Pavel | Petrovich

Yes, the life of Tsarevich Paul, Catherine's son, didn't start out well. First, there was the conspiracy and murder of his father when he was little, then a thirst for power that never materialized, with his mother on the throne. Although he had a wife, Natalia, she died along with the child she never carried to term, and it wasn't even Paul's.

So, at the age of 17, he had accumulated so much psychological trauma that it would take five years to clear it up. He was in a terrible state: he didn't care about anything, he just wanted to drown out all the pain that had accumulated over time. And to drown out this pain, he found alcohol, especially wine. A week of this binge passed. Pavel became cold towards people and considered many to be liars and other scoundrels.

Here the Empress found him in such a terrible state and reminded him that he still had his main candidate for a wife: the Prussian princess. She had long desired this marriage, largely to strengthen relations between Prussia and the Russian Empire. The Tsarevich was not in his best form, as they say now—"a bit tipsy." Therefore, his thinking was not very clear.

He quickly packed him up and seated him in a carriage with an escort, and set off for Prussia to meet his fiancée. The journey was long, and he even fell asleep on the way, mostly due to the alcohol, but they finally rocked him out of the carriage and he looked at the foreign country. All these castles and facades were significantly different from Russia. You, your servants, and the other guests greeting the guests immediately noticed the oddities in Pavel's behavior, but he noticed you, and it was clear from his expression that he was attracted to you.