Peter the Great was the author of a ukase, which gave to the sovereign the right to name a successor by will, and it is believed that Catherine had intended to deprive her son of the crown and settle the succession upon his eldest son Alexander. One of the first things which Paul did was to repeal this ukase of Peter and promulgate another limiting the succession to the throne to the male line by hereditary descent, the supreme authority to devolve upon a woman only upon the entire extinction of every male heir.
Thus he at least removed the probability in future of another empress coming to the throne by the murder of her husband, as had been the case with Catherine II, who had caused, it will be remembered, the poisoning of Peter III during the first year of his reign, seizing the government herself.
Paul came to the throne at the time of great political activity in Europe, due to the result of the French Revolution and the rapid rise of Napoleon.
It may be interesting to note that his contemporaries were Selim III, Sultan of Turkey; Pius VI, Pope of Rome; Charles I, of Spain; Frederick-William II, of Prussia; Charles Theodore, of Bavaria; Francis II, of Germany; Ferdinand IV, of Naples; Christian VII, of Denmark; Gustavus IV, of Sweden; William V, of Holland; George III, of England, while George Washington was drawing his second administration to a close in the United States.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
