ABSTRACT
The relations between Russia and England during the years immediately following upon the death of Catherine the Great depended mainly upon personal factors. Instigated by Napoleon, the Tsar revived the Armed Neutrality, consisting of Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, to frustrate England's command of the sea. Paul Rohrbach's successor on the throne was his eldest son, Alexander, christened by the most discerning of his biographers the 'Enigmatic Tsar', and by Napoleon, who rightly regarded him as a consummate actor, 'the northern Talma', or 'the northern Sphinx'. The relations between Russia and England, though so far improved as to permit their temporary co-operation in second and third Coalitions, were none too good. With Napoleon's expedition to Russia, the disastrous retreat from Moscow, the ensuing War of German liberation, Napoleon's first abdication and final defeat at Waterloo the narrative is not concerned. Alexander's ambitious project of The Holy Alliance lamentably failed, indeed, to fulfil the lofty ideals set forth in its Articles.
