1 00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: One quick note before we begin. If you're enjoying Noble Blood, 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,720 Speaker 1: we have a Patreon Patreon dot com slash Noble Blood Tales. 3 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:14,239 Speaker 1: You can support the show and get access to bibliographies, 4 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: episode scripts, and a variety of random bonus content. But 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: of course the best support is just listening to the show, 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: which is and will always be completely free. Welcome to 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,200 Speaker 1: Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm 8 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:45,600 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. On 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: July sixty two, the woman who would go on to 10 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 1: be known as Catherine the Great got word that the 11 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: moment had come for the coup she had been planning 12 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:01,840 Speaker 1: with her closest advisors and generals. Next morning, while her husband, 13 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: the ineffectual Emperor Peter the Third, lingered with a mistress 14 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: at a palace outside of the city, Catherine rode in 15 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: military uniform through the barracks, solidifying her support and her 16 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: loyalty amongst the troops of Russia. Her husband had been 17 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: the czar for fewer than six months when he was 18 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: captured by guardsman loyal to Catherine and forced to abdicate. 19 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: Just eight days after that, the imprisoned Peter died, likely 20 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 1: of strangulation, although the official autopsy would declare it to 21 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: be apoplexy. Such began in earnest the long and illustrious 22 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: reign of Catherine the Great, the minor princess turned consort 23 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: turned empress who ushered in a new era of Enlightenment 24 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 1: philosophy in an attempt to bring westernized political theory to 25 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: the country. The coup itself, it's machinations, and the many 26 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: place as it almost went wrong, is fascinating, and I 27 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: urge you, if you haven't already, to listen to the 28 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,359 Speaker 1: episode that we did about it on this very podcast, 29 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: because today we're not talking about Catherine the Great, we're 30 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: discussing instead her son, Paul the First. Imagine the scene 31 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: during the coup, Catherine and her lover riding gallantly on 32 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: magnificent stallions through the city to where Catherine would take 33 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: her oath of office. Now turn the camera a little 34 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,519 Speaker 1: to the side to a distant palace window where a small, 35 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: not terribly attractive child of seven years old might have 36 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: been looking out. Little Paul the First saw his ambitious 37 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: mother sees power from his father. If she wasn't responsible 38 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 1: for his father's death directly, then, at least indirectly, the 39 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: boy ultimately grew up into a resentful, bitter man, with 40 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: both enemies and allies would politely question his sanity. He's 41 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: an edible case that Freud himself would have salivated over. 42 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 1: Paul the First might have been a smart man, but 43 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: he was a man who let his insecurities and idiosyncrasies 44 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: control him to the point where his own nobles turned 45 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,359 Speaker 1: against him. Being an emperor is a precarious position at 46 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: the best of times. Unfortunately for Paul the First, his 47 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: mother made politics look easy. For Paul the Crown would 48 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: cost him his life. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is 49 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 1: noble blood. One quick historical quirk that we're going to 50 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: have to talk about before we start the changing of 51 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: the calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian. Pope Gregory 52 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: sanctioned a small change to the calendar to prevent drift. 53 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: The actual solar year is slightly shorter than having one 54 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: leap day every four years accounts for, and so under 55 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: the Julian calendar we were getting an extra day every 56 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: one d twenty eight years. The Gregorian calendar fixed that 57 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: and basically fast forward it a few days to catch 58 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:19,400 Speaker 1: up to where the sun was the days that we 59 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,120 Speaker 1: had lost during the Julian calendar. But the tricky thing 60 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 1: is that different countries adopted the Gregorian calendar at different times. 61 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: Catholic countries like France took to it almost right away, 62 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: right when Pope Gregory thirteenth did in the sixteenth century, 63 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: but England, for example, didn't adopt it until seventeen fifty two. 64 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: The year one September two was followed by September four. 65 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: Russia didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until the twentieth century, 66 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: which means that some of the dates in this story 67 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,599 Speaker 1: occurred eleven days earlier in Russia than people would have 68 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: recorded them as happening in her up. For example, Catherine 69 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: the Great would say that she led her coup in St. 70 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: Petersburg on June, while someone in France would think that 71 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: it happened on July nine. Some historians deal with this 72 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: discrepancy by marking certain dates as OS or n s 73 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: for Old Style or New Style. So back in os Russia, 74 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: Paul the First would say that his birthday was September 75 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: seventeen fifty four. He was the first child born to 76 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,679 Speaker 1: Peter and Catherine back when they were just the Grand 77 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,559 Speaker 1: Duke and Duchess of Russia. The future Katherine the Great 78 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,799 Speaker 1: was far too ambitious on her own behalf to concern 79 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 1: herself too much with an hair. Thanks to her husband's 80 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 1: impotence and their general distaste for each other, it had 81 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: taken the two of them a decade to conceive The 82 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: rumors fanned by Katherine herself said that the child was 83 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: actually her lover, Seragei Seltokov's. Later in life, Catherine would 84 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: say that those rumors were just to make her husband jealous, 85 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: that of course they were his children. But there are 86 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: strong arguments to be made on either side. On one hand, 87 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: Peter did struggle with impotence, and he never impregnated any 88 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: of his mistresses, and it would be in Catherine's best 89 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,719 Speaker 1: interest to lie later on after the coup to link 90 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: her child back to the Romanov dynasty because she wasn't 91 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:32,119 Speaker 1: a Russian royal by blood. On the other hand, Paul 92 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 1: does bear a resemblance to Peter the Third, and Peter 93 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: never disavowed the child or denounced Katherine as an adultress. 94 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:44,119 Speaker 1: He disliked his wife so much that one imagined given 95 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,039 Speaker 1: her precarious situation at court, back when she was just 96 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,799 Speaker 1: a grand duchess, that if she did Bearrison by someone else, 97 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:53,280 Speaker 1: Peter could have used that to get rid of her. 98 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: Assuming Paul was Peters son, the circumstances of his birth 99 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: would be just as hold and loveless as those of 100 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: his conception. The Empress, Elizabeth, Peter's aunt, was eager for 101 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: Catherine and Peter to have a male heir in there 102 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: that she could mold to her satisfaction. Catherine was made 103 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: to give birth in a room right next to the 104 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:26,239 Speaker 1: Empress's chambers. Just moments after the umbilical cord was cut, 105 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: baby Paul was swept into a blanket and out of 106 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: the room to be presented to the Empress. The new mother, 107 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: Catherine was all but forgotten in the room where she 108 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: had just given birth. For hours, no one cleaned the 109 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: room or gave Catherine any warmth or comfort or food. 110 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: It seemed to her that they had just forgotten that 111 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: she was there. She bled and sweat and shivered against 112 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 1: the chill of an open window, all alone and too 113 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: weak to call for help, and two to get up 114 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: to go to her own comfortable bed chambers. Catherine never 115 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: held her infant to her own breast. Eager as Empress, 116 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: Elizabeth was for a baby to care for in theory, 117 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: in practice, she was wildly neglectful. On the rare occasions 118 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: that she did give baby Paul attention, she doated on him, 119 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: but then she quickly lost interest. Paul was brought up 120 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: by tutors and a governor. His diet was nutritionally deficient, 121 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: and he was lonely with very little interaction from either parent. 122 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: And then, when he was seven years old and Brisce 123 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: Elizabeth died six months later, Paul's father, the Emperor, was 124 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: overthrown by his mother and his father was killed. Catherine 125 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: was the Empress then, but it turns out she had 126 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 1: abowed as much interest in the stranger that they said 127 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: was her son as his eight great aunts. During her 128 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: neglectful periods, Katherine and Paul never bonded and never would bond. 129 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 1: She resented him for being sickly and a not very 130 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:15,719 Speaker 1: attractive child, and for being an implicit threat to her 131 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:19,679 Speaker 1: power because he was a Romanov by blood. He resented 132 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: her because well, he blamed the death of his father 133 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: on her. Neither trusted the other, probably for good reason, 134 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: and Catherine had no interest in training him to be 135 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: her heir, lest he tried to force her to share 136 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: some of her power. The best thing to do with 137 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:41,559 Speaker 1: her son, then was just marry him off. When Paul 138 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:46,319 Speaker 1: was nineteen, Katherine chose a princess for him, Wilhelmina, from 139 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: one of the many non United German kingdoms. Just three 140 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:54,600 Speaker 1: years into that marriage, the woman died in childbirth, which, 141 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: at least in Paul's mind, was probably for the best. 142 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: Wilhelmina had already taken a ever in their brief marriage, 143 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:06,200 Speaker 1: and given her strong willed ways and open ambition, she 144 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:13,840 Speaker 1: had reminded Paul of his mother. Now a young single 145 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: man in his early twenties, Paul started openly talking about 146 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:22,439 Speaker 1: co ruling with Katherine. That wouldn't do for Katherine, and so, 147 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,440 Speaker 1: just six months after he became a widower, Katherine married 148 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,640 Speaker 1: her son to another Germanic princess, a woman named Sophia Dorothea, 149 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: who which would become Russianized to Maria Federovna. This marriage 150 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 1: proved to be a little longer lasting. The pair had 151 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 1: a son within a year, a little charubic thing they 152 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:46,319 Speaker 1: named Alexander, just as it had been done to her 153 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:51,240 Speaker 1: newborn infant. Katherine swept the baby away immediately after he 154 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,800 Speaker 1: was born to raise him herself as her heir. To 155 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,480 Speaker 1: keep her son occupied and placid, Katherine granted Paul a 156 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:04,319 Speaker 1: nice estate out in the suburbs Garcina, where Paul kept 157 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: a brigade of soldiers. Over the years, the little that 158 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:12,640 Speaker 1: Paul knew about his own father became embellished in his mind. 159 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,280 Speaker 1: Like his father, Paul became fascinated by the Prussian model 160 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:21,600 Speaker 1: of military dress and discipline, and so like his father, 161 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: he forced his soldiers to drill and parade around for 162 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,360 Speaker 1: his amusement. Paul and his wife had what was by 163 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: eighteenth century standards a successful marriage, even though Paul had 164 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: two mistresses over twenty two years. He and his wife 165 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:42,120 Speaker 1: would go on to have ten children. One of those children, 166 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 1: of course, was Alexander, the firstborn son that Catherine had 167 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: been grooming for the throne since his infancy. In seventeen seven, 168 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: rumors began to spread that Catherine was going to name Alexander, 169 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: not Paul, her heir, sipping over Paul completely. Word is 170 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:07,160 Speaker 1: that Katherine even met secretly with Alexander's tutors and with 171 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: Alexander's mother Maria, but ultimately those plans would never come 172 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: to fruition. In seventy six, when Catherine died of a stroke, 173 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: Paul instantly sprung into action to seize power. He destroyed 174 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: Catherine's will, which was probably unnecessary given there was no 175 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 1: indication that his son Alexander would have been willing to 176 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 1: honor her wishes over his own father's. Now, at forty 177 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:41,800 Speaker 1: two years old, Paul was finally in charge, and the 178 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: first thing he did was repeal the practice of rulers 179 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: being allowed to choose their successors willy nilly. Instead, he 180 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: declared that should always be the oldest, most eligible son 181 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: who was next in line for the throne, and that 182 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: women would only inherit the throne if there were no 183 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: legitimately born male heirs in the family. The years of 184 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:09,720 Speaker 1: repressed bitterness towards his mother emerged in policy. All meant 185 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: to undo everything that Catherine had done and to defend 186 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: the memory of his long dead father, Paul had the 187 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: bones of Gregory Potemkin, Catherine's lover, dug up and scattered. 188 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: He immediately recalled all troops located outside Russia, because, unlike 189 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:33,440 Speaker 1: his mother, Paul had no expansionist ideals. Paul was incredibly vindictive, 190 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: willing to hurt himself and hurt Russia just despite his 191 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:42,720 Speaker 1: dead mother, Catherine, had loved French culture and philosophy. She 192 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:48,960 Speaker 1: regularly read French philosophers and famously corresponded with Voltaire. Paul 193 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:53,320 Speaker 1: saw French culture as a threat After the French Revolution, 194 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: Paul did everything in his power to prevent that ideology 195 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:01,720 Speaker 1: from reaching Russia. He banned foreign books, banned for newspapers, 196 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:06,920 Speaker 1: and forbid anyone in court from wearing French fashions. Some 197 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,520 Speaker 1: of that seems logical. If you're an absolutist ruler, you 198 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: don't want your people to get any bright revolutionary ideas. 199 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: But Paul wasn't a rational ruler. He was prone to 200 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: fit a violent rage that terrified his friends and servants. 201 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 1: Sometimes he made decisions for the country that seemed so 202 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 1: arbitrary and self defeating, like randomly becoming wild with rage 203 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: that Napoleon had conquered Malta that his friend privately wondered 204 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:40,320 Speaker 1: if maybe Paul wasn't all there, I mean, what did 205 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: Russia have to do with Malta anyway? Why did he care? 206 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,480 Speaker 1: As Emperor Paul put his troops in Prussian style uniforms 207 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: and forced them to parade outside his palace at eleven 208 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: am every single day. If you can imagine, the elite 209 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,320 Speaker 1: soldiers who served Bazar did not enjoy being treated like 210 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: chopin these But Paul's real troubles would come from offending 211 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: the nobles. Some of Paul's political ideals weren't bad. He 212 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: banned corporal punishment for the lower classes and tried, not 213 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,120 Speaker 1: quite successfully, to make things a little bit better for 214 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: the serfs. But those efforts were part of a larger 215 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,960 Speaker 1: campaign for Paul to weaken the entrenched aristocracy that had 216 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: been the center of his mother's world. But as Paul 217 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: would learn, even tsars can overestimate their power too deadly consequences. 218 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:44,560 Speaker 1: Part of Paul's strangeness was an obsession with medieval chivalry 219 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:48,080 Speaker 1: and knights of old. He forced all of his advisers 220 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: to adopt a code of chivalry with random rules of 221 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: bowing and kneeling. If any of them weren't dressed to 222 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: Paul's exact specifications, even something as little as a missing button, 223 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:06,200 Speaker 1: he went wild. Frankly, all of his advisers thought it 224 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: was a little much Paul knew that he had enemies, 225 00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: and so his paranoia was probably justified when he declared 226 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: that he wanted a new grand palace built in St. 227 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: Petersburg because he no longer felt safe in the Winter Palace, 228 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: and so the Palace of St. Michael was built according 229 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:29,160 Speaker 1: to his exact specifications, an architectural camera that was half 230 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:34,200 Speaker 1: Russian classical style and half Medieval English castle, complete with 231 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: full moat and drawbridge. It was completed in eighteen o one, 232 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: but Paul would sleep there for only forty nights before 233 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: his murder. On a cold Monday night, Sir Paul the 234 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 1: first hosted dinner at the Palace of St. Michael. His 235 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,960 Speaker 1: son Alexander was present, sitting on the far side of 236 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: the table and struggling to make icon intact with his father. 237 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,160 Speaker 1: With some food and drink still on the table, Paul stood, 238 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: shoving his chair away and declared that he was off 239 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,360 Speaker 1: to bed to retire in his own apartments. The eating, 240 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 1: but more importantly, the drinking, didn't stop for some of 241 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:21,359 Speaker 1: the other high ranking officers present. They drank and continued 242 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,679 Speaker 1: to drink, and then they made their move. A group 243 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: of disgruntled officers made their way to Paul's bed chambers, 244 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:35,320 Speaker 1: where they physically overpowered two valets and knocked down Paul's door. 245 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:40,200 Speaker 1: The bedroom was empty. There was a single burning candle 246 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:44,439 Speaker 1: and a bed with rumpled cheats, but no Emperor Paul. 247 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:49,120 Speaker 1: The bird has flown, one of the men said. Another 248 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,200 Speaker 1: felt the sheets of the bed, perhaps, but not far, 249 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 1: you responded, The nest is still warm. They found the 250 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,720 Speaker 1: emperor cow we're in behind a curtain. Though the Tsar 251 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,200 Speaker 1: tried to beat them away, he was battered and strangled 252 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,520 Speaker 1: with a scarf and ultimately stabbed with a sword by 253 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,439 Speaker 1: General Nicolay Zubov. The rest of the group forced him 254 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:17,880 Speaker 1: to the ground and trampled him to death. It's possible 255 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,360 Speaker 1: that the group hadn't initially planned on murdering the Emperor, 256 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: that they drunk on adrenaline and liquor simply got carried away. 257 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,560 Speaker 1: They had brought with them abdication papers that presumably they 258 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: were planning on forcing Paul to sign. But then again, 259 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: one of the conspirators had asked another what they would 260 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,720 Speaker 1: do if Paul wasn't willing to sign away his power. 261 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 1: Making an omelet requires the breaking of eggs. The other 262 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:53,720 Speaker 1: man replied ominously Immediately after the tsar was killed, Nicolay 263 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: went to find the young Alexander, twenty three years old 264 00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,440 Speaker 1: and the new emperor time to grow up. Niko I said, 265 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 1: go and rule. Alexander knew that the men were planning 266 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,080 Speaker 1: on overthrowing his father, but no one had told him 267 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,480 Speaker 1: that his father's blood would be on his hands. He 268 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,119 Speaker 1: would have a guilty conscience for the rest of his life, 269 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: but he wouldn't punish the assassins. Alexander went on ruling, 270 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 1: and the official court physician declared that Emperor Paul the 271 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: First had died of apoplexy. Coincidentally, that's the exact same 272 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: thing that the official reports had said Paul's own father, Peter, 273 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: had died of That's the sad short reign of Paul 274 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 1: the First. But keep listening after this brief sponsor break 275 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:59,479 Speaker 1: to hear a little bit more about his legacy. In 276 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 1: terms of popular Russian monarchs, Paul is pretty much overshadowed 277 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: by his much more famous mother, But he did get 278 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,880 Speaker 1: the big screen treatment a film called The Patriot, directed 279 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: by Ernest Lubitch. The film was mostly silent, but it 280 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: won the second ever Oscar for Best Writing. It was 281 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: also nominated for Best Picture, and so I assume it 282 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: had to have been a great movie. I used the 283 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: past tense there, because the movie is lost. Only pieces 284 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 1: of it are left to date. No complete copy of 285 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 1: the film The Patriot has ever been found. It's the 286 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: only Best Picture nominee in history for which that's true. 287 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:47,679 Speaker 1: But some pieces of Paul's legacy are still around, at 288 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: least his genetic legacy. Out of the ten children that 289 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: he and his wife had, several went on to marry 290 00:20:54,760 --> 00:21:00,160 Speaker 1: into prominent European monarchies. Through his grandchildren, Paul the First 291 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,480 Speaker 1: is an ancestor of the current royal families of Denmark, 292 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:09,679 Speaker 1: Netherlands and Sweden, and he's related through the late Prince 293 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: Philip to Charles, Prince of Wales. M Noble Blood is 294 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild 295 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: from Aaron Manky. The show is written and hosted by 296 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:31,760 Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 297 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,200 Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at 298 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,720 Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the 299 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more 300 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,960 Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 301 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,359 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.