{{Refimprove|date=November 2007}}
{{Infobox_Monarch
|name=Emperor Alexander I <br>Александр I Павлович <br>Aleksandr I Pavlovich
|title=Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
|othertitles=[[Grand Duke of Finland]]<br />[[King of Poland]]
|image=[[Image:Alexander I of Russia.PNG|centre|250px]]
|caption=
|reign=[[March 23]], [[1801]]–[[December 1]], [[1825]]
|coronation=[[March 23]] [[1801]]
|predecessor=[[Paul I of Russia|Paul I]]
|successor=[[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]]
|consort=[[Louise of Baden]]
|issue=[[Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna]]<br>[[Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna]]<br />[[Zenaida Naryshkina]]<br />[[Sophia Naryshkina]]<br />[[Emanuel Naryshkin]]
|royal house=[[Romanov|House of Romanov]]
|royal anthem=
|father=[[Paul I of Russia|Paul I]]
|mother=[[Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg]]
|date of birth={{birth date|1777|12|23|mf=y}}
|place of birth=[[St Petersburg]]
|date of death={{death date and age|1825|12|1|1777|12|23|mf=y}}
|place of death=[[Taganrog]]
|place of burial= Unknown (believed interred at [[Peter and Paul Fortress]], his tomb was found to be empty)
|}}
'''Alexander I of Russia''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Александр I Павлович / Aleksandr I Pavlovich) ([[December 23]], [[1777]] &ndash; [[December 1]]?, 1825) served as [[Tsar|Emperor]] of [[Russia]] from [[23 March]] [[1801]] to [[1 December]] [[1825]] and [[Ruler of Poland]] from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first [[Grand Duke of Finland]].

He was born in [[Saint Petersburg]]<ref name="bio">{{cite book|last=Kleinedler|first=Steven Racek|coauthors=Joseph P. Pickett, Christopher Leonesio|year=2005|title=The Riverside Dictionary Of Biography|pages=14}}</ref> to [[Grand Duke]] Paul Petrovich, later Emperor [[Paul I of Russia|Paul I]], and [[Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg|Maria Feodorovna]], daughter of the [[Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg|Duke of Württemberg]]. Alexander succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered, and ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. In the first half of his ruling Alexander tried to introduce liberal reforms, while in the second half he turned to a much more arbitrary manner of conduct, which led to the abolishing of many early reforms. In foreign policy Alexander gained certain success, having won several campaigns. In particular under his rule Russia acquired Finland and part of Poland. The strange contradictions of his character make Alexander one of the most interesting Tsars. Adding to this, his death was shrouded in mystery, and location of his body remains unknown.

==Early life==
Soon after his birth on [[December 23]], [[1777]], Alexander was taken from his father, [[Paul I of Russia]], by his grandmother, [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great]], who utterly disliked Paul and did not want him to have any influence on the education of the future emperor. Some sources allege that she created the plan to remove Paul from succession altogether. Both sides tried to use Alexander for their own purposes and he was torn emotionally between his grandmother and his father, the heir to the throne. This taught Alexander very early on how to manipulate those who loved him, and he became a natural chameleon, changing his views and personality depending on whom he was with at the time. Reared in the free-thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine, he had imbibed the principles of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau's]] gospel of humanity from his [[Swiss (people)|Swiss]] tutor, [[Frédéric-César de La Harpe]], and the traditions of Russian autocracy from his military governor, [[Nikolay Saltykov]]. [[Andrey Afanasyevich Samborsky]], whom his grandmother chose for his religious upbringing, was an atypical, unbearded [[Russian Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] priest, who had long lived in England and taught Alexander (and his younger brother [[Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia|Constantine]]) excellent [[English language|English]]. Young Alexander sympathised with [[French revolution|French]] and [[Kościuszko Uprising|Polish revolutionaries]], however, his father seems to have taught him to combine a theoretical love of [[Human|mankind]] with a practical contempt for men. These contradictory tendencies remained with him through life and are observed in his dualism in [[domestic policy|domestic]] and [[foreign policy|military]] policy.

On [[October 9]], [[1793]] when Alexander was still 15 years old, he married 14 year old [[Louise of Baden]]. Meanwhile, the death of Catherine in November 1796 before she could appoint Alexander as her successor, brought his father, Paul I, to the throne. Paul's attempts at reform were met with hostility and many of his closest advisers as well as Alexander were against his proposed changes. Paul I was murdered in March, 1801.

==Succession to the throne==
Alexander I succeeded to the throne on [[23 March]] [[1801]], and was crowned in the [[Kremlin]] on [[September 15]] of that year. Historians still debate about Alexander’s role in this murder. The most common opinion is that he was in favour of taking the throne but insisted that his [[Paul I of Russia|father]] should not be killed.

At first, indeed, this exercised little influence on the [[Emperor of Russia|Emperor's]] life. The young tsar was determined to reform the outdated, centralised systems of government that Russia relied upon. While retaining for a time the old [[Political minister|ministers]] who had served and overthrown the Emperor Paul, one of the first acts of his reign was to appoint the [[Private Committee]], also called ironically the "[[Committee of Public Safety|Comité de salut public]]", comprising young and enthusiastic friends of his own - [[Victor Palvovich Kochubey|Victor Kochubey]], [[Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev|Nikolay Novosiltsev]], [[Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov|Pavel Stroganov]] and [[Adam Jerzy Czartoryski]] - to draw up a scheme of internal reform, which was supposed to result in an establishing of [[constitutional monarchy]] in accordance with teachings of the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. Also Alexander wanted to resolve another crucial issue in Russia - the future of the serfs, although this was not achieved until 1861.

In the very beginning of Alexander's rule several notable steps were made, including establishing freedom for [[publishing house]]s, the winding down of activities in the intelligence services and prohibition of [[torture]]. Several years later the liberal [[Mikhail Speransky]] became one of the Tsar's closest advisors, and drew up many plans for elaborate reforms. Their aims, inspired by their admiration for [[Kingdom of Great Britain|English]] institutions, far outstripped the possibilities of the time, and even after they had been raised to regular ministerial positions little of their programme could come to pass. [[Imperial Russia|Russia]] was not ready for a more [[liberal]] society; and Alexander, the disciple of the progressive teacher Laharpe, was&mdash;as he himself said&mdash;but "a happy accident" on the throne of the tsars. He spoke, indeed, bitterly of "the state of [[barbarism]] in which the country had been left by the traffic in men."

===Legal reform===
[[Image:Althorv.jpg|thumb|225px|Bust of Alexander I, by [[Thorvaldsen]].]] The codification of the laws initiated in 1801 was never carried out during his reign; nothing was done to improve the intolerable status of the Russian peasantry; the constitution drawn up by [[Mikhail Speransky]], and passed by the emperor, remained unsigned. Finally elaborate intrigues against Speransky initiated by his political rivals led to the loss of support of Alexander and subsequent removal in March 1812.

Alexander, in fact, who, without being consciously tyrannical, possessed in full measure the [[tyrant]]'s characteristic distrust of men of ability and independent judgement, lacked also the first requisite for a reforming sovereign: confidence in his people; and it was this want that vitiated such reforms as were actually realised. He experimented in the outlying provinces of his [[Empire]]; and the Russians noted with open murmurs that, not content with governing through foreign instruments, he was conferring on [[Poland]], [[Finland]] and the [[Baltic provinces]] benefits denied to themselves.

===Social reforms===
{{Main|Government reform of Alexander I|Mikhail Speransky}}
In Russia, too, certain reforms were carried out, but they could not survive the suspicious interference of the autocrat and his officials. The [[State Council of Imperial Russia|State Council]] under the [[Governing Senate]], endowed for the first time with certain theoretical powers, became slavish instruments of the Tsar and his favourites of the moment.

The elaborate system of education, culminating in the reconstituted, or newly founded, [[university|universities]] of [[Dorpat]] (Tartu), [[Vilna]] (Vilnius), [[Kazan]] and [[Kharkov]], was strangled in the supposed interests of "order" and of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]; while the [[military settlements]] which Alexander proclaimed as a blessing to both soldiers and state were forced on the unwilling peasantry and army with pitiless cruelty. Though they were supposed to improve living conditions of soldiers, the economic effect in fact was poor and harsh military discipline caused frequent unrest.

After becoming a Christian the Emperor gave great support to the Bible Society, which provided bibles for the poor. The Emperor saw it as a great blessing to the people but the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[Archbishop]] and the Orthodox [[Metropolitan bishop|Metropolitans]] regarded it as a work of the [[Devil]]. They were forced to serve on its committee side by side with [[Protestant]] [[pastor]]s; even though they regarded any tampering with the letter of the traditional documents of the [[Christian Church|Church]] as [[mortal sin]].

==Influence on European politics==
===Views held by his contemporaries===
Autocrat and "[[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]]", man of the world and mystic, he appeared to his contemporaries as a riddle which each read according to his own temperament. [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon I]] thought him a "shifty [[Derogatory use of Byzantine|Byzantine]]", and called him the [[François Joseph Talma|Talma]] of the North, as ready to play any conspicuous part. To [[Klemens Wenzel von Metternich|Metternich]] he was a madman to be humoured. [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Castlereagh]], writing of him to Lord Liverpool, gives him credit for "grand qualities", but adds that he is "suspicious and undecided". Alexander's grandiose imagination was, however, more strongly attracted by the great questions of European politics than by attempts at domestic reform which, on the whole, wounded his pride by proving to him the narrow limits of absolute power.

===Alliances with other powers===
Upon his accession, Alexander reversed the policy of his father, Paul, denounced the League of Neutrals, and made peace with the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] (April 1801). At the same time he opened negotiations with [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II]] of the Holy Roman Empire. Soon afterwards at [[Klaipėda|Memel]] he entered into a close alliance with [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], not as he boasted from motives of policy, but in the spirit of true [[chivalry]], out of [[friendship]] for the young [[List of Kings of Prussia|King]] [[Frederick William III of Prussia|Frederick William III]] and his beautiful wife [[Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]].

The development of this alliance was interrupted by the short-lived peace of October 1801; and for a while it seemed as though [[French Consulate|France]] and [[Imperial Russia|Russia]] might come to an understanding. Carried away by the enthusiasm of Laharpe, who had returned to [[Russia]] from [[Paris]], Alexander began openly to proclaim his admiration for French institutions and for the person of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoléon Bonaparte]]. Soon, however, came a change. Laharpe, after a new visit to Paris, presented to the Tsar his Reflections on the True Nature of the Consul for Life, which, as Alexander said, tore the veil from his eyes, and revealed Bonaparte "as not a true [[Patriotism|patriot]]", but only as "the most famous tyrant the world has produced." Alexander's disillusionment was completed by the murder of the [[Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien|duc d'Enghien]]. The Russian court went into mourning for the last member of the [[Princes of Condé|House of Condé]], and diplomatic relations with France were broken off.

===Opposition to Napoleon===
The events of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] that followed belong to the general history of Europe; but Alexander's attitude throughout is personal to himself, though pregnant with issues momentous for the world. In opposing Napoleon I, "the oppressor of Europe and the disturber of the world's peace," Alexander in fact already believed himself to be fulfilling a divine mission. In his instructions to Novosiltsov, his special envoy in [[London]], the Tsar elaborated the motives of his policy in language which appealed as little to the common sense of the prime minister, [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt]], as did later the treaty of the [[Holy Alliance]] to that of the foreign minister, Castlereagh. Yet the document is of great interest, as in it we find formulated for the first time in an official dispatch those exalted ideals of international policy which were to play so conspicuous a part in the affairs of the world at the close of the revolutionary epoch, and issued at the end of the 19th century in the Rescript of [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] and the conference of the [[Hague]]. The outcome of the war, Alexander argued, was not to be only the liberation of France, but the universal triumph of "the sacred [[Human rights|rights of humanity]]". To attain this it would be necessary "after having attached the [[nation]]s to their [[government]] by making these incapable of acting save in the greatest interests of their subjects, to fix the relations of the states amongst each other on more precise rules, and such as it is to their interest to respect."

A general treaty was to become the basis of the relations of the states forming "the European Confederation"; and this, though "it was no question of realising the dream of universal peace, would attain some of its results if, at the conclusion of the general war, it were possible to establish on clear principles the prescriptions of the rights of nations." "Why could not one submit to it", the Tsar continued, "the positive rights of nations, assure the privilege of neutrality, insert the obligation of never beginning war until all the resources which the mediation of a third party could offer have been exhausted, having by this means brought to light the respective grievances, and tried to remove them? It is on such principles as these that one could proceed to a general pacification, and give birth to a league of which the stipulations would form, so to speak, a new code of the law of nations, which, sanctioned by the greater part of the nations of Europe, would without difficulty become the immutable rule of the cabinets, while those who should try to infringe it would risk bringing upon themselves the forces of the new union."

===1807 loss to French forces===
[[Image:Alkruger.jpg|thumb|300px|Equestrian portrait of Alexander I (1812)]]
Meanwhile Napoleon, a little deterred by the Russian autocrat's youthful ideology, never gave up hope of detaching him from the coalition. He had no sooner entered [[Vienna]] in triumph than he opened negotiations with him; he resumed them after the [[Battle of Austerlitz]] ([[December 2]], [[1805]]). [[Imperial Russia]] and France, he urged, were "geographical allies"; there was, and could be, between them no true conflict of interests; together they might rule the world. But Alexander was still determined "to persist in the system of disinterestedness in respect of all the states of Europe which he had thus far followed", and he again allied himself with the [[Kingdom of Prussia]]. The campaign of [[Jena]] and the [[battle of Eylau]] followed; and Napoleon, though still intent on the Russian alliance, stirred up [[Poles]], [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] and [[Persians]] to break the obstinacy of the Tsar. A party too in Russia itself, headed by the Tsar's brother [[Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia|Constantine Pavlovich]], was clamorous for peace; but Alexander, after a vain attempt to form a new coalition, summoned the Russian nation to a holy war against Napoleon as the enemy of the Orthodox faith. The outcome was the rout of [[Friedland]] (June 13/14, 1807). Napoleon saw his chance and seized it. Instead of making heavy terms, he offered to the chastened autocrat his alliance, and a partnership in his glory.

The two Emperors met at [[Tilsit]] on [[25 June]] [[1807]]. Alexander, dazzled by Napoleon's [[genius]] and overwhelmed by his apparent generosity, was completely won over. Napoleon knew well how to appeal to the exuberant imagination of his new-found friend. He would divide with Alexander the Empire of the world; as a first step he would leave him in possession of the [[Danube River|Danubian]] principalities and give him a free hand to deal with [[Finland]]; and, afterwards, the Emperors of the [[Eastern Roman Empire|East]] and [[Western Roman Empire|West]], when the time should be ripe, would drive the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] from Europe and march across Asia to the conquest of [[Indian subcontinent|India]]. A programme so stupendous awoke in Alexander's impressionable mind an ambition to which he had hitherto been a stranger. The interests of Europe were forgotten. "What is Europe?" he exclaimed to the French ambassador. "Where is it, if it is not you and we?"

===Prussia===
The brilliance of these new visions did not, however, blind Alexander to the obligations of friendship; and he refused to retain the Danubian principalities as the price for suffering a further dismemberment of Prussia. "We have made loyal war", he said, "we must make a loyal peace." It was not long before the first enthusiasm of [[Tilsit]] began to wane. Napoleon I was prodigal of promises, but niggard of their fulfilment. The French remained in Prussia, the Russians on the Danube; and each accused the other of breach of faith. Meanwhile, however, the personal relations of Alexander and Napoleon were of the most cordial character; and it was hoped that a fresh meeting might adjust all differences between them. The meeting took place at [[Erfurt]] in October 1808 and resulted in a treaty which defined the common policy of the two Emperors. But Alexander's relations with Napoleon nonetheless suffered a change. He realised that in Napoleon sentiment never got the better of reason, that as a matter of fact he had never intended his proposed "grand enterprise" seriously, and had only used it to preoccupy the mind of the Tsar while he consolidated his own power in [[Central Europe]]. From this moment the French alliance was for Alexander also not a fraternal agreement to rule the world, but an affair of pure policy. He used it, in the first instance, to remove "the geographical enemy" from the gates of [[Saint Petersburg]] by wresting [[Finland]] from the [[Sweden|Swedes]] (1809); and he hoped by means of it to make the Danube the southern frontier of Russia.

===Franco-Russian Alliance===
Events were in fact rapidly tending to the rupture of the Franco-Russian alliance. Alexander, indeed, assisted Napoleon in the war of 1809, but he declared plainly that he would not allow the [[Austrian Empire]] to be crushed out of existence; and Napoleon complained bitterly of the inactivity of the Russian troops during the campaign. The Tsar in his turn protested against Napoleon's encouragement of the [[Poles]]. In the matter of the French alliance he knew himself to be practically isolated in Russia, and he declared that he could not sacrifice the interest of his people and empire to his affection for Napoleon. "I don't want anything for myself", he said to the French ambassador, "therefore the world is not large enough to come to an understanding on the affairs of [[Poland]], if it is a question of its restoration."

The [[Treaty of Vienna]], which added largely to the [[Duchy of Warsaw]], he complained had "ill requited him for his loyalty", and he was only mollified for the time by Napoleon's
The annexation of [[Oldenburg (state)|Oldenburg]], of which the [[Wilhelm, Duke of Oldenburg|Duke of Oldenburg]] ([[January 3]], [[1754]]&ndash;[[July 2]], [[1823]]) was the Tsar's uncle, to [[France]] in December, 1810, added another to the personal grievances of Alexander against Napoleon; while the ruinous reaction of "the continental system" on Russian trade made it impossible for the Tsar to maintain a policy which was Napoleon's chief motive for the alliance. An acid correspondence followed, and ill-concealed armaments, which culminated in the summer of 1812 with [[French invasion of Russia (1812)|Napoleon's invasion of Russia]]. Yet, even after the French had passed the frontier, Alexander still protested that his personal sentiments towards the Emperor were unaltered; "but", he added, "[[God]] Himself cannot undo the past". It was the occupation of [[Moscow]] and the desecration of the [[Kremlin]], the sacred centre of Holy Russia, that changed his sentiment for Napoleon into passionate hatred. In vain the French Emperor, within eight days of his entry into Moscow, wrote to the Tsar a letter, which was one long cry of distress, revealing the desperate straits of the [[Grand Army]], and appealed to "any remnant of his former sentiments". Alexander returned no answer to these "fanfaronnades". "No more peace with Napoleon!" he cried, "He or I, I or He: we cannot longer reign together!"

==Liberal political views==

Once a supporter of limited liberalism, as seen in his approval of the [[Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland]] in 1815, from the end of the year 1818 Alexander's views began to change. A [[revolution]]ary [[conspiracy (political)|conspiracy]] among the officers of the guard, and a foolish plot to kidnap him on his way to the [[Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)|Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle]], are said to have shaken the foundations of his [[Liberalism]]. At Aix he came for the first time into intimate contact with [[Klemens Wenzel von Metternich|Metternich]]. From this time dates the ascendancy of Metternich over the mind of the Russian Emperor and in the councils of Europe. It was, however, no case of sudden conversion. Though alarmed by the revolutionary agitation in Germany, which culminated in the murder of his agent, the dramatist [[August von Kotzebue]] ([[March 23]], [[1819]]), Alexander approved of Castlereagh's protest against Metternich's policy of "the governments contracting an alliance against the peoples", as formulated in the [[Carlsbad Decrees]] of July 1819, and deprecated any intervention of Europe to support "a league of which the sole object is the absurd pretensions of absolute power."

He still declared his belief in "free institutions, though not in such as age forced from feebleness, nor contracts ordered by popular leaders from their sovereigns, nor constitutions granted in difficult circumstances to tide over a crisis. "Liberty", he maintained, "should be confined within just limits. And the limits of liberty are the principles of order."

It was the apparent triumph of the principles of disorder in the revolutions of [[Naples]] and [[Piedmont (Italy)|Piedmont]], combined with increasingly disquieting symptoms of discontent in France, Germany, and among his own people, that completed Alexander's conversion. In the seclusion of the little town of [[Troppau]], where in October 1820 the powers met in conference, Metternich found an opportunity for cementing his influence over Alexander, which had been wanting amid the turmoil and feminine intrigues of Vienna and Aix. Here, in confidence begotten of friendly chats over afternoon tea, the disillusioned autocrat confessed his mistake. "You have nothing to regret," he said sadly to the exultant chancellor, "but I have!"

The issue was momentous. In January Alexander had still upheld the ideal of a free confederation of the European states, symbolised by the Holy Alliance, against the policy of a dictatorship of the great powers, symbolised by the Quadruple Treaty; he had still protested against the claims of collective Europe to interfere in the internal concerns of the sovereign states. On [[19 November]] he signed the [[Troppau Protocol]], which consecrated the principle of intervention and wrecked the harmony of the concert.

==Revolt of the Greeks==
At [[Congress of Laibach]], whither in the spring of 1821 the congress had been adjourned, Alexander first heard of the [[Greek War of Independence|Revolt of the Greeks]]. From this time until his death his mind was torn between his anxiety to realise his dream of a confederation of Europe and his traditional mission as leader of the Orthodox crusade against the [[Ottoman Empire]]. At first, under the careful nursing of Metternich, the former motive prevailed.

He struck the name of [[Alexander Ypsilanti (1792-1828)|Alexander Ypsilanti]] from the Russian army list, and directed his foreign minister, [[John Capodistria|Giovanni, Count Capo d'Istria]], himself a Greek, to disavow all sympathy of [[Russia]] with his enterprise; and, next year, a deputation of the [[Morea]] the [[Congress of Verona]] was turned back by his orders on the road.

He made some effort to reconcile the principles at conflict in his mind. He offered to surrender the claim, successfully asserted when the [[Ottoman Sultan]] [[Mahmud II]] had been excluded from the Holy Alliance and the affairs of the Ottoman empire from the deliberations of Vienna, that the affairs of the East were the "domestic concerns of Russia," and to march into the Ottoman Empire, as Austria had marched into [[Naples]], "as the mandatory of Europe."

Metternich's... opposition to this, illogical, but natural from the Austrian point of view, first opened his eyes to the true character of Austria's attitude towards his ideals. Once more in Russia, far from the fascination of Metternich's personality, the immemorial spirit of his people drew him back into itself; and when, in the autumn of 1825, he took his dying Empress [[Louise of Baden]] ([[January 24]], [[1779]]&ndash;[[May 26]], [[1826]]) for change of air to the south of Russia, in order&mdash;as all Europe supposed&mdash;to place himself at the head of the great army concentrated near the Ottoman frontiers, his language was no longer that of "the peace-maker of Europe," but of the Orthodox Tsar determined to take the interests of his people and of his religion "into his own hands." Before the momentous issue could be decided, however, Alexander died, "crushed," to use his own words, "beneath the terrible burden of a crown" which he had more than once declared his intention of resigning.

==Private life==
Alexander married Princess [[Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden)|Louise of Baden]] (Elisabeth Alexeyevna) on [[October 9]], [[1793]]. He later told his friend [[Frederick William III of Prussia|Frederick William III]] that the marriage, a political match devised by his grandmother, [[Catherine the Great]], regretfully proved to be a misfortune for him and his wife. Their two children of the marriage died young.
*[[Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1799-1800)|Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia]] ([[29 May]] [[1799]] - [[8 July]] [[1800]]) - rumoured to be the child of [[Adam Czartoryski]]
*[[Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna of Russia]] ([[16 November]] [[1806]] - [[12 May]] [[1808]]); died of infection

Their common sorrow drew husband and wife closer together. Towards the close of his life their reconciliation was completed by the wise charity of the Empress in sympathising deeply with him over the death of his beloved daughter Sophia, by [[Princess Maria Naryshkina]].

Alexander also had 9 illegitmate children.

With [[Sophia Vsevolojsky]] (1775-1848)
*Nikolai Loukache ([[11 December]] [[1796]] - [[20 January]] [[1868]])

With [[Maria Naryshkina]] (1779-1854)
*Zenaida Naryshkina ([[1806]] - [[18 May]] [[1810]])
*Sophia Naryshkina ([[1808]] - [[18 June]] [[1824]])
*Emanuel Naryshkin ([[30 July]] [[1813]] - [[31 December]] [[1901]])

With [[Marguerite-Josephine Weimer]] (1787-1867)
*Maria Alexandrovna Parijskaia ([[19 March]] [[1814]] - 1874)
*Wilhelmine Alexandrine Pauline Alexandrov ([[1816]] - [[4 June]] [[1863]])

With [[Veronica Dzierzanowska]]
*Gustave Ehrenberg ([[14 February]] [[1818]] - [[28 September]] [[1895]])

With Princess [[Barbara Tourkestanova]] ([[1775]] - [[20 March]] [[1819]])
*Maria Tourkestanova ([[20 March]] [[1819]] - [[19 December]] [[1843]])

With [[Maria Ivanovna Katatcharova]] (1796-1824)
*Nikolai Vassilievich Isakov ([[10 February]] [[1821]] - [[25 February]] [[1891]])

==Ancestry==
<div style="clear: both; width: 100%; padding: 0; text-align: left; border: none;" class="NavFrame">
<div style="background: #ccddcc; text-align: center; border: 1px solid #667766" class="NavHead">'''Ancestors of Alexander I of Russia'''
</div>
<div class="NavContent" style="display:none;">
<center>{{ahnentafel-compact5
|style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%;
|border=1
|boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0;
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|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''Alexander I of Russia'''
|2= 2. [[Paul I of Russia]]
|3= 3. [[Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)|Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg]]
|4= 4. [[Peter III of Russia]]
|5= 5. [[Catherine II of Russia]]
|6= 6. [[Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg]]
|7= 7. [[Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
|8= 8. [[Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp]]
|9= 9. [[Anna Petrovna of Russia]]
|10= 10. [[Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst]]
|11= 11. [[Johanna Elisabeth, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp]]
|12= 12. [[Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg]]
|13= 13. [[Maria Augusta Anna of Thurn and Taxis]]
|14= 14. [[Friedrich Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
|15= 15. [[Sophie Dorothea Marie, Princess of Prussia]]
|16= 16. [[Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp]]
|17= 17. [[Hedwig Sophia of Sweden]]
|18= 18. [[Peter I of Russia]]
|19= 19. [[Catherine I of Russia]]
|20= 20. [[Johann Ludwig of Anhalt-Zerbst]]
|21= 21. [[Christine Eleonore von Zeustch]]
|22= 22. [[Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin]]
|23= 23. [[Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach]]
|24= 24. [[Frederick Charles of Württemberg-Winnental]]
|25= 25. [[Eleonore Juliane von Brandenburg-Ansbach]]
|26= 26. [[Anselm Franz of Thurn and Taxis]]
|27= 27. [[Princess Maria Ludovika von Lobkowicz]]
|28= 28. [[Philipp, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
|29= 29. [[Johanna Charlotte of Anhalt-Dessau]]
|30= 30. [[Frederick William I of Prussia]]
|31= 31. [[Sophia Dorothea of Hanover]]
}}</center>
</div></div>

==Mysterious death==
[[Image:Alexandre1 Palace Taganrog.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Palace of Alexander I in Taganrog, where the Russian Emperor died in 1825.]]
Tsar Alexander I became increasingly involved in and increasingly more suspicious of those around him. On the way to the conference in [[Aachen]], [[Germany]] an attempt had been made to kidnap him which made him more suspicious of the people around him.

In the autumn of 1825 the Emperor undertook a voyage to the south of Russia due to the increasing illness of Alexander's wife. During his trip he himself caught a cold which developed into typhus from which he died in the southern city of [[Taganrog]] on [[November 19]] (O.S.)/[[December 1]], [[1825]]. His wife died a few months later as the emperor's body was transported to [[St. Petersburg]] for the funeral. He was interred at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral of the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] in St. Petersburg on [[March 13]], [[1826]].

The unexpected death of the [[Emperor of Russia]] far from the capital caused persistent rumors that his death and funeral were staged while the emperor allegedly renounced the crown and retired to spend the rest of his life in solitude. It is rumored that a "soldier" was buried as Alexander or that the grave was empty or that a British ambassador at the Russian court said he had seen Alexander boarding a ship. Some say the former emperor became a [[monk]] in either [[Pochaev Lavra]] or [[Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra]] or elsewhere. Many people, including some historians, supposed that a mysterious hermit [[Feodor Kuzmich]] (or ''Kozmich'') who emerged in [[Siberia]] in 1836 and died in the vicinity of [[Tomsk]] in 1864 was in fact Alexander I under an assumed identity. While there are testimonies that "Feodor Kozmich" in his earlier life might have belonged to a higher society his identity as Alexander I was never established beyond the reasonable doubt. In 1925 the Soviets opened Alexander's tomb and did not find a body.

The immediate aftermath of Alexander's death was also marked by confusion regarding the order of succession and by the attempt of military coup-d'etat by liberal-minded officers. The [[heir presumptive]], [[Tsesarevich]] and Grand Duke [[Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia|Constantine Pavlovich]] had in 1822 renounced his rights of succession, but this act was not publicly announced, nor known to anybody outside of few people within the tsar's family. For this reason, on [[November 27]] (O.S.), 1825 the population, including Constantine's younger brother [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas]], swore allegiance to Constantine. After the true order of succession was disclosed to the imperial family and general public, [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] ordered that the allegiance to him to be sworn on [[December 14]] (O.S.), 1825. Seizing the opportunity, the [[Decembrists]] revolted, allegedly to defend Constantine's rights to the throne, but in fact - in order to initiate the change of regime in [[Russia]]. [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] brutally suppressed the rebellion and sent the ringleaders to the gallows and Siberia.

Some confidantes of Alexander I reported that in the last years the Emperor was aware that the secret societies of future [[Decembrists]] were plotting the revolt, but chose not to act against them, remarking that these officers were sharing "the delusions of his own youth." Historians believe that these secret societies appeared after the Russian officers returned from their [[Napoleonic wars|Napoleonic campaigns]] in Europe in 1815.

==Other==
Alexander I was the godfather of future Queen [[Victoria of the United Kingdom]] who was christened Alexandrina Victoria in honour of the tsar.
{{commons|Александр I Павлович}}

==See also==
*[[Tsars of Russia family tree]]

==References==
{{Unreferenced|date=March 2007}}
POP
* [[Henri Troyat]], "Alexandre 1er", Flammarion, 1981.

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{{s-hou|[[Romanov|House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]|23 December|1777|1 December|1825|[[House of Oldenburg]] }}
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{{succession box three to one|before1=[[Paul I of Russia|Paul I]]|before2=[[Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden|Gustav IV Adolf]]|before3=[[Stanisław August Poniatowski]]|title1=[[Emperor of Russia]]|title2=[[Grand Duke of Finland]]|title3=[[King of Poland]]|years1=[[March 23]], [[1801]]&ndash;[[December 1]], [[1825]]|after=[[Nicholas I of Russia]]|years2=1809&ndash;1825|years3=1815&ndash;1825}}
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{{Russian emperors}}
{{House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov}}
{{1911}}

{{Persondata
|NAME= Alexander I
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Pavlovich, Aleksandr I
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Emperor of Russia
|DATE OF BIRTH= {{birth date|1777|12|23|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Saint Petersburg]]
|DATE OF DEATH= {{death date|1825|12|1|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Taganrog]]
}}

[[Category:1777 births]]
[[Category:1825 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths by typhus]]
[[Category:History of Russia]]
[[Category:House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of Saint Januarius]]
[[Category:People from Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:Polish monarchs]]
[[Category:Rulers of Finland]]
[[Category:Russian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Russian emperors]]
[[Category:Orthodox monarchs]]

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[[et:Aleksander I]]
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[[ko:러시아의 알렉산드르 1세]]
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[[it:Alessandro I di Russia]]
[[he:אלכסנדר הראשון, קיסר רוסיה]]
[[ka:ალექსანდრე I (რუსეთი)]]
[[lt:Aleksandras I (Rusija)]]
[[hu:I. Sándor orosz cár]]
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[[ja:アレクサンドル1世]]
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[[nn:Aleksander I av Russland]]
[[pl:Aleksander I Romanow]]
[[pt:Alexandre I da Rússia]]
[[ro:Alexandru I al Rusiei]]
[[ru:Александр I]]
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[[sr:Александар I Романов]]
[[sh:Aleksandar I., ruski car]]
[[fi:Aleksanteri I (Venäjä)]]
[[sv:Alexander I av Ryssland]]
[[tr:I. Aleksandr (Rusya)]]
[[uk:Олександр І (російський імператор)]]
[[zh:亚历山大一世 (俄国)]]