lexander I (Russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович, tr.

 Aleksándr Pávlovich, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈpavɫəvʲɪt͡ɕ]; 23

December [O.S. 12 December] 1777 – 1 December [O.S. 19 November] 1825[a][1]) was the Emperor
of Russia (Tsar) between 1801 and 1825. He was the eldest son of Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of
Württemberg. Alexander was the first king of Congress Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well
as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland, reigning from 1809 to 1825.
Born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Paul I, Alexander succeeded to the
throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic
Wars. As prince and during the early years of his reign, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, but
continued Russia's absolutist policies in practice. In the first years of his reign, he initiated some
minor social reforms and (in 1803–04) major, liberal educational reforms, such as building more
universities. Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest
advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the State Council, which was created to
improve legislation. Plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution.
In foreign policy, he changed Russia's position relative to France four times between 1804 and 1812
among neutrality, opposition, and alliance. In 1805 he joined Britain in the War of the Third
Coalition against Napoleon, but after suffering massive defeats at the battles
of Austerlitz and Friedland, he switched sides and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of
Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon's Continental System. He fought a small-scale naval war against
Britain between 1807 and 1812 as well as a short war against Sweden (1808–09) after Sweden's
refusal to join the Continental System. Alexander and Napoleon hardly agreed, especially regarding
Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810. Alexander's greatest triumph came in 1812
when Napoleon's invasion of Russia proved to be a catastrophic disaster for the French. As part of
the winning coalition against Napoleon, he gained territory in Finland and Poland. He formed
the Holy Alliance to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe which he saw as immoral threats
to legitimate Christian monarchs. He also helped Austria's Klemens von Metternich in suppressing
all national and liberal movements.
During the second half of his reign, Alexander became increasingly arbitrary, reactionary, and fearful
of plots against him; as a result he ended many of the reforms he made earlier. He purged schools
of foreign teachers, as education became more religiously driven as well as politically conservative.
[2]
 Speransky was replaced as advisor with the strict artillery inspector Aleksey Arakcheyev, who
oversaw the creation of military settlements. Alexander died of typhus in December 1825 while on a
trip to southern Russia. He left no legitimate children, as his two daughters died in childhood. Neither
of his brothers wanted to become emperor. After a period of great confusion (that presaged the
failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers in the weeks after his death), he was succeeded by
his younger brother, Nicholas I.

Contents

 1Early life

 2Tsarevich

 3Emperor

o 3.1Ascension

o 3.2Domestic policy
 o 3.3Views held by his contemporaries

o 3.4Napoleonic Wars

 3.4.1Alliances with other powers

 3.4.2Opposition to Napoleon

 3.4.31807 loss to French forces

o 3.5Prussia

o 3.6Franco-Russian alliance

o 3.7War against Persia

o 3.8French invasion

o 3.9War of the Sixth Coalition

 4Postbellum

o 4.1Peace of Paris and the Congress of Vienna

o 4.2Liberal political views

o 4.3Revolt of the Greeks

 5Personal life

 6Death

 7Children

 8Ancestry

 9See also

 10Notes

 11References

 12Further reading

 13External links

Early life[edit]
Confirmation of Alexander's wife Elizabeth Alexeievna
Portrait of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, 1800, by Vladimir Borovikovsky

Alexander was born on 23 December 1777 in Saint Petersburg, and he and his younger
brother Constantine were raised by their grandmother, Catherine.[3] Some sources[4] allege that she
planned to remove her son (Alexander's father) Paul I from the succession altogether. From the free-
thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine and his Swiss tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, he
imbibed the principles of Rousseau's gospel of humanity. But from his military governor, Nikolay
Saltykov, he imbibed the traditions of Russian autocracy.[5] Andrey Afanasyevich Samborsky, whom
his grandmother chose for his religious instruction, was an atypical, unbearded Orthodox priest.
Samborsky had long lived in England and taught Alexander (and Constantine) excellent English,
very uncommon for potential Russian autocrats at the time.[citation needed]
On 9 October 1793, when Alexander was still 15 years old, he married 14-year-old Princess Louise
of Baden, who took the name Elizabeth Alexeievna.[6] His grandmother was the one who presided
over his marriage to the young princess.[7] Until his grandmother's death, he was constantly walking
the line of allegiance between his grandmother and his father. His steward Nikolai Saltykov helped
him navigate the political landscape, engendering dislike for his grandmother and dread in dealing
with his father.[citation needed]
Catherine had the Alexander Palace built for the couple. This did nothing to help his relationship with
her, as Catherine would go out of her way to amuse them with dancing and parties, which annoyed
his wife. Living at the palace also put pressure on him to perform as a husband, though he felt only a
brother's love for the Grand Duchess.[8] He began to sympathize more with his father, as he saw
visiting his father's fiefdom at Gatchina as a relief from the ostentatious court of the empress. There,
they wore simple Prussian military uniforms, instead of the gaudy clothing popular at the French
court they had to wear when visiting Catherine. Even so, visiting the tsarevich did not come without a
bit of travail. Paul liked to have his guests perform military drills, which he also pushed upon his sons
Alexander and Constantine. He was also prone to fits of temper, and he often went into fits of rage
when events did not go his way.[9]

Tsarevich[edit]
Catherine's death in November 1796, before she could appoint Alexander as her successor, brought
his father, Paul, to the throne. Alexander disliked him as emperor even more than he did his
grandmother. He wrote that Russia had become a "plaything for the insane" and that "absolute
power disrupts everything". It is likely that seeing two previous rulers abuse their autocratic powers
in such a way pushed him to be one of the more progressive Romanov tsars of the 19th and 20th
centuries. Among the rest of the country, Paul was widely unpopular. He accused his wife of
conspiring to become another Catherine and seize power from him as his mother did from his father.
He also suspected Alexander of conspiring against him, despite his son's earlier refusal to Catherine
to seize power from Paul.[10]

Emperor[edit]

Russia (violet) and other world empires in 1800

Ascension[edit]
Alexander became Emperor of Russia when his father was assassinated 23 March 1801. Alexander,
then 23 years old, was in the palace at the moment of the assassination and his accession to the
throne was announced by General Nicholas Zubov, one of the assassins. Historians still debate
Alexander's role in his father's murder. The most common theory is that he was let into the
conspirators' secret and was willing to take the throne but insisted that his father should not be killed.
Becoming emperor through a crime that cost his father's life would give Alexander a strong sense of
remorse and shame.[11]
Alexander I succeeded to the throne on