Paul I of Russia
Paul I (Russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич, romanized: Pavel I Petrovich; 1 October [O.S. 20 September] 1754 – 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his 1801 assassination. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also intervened in the French Revolutionary Wars and toward the end of his reign, added Kartli and Kakheti in Eastern Georgia into the empire, which was confirmed by his son and successor Alexander I.
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Petrovich and the family name is Romanov.Paul I
17 (6) November 1796 – 23 (11) March 1801
5 (16) April 1797
9 July 1763 – 23 (11) March 1801
1 October [O.S. 20 September] 1754
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
24 March 1801 (aged 46)
St Michael's Castle, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
- Alexander I of Russia
- Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich
- Alexandra Pavlovna, Palatina of Hungary
- Elena Pavlovna, Hereditary Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
- Catherine Pavlovna, Queen of Württemberg
- Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna
- Anna Pavlovna, Queen of the Netherlands
- Nicholas I of Russia
- Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich
He was de facto Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1799 to 1801 and ordered the construction of a number of priories of the Order of Malta.[1] Paul's pro-German sentiments and unpredictable behavior made him unpopular among the Russian nobility, and he was secretly assassinated by his own officers.
Early years[edit]
Paul was son of Emperor Peter III of Russia, nephew and anointed heir of the Empress Elizabeth (second-eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great), and his wife Catherine II, born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, daughter of a minor German prince, who married into the Russian Romanov dynasty and subsequently deposed Paul's father, Peter III, to take the Russian throne and become Catherine the Great.[2] While Catherine hinted in the first edition of her memoirs published by Alexander Herzen in 1859 that her lover Sergei Saltykov was Paul's biological father, she later recanted and asserted in the final edition that Peter III was Paul's true father.[3] Simon Sebag Montefiore argues that while Paul's true paternity is "impossible to know [...] he did look and behave like Peter."[4]
Paul was taken almost immediately after birth by the Empress Elizabeth, and had limited contact with his mother. As a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking, but sickly. His pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, from which he suffered in 1771. Paul was put in the charge of a trustworthy governor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, and of competent tutors. Panin's nephew went on to become one of Paul's assassins. One of Paul's tutors, Poroshin, complained that he was "always in a hurry", acting and speaking without reflection.
Archives[edit]
Paul's letters to his first mother-in-law, Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken, (together with letters from his first wife to her mother) are preserved in the Hessian State Archive (Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt) in Darmstadt, Germany.[50] In addition, Paul's letters to his first father-in-law, Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, (together with letters from his first wife to her father) are also preserved in the Hessian State Archive in Darmstadt.[51]
Paul's correspondence with his brother-in-law, King Frederick I of Württemberg (Maria Feodorovna's brother), written between 1776 and 1801, is preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart) in Stuttgart, Germany.[52] Paul's correspondence with his parents-in-law, Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, and Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, written between 1776 and 1797, is also preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart.[53]