Tsars Romanovs - an ancient Moscow boyar clan. Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla - the first mentioned ancestor of the future royal dynasty. He lived in the XIV century and served the great Vladimir and Moscow prince Simeon the Proud, the eldest son of Ivan Kalita. Andrey Kobyla, together with Alexei Bosovolkov, served as a mediator in the marriage between the Moscow prince and Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of the Tver prince. The embassy was successful.
Chronicles are no longer mentioned about Andrei Kobyl, but it is known that his descendants continued to serve the princes of Moscow. His sons became the ancestors of famous families, and the tsars of the Romanov family came from Fedor Koshka. The surname itself was inherited from the great-great-grandson of Andrei Kobyla - Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, a fairly well-known okolnichy and governor. His daughter, Anastasia Romanovna, became the first and most beloved wife of Ivan IV the Terrible.
It is widely known that Anastasia always restrained her husband with her kind and gentle disposition. It was with her death that the Chosen Council was dissolved and the king’s distrust of the boyars was aggravated. Anastasia Yuryevna’s nephew was Fedor Nikitich Romanov, an important person in Russian history. It was he who took an active part in politics in the Time of Troubles, was forcibly tonsured a monk by Boris Godunov.
When did the rule of the Romanovs begin? What was it like? How long did it last? You will find answers to all these questions in the article.
The election of Mikhail Fedorovich to the kingdom
The period in history when the reign of the Romanovs began was complex and bloody. In Russia, from the end of the 16th century the devastating, exhausting Troubles raged. The son of Ivan the Terrible, Fedor, died childless, his brother Dmitry died in Uglich, another one, Ivan Ivanovich, died while his father was still alive. The Rurikovich dynasty was cut short, a dynastic crisis arose. Then came a frequent change of power, the clans of Godunov and Shuisky could not hold the throne. It is worth noting that the people did not like the new kings, not only because of their unsuccessful policies, but because Godunov and Shuisky were elected rulers who did not inherit the throne.
The same consequences were feared at the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, at which the question of the monarch once again sharply arose. It was necessary to choose a person who would not tarnish his own name during the Time of Troubles. It is worth paying tribute to the Cossacks, who played a decisive role in the election of Mikhail Romanov. Not only did they have a numerical superiority, the Cossacks remained incorruptible. Prince Trubetskoy, wanting to get the throne, did not skimp, rolled up feasts to find support among the Cossacks. They, in turn, did not refuse gifts, but also did not side with the prince.
The decisive role in the choice of Mikhail Fedorovich was also played by the absence of a candidate for the throne in Moscow, as this could turn into a catastrophe and disrupt the Zemsky Cathedral. The boyars, on the other hand, accepted Romanov’s candidacy, since they believed that he was young (at that time the boy was 16 years old) and would become a “pocket king”, a puppet in their hands. When it was decided to ask Mikhail Fedorovich to take over the administration, they remembered his kinship with the Rurikovich dynasty, because his father, Patriarch Filaret, was a cousin to Tsar Fedor Ivanovich.
Legend of the origin of the dynasty
What was the coat of arms of the Romanov clan? Before we talk about this, let's find out the legend about the origin of the dynasty.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the version about the arrival of the Varangians in Russia, set forth in The Tale of Bygone Years, was no longer quoted and in no way strengthened Russia's international authority. At the same time, the theory “Moscow is the Third Rome” appears, strengthening the country's position as the center of Orthodoxy. It was necessary to come up with a legend about the genealogy of the ruling dynasty. The Roman emperor Augustus is widely known. According to legend, his relative, Prus, was sent to Europe to develop land and create a state. So he became king of Prussia, and it was once inhabited by Slavs.
The descendants of Prus began to expand their territory in the east, and so were the Russian lands. So there was a dynasty of Rurikovich. But how is this legend related to the Romanovs? Very simple. In 1722, Peter I also decided to affirm the legitimacy of his power by “enriching” the genealogy. The emperor ordered the development of this version to the heraldmeister Stepan Andreyevich Kolychev. Now it has become customary to believe that during the existence of the Roman Empire (373 or 305), the king of Prussia Pruteno transferred the kingdom to his brother Veidevut, and he himself went to the pagan city of Romanov, where he was revered as the high priest. The settlement was located on the banks of Dubissa and Nevyaz, where an amazing oak tree grew. Before his death, Weidevut divided the kingdom into several parts.
One of his sons, Nedron, began to reign in the Zhmud lands (the territory of modern Lithuania). Centuries later, in the 13th century, a descendant of Nedron, Gland Kambil, came to Russia, where he began to serve the first Moscow prince, Daniil Alexandrovich. There he adopted Christianity, and his former name became a nickname - Mare. Naturally, these versions are not a reality; numerous attempts by historians to verify their reliability have been futile. Nevertheless, many rulers of the Romanov dynasty were truly great, the discussion of the most significant of them will go below.
The Board of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov
Mikhail Fedorovich ruled from 1613 to 1645. He performed a very difficult task - he stabilized the situation in a country devastated after the Time of Troubles. Disputes over the rulers ceased. "Ivashka Vorenok", the son of False Dmitry II, who could take advantage of the dissatisfied with the accession of the new monarch, was executed. Foreign claimants to the Russian throne are eliminated. First of all, Mikhail’s foreign policy was successful. In 1617, the Stolbovsky Peace Treaty was concluded with Sweden, according to which Novgorod was returned to Russia. In 1618, the Deulinsky Treaty was signed with Poland, which allowed to establish the situation inside due to the absence of danger from the outside. However, in the Smolensk War (1632-1634), Russia was defeated.
Alexey Mikhailovich
During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, many important events took place, but this king is in the shadow of his son, Peter the Great. Although Alexey Mikhailovich himself was nicknamed the Quietest, the century of his reign was called the "rebel." For this time period (1645-1676) there were several significant popular discontent: Salt Riot (1648), Copper Riot (1662) and the Peasant War led by Stepan Razin (1670-1671). As a result of the first event, a code of laws was adopted - the Council Code (1649), according to which serfdom was legally formalized. The reforms of Patriarch Nikon, who wanted to harmonize church rites and books with Greek originals, are famous. And although the reform measures were insignificant (crossbreeding was established by triple-finger, spelling of the name Jesus, etc.), they also caused a lot of discontent among the people.
Peter I Alekseevich
Everyone knows the first Russian emperor, the great reformer and talented commander - Peter I Alekseevich. The first independent steps of the tsar were the Azov campaigns, thanks to which Russia gained access to the Sea of ​​Azov, and the Great Embassy, ​​in which Peter himself took an active part. Russia adopted many European customs, and the Northern Union was formed for the war with Sweden. During the Northern War (1700-1721), Russia gained access to the Baltic Sea and received the status of an empire. A number of Peter's transformations contributed to the rapid development of capitalism in the country, education, culture, science, etc.
Catherine II Alekseevna
Peter I adopted a decree on succession to the throne, according to which the monarch himself appoints a successor, but the emperor did not have time to order on this score, which led to lengthy palace coups, during which applicants to the throne, relying on the guards, seized power. Most of them were incapable of rule, but this cannot be said of Catherine II, the wife of Peter III, the hated Russian people, the grandson of Peter I. Both Catherine’s foreign and domestic policies can be described as successful. She secularized church lands (1764), eliminated hetmanism in Ukraine (1764), carried out reform of the Senate (1763), provincial (1775), city (1785). The main result of foreign policy was to gain access to the Black Sea and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Alexander I Pavlovich
Alexander I is a rather controversial person in Russian history. The beginning of his reign was promising - the Secret Committee, which included the emperor’s close associates, adopted decrees on political amnesty (1801), the transformation of collegiums into ministries (1802), and free cultivators (1803). In 1812, Russia won a great victory in World War II, the international authority of the state strengthened. But in the second half of Alexander’s reign, the liberal attitude was replaced by a conservative one, which was one of the reasons for the Decembrist uprising in 1825.
Alexander II Nikolaevich
Alexander II was called the Liberator for the main reform carried out in 1861 - the abolition of serfdom. It was under Alexander II that the Romanov family coat of arms was created, which will be discussed below. By the time of his reign, many transformations had been carried out: judicial (1864), zemstvo (1864), urban (1870), military (1861-1874) and other reforms. Nevertheless, the great converter was killed in 1881 by the democratic leader A. I. Zhelyabov.
Last Romanov
The reign of Nicholas II had a difficult time. A lot of blood was shed during the tragedy on the Khodynsky field (1894), in the Russian-Japanese war (1904-1905), in the revolution (1905-1907), in the First World War (1914-1918) and in the February Revolution (1917). However, during the reign of Nicholas there was a large population growth, taxes were one of the lowest in Europe, about 80% of arable land was in the hands of peasants. Unfortunately, the lack of a firm hand of the sovereign, failure in foreign policy and the strong influence of the elder Grigory Rasputin led to the overthrow of the emperor in March 1917 and the execution of him and his family the following summer. This was the last Romanov, the dynasty ceased to exist.
Founder of the Russian Archaeological Society
Bernhard Vasilievich Kene - a major heraldist of the Russian Empire, founder of the Russian Archaeological Society. On his initiative, streamlining of herbalism in Russia was carried out. In 1857, Baron Kene established the rules for decorating emblems. Bernhard became the creator of the second Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire and the family coat of arms of the Romanov dynasty.
Coat of arms of the Romanovs: history
With the coming to power in 1613, all the rulers from the Romanov dynasty used the state emblem, which depicts a double-headed eagle. But by the 60s of the XIX century, Alexander II wished to create a personal symbol. What has become the family coat of arms of the Romanov dynasty? The emblem of the Romanov boyars was taken as its basis. But there is also a symbol of the Gottorp-Holstein-Romanovs, since the direct male branch of the dynasty was cut short in 1730 with the death of the grandson of Peter I, Peter II, and the female branch in 1761 with the death of his daughter Elizabeth. The first representative of the Gottorp-Holstein-Romanov dynasty was Peter III. His mother, Anna, was the daughter of Peter the Great, and his father, Karl Friedrich, was the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Peter, apparently, did not manage to resolve the legal name of the dynasty, and his wife, Catherine II, did not draw attention to such a slippery issue, since her initial position on the throne was rather precarious.
Symbols of the coat of arms of the Gottorp-Holstein-Romanovs
What did the coat of arms of the Romanovs mean ? Its meaning is obvious: it is power and authority.
The shield was divided into two parts. On the right is the coat of arms of the Romanovs. It depicts a red vulture holding a sword and shield in its paws. The most important detail is a small black eagle sitting on a shield. The edge of the coat of arms is decorated with the heads of lions. It is believed that the Romanov symbol was borrowed from the coat of arms of Livonia, since the griffin is a figure quite common in European heraldry. The coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein is on the left and is divided into five parts, not counting the small shield in the center. On the edge you can see the coat of arms of Schleswig, the coat of arms of Holstein, the coat of arms of Stormarn, the coat of arms of Ditmarsen. The inner shield is also divided into two parts: the Oldenburg and Delmengorst coats of arms.
Chambers of the Romanov Boyars
The House of Romanov in Zaryadye is the only building preserved from the large estate of the Romanovs. Presumably, it was built at the end of the 16th century. In the XIX century, Alexander II announced that the chambers had become a museum, free to visit. The House of Romanov is also notable for the fact that on its walls is an image of a griffin, the main symbol of the Romanov family.