Maria Feodorovna Nagaya

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“Tsarina Marfa exposes the false Dmitri”, color lithograph after a drawing by V. Babushkin, mid-19th century

Marija Fjodorovna Nagaja ( Russian Мария Фёдоровна Нагая ; * February 8, 1553 ; † July 20, 1612 ) was the seventh and last wife of Ivan IV the Terrible and from 1580–1584 Tsarina of Russia .

Life

Marija Nagaja was a daughter of Fyodor Fjodorowitsch Nagoi and a niece of Afanassi Nagoi, who among other things acted as the Russian envoy at the court of the Crimean Khan. Afanassi Nagoi successfully brokered the marriage of his niece to Tsar Ivan IV. The couple's wedding was celebrated in September 1580. Around the same time, Ivan's mentally retarded son Fyodor married Irina Godunova , sister of Ivan's powerful confidante Boris Godunov . Ivan IV's marriage to Marija Nagaja was not very important, and since he was seeking a military alliance with England to strengthen his position in the Livonian War , he sought the hand of Mary Hastings, a relative of Queen Elizabeth I. The Russian envoy to London , Pissemsky, declared that the tsar would leave his wife Marija Nagaja to make this marriage possible. But Elizabeth I refused the Tsar's request.

After the tsar had slain his son and heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich , in emotion in November 1581 , over which he fell into extreme mourning, Marija Nagaja gave birth to another son, Dmitri , on October 19, 1582 . Nevertheless, Ivan IV did not recover and died on March 18, 1584 at the age of 54 in Moscow .

Now Ivan's son Fyodor ascended the throne. Since he was incapable of governing, however, according to the last will of his father, he was assisted by a regency council, the most powerful member of which was Boris Godunov as the new tsar's brother-in-law. Godunov feared the influence of Marija Nagaja at court and instigated Tsar Fyodor I to remove her and her son Dmitri from Moscow and banish them to the city ​​of Uglich on the Volga . The Tsar's widow and her son lived there under the supervision of the boyar Bitjagowski appointed by Godunov , with whom Marija Nagaja was in constant dispute. In 1587, Godunov dissolved the Regency Council and from then on acted as sole regent for the Tsar.

When Dmitri died of a stab wound in the neck in May 1591, accused his mother Marija Nagaja Bitjagowski of murder, whereupon he and several of his followers were killed by an excited crowd. In the background was the rumor that the alleged murder of Dmitri was ordered by Godunov. An investigative commission sent to the scene by Godunov, under the leadership of Gelassi, the metropolitan of Krutitsa, and the boyar Vasily Shuiski , came to the conclusion that Dmitri had stabbed himself in the throat during an epileptic fit and arrived died as a result of the injury caused. Therefore, his mother was wrong to accuse Bitjagowski of a murder and incite the people to be slaughtered. As a result, Marija Nagaja was put in a monastery as a nun Marfa ; other members of her family had to go into exile.

After the death of Fjodor I in January 1598 Godunow was able to assert himself as the new ruler; his coronation as tsar took place on September 1, 1598. But after a while there were rumors that Marija Nagaja's son was not dead, but was still living in hiding from Godunov. In fact, a fake Dmitri soon pretended to be the son of the Tsar's widow and in 1603 gained considerable support in Poland from the magnates there. Godunov had Marija Nagaja brought from her monastery to Moscow for questioning. However, she refused to confirm the death of her son, whereupon the Russian Church declared that the pretender was in fact the dismissed monk Grigory Otrepiev.

With the help of Polish nobles, the fake Dmitri raised an army and invaded Russia in 1604. After Godunov's death on April 13, 1605, the Russian troops passed over to the usurper; Godunov's son Fyodor and wife were murdered on June 10, 1605. Ten days later, the fake Dmitri entered Moscow and was crowned tsar the following day. He had Maria Nagaja brought to Moscow, who recognized him as her son. The family members of the Tsar's widow were also restored to their dignity and they got their confiscated property back. After the fake Dmitri was murdered in a revolt on May 17, 1606, Marija Nagaja declared that she had been forced to recognize the impostor as her son. She lived as a nun again and died six years later.

literature

  • Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Rußlands , Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 1999, ISBN 3-7917-1652-2 , p. 31 ff.
  • Maria Nagaia , in: Anne Commire (Ed.): Women in World History, Vol. 10 (2001), ISBN 0-7876-4069-7 , pp. 332-334.

Remarks

  1. Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Russlands , p. 31 f.
  2. Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Russlands , p. 33.
  3. Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Russlands , pp. 36–39.
  4. Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Russlands , p. 39.
  5. Maria Nagaia in Anne Commire (ed.): Women in World History, Vol. 10, p.333.
  6. Detlef Jena: Die Zarinnen Russlands , p. 42 ff.