When it came time for Napoleon to find a successor to Josephine as his wife, pickings were slimmer than you might expect. Russia’s Alexander I wouldn’t entertain the idea of a marriage between the French emperor and Alex’s youngest sister, Anna Pavlovna. Austria, which had spent years battling – and losing to – France, became…
Tag: Alexander I
16. Alexander I of Russia
In the see-saw nature of Russian leadership, Catherine the Great had died before establishing her grandson, the future Alexander I, as her heir, leaving Alexander’s father, Paul I, to take the big chair in his stead. This… went poorly for Paul, who was assassinated by a group of his nobles after just four and a…