CATHERINE II: (1729-1796)

CATHERINE II: (1729-1796) Empress of Russia 1762-96, known as Catherine the Great. A fine L.S., Ekaterina, a fine and bold ink signature, two pages, 4to, Saint Petersburg, 20th November 1791, to Mikhail Vassilievich, in Cyrillic. The Empress states `According to my wish, Reverend Archbishop Amvrosy from Yekaterinoslav was assigned to the late General Field Marshal Prince of Tauris Gregory Alexandrovich Potemkin. Since Archbishop´s vicar Bishop Moysey from Feodosiya and Mariupol is now with the Army, we let him remain with you. We order Reverend Archbishop Amvrosy from Yekaterinoslav to return to his eparchy. On his departure inform him about our great appreciation of his deeds and his work. Furthermore, give him one thousand rubles from the emergency funds for his travel expenses. We received your report of October 29th and were pleased with the information referring to the state of the Army, the Black Sea fleet and other relevant facts, as well as the commands given by you to our Army. You remain in our good graces.´ With blank integral leaf, bearing a J. Honig & Zoonen water mark. Extremely small creasing to the fold, otherwise about EX £2000-3000 Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski (1739-1791) Russian Nobleman, Military Leader, Prince of the Russian Empire and favourite of Catherine the Great. Potemkin took part in the coup which deposed Tsar Peter III in 1762, giving the power to the tsar´s wife Catherine II. Potemkin became her lover and adviser and the most powerful man in Russia. The present letter is signed only few weeks after Grigory Potemkin passed away.