petersburg, and found that 

 the mtw emperor Paul, who had disinterred the body of hw father, 

 Peter III., to give it a magnificent funeral, peremptorily commanded 

 that Orlov and Prince Kariulinski, who had assisted in despatching 

 the deposed monarch, should assist in bearing the pall at tho funeral 

 procession of their victim. Orlov had of course no choice but to obey ; 

 and it is said his countenance during the eersmony bor.' mark* of 

 sgony perhaps arising from fear as much as remorse. He was how- 

 ever permitted to leave St Petersburg on atour to Germany.an.l t.n,k 

 care not to return till Paul had perished. Orlov died at Moscow in 

 1808, leaving a daughter in possession of a colossal fortune. 



Of the other brothers of the five, Ivan, the eldest, who lived retired, 

 and was nicknamed by Catherine "the Philosopher," died in 1791; 

 the youngest, Vladimir, who was president of the Peter.- Imi-g 

 Academy of Sciences, survived till 1832. Vladimir hod a son, Count 

 Giegory Vladimirovich, who mostly lived out of Russia, and wrote 

 several works in French, A History of Music in Italy,' 2 vols. 1822 ; 

 a 'History of Painting in Italy,' 2 vols. 1828: 'Travels in part of 

 France,' 3 vols. 1824 ; ' Memoirs on the Kingdom of Napl-s,' 5 vole. 

 2nd edition, 1825. He died at St. Petersburg in 1826. The fourth 

 brother of the five, Fedor, born in 1741, distinguished himself in the 

 Turkish war of 1770 by the capture of Navarino, and died in 1796 at 

 Moscow, leaving behind him four illegitimate children, who were 

 authorised to succeed to his estates and to bear the family name. 

 Two of these have had a remarkable career. 



MK-IIAIL ORLOV, born in 1785, distinguished himself in the army in 

 the campaigns against Napoleon, and in 1814 was one of the generals 

 who received the capitulation of Paris. In the latter part of Alex- 



