Nicholas I came to the throne under peculiar circumstances. He was not the heir and still he received the crown peaceably and by the consent of the man who might presumably have come to the throne and still preferred not to. This singular example of self-abnegation is worthy of explanation.
The Emperor Alexander and his wife had only two children, both daughters, who died in infancy. Of his three brothers, Nicholas, Constantine and Michael, were two, nineteen and twenty-one years younger respectively. The order of succession having been established by the ukase of Paul, the crown naturally devolved on Constantine.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
