23 March 1801
Tsar Paul I of Russia murdered

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The Russian tsar, Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great, is murdered in his bed by a group of guards officers, after just five years on the throne. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander I. Paul, who was mentally unstable, was a fierce opponent of the French Revolution, sending three armies to fight the French in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. Although successful at first, they were soon defeated. Paul also pursued unrelievedly reactionary policies at home, reintroducing corporal punishment for free men as well as serfs and ignoring his advisers.

Alexander, who will rule until 1825, also goes to war with France, although, after military defeats, he strikes up a warm relationship with Napoleon and makes peace at the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. War breaks out again between the two countries in 1812, culminating in the defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armée in Russia.

'Death may expiate faults, but cannot repair them.' Napoleon

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