EMPEROR NICHOLAS I

Alois Gustav Rockstuhl. Portrait of Emperor Nicholas I. Watercolour on paper. 13x10,3 Nicholas I Pavlovich (1796-1855) - Emperor from 1825.

Third son of Emperor Paul I (1754-1801) and Empress Maria Fyodorovna (1759-1828). Came to the throne following the death of his elder brother, Emperor Alexander I (1777-1825) and as a result of the abdication of the second-eldest son of Emperor Paul I, Grand Duke Constantine (1779-1831). Married (1817) to Prussian Princess Frederica Luisa Charlotte Wilhelmina (1798-1860) who, after her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, became Alexandra Fyodorovna. They had 7 children, including the future Emperor Alexander II (1818-1881). During this period Tzarskoje Selo saw the completion of new interiors in the Catherine and Alexander Palaces, and an increase in the number of pavilions in the Catherine and Alexander Parks.