The fragment of the portrait of Emperor Paul I by Vladimir Borovikovsky, 1800. It shows him wearing the robes of the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller and the collar of the Order. The reason of this unusual details for the appearance of the Emperor of All Russia was that the Knights of St John gave him the title of a Protector of the Order in 1797, and, subsequently, the Priory of Saint Petersburg elected Paul Grand Master of the Order in 1798 after the French occupation of Malta. These events resulted in the establishment of the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller.