In Russia, however, he was known (by name only, for he avoided Slavonic society) as Prince Pavlo Alexis.

This plain was his; half the Government of Tver was his; the great Volga rolled through his possessions; sixty miles behind him a grim stone castle bore his name, and a tract of land as vast as Yorkshire was peopled by humble-minded persons who cringed at the mention of his Excellency.
All this because thirty years earlier a certain Princess Natasha Alexis had fallen in love with plain Mr.Howard of the British Embassy in St.
Petersburg.

With Slavonic enthusiasm (for the Russian is the most romantic race on earth) she informed Mr.Howard of the fact, and duly married him.

Both these persons were now dead, and Paul Howard Alexis owed it to his mother's influence in high regions that the responsibilities of princedom were his.

At the time when this title was accorded to him he had no say in the matter.