Maria Temryukovna was the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, and her reign fell on one of the darkest periods in Russian history. There are many white spots in her biography, which makes acquaintance with the life of this person only more interesting.
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 that time, Ivan Vasilyevich IV ruled in Moscow. In his youth, he married Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, who was the favorite of the people and the nobility. The union of a young couple was a symbol of a happy reign. In the first years of his stay on the throne, Ivan Vasilievich conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, carried out legislative and military reforms. In other words, the country prospered under Anastasia.
Search for a new wife
However, in 1560, the Russian tsarina became seriously ill. Doctors could not raise her to her feet: Anastasia died at a flowering age. All historians point out thatthis unexpected death caused the clouding of the mind of Ivan IV. He became suspicious of his associates. There were even rumors in Moscow that Anastasia had been poisoned. The tsar had two heirs left from his first marriage - Ivan and Fedor. Nevertheless, the title obliged the sovereign to marry again. In addition, Ivan Vasilyevich 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 agree to such a thing. Therefore, in the same 1560, he sent an embassy to the Caucasus in order to find a new wife in this outlandish and distant country.
Baptism of Mary
The ambassadors arrived at the Kabardian prince Temryuk. He agreed to marry his daughter to the Russian Tsar. Maria Temryukovna (real name Kuchenei) went to Moscow with a large delegation and her brother S altankul. Ivan the Terrible met them in the capital. After a short visit (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 marriage, Ivan gave the bride a scarf with pearls and a ring. The wedding took place on August 21, 1561.
Son of Maria Temryukovna
In 1563, Maria Temryukovna, wife of Ivan the Terrible, became a mother. The prince 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 B altics and Lithuania. Ivan IV learned about the birth of his fourth son during his return from Polotsk.
However, the father's joy was short-lived. The baby died just five weeks after birth, apparently due to congenital poor he alth. Soon Maria Temryukovna buried her only child in the Archangel Cathedral. The biography of Vasily Ioannovich was short-lived, and his unexpected death caused another repression at the tsar's court.
Grozny received a denunciation of the wife of Prince Andrei Staritsky, Efrosinya. She was accused of malicious intent against the royal family. The princess was taken into custody, and a few years later, during another massive disgrace, the tsar ordered her to be drowned in the river.
Character
The king's associates hoped that his second marriage would be as happy as the first. Anastasia knew how to beneficially influence her husband. After her death, Ivan the Terrible became a tyrant. He de alt with close associates and commoners on a random whim. While some were tortured in the dungeons of the Kremlin, others hoped that Maria Temryukovna would put in her word for them. Unfortunately, it is impossible to imagine a photo of documentary evidence of that era, but, having studied some written sources, we can conclude that it is unlikelyshe 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 to quietly accuse her of a bad influence on the king. Perhaps this was an attempt by the people to justify Grozny for his own terror. One way or another, but the sovereign and the Grand Duke every year treated his second wife more and more indifferently. At the same time, he defiantly honored the memory of Anastasia.
Death
Tsaritsa Maria Temryukovna died in 1569 in Alexandrova Sloboda near Moscow. The circumstances of her death are unknown. Ivan the Terrible's wife had just returned from Vologda and may have fallen seriously ill on the way. On the other hand, rumors about poisoning spread again. Be that as it may, the death of his wife aggravated Ivan Vasilievich's paranoia even more. He used this event as a pretext 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 good as of 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 Kabardian Principality to Russia.
