2-365-114 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The murder of Tsar Paul I of Russia, March 1801 (1882-1884). Paul I (1754-1801) became Emperor of Russia in 1796. He was determined to turn the Russian nobility, which he saw as decadent and corrupt, into a form of chivalric order, and dismissed and banished from court anyone who did not share his vision. This, together with his passing of reforms to improve the lot of the peasantry, brought Paul into conflict with much of the nobility and a plot was hatched to assassinate him. He was murdered in his bedroom at St Michael's Castle in St Petersburg by a group of dismissed army officers on the night of 23rd March 1801. A print from La France et les Français à Travers les Siècles, Volume IV, F Roy editor, A Challamel, Saint-Antoine, 1882-1884.