The life of Princess Xenia Borisovna Godunova quite accurately reflects the essence of the Time of Troubles. Her fate is very similar to a fairy tale, which, unfortunately, did not have a happy ending … Only at the very beginning there was hope for a handsome prince, but she also failed. Only at the end of her life, Ksenia was able to hope for happiness, but she did not wait for that either. The article will tell about a life full of tragic events.
Origin
Godunova Ksenia Borisovna was born in 1582. Her father, Boris Godunov, was at that time a groom at the court of Ivan the Terrible. Despite the fact that his duties included watching the horses of the king, at that time this position was very prestigious, as it allowed him to be close to the ruler. It was the groom who, during the departure of the king, was his deputy and solved all the problems that arose. This can explain another high position of Boris - the governor of the Astrakhan and Kazan kingdoms. Xenia's mother, Maria, was the daughter of one of the most famous and cruelguardsmen, favorite of Ivan the Terrible, Malyuta Skuratov.
Descriptions of Xenia's appearance by contemporaries
Prince Katyrev-Rostovsky in the "Tale" describes Xenia as an unearthly beauty and clever. The author notes that the princess was distinguished by her extraordinary mind, interested everyone who listened to her with harmonious speeches. She attracted with snow-white skin, blush on her cheeks, big black shiny eyes, thick eyebrows. Katyrev-Rostovsky says that the girl had a stately figure. Godunova Ksenia Borisovna was neither short nor tall, her blue-black hair was thick, slightly below her shoulders.
During the life of his father, Boris Godunov
Historian Sergei Platonov believed that Boris was preparing his children to inherit the throne. In 1598, Boris Godunov was elected to the board by the Zemsky Sobor, since he was the de facto ruler under Fyodor Ivanovich, whose brother-in-law was Boris. With accession to the throne, he ordered to pray not only for the king, but also for his wife and children, as for the heirs to the throne.
What did Ksenia Godunova do?
The life of the princess corresponded to court customs. The main occupations were reading, needlework, learning, conversations with his father, trips to monasteries on a pilgrimage. Boris invited the best overseas teachers for his children. Also, a caring father at an early age instilled in Fedor and Ksenia a love of reading, so books of spiritual content were printed specially for them.
Failed weddings
Many rulers used marriageto carry out diplomatic missions. Boris Godunov also wanted to enter. According to tradition, the daughters of the Russian Tsar could not marry Russians, since they were of lower status than the princesses, so they were always looking for suitors abroad. The first contender for the hand of Xenia Borisovna was Gustav Vasa, a Swedish prince. However, Boris did not like him, as he was an alchemist and led a wild life. The king sent him to an honorable exile in Uglich.
Then Duke Johann, the son of the Danish king, came to woo Godunova. He liked both father and daughter at first sight. Johann was distinguished by dazzling beauty and extraordinary mind. However, evil fate began to pursue the princess from her youth. When the duke was already beginning to master Russian customs, things were rapidly moving towards the wedding, the Danish prince suddenly fell ill and died. The Russian princess Xenia Godunova was very sad for him.
The Godunovs failed to connect themselves with family ties with representatives of the noble Habsburg dynasty and the Duke of Schleswig. Georgian prince Khosroi never made it to Russia due to internal problems in the Dagestan lands.
After the death of Tsar Boris, the overthrow of Fyodor II
Thus, in 1605, when the Godunov dynasty ended, the princess was still unmarried. The reign of Boris had a difficult time, complicated by drought and famine, besides, the people could not accept the tsar, elected by the Zemsky Sobor, and not inheriting the throne according to customs. Dislike for Boris overshadowed the reign of his son, Fedor, which became the shorteststay of a male person on the Russian throne. On June 1, rebels, supporters of the impostor False Dmitry I, broke into the Kremlin and literally dragged the young tsar from the throne. Mother, Maria Godunova, on her knees, asked to spare her son. Fyodor, Maria and Xenia were taken to their house in the Kremlin and placed under guard.
The Godunovs' relatives were also arrested, their property was robbed. On June 10, princes Golitsyn and Mosalsky, accompanied by three archers, came to the house of the royal family. Fyodor and Ksenia sat resignedly next to their mother. The brother and sister were immediately ordered to be separated into different rooms. At the same time, Queen Mary was also strangled. Fedor, who by nature possessed remarkable strength, fought four murderers for a long time, until he was nevertheless defeated. Xenia, on the other hand, was less fortunate than her mother and brother - False Dmitry had heard about the charms of the princess and ordered Mosalsky to bring her. It was announced that Fedor and Maria committed suicide.
During the reign of False Dmitry
Young Ksenia Godunova did not even know what a terrible time was beginning for her. The newly minted tsar makes Godunov his concubine. And although the annals and other written sources that have come down to us describe what happened rather sparingly, Ivan Timofeev's Vremennik says that False Dmitry took Xenia by force. P. P. Karatygin, a popular author of some historical narratives at the end of the 19th century, which do not inspire much confidence, gives a strict assessment of the princess. He claims that a girl can be abused once in her life, but not for a long time.endure the harassment of a hated man who killed his mother and brother. Karatygin is surprised how Ksenia Godunova, whose photo was taken from artistic images and descriptions of contemporaries who knew her, could not kill the impostor.
The inaction of the girl he harshly regards as cowardice and meanness. He also considers Xenia’s suicide as an option in order to get rid of shame (nevertheless, this alignment of events can be discarded almost immediately, since Ksenia Borisovna was a deeply religious person, and according to Christian laws, one of the worst sins was considered to be depriving oneself of life not according to God will). Another explanation for this act, according to Karatygin, is a change of anger for mercy. Karatygin suspects that Ksenia Godunova, the daughter of Boris Godunov, after a while began to feel affection for False Dmitry, and then fell in love with him passionately. Current historians are also trying to find practical meaning in Godunova's actions. From their point of view, she, relying on her charm and attractiveness, tried to marry False Dmitry to herself and thus be not just a princess, but a queen. Historians refer to the fact that her father, Boris Godunov, and grandfather, Malyuta Skuratov, were sophisticated and crafty politicians, always able to achieve what they wanted with cunning. The princess herself also studied European chronicles, which suggests that she could also be a skilled intriguer.
But the Russian people did not believe that Ksenia Godunova and Grigory Otrepiev (False Dmitry) were a couple. Godunova's contemporaries couldn't even imagine such a thing. Residents of Moscow in the 17th century understood perfectly wellthat the beautiful young prisoner princess could not resist the voluptuousness of False Dmitry. She was considered a victim, the Muscovites sympathized with Xenia until the end of her days and respectfully called her a princess, despite the long-standing collapse of the dynasty. The people were very angry because of this with False Dmitry, which was also reflected in the "Tale" of Katyrev-Rostovsky. The author calls the defoliation a “predatory and insatiable wolf”, accuses him of depriving a noble maiden of innocence and wonders why Xenia had such a bitter fate. Dyak Ivan Timofeev, who also lived in the 17th century, is convinced that Godunova is innocent and blameless, since before False Dmitry the princess was not in any other relationship.
In the tonsure
Soon Ksenia got sick of False Dmitry. The disappearance of interest from the impostor was also influenced by his upcoming wedding to the Polish woman Marina Mniszek, as her relatives tried to tame the unbridledness of False Dmitry so that there would be no embarrassment. At that time, getting rid of a woman was quite simple. Many kings did just that - they tonsured them as nuns. Ksenia Godunova did not escape this fate, interesting facts from whose life are described in the article. In the tonsure, she took the name Olga and was sent to the Resurrection Monastery in the Vologda region. A year later, the hated tsar-defrocked was overthrown. The Zemsky Sobor elects Vasily Shuisky to the kingdom. The new ruler managed to transfer the remains of his father, mother and brother Godunova to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Olga was invited to the reburial of the ashes of relatives. The procession was made quite magnificent and solemn: each coffin carried about20 people. Ksenia Borisovna followed them in a sleigh. Eyewitnesses claimed that she wept bitterly and appealed to God's judgment on False Dmitry. Then nun Olga settled near the Trinity Convent. But evil fate followed her on the heels. In 1608-1610, the monastery experienced a siege by the troops of the Commonwe alth. Ksenia did not leave these places even at that time and steadfastly endured all the hardships, helping the sisters (nuns) and those in need.
When the blockade broke, Xenia left Trinity for the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. However, even there the princess could not escape her bitter fate and the horrors of the troubled times. Ivan Zarutsky, the leader of the Cossack uprising, broke into the monastery with his army. During her stay there, Xenia had already managed to make friends with the nun Martha, who had a similar fate. Formerly, nun Marfa was the Livonian queen, but now, like Olga, she spent her days in a monastery monastery. The royal nuns were “robbed naked” by the Cossacks. The Muscovites of that time were terribly unhappy with such a nasty act of the Cossacks, who had not even dared to look at Olga and Marfa before.
The Time of Troubles is over, Ksenia Godunova goes to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. In 1622, at the age of 40, nun Olga dies. Before her death, she made an order that all her modest property should become the property of the Trinity Monastery. The Godunov family tomb is located on the left porch of the Assumption Cathedral, where the unfortunate princess found her last refuge.
In recent years, historical research has found facts confirming that the monasteryPrincess Ksenia Godunova, whose brief biography is described in the article, gave birth to a son from False Dmitry. He was immediately separated from his mother. Nothing is known about the further fate of the boy.
Ksenia's work
One of the princess's hobbies was sewing. The Trinity-Sergius Lavra contains two patterns of sewing of the 16th-17th centuries, which are considered to be the work of Ksenia Borisovna during the matchmaking. One of them is a cover for the head of the tomb of the famous monk, the founder of several large monasteries (including the Trinity-Sergius Lavra), later canonized, Sergius of Radonezh. It depicts the Holy Trinity in the "Rublev" version, which was often used at that time. According to the monastery inventory, the cover was made by Ksenia Godunova, interesting facts from whose life are described above. It was presented to the Lavra by her father in 1601. Faces and hands of angels are made with grayish silk with a satin stitch, clothes are made with silver and gold threads with threads of colored silk, creating a kind of ornament. The borders of the images are trimmed with pearls. You can also see various images framing the cover. Here there are both biblical characters (John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, St. Xenia), and historical figures (Sergius of Radonezh, princes Boris and Gleb). Another needlework attributed to the princess is the inditiya “The Queen will appear at your right hand.” The work is done by a combination of fifteen patterns and seams. India was founded in 1602. Crooked twigs with pomegranate fruits are depicted against a background of dug velvet. Sewn along the contours of the figurespearl. The clothes of Jesus and the Mother of God and their crowns are decorated with precious stones. Sergius and Nikon of Radonezh are depicted at the feet of Jesus Christ.
Cry of the Princess
There are two versions of the folk song "Lament of the Princess", referring to the Time of Troubles. They were recorded after the end of the Troubles in 1618-1620, for a priest who came to Russia as part of the English embassy, Richard James, who lived in Kholmogory in the winter, because he did not have time to board the last ship on which he could sail to foggy Albion. They learned about the songs only from James's notebooks and were published in St. Petersburg in 1907. The authorship of Ksenia Borisovna is highly doubtful, and, most likely, she is only a lyrical heroine. In the songs, Ksenia mourns for her father and grieves over family misfortunes. Judging by the content, the work was written after the death of the impostor Grigory Otrepyev. The songs mention the "offense" inflicted by Godunova False Dmitry. Nevertheless, the people "spared" the heroine, talking about the connection between Ksenia Borisovna and the defrocking only in hints, thereby keeping the image of the heroine pure and immaculate. Although the fate of the princess was very deplorable, in the works she is described as a young dreamy girl, including one who wants to find a good husband. The text of "The Cry of the Princess" was set to music by composer Alexei Rybnikov, which became the soundtrack to the film "1612".
Opening the tomb of the Godunovs
In 1945, the Godunov family tomb was opened. Many people know the anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov, who recreated many portraitshistorical figures (for example, Sophia Paleolog or Elena Glinskaya) on the basis of skeletal remains, however, unfortunately, he was unable to carry out the same operation with representatives of the Godunov dynasty. It turned out that the burial had already been touched before by some robbers. The bones and contents of the coffins were mixed, the skulls were not preserved. In the exposition of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, you can see a pointed, tiny shoe that belonged to the princess and was found during excavations.
Ksenia Godunova in art
Surprisingly, for the first time the image of the princess appears not in Russian literature, but in German. Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller never finished the drama Demetrius. In it, Xenia for the first time appears as a symbol of historical hopes. According to the plot, a smart and pure princess was supposed to put an end to civil strife in Russia. The work is interesting not from the point of view of historical truth (here the drama is far from it), but from the standpoint of the plot. According to the author's idea, Mikhail Romanov, who later became Tsar, has deep feelings for Xenia. His love for her is strong, pure and mutual, but the hero does not suspect that Godunov also sighs for him. The drama ends with the fact that with the coming to power of False Dmitry, Mikhail Fedorovich is imprisoned. There he sees that the soul of Xenia comes to him and asks him to wait for the fulfillment of his destiny and not to take a grave sin on his soul. Indeed, the difficult, full of suffering biography of Ksenia Godunova could not leave indifferent creative people, not only writers, but also artists. Widely known paintings of the 19th century "Agents of Dmitry the Pretender kill their sonBoris Godunov" by K. Makovsky, "Princess Ksenia Godunova at the portrait of the deceased fiance of the prince" by V. Surikov and "Ksenia Godunov" by S. Gribkov.
