Grigory Orlov

Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov was a Russian general and patron of arts who was Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (1772) and a favourite of Empress Catherine the Great. He was a leader of the 1762 coup which overthrew Catherine's husband Peter III and installed Catherine as reigning empress. For some years he was virtually co-ruler with her, but his repeated infidelities and the enmity of Catherine's other advisers led to his fall from power.