In a brutal Kremlin coup, the mentally unbalanced Tsar Paul I was strangled in his bed by a group of drunken Russian army officers. They then proclaimed his son Alexander the new emperor.
The Tsar’s harsh rule, as well as his alliance with Austria against Napoleon (although he later changed sides), alienated the military. He also alienated his people by repealing a law confining corporal punishment to serfs. Paul I’s life was fraught with argument and instability.
Catherine the Great conceived him in an adulterous love affair and Paul fought bitterly with Catherine and her policies; she isolated him from his sons and tried to disinherit him. After her death in 1796, he decreed that no woman would ever rule again.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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