Maria Temryukovna was the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, and her reign fell on one of the darkest periods in Russian history. In her biography there are many white spots, which makes acquaintance with the life of this person only more exciting.
The first marriage of Ivan the Terrible
Maria Temryukovna was born in Kabarda (North Caucasus) in 1544. She was the daughter of a local prince. Nothing foreshadowed the fact that the girl would become the wife of the sovereign of all Russia, whose capital was thousands of kilometers from her native land. However, this happened.
At this time, in Moscow, Ivan IV. In his youth, he married Anastasia Zakharyina-Yurieva, who was a favorite of the people and nobles. The union of the young couple was a symbol of happy rule. In the first years of his throne, Ivan Vasilievich conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, and carried out legislative and military reforms. In other words, the country flourished under Anastasia.
Search for a new wife
However, in 1560, the Russian queen became seriously ill. Doctors could not raise her to her feet: Anastasia died at a flourishing age. All historians note that this unexpected death caused the clouding of the mind of Ivan IV. He became suspicious of his close associates. There were even rumors in Moscow that Anastasia had been poisoned. The king left two heirs from his first marriage - Ivan and Fedor. Nevertheless, the title obliged the sovereign 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 Augustus, for his permission to marry, demanded that Smolensk, Novgorod and Pskov be ceded to him. The Grand Duke of Moscow, of course, could not do this. Therefore, in the same 1560, he sent an embassy to the Caucasus in order to find a new spouse in this outlandish and distant country.
Baptism of mary
Ambassadors arrived at the Kabardian prince Temryuk. He agreed to marry his daughter for the Russian Tsar. Maria Temryukovna (real name Kucheni) went to Moscow with a large delegation and her brother Saltankul. In the capital, Ivan the Terrible met them. After a brief brief (this custom came to Russia from Byzantium), the tsar agreed to marry a girl who at that time was 16 years old.
It was decided that she would undergo the rite of Orthodox baptism 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 that, as a sign of his consent to the marriage, Ivan presented the bride with a scarf with a pearl 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 Vasily in honor of his grandfather - the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III. The father of the newborn at that time was in the army. There was a Livonian war against the German knights in the Baltic states and Lithuania. Ivan IV found out about the birth of his fourth son during his return from Polotsk.
However, the joy of his father was short-lived. The baby died only five weeks after birth, apparently due to congenital poor health. Soon, Maria Temryukovna buried her only child in the Archangel Cathedral. The biography of Vasily Ioannovich was short-lived, and his unexpected death caused yet another repression at the court of the tsar.
Grozny received a denunciation of the wife of Prince Andrei Staritsky, Efrosinho. She was accused of malicious intent against the royal family. The princess was taken into custody, and a few years later during the next mass disgrace, the king ordered to drown her in the river.
Character
The king's close associates hoped that his second marriage would be as happy as the first. Anastasia was able to beneficially influence her husband. After her death, Ivan the Terrible became a tyrant. He cracked down on close people and commoners on a whim accidentally arising. While some were tortured in the dungeons of the Kremlin, others hoped that Maria Temryukovna would put in her own word for them. Unfortunately, it is impossible to imagine photos of documentary evidence of that era, but, having studied some written sources, it can be concluded that it was unlikely that she could influence her husband and change his decisions.
The people even entrenched the image of Maria Temryukovna - a gloomy and suspicious woman. Over time, the inhabitants of the capital began in an undertone to accuse her of evil influence on the king. Perhaps this was an attempt by the people to justify Grozny for their own terror. One way or another, but the emperor and the grand duke treated his second wife every year more and more indifferently. At the same time, defiantly honored the memory of Anastasia.
Death
Tsarina Maria Temryukovna died in 1569 in the Alexandrov settlement near Moscow . The circumstances of her passing away are unknown. The wife of Grozny has just returned from Vologda and may have become seriously ill on the road. On the other hand, rumors of poisoning were spreading again. Be that as it may, the death of his wife exacerbated Ivan Vasilievich’s paranoia even more. He used this event as an occasion for another wave of terror against the retinue.
The Queen was buried in the Ascension Monastery. The people's memory of her was not at all as kind as that of Anastasia. Nevertheless, in Nalchik, in its historical homeland, in 1957 a monument to Maria Temryukovna was erected. The opening ceremony of the monument was timed to the 400th anniversary of the annexation of the Kabardian principality to Russia.