Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PAUL I

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 957 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

PAUL I  . (1754-1801), See also:emperor of See also:Russia, was See also:born in the Summer See also:Palace in St See also:Petersburg on the 1st of See also:October (N.s.) —the loth of See also:September by the See also:Russian See also:calendar—1754 . He was the son of the See also:grand duchess, afterwards empress, See also:Catherine . According to a scandalous See also:report his See also:father was not her See also:husband the grand See also:duke See also:Peter, afterwards emperor, but one See also:Colonel Soltykov . There is probably no See also:foundation for this See also:story except See also:gossip, and the cynical malice of Catherine . During his See also:infancy he was taken from the care of his See also:mother by the empress See also:Elizabeth, whose See also:ill-judged fondness is believed to have injured his See also:health . As a boy he was reported to be intelligent and See also:good-looking . His extreme ugliness in later See also:life is attributed to an attack of typhus, from which he suffered in 1771 . It has been asserted that his mother hated him, and was only restrained from putting him to See also:death while he was still a boy by the fear of what the consequences of another palace See also:crime might be to herself . See also:Lord See also:Buckinghamshire, the See also:English See also:ambassador at her See also:court, expressed this See also:opinion as See also:early as 1764 . In fact, however, the See also:evidence goes to show that the empress, who was at all times very fond of See also:children, treated See also:Paul with kindness . He was put in See also:charge of a See also:trust-worthy See also:governor, Nikita See also:Panin, and of competent tutors .

Her dissolute court was a See also:

bad See also:home for a boy who was to be the See also:sovereign, but Catherine took See also:great trouble to arrange his first See also:marriage with See also:Wilhelmina of See also:Darmstadt, who was renamed in Russia Nathalie AIexeevna, in 1773 . She allowed him to attend the See also:council in See also:order that he might be trained for his See also:work as emperor . His See also:tutor Poroshin complained of him that he was " always in a See also:hurry," acting and speaking without thinking . After his first marriage he began to engage in intrigues . He suspected his mother of intending to kill him, and once openly accused her of causing broken See also:glass to be mingled with his See also:food . Yet, though his mother removed him from the council and began to keep him at a distance, her actions were not unkind . The use made of his name by the See also:rebel See also:Pugachev in 1775 tended no doubt to render his position more difficult . When his wife died in childbirth in that See also:year his mother arranged another marriage with the beautiful See also:Sophia Dorothea of See also:Wurttemberg, renamed in Russia Maria Feodorovna . On the See also:birth of his first See also:child in 1777 she gave him an See also:estate, See also:Pavlovsk . Paul and his wife were allowed to travel through western See also:Europe in 1781-1782 . In 1783 the empress gave him another estate at See also:Gatchina, where he was allowed to maintain a See also:brigade of soldiers whom he drilled on the Prussian See also:model . As Paul See also:grew his See also:character became steadily degraded .

He was not incapable of See also:

affection nor without generous impulses, but he was flighty, passionate in a childish way, and when angry capable of See also:cruelty . The affection he had for his wife turned to suspicion . He See also:fell under the See also:influence of two of his wife's maids of See also:honour in See also:succession, Nelidov and Lapuknin, and of his See also:barber, a See also:Turkish slave named Koroissov . For some years before Catherine died it was obvious that he was hovering on the border of See also:insanity . Catherine contemplated setting him aside in favour of his son See also:Alexander, to whom she was attached . Paul was aware of his mother's.See also:half-intentionfor it does not appear to have been more—and became increasingly suspicious of his wife and children, whom he rendered perfectly miserable . No definite step was taken to set him aside, probably because nothing would be effective See also:short of putting him to death, and Catherine shrank from the extreme course . When she was seized with See also:apoplexy he was See also:free to destroy the will by which she See also:left the See also:crown to Alexander, if any such will was ever made . The four and a half years of Paul's See also:rule in Russia were unquestionably the reign of a madman . The excitement of the See also:change from his retired life in Gatchinato omnipotence drove him below the See also:line of insanity . His conduct of the See also:foreign affairs of Russia plunged the See also:country first into the second See also:coalition against See also:France in 1778, and then into the armed See also:neutrality against Great See also:Britain in 18o1 . In both cases he acted on See also:personal pique, quarrelling with France because he took a sentimental See also:interest in the Order of See also:Malta, and then with See also:England because he was flattered by See also:Napoleon .

But his See also:

political follies might have been condoned . What was unpardonable was that he treated the See also:people about him like a shah, or one of the craziest of the See also:Roman emperors . He began by repealing Catherine's See also:law which exempted the free classes of the See also:population of Russia from See also:corporal See also:punishment and See also:mutilation . Nobody could feel himself safe from See also:exile or brutal ill-treatment at any moment . If Russia had possessed any political institution except the tsardom he would have been put under See also:restraint . But the country was not sufficiently civilized to See also:deal with Paul as the Portuguese had dealt with See also:Alphonso VI., a very similar See also:person, in 1667 . In Russia as in See also:medieval Europe there was no safe See also:prison for a deposed ruler . A See also:conspiracy was organized, some months before it was executed, by See also:Counts Pahlen and Panin, and a half-See also:Spanish, half-Neapolitan adventurer, See also:Admiral Ribas . The death of Ribas delayed the See also:execution . On the See also:night of the 11th of See also:March 18o, Paul was murdered in his bedroom in the St See also:Michael Palace by a See also:band of dismissed See also:officers headed by See also:General See also:Bennigsen, a Hanoverian in the Russian service .. They burst into his bedroom after supping together and when flushed with drink . The conspirators forced him to the table, and tried to compel him to sign his See also:abdication .

Paul offered some resistance, and one of the assassins struck him with a See also:

sword, and he was then strangled and trampled to death . He was succeeded by his son, the emperor Alexander I., who was actually in the palace, and to whom See also:Nicholas Zubov, One of the assassins, announced his See also:accession . See, for Paul's early life, K . Waliszewski, Autour d'un trone (See also:Paris, 1894), or the English See also:translation, The Story of a See also:Throne (See also:London, 1895), and P . Morane, Paul I. de Russie avant l'avenement (Paris, 1907) . For his reign, T . Schiemann, Geschichte Russlands unter Nikolaus I . (See also:Berlin, 1904), vol. i. and See also:Die Ermordung Pauls, by the same author (Berlin, 1902) .

End of Article: PAUL I
[back]
PAUL (PAULUS)
[next]
PAUL II

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.