In March 1801, a band of dismissed military nobles, spurred on by alcohol, charged into Paul I’s bed chamber at St Michael's Castle, where they found the terrified Emperor cowering in fear behind the curtains. The rebels tried to force his abdication but he refused so they stabbed him with a sword before brutally strangling and trampling him to death.

Paul's successor, his 23-year-old son Alexander (pictured), was present in the palace during the assassination. While he had given his consent for the deposal of his father, he had not expected him to be murdered. Alexander was Emperor of Russia from 1801 until his death in 1825. Ruling during the times of the Napoleonic Wars, he gained territory in Poland and Finland as part of the winning coalition against Napoleon. This made him the first King of 'Congress Poland', as it was known, from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 until his death.

The rise and fall of Russia's ruling House of Romanov