Paul Ier of Russia

Paul Ier of Russia (born on October 1st 1754 - assassinated the March 23rd 1801) was emperor of Russia of 1796 to its death in 1801. It also occupied the functions of Grand Master about Malta between 1798 and 1801.

Biography

Childhood

Born with the palate from summer from Saint Petersbourg he was officially the son of the large duke Pierre III and of the large duchess, who became empress Catherine II. Paternity was also allotted to the one of the many lovers of its mother. It is more than probable that it was, actually, the son of Serge Saltykov, the lover of Catherine with the tacit complicity of the empress Elisabeth Ière who wanted a heir at all costs.

As of her birth the empress Elisabeth Ire undertook her education personally. Child, it is reported that it is intelligent and pleasant to see, which will change after an attack of typhus into 1771 at 17 years. When his/her mother seizes the power, it is 8 years old, she entrusts it to her governor confidence Nikita Ivanovich Panine, and to qualified tutors. His/her father is imprisoned then assassinated the following year.

His/her mother, seeking an alliance with Frederic-Guillaume II of Prussia, made him marry Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt (to which one allotted the Russian name of “Natalia Alexeevna” during his conversion to the orthodoxe religion) in 1773. She also authorized it to attend the council to involve it with her trade of emperor. Its Poroshin tutor complained that it was always in a hurry , acting and speaking without reflecting.

Young man

Obsessed by the tragic death of his father, it started to engage in intrigues because it suspected his mother of wanting to make it assassinate (for example while making mix glass broken with its food). After the death of Nathalia and her child (1775), the empress got to him another wife, beautiful the Sophie-Dorothée of Wurtemberg of (Wurtemberg), baptized in Russian “Maria Feodorovna” with whom it had 10 children:

With the birth of the first of grandchildren, Catherine II gave him the field of Pavlovsk. Paul and his wife travelled in Europe. In 1783, the empress offered to him another property with Gatchina where it was authorized to maintain a brigade of soldiers whom it carried out on the Prussian model.

Rise with the capacity

Catherine II, conscious of the incapacity of her son to control prepared her succession in favor of her small son Alexandre but she died at this time of an heart attack and Paul, being wary, made burn all the documents relating to the succession of his mother.

Paul was idealistic but also capable of resentment: in 1797, it authorized the return of the famous Russian writer Radichtchev of its Siberian exile, while maintaining it with residence.

Large Master about Malta

Following the triumphs of Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy in 1796-97, the large Master Ferdinand de Hompesch request with the tsar of Russia Paul Ier to become the guard of the Order of Malta. The October 10th 1798, the 249 knights of the Order exiled in Russia proclaim it “Grand Master about Malta”, but that is not enough to protect the island and the order from the French invasion by Napoleon in 1798 (which drives out them island), then English in 1800.

The election of Paul Ier in 1798 causes many objections. Indeed, this one is orthodoxe and Marié. This event without precedent in the history of the Order leads the Pope Pie VI not to recognize it like large Master. With the death of Paul Ier, in 1801, his/her son Alexandre I {{er}} of Russia, conscious of this irregularity, decides to restore the old customs and habits of the catholic Order of Hospital, by an edict of the March 16th 1801 by which it leaves the free members profès choose a new chief. Nevertheless, being given impossibility of joining together the whole of the voters, the count Nicholas Soltykoff takes over temporarily the duties of the load. Finally, in 1803, it is agreed that the nomination of the large Master will fall only and exceptionally to the Pope Pie VII then reigning; the February 9th 1803, the pope chooses the elected candidate of the Priory of Russia, the baillif Jean-Baptiste Tommasi.

Assassination

A conspiracy was organized in particular by the counts Pahlen and Panin, and an adventurer semi-Neapolitan semi-Spanish, Admiral Ribas. The death of Ribas delayed the execution. In the night of the Paul March 23rd, 1801 was assassinated in his room of the palate St Michel by a group of ex-officers carried out by the general Bennigsen, a Hanovrien with the service of Russia: the soldiers made irruption in the imperial room after having taken a very together sprinkled supper. They obliged the emperor to sign his abdication. The emperor resisted and one of the attackers struck it with a sword, then he was strangled and trampled with death. One of the murderers, the general Nicolas Zoubov, announced with Alexandre I {{er}}, which resided at the palate, its accession with the throne.

The applicant with the throne of France Louis XVIII declared at the time that: Paul Ier had been victim of a conspiracy of palate where the gold and the hand of the British government were.

Foreign policy

It engaged its country in the second coalition against the France in 1798 then, changing policy, in a neutrality armed against the the United Kingdom in 1801. In both cases, it seems that he has acts according to his feelings, against France because of the knights, against England because he had fallen under the charm from Napoleon {{Ier}}. On the other hand, the sending of a task force cossack towards India was a failure.

Interior policy

Paul 1st revoked the law of Catherine who authorized the corporal punishment of the free classes of Russia. It promulga of the laws increasing the rights of the serfs.

Random links:Omer Marchal | Lepisosteidae | President of the Republic (Benign) | Đorđevac | Aero A.200 | Yorkville,_l'Illinois