Tzar Ivan IV the Terrible

[gem_10]

Ivan was a cruel and metally unstable young man even before he became a tsar at the age of 17. But after marrying Anastasia Romanovna, she was the only one capable of calming his furies. This is quite interesting actually. But why did Anastasia died at a very early age? It was also said that after she died, Ivan became even more ruthless. Any portraits of Anastasia? Thanks!

[olga]

Shall we list the wives?

Spouse 1) Anastasia Romanovna Zaharina-Yurieva (1530 - 7.8.1560)
Married: 13 February 1547, Moskva

Spouse 2) Maria Temrukovna (? - 6.9.1569)
Married: 21 August 1561, Moskva

Spouse 3) Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina (? - 13.11.1571)
Married: 28 October 1571

Spouse 4) Anna Alexeevna Koltovskaya (? - 5.4.1626)
Married: 28 April 1572
Divorced: September 1572

Spouse 5) Anna Grigorievna Vasilchikova (? - 1577)
Married: 1574
Divorced: 1575

Spouse 6) Vasilisa Melentievna Ivanova
Married: ABT 1579

Spouse 7) Maria Fyodorovna Nagaya (? - 20.7.1612)
Married: 6 September 1580

Children (1st Marriage):
Anna Ivanovna, Grand Duchess of Russia (b. 10.8.1549)
Maria Ivanovna, Grand Duchess of Russia (b. 17.3.1551)
Ivan Ivanovich, TSAREVICH (b. 28.3.1554) (killed by his father)
Evdokia Ivanovna, Grand Duchess of Russia (b. 28.2.1556)
Fyodor I Ivanovich, TSAR OF RUSSIA (b. 31.5.1557)

Children (2nd Marriage):
Vasili Ivanovich, Grand Duke of Russia (b. 21.3.1563)

Children (7th Marriage):
Dmitri Ivanovich, Grand Duke of Russia (b. 19.10.1582)

[helenazar]

Any portraits of Anastasia?

Hi Lunarmaiden,

Here is one image of Anastasia Romanovna (I think it's a contemporary effigy):



And here is a more modern rendition, by Ivan Repin, of Anastasia's death:

[gem_10]

Darth Olga, thanks for those infos about Ivan's wives. Helen thanks also for the images! Where can that effigy of Anastasia be seen?

[helenazar]

I am not sure where this effigy is, I suppose it would be in Moscow...

I just wanted to add that recently some tests were done on the remains of Anastasia Romanovna and there is reason to suspect that she died of mercury poisoning... (as well as Ivan's mother, Elena Glinskaya).

[hikaru]

About Anastasiya dead, I heard that she have just
tired of the giving birth to childen,
as for mercury poisoning - maybe it it true , because that times there were bloody intrigues about Tsar's wives. Till Peter the Great the wives were chosen from the aristocracy girls so very hard competion was take place: usually Iwan choose the bride from 2000 candidates.
As for mercury poisoning - maybe it occured because of the medicine - in ointment they used mercury.
There is beatiful romantic story of the 3rd wife of the Iwan - the real story of russian sleeping beaty.
She was poisoned in 2 weeks after marriage.in 1960 year Soviet scholar Gerasimov invented the way to
restore the people face by using their skulls.
So the coffins of the family of the Iwan the Terrible was
open. When they opened the coffin of the Marfa,
16 old beaty was looke like alive but sleeping.
Because of oxygen has entered in the coffine the sleeping beaty transfered to the ashes.
Nobody knows till now what kind of poison was used to kill her.

[RomanovFan]

Whoa!   I didn't realize Ivan had been married so many times! So he had 7 kids from two different wives? Jeez!

[ilyala]

actually he had 8 children...


six from anastasia romanova (anna - 1548, maria - 1551, dmitri - 1552, ivan - 1554, evdokia - 1556, feodor - 1557), one son from maria temriukovna, his second wife (vasili - 1563) and another one from maria nagaia (dmitri - 1582)....

so eight kids out of which five were boys.....

his oldest son, dmitri, drowned before he turned one (apparently he was dropped in the river by his nanny  )

feodor was retarded, vasili died young and dmitri was the result of the seventh marriage which was not considered by the church (the orthodox church only allows three marriages).... and the tsar apparently caused ivan's death (the only one left who could qualify as an heir) when he kicked him with an iron (ivan jumped in the defence of his wife who was pregnant but was not wearing according clothes - or so the tsar thought)....

basically after he died there were two boys left: feodor and dmitri... feodor was tsar for 15 years but he was basically no good because he was retarded. dmitri died in 1591 (official version was that he had epilepsy, but there were many rumours of murder and even more rumours of him not being dead - there were three false dmitris and two of them actually ruled russia... now dmitri is a saint...)...

feodor only had a daughter, that led to a succesion crisis, civil war and there came the romanovs ...

does anyone get the feeling ivan the terrible sounds a lot like henry viii? just like him, he was obsessed with the succession, had many wives, fights with the church and in the end all that for nothing... there was still no proper heir...  :-/

[hikaru]

All marriages of Ivan the Terrible were officially made in church and approved by the Church
Actually only 3 marriages are allowed in Russia by the Orthodox religion.
But he was the Tsar of Russia, and Church was not in power to make any instructions to him.

[ilyala]

he requested a dispense for marrying the fourth time... and he got a divorce... after that it was practically illegal as far as the church was concerned

[hikaru]

There were no divorces till Peter the Great.
Divorce system did not exist.

[ilyala]

divorce is the modern term... he threw her out... basically the marriage was ended without any of them dying

[hikaru]

Divorse is not modern term. It was not allowed.
The wife could not be threw out. In Russia, if the Tsar wanted the new wife , he had to clear up the deal with the previous wife.
Theorethically , it was not possible to threw wives out.
Practically there were only  2 ways  to "Clear up connection with previouse wife": to kill her or to include to the Monastery ( in this case Tsar had to pay an enormous amout of the Money to the Monastery).

[ilyala]

Divorse is not modern term. It was not allowed.
The wife could not be threw out. In Russia, if the Tsar wanted the new wife , he had to clear up the deal with the previous wife.
Theorethically , it was not possible to threw wives out.
Practically there were only  2 ways  to "Clear up connection with previouse wife": to kill her or to include to the Monastery ( in this case Tsar had to pay an enormous amout of the Money to the Monastery).

and you don't think shutting her into a monastery is anything like throwing someone out? it's even worse! i'm pretty sure not all of them had nunnery vocation!

anna koltovskaia was sent to the monastery because she didn't give birth to any babies... vasilisa melentievna was believed to have commited adultery (i'm sure she was dying to go to the monastery...) and so she was sent to the monastery too...

excuse me for using modern terms. fine, he didn't throw them out, he shut them into a monastery. so much better

[hikaru]

Solomoniya Saburova etc.
They could live variously freely at the Monastery.
They just could not go outside.
Some of them had no necessity to wear the Nun's close.
Of course , it was not normal thing.