Alexander Vorontsov

He was the son of Russian General-in-chief Roman Illarionovich Vorontsov (1707–1783) and Marfa Ivanovna Surmina (1718–1745).

In 1759, Alexander's uncle, the grand chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, sent him to Strasbourg, Paris and Madrid to train him in diplomacy.

Under Peter III, who was in love with his sister Elizabeth, he represented Russia for a short time at the court of St James's.

Catherine II created him a senator and president of the Board of Trade; but she never liked him, and ultimately (1791) compelled him to retire from public life.

This was the period of the triumph of the Vorontsovs, who had always insisted on the necessity of a close union with Austria and Great Britain,[3] in opposition to Nikita Panin and his followers, who had leaned on France or Prussia till the outbreak of the French Revolution made friendship with France impossible.