Who married Paul I of Russia?

Paul I (Russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич, romanized: Pavel I Petrovich; 1 October [O.S. 20 September] 1754 – 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801.

Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also imposed the first limitations on serfdom with the Manifesto of three-day corvee, sought to curtail the privileges of the nobility, pursued various military reforms which were highly unpopular among officers and was known for his unpredictable behavior, all of which contributed to the conspiracy that took his life.

In 1799 he brought Russia into the Second Coalition against Revolutionary France alongside Britain and Austria; the Russian forces achieved several victories at first but withdrew after facing setbacks. Paul then realigned Russia with France and led the creation of the Second League of Armed Neutrality to oppose Britain after Napoleon's rise to power. Toward the end of his reign, he added Kartli and Kakheti in Eastern Georgia to the Russian Empire. He was planning a joint invasion of British India with the French before being killed in a fight with his own officers who were trying to force his abdication. He was succeeded by his son Alexander I.

He was Grand Master of the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller from 1799 to 1801 and ordered the construction of a number of priories of the Order of Malta.

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Natalia Alexeievna, Tsarevna of Russia (25 June 1755 – 15 April 1776) was the first wife of Paul Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia (future Emperor Paul I), son of the Empress Catherine II. She was born as Princess Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt as the fifth child of Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken.

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Maria Feodorovna (Russian: Мария Фёдоровна; 25 October 1759 – 5 November [O.S. 24 October] 1828), born Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (Sophie Marie Dorothea Auguste Luise), became Empress of Russia as the second wife of Emperor Paul I. She founded the Office of the Institutions of Empress Maria.

Daughter of Duke Frederick Eugene of Württemberg and Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Sophie Dorothea belonged to a junior branch of the House of Württemberg and grew up in Montbéliard, receiving an excellent education for her time. After Grand Duke Paul (the future Paul I of Russia) became a widower in 1776, King Frederick II of Prussia (Sophie Dorothea's maternal great-uncle) and Empress Catherine II of Russia chose Sophie Dorothea as the ideal candidate to become Paul's second wife. In spite of her fiancé's difficult character, she developed a long, peaceful relationship with Paul and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1776, adopting the name Maria Feodorovna. During the long reign (1762–1796) of her mother-in-law, she sided with her husband and lost the initial affection the reigning Empress had for her. The couple were completely excluded from any political influence, as mother and son mistrusted each other. They were forced to live in isolation at Gatchina Palace, where they had many children together.

After her husband ascended the Russian throne in 1796, Maria Feodorovna had a considerable and beneficial influence during his four-year reign. On the night of Paul I's assassination (23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801), she thought to imitate her mother-in-law's example and claim the throne, but her son, the future Emperor Alexander I, dissuaded her. She instead instituted the precedence whereby the Empress dowager out-ranked the reigning monarch's wife, a system unique to the Russian court. Clever, purposeful and energetic, Maria Feodorovna founded and managed all the Russian Empire's charitable establishments, re-modelled the palaces of Gatchina and Pavlovsk, and encouraged foreign links directed against Napoleon I of France. She often gave political counsel to her children, who held her in great respect. The imperial family deeply mourned her death, and her successors regarded her as a role model.

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