text: Maria Feodorovna kept voluminous diaries that recorded her life in detail, but her son Nicholas I burned all these volumes after her death according to her last wishes. Even most of the letters she wrote have not survived since she usually requested that they be burnt. The relationship between Paul and Catherine Nelidova, one of Maria's ladies-in-waiting, was the cause of the first crack in their marriage during those years. The intense liaison was particularly painful for Maria, as the other woman had been her friend. Although Paul said that his relations with Nelidova were only platonic, Maria's own relationship with Nelidova became very bitter for several years. However, she eventually joined forces with her former friend in an attempt to moderate her husband's increasingly neurotic temperament.
  Empress of Russia
  After twenty years in the shadows, the death of Catherine II in 1796 allowed Maria Feodorovna to have a prominent role as Empress consort. During Catherine's lifetime, Maria had no chance of interfering in affairs of state, as Paul himself was excluded, but after her husband's accession to the throne, she took to politics, at first timidly, but increasingly resolutely afterwards.
  Her influence over her husband was very great, and in general beneficial. Even so, it is possible that she abused it in order to help her friends or hurt her enemies.
  Although the imperial couple wasn't as close as they once had been, there remained a good deal of respect, dependence and warmth between them. Their relationship suffered further in the last years of Paul's life. After Maria gave birth to her tenth and last child in 1798, Paul became infatuated with 19-year-old Anna Lopukhina and lied to his wife that the relationship was of a paternal nature. Paul was Emperor for exactly four years, four months, and four days. He was murdered on 12 March 1801.