PAUL I: (1754-1801) Emperor of Russia 1796-1801. Assassinated.

L.S., Paul, as Emperor, one page, 4to, Gatchina, 6th October 1797, to Lieutenant General [Christoph von] Benckendorff, in French. The Emperor states 'I authorize you, according to your letter of 2nd October, to make the expenses you will judge are necessary´ and further adds `the money will be returned to you later, and based on the memoirs you will send me. ´ With blank integral leaf. Some very light, minor creasing and age wear and with a small area of paper loss to the integral leaf, VG

Christoph von Benckendorff (1749-1823) Baltic Baron, General and Military Governor of Livonia, Estonia.

Emperor Paul I, son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, had a relatively short reign over Russia. Overshadowed by his mother (who had suggested his father may actually have been her lover Sergei Saltykov) for much of his life, Paul I's reign lasted five years ending with his assassination by conspirators. His most important achievement was the adoption of the laws of succession to the Russian throne - rules that remained until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire.