Editing Dimitrie Cantemir (section)

==Family==
Cantemir was married twice: to Princess Cassandra [[Cantacuzino]] (1682–1713), daughter of Prince [[Șerban Cantacuzino]] and supposed descendant of the [[Kantakouzenos|Byzantine Kantakouzenoi]], in 1699, and to Princess [[Anastasiya Trubetskaya]] (1700–1755) in 1717. Cantemir's children were rather prominent in Russian history. His elder daughter [[Maria Cantemir]] (1700–1754) so attracted Peter the Great that he allegedly planned to divorce his wife [[Catherine I of Russia|Catherine]] to be with her. Upon Catherine's own ascension to the throne, however, Maria was forced to enter a convent. Cantemir's son [[Antiochus Kantemir|Antioch]] (1708–1744) was the Russian ambassador at London and Paris, a friend of [[Voltaire]] and [[Montesquieu]], and so influential a poet, satirist, and essayist as to be considered "the father of [[Russian poetry]]". Another son Constantin (1703–1747) was implicated in the [[Golitsyn family|Golitsyn]] conspiracy against the empress [[Anna of Russia|Anna]] and was exiled to [[Siberia]]. Dimitrie's younger daughter [[Ekaterina Golitsyna|Smaragda]] (1720–1761), reckoned one of the great beauties of her time, was the wife of Prince [[Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn the Younger|Dmitriy Mikhailovich Golitsyn]] and a friend of the empress [[Elizabeth of Russia|Elizabeth]].