Maria Temryukovna: biography of the second wife of Ivan the Terrible

Maria Temryukovna was the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, and her reign was at one of the darkest periods in Russian history. There are a lot of white spots in her biography, which makes acquaintance with the life of this person only more fascinating.

The first marriage of Ivan the Terrible

Maria Temryukovna was born in Kabarda (Northern Caucasus) in 1544. She was the daughter of a local prince. Nothing foreshadowed that the girl would become the wife of the sovereign of all Russia, whose capital was thousands of kilometers from her native land. However, it happened.

At this time in Moscow, Ivan Vasilyevich IV ruled. In his youth he married Anastasia Zakharina-Yuryeva, who was the favorite of the people and the nobility. The union of the young couple was a symbol of a happy government. In the first years of his stay on the throne, Ivan Vasilyevich conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, conducted legislative and military reforms. In other words, the country flourished under Anastasia.

Searching for a new wife

However, in 1560 the Russian tsarina became seriously ill. The doctors could not lift her to her feet: Anastasia died at a blooming age. All historians note that this unexpected death caused the clouding of the mind of Ivan IV. He became suspicious of his associates. In Moscow, even there were rumors that Anastasia was poisoned. The king of the first marriage left two heirs - Ivan and Fyodor. Nevertheless, the title obliged the Tsar to marry again. In addition, Ivan Vasilievich was only 27 years old.

At first he wanted to connect his life with Catherine - the sister of the Polish king. However, Sigismund II August for his permission to marry demanded to give him Smolensk, Novgorod and Pskov. The Grand Duke of Moscow, of course, could not go on such a thing. Therefore, in the same year 1560 he sent an embassy to the Caucasus in order to find a new spouse in this strange and distant country.

The Baptism of Mary

Ambassadors arrived to the Kabardian prince Temryuk. He agreed to extradite his daughter to the Russian Tsar. Maria Temryukovna (real name Kuchenei) went to Moscow together with a large delegation and her brother Saltankul. In the capital they were met by Ivan the Terrible. After a short review (this custom came to Rus from Byzantium), the king agreed to marry a girl who at the time was 16 years old.

It was decided that she would pass the orthodox baptism rite and take the name Maria Temryukovna. This was an important detail, to which the Russian ambassadors persuaded the Kabardian prince. Mary was baptized by Metropolitan Macarius - the supreme person of the church. After this, as a sign of his consent to the marriage, Ivan gave the bride a handkerchief with pearls and a ring. The wedding took place on August 21, 1561.

The son of Maria Temryukovna

In 1563, Maria Temryukovna, the wife of Ivan the Terrible, became a mother. Tsarevich was named Basil in honor of his grandfather - the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III. The father of the newborn was at that time in the active army. There was the Livonian War against the German knights in the Baltic and Lithuania. Ivan IV learned about the birth of the fourth son during his return from Polotsk.

However, the joy of his father was short-lived. The baby died only five weeks after the birth, apparently because of congenital poor health. Soon, in the Archangel Cathedral, her only child, Maria Temryukovna, was buried. Biography of Vasily Ioannovich was short-lived, and his unexpected death caused another repression at the court of the tsar.

Terrible received a denunciation of the wife of Prince Andrew Staritsky, Efrosinho. She was accused of malicious intent against the royal family. Princess was taken into custody, and several years later during the next mass opal the king ordered to drown her in the river.

Character

Approximate king hoped that his second marriage would be just as happy as the first. Anastasia was good at influencing her husband. After her death, Ivan the Terrible became a tyrant. He dealt with the approximate and commoners on a random whim. While some were tortured in the dungeons of the Kremlin, others hoped that Maria Temryukovna would voice her word for them. Unfortunately, photographs of documentary evidence of that era can not be imagined, but after studying some written sources, one can make a conclusion that it was unlikely that she could influence her husband and change his decisions.

In the people even the image of Maria Temryukovna, a gloomy and suspicious woman, was fixed. Over time, the residents of the capital began in an undertone to accuse her of a bad influence on the tsar. Perhaps it was an attempt by the people to justify Grozny for his own terror. Anyway, but the sovereign and the Grand Duke treated his second wife more and more indifferently every year. At the same time, he defiantly revered Anastasia's memory.

Death

Tsarina Maria Temryukovna died in 1569 in the Moscow suburb of Alexandrov. The circumstances of her departure from life are unknown. The wife of Ivan the Terrible had just returned from Vologda and, perhaps, had fallen seriously ill on the road. On the other hand, rumors of poisoning have spread again. Whatever it was, his wife's death aggravated Ivan Vasilyevich's paranoia even more. He used this event as an excuse for another wave of terror against the retinue.

The Tsaritsa was buried in the Ascension Monastery. The people's memory of her was not at all as good as about Anastasia. Nevertheless, in Nalchik, in the historical homeland, in 1957 a monument to Maria Temryukovna was erected. The opening ceremony of the monument was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the annexation of the Kabardin principality to Russia.