Constantine Paulovitch

Constantine Paulovitch, the second son of the Czar Paul I., was born in 1779. He adopted the military profession with much zeal, served in Italy in 1799, and greatly distinguished himself at Austerlitz in 1805. At the conclusion of the war he was appointed commander-in-chief in Poland, and started the repressive system that has been pursued with more or less consistency ever since. In 1820, though he had very early in life been married to Princess Juliana of Saxe-Coburg, he was permitted by the Greek Church to take a Polish lady as his wife on condition that he resigned all claim to the throne. This obligation he most honourably fulfilled, insisting on the succession of Nicholas, his younger brother, and turning a deaf ear to all remonstrances. His despotic and cruel policy brought about an insurrection in Poland in 1830, and he fled the country. The Czar appears to have felt that his brother was in fault, since he deprived him of all his offices and sent him into retreat at Bialystok, where he died of cholera in 1831.