Alexander I of Russia

1777–1825

Alexander I ruled Russia from 1801 to 1825 and was one of the central monarchs of the Napoleonic era. His reign began with cautious reform but became dominated by war with France, the invasion of Russia in 1812 and the coalition campaigns that ended with the occupation of Paris. Alexander played a major role at the Congress of Vienna and promoted the Holy Alliance, although his later government became increasingly conservative and suspicious of political opposition.

Alexander is a significant historical character in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which contrasts the emperor’s public image with the confused realities of command and court society. He also appears in modern Napoleonic sagas, including novels that follow Napoleon, Wellington and the allied coalitions across Europe. Fiction tends to focus on the tension between Alexander’s youthful idealism, his rivalry with Napoleon and his later conviction that he had a providential mission in European affairs.

In C. S. Forester’s Commodore Hornblower, in 1812 Hornblower commands a small British squadron sent to the Baltic to influence Sweden and Russia against Napoleon. In Julian Stockwin’s The Baltic Prize, Russia has invaded Finland, Denmark remains hostile and the Russian fleet at St Petersburg threatens the narrow sea routes on which the campaign depends. Other novels featuring Alexander I of Russia include Julian Stockwin’s Thunderer.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Alexander I of Russia

Napoleonic Era 1798–1815 CE

Series

Series featuring Alexander I of Russia (2 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2

Thunderer

4.4

Yankee Mission

4.3

Sea of Treason

4.2

Admiral

4.4

Hornblower Saga in Order

by C. S. Forester 12 books 4.3

The Horatio Hornblower novels follow a Royal Navy officer from his first service as a midshipman during the French Revolutionary Wars to senior command after the defeat of Napoleon. The books combine shipboard life, naval combat, intelligence work, diplomacy and the practical burdens of command with Hornblower’s private…

All books in this series