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 would take 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.

Peter soon died in prison, either being killed by Catherine's supporters or due to a fit of apoplexy when exerting himself in a dispute with Prince Feodor, one of his jailers.

In 1783, the Empress granted him another estate, Gatchina Palace, where he was allowed to maintain a brigade of soldiers whom he drilled on the Prussian model, an unpopular stance at the time.

Roderick McGrew briefly relates the neglect to which the infant heir was sometimes subject: "On one occasion he fell out of his crib and slept the night away unnoticed on the floor.

Catherine's absolute power and the delicate balance of courtier status greatly influenced the relationship at Court with Paul, who openly disregarded his mother's opinions.

Paul adamantly protested[clarification needed] his mother's policies, writing a veiled criticism in his Reflections, a dissertation on military reform.

Paul spent the following years away from the Imperial Court, content to remain at his private estates at Gatchina Palace with his growing family and perform Prussian drill exercises.

As Catherine grew older, she became less concerned that her son attend court functions; her attentions focused primarily on the future Emperor Alexander I.

Both efforts proved fruitless, and though Alexander agreed to his grandmother's wishes, he remained respectful of his father's position as immediate successor to the Russian throne.

These fears may have contributed to Paul's promulgation of the Pauline Laws, which established the strict principle of primogeniture in the House of Romanov, leaving the throne to the next male heir.

He viewed the Russian nobility as decadent and corrupt, and was determined to transform them into a disciplined, principled, loyal caste resembling a medieval chivalric order.

[11] He would personally sentence soldiers to be flogged if they made a mistake, and on one occasion ordered a Guards regiment to march to Siberia after they became disordered during maneuvers, although he changed his mind after they had walked about 10 miles (16 km).

Emperor Paul also ordered the bones of Grigori Potemkin, the famed military commander and one of his mother's lovers, dug out of his grave and scattered.

Immediately upon taking the throne, he recalled all troops outside Russian borders, including the struggling expedition Catherine II had sent to conquer Qajar Iran through the Caucasus and the 60,000 men she had promised to Britain and Austria to help them defeat the French.

[8]: 289–290  In this goal he found a willing ally in the Austrian chancellor Baron Thugut, who hated the French and loudly criticized revolutionary principles.

Britain and the Ottoman Empire joined Austria and Russia to stop French expansion, free territories under their control and re-establish the old monarchies.

[17]: 48  The knights responded by making him a protector of the Order in August of that same year, an honour he had not expected but, in keeping with his chivalric ideals, he happily accepted.

While Paul and Suvorov wanted the liberation and restoration of the Italian monarchies, the Austrians sought territorial acquisitions in Italy, and were willing to sacrifice later Russian support to acquire them.

This defeat, combined with Austria's refusal to reinstate the old monarchies in Italy and their disrespect of the Russian flag during the taking of Ancona, led to the formal cessation of the alliance in October 1799.

[8]: 309 The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland started well, with a British victory – the Battle of Callantsoog (27 August 1799) – in the north, but when the Russian army arrived in September, the allies found themselves faced with bad weather, poor coordination, and unexpectedly fierce resistance from the Dutch and the French, and their success evaporated.

[30] As France had already closed all of Western and Southern Europe to British trade, Britain, which relied heavily upon imports (especially for timber, naval products, and grain) felt seriously threatened by Paul's move and reacted fast.

[32] Nelson then sailed towards St. Petersburg, reaching Reval (14 May 1801), but after the conspiracy assassinated Paul (23 March 1801), the new Tsar Alexander opened peace-negotiations shortly after taking the throne.

Throughout his reign, his policies focused reestablishing peace and the balance of power in Europe, while supporting autocracy and old monarchies, without seeking to expand Russia's borders.

After his death, a civil war broke out over the succession to the throne of Kartli-Kakheti, and one of the rival candidates called on Russia to intervene and decide matters.

[39][40] The Georgian envoy in Saint Petersburg, Garsevan Chavchavadze, reacted with a note of protest that was presented to the Russian vice-chancellor Alexander Kurakin.

A conspiracy was organized, some months before it was executed, by Counts Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Nikita Petrovich Panin, and Admiral de Ribas, with the alleged support of the British ambassador in Saint Petersburg, Charles Whitworth.

[52] Paul's correspondence with his parents-in-law, Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, and Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, written between 1776 and 1797, is also preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart.

[53] Paul and Sophie had ten children; nine survived to adulthood (and from whom can be traced 30 legitimate grandchildren): Formerly engaged with King Gustav IV of Sweden