“ He began by repealing Catherine’s law which exempted the free classes of the population of Russia from corporal punishment and mutilation. Nobody could feel himself safe from exile or brutal ill-treatment at any moment. If Russia had possessed any political institution except the tsardom he would have been put under restraint. But the country was not sufficiently civilized to deal with Paul as the Portuguese had dealt with Alphonso VI., a very similar person, in 1667. In Russia as in medieval Europe there was no safe prison for a deposed ruler. ”

“ Her dissolute court was a bad home for a boy who was to be the sovereign, but Catherine took great trouble to arrange his first marriage with Wilhelmina of Darmstadt, who was renamed in Russia Nathalie Alexéevna, in 1773. She allowed him to attend the council in order that he might be trained for his work as emperor. His tutor Poroshin complained of him that he was “always in a hurry,” acting and speaking without thinking. After his first marriage he began to engage in intrigues. ”

“ During his infancy he was taken from the care of his mother by the empress Elizabeth, whose ill-judged fondness is believed to have injured his health. As a boy he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking. ”