Paul I of Russia (Last Offical Grand Master) Paul was son of Emperor Peter III of Russia, nephew and anointed heir of the Empress Elizabeth (second- eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great), and Catherine II, born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, daughter of a minor German prince, who married into the Russian Romanov dynasty and subsequently deposed Paul's father, Peter III, to take the Russian throne and become Catherine the Great. While Catherine hinted in the first edition of her memoirs published by Herzen that her lover Sergei Saltykov was Paul's biological father, she later recanted and asserted in the final edition that Peter III was Paul's true father. Paul was taken almost immediately after birth by the Empress Elizabeth, and had limited contact with his mother. As a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking, but sickly. It is believed he cultivated a great interest in and love of heraldry and chivalric stories – including those of the Order of St John – during his youth. This interest continued into his adulthood and his reign as Tsar. Tsar Paul I’s first contact with the Order itself came in 1796, shortly after he assumed the throne. The Order of St John at the time had established priories in the various Catholic nations in Europe. These priories contained large estates that generated their own revenue, which was transferred back to the Order. The Priory of Poland had long fallen into disrepair and had not given any of its revenue to the Order for a century. The Order approached Paul about this Priory, as it was now on Russian land. As Paul knew of the Order and admired their long chivalric history, he decided to move the Priories of Poland to St. Petersburg in January 1797 to ensure they would be maintained. As a sign of gratitude, the Order gave him the title of a Protector of the Order in August of that same year. Tsar Paul I was delighted to be recognised by one of the organisations he had so idealised as a child, and was eager to maintain a positive relationship with the Order of St John. He did not have to wait long for another opportunity to work alongside the Order. General Napoleon Bonaparte had become a well-established military figure in France by the end of the eighteenth century. In June 1798, Napoleon was sent by the French government to take control of Egypt, so as to protect France’s trading interests in the Mediterranean. As the island of Malta was on Napoleon’s route, it was decided he would capture it too, despite the neutrality of the Order of St John, who had occupied the island since 1530, almost three hundred years ago. Betraying the Order, the weak and hesitating Grand Master, the German Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, pressured by some of the French Knight, capitulated the Islands to Napoleon giving up the heritage of glory and blood of the Knights without fighting, in exchange for a promise never kept: to welcome the Knights in France in accordance with their rank. Tsar Paul I was reportedly furious at the news of Napoleon taking over the islands of the Order with such apparent ease and speed. He orderd the Russian Imperial Navy, to send ships flying the flag of the Order of St John, to the Mediterranean to help protect the Order’s interests, but was persuaded against the idea. While a number of the French knights of the Order had decided to join Napoleon and travel on to Egypt with the hope of keeping their lands in France, many others had fled to various other priories and protectorates of the Order. Some of these travelled to the Russian priories, seeking protection from the sympathetic Tsar. Emboldened by their anger towards Hompesch, the knights, supported by Tsar Paul I and the Priory of St Petersburg, declared that he had betrayed the Order by his surrender and should be deposed as Grand Master. Hompesch had relocated to Trieste in Italy upon leaving Malta, and had attempted to set up a new headquarters of the Order there. However, he accepted the ruling and abdicated his role as Grand Master in July 1799. Paul I of Russia was elected as Grand Master on 24 November 1798, This election resulted in the establishment of the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller. The election of the sovereign of an Orthodox nation as the head of a Catholic order was controversial, and it was some time before the Holy See or any of the Order's other priories approved it. He was de facto Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1799 to 1801 and ordered the construction of a number of priories of the Order of Malta