Career
lieutenant was through his distant relative, Russian Field Marshal Nicholas Saltykov, that he met the Empress. Saltykov presented the young officer to the court on the understanding that Zubov would then help Saltykov in his feud with Catherine"s long-standing favourite, Prince Potemkin. In August 1789, Catherine wrote to Potemkin that she returned to life after a long winter slumber "as a fly does".
"Our baby," as she called him, "weeps when denied the entry into my room," Catherine informed Potemkin in the next letter.
As young minions succeeded each other monthly in Catherine"s heart, Potemkin did not attach importance to her new liaison. Catherine was over 60, Zubov was just 22.
The old courtier did not believe that the connection would last for an extended period of time. Zubov"s character was capricious and unstable.
He patronized Suvorov and Denis Fonvizin, and yet he is thought to have instigated the persecution of Alexander Radishchev and Nikolay Novikov.
To the heir apparent, Tsarevich Paul, he paid no respect. Unsurprisingly, Catherine"s death all but brought him to the verge of madness. On the 11th day, he was visited by Emperor Paul who drank to his health and wished him "as many years of prosperity as there are drops in this beaker".
Nevertheless, he was stripped of his estates, relieved of all his posts and was strongly advised to go abroad.
During Paul"s reign, Zubov traveled in Europe, where he was shown as a curiosity. In Teplitz he fell in love with the Countess de la Roche-Aymon, then proposed to the Princess of Courland but was refused.
He ended his days living in seclusion. His young widow, Thekla Walentinowicz, a local landowner"s daughter, remarried Count Shuvalov, thus bringing the vast Zubov estates into the Shuvalov family.