RuHistory

Parents: Boyar Fedor Nikitovich Romanov (1553-1633) and Xenia Ivanovna Shestova (?-1631), from a family of nobles in Mozhaisk.

Wifes:
Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova, daughter of Prince Vladimir Dolgorukov.
Married on 19 September 1624.
Eudokia Lukianovna Streshneva (1608-1645).
Married on 5 February 1620.

Children of Tsar Michael and Eudokia Streshneva:
Irina was born in Moscow on 22 April 1627. She lived in Moscow and the village of Rubtsovo, which she inherited from her paternal grandmother. She enjoyed landscape gardening. On 29 June 1627, she served as godmother to her nephew, the future Peter the Great. Never married. Died in Moscow on 8 February 1679.
Pelageya was born in Moscow on 20 April 1628 and  baptised by Patriarch Filaret in the Monastery of the Miracle. Died in Moscow on 25 November 1629.
Alexei (see Alexis).
Anna was born in Moscow on 14 July 1630. Never married. Entered a convent as Sister Anphisa. Died in Moscow in 1692.
Martha (1631 - 1632).
Ioann (1633-1639).
Sophia (1634-1636).
Tatiana was born in Moscow on 5 January 1636. Served as godmother to Tsarevna Martha Alexeyevna, Tsarevna Maria Ioannovna, Tsarevna Feodosia Ioannovna and Tsarevich Alexei (son of Peter the Great). Died in Moscow on 24 August 1706.
Eudokia was born and died in Moscow on 10 February 1637.
Vasily was born and died in Moscow on 25 March 1639.

Important events:

• 1617 - Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden.
• 1617-18 - Prince Dmitri Pozharsky saves Moscow from a Polish invasion.
• 1630-32 -  Creation of the first foreign regiments, paving the way for a regular Russian army.
• 1634 - Treaty of Polanow with Poland. Russia concedes several western territories and King Wladyslaw IV of Poland gives up his claim to the Russian throne.
• 1636 - Fighting with the Crimean Tatars, who raid and plunder south Russia. The Belgorod Pale, an earthen rampart with fortresses, is built to protect Russia from Tatar incursions. Annexation of land in Siberia, discovery of the Pacific Ocean and establishment of diplomatic relations with China. Increased taxation of town dwellers to restore the country's financial situation. Presents of land to attract the nobility to state service. Increase in the bureaucratic apparatus. Establishment of a ten-year period to track down and capture runaway peasants.

......1553-1633 The history of the Romanov dynasty begins with Feodor Nikitovich Romanov. In his youth, he was regarded as the finest rider and one of the most handsome men in Moscow. Appointed a boyar in 1586, Fedor held a series of important posts in the Russian government and army. He was related to Anastasia, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible.

......1602-1613 Alexei Tolstoy described the country inherited by Tsar Michael: "Three hundred years ago, the winds blew through the forests and steppe, across the enormous cemetery called Russia. Burnt city walls, towns and villages reduced to ashes, crosses and bones lining roads overgrown with grass, flocks of ravens and wolves howling in the night. The last bands of robbers stumbled along the forest paths, having long since drunk away ten years of pillage - boyars' furs, precious goblets and pearled icon settings. The country had been plundered and stripped bare".

......1613 Although one the Polish detachments came close to Domnino, the village was in an inaccessible place and the Poles did know how to get there. They ordered the head of the nieghbouring  village of Derevnische, Ivan Susanin, to take them to Domnino under pain of death. Pretending to take the Polish forces on a short  cut, Susanin deliberately got them all lost in the forest. Although he was murdered by the angry Poles, Tsar Michael was saved. Ivan Susanin's heroic deed was immortalised in Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar.

After the death of Tsar Fedor I, his cousin Fedor Romanov was regarded as the next in line of succession. Boris Godunov responded by incarcerating him in a monastery as the monk Filaret. Fedor's wife Xenia was forced to take the veil under the name of Martha, while their five-year-old son Michael was imprisoned along with his aunt Anastasia at the White Lake Monastery. When False Dmitri I captured the  Russian throne, he promoted his "cousin" Fedor to the  rank of metropolitan of Rostov.  Fedor Romanov preferred to side with the opposition, however, and played an active part in his overthrow.  He was similarly unimpressed when False Dmitri II elected  him patriarch of Russia. Fedor thought it better to politely decline such an offer, foreseeing the possible consequences of allying himself with a foreign usurper.  He did, however, accept the post after helping to overthrow Basil Shuisky in May 1610. In April 1611, he headed an embassy to King Sigismund of Poland, who wanted to place his own son Wladyslaw on the Russian throne. During the negotiations, the patriarch was imprisoned and spent eight years in a Polish dungeon.

While Feodor Romanov was languishing in Poland, his son was elected tsar of Russia. The council convened to make the decision dispatched a large delegation of clergymen, boyars and public officials to Michael. The only problem was that no one in Moscow knew exactly where he was.

The delegates were commanded to "travel to His Majesty, Tsar and Grand prince Michael Fedorovich of All the Russias, in Yaroslavl or wherever he might br". Armed with this order, the deputation set off to find their new sovereign.

The Polish forces still occupying Russia also set out to find and kill the new tsar. They had more information than the  Russians on the whereabouts of Michael and his mother, whom they knew to be in the village in the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma, where they were found by the delegates of the Land Council on 14 March 1613. When They asked Michael to accept the throne, his mother reminded the delegation that the Russian people had been disloyal to their rulers in time of trouble, saying that she would not let her son become tsar. After the envoys prayed, argued and finally threatened her, she conceded and gave her blessing. Michael then returned to Moscow with the delegation.  Alexei Tolstoy described the country inherited by Tsar Michael: "Russia was ravaged and ruined. The Crimean Tatars stopped their incursions across the wild steppes, for there was mothing left to steal. For the past ten years, pretenders, thieves and Polish horsemen had passed this way with sable and fire, from one end of Russia to the other. There was famine and plague; people ate horse manure and human salt-meat. Those who survived made their way north, towards the White Sea, the Ural and Siberia. On these difficult days, a boy was brought on a sledge across the dirty March roads to the charred walls of Moscow - a plundered and ravaged heap of ashes, only freed at great cost from the Polish occupants. A frightened boy elected tsar of Moscow, at the advice of the patriarch, by impoverished boyars, empty-handed merchants and hard men from the north and the Volga. The boy prayed and wept, looking out of the window of his coach in fear and dejection at the ragged, frenzied crowds who had come to greet him at the gates of Moscow. The Russian people had little faith in the new tsar, but life had to go on... ".

Michael Romanov was crowned tsar of Russia by Metropolitan Ephremus of Kazan on 11 July 1613. The tsar's uncle, Ivan Romanov, held the cap of Monomachus, Prince Trubetskoi bore the sceptre and Prince Pozharsky held the orb. During the coronation celebrations, the new sovereign rewarded those who had helped him to ascend the throne. Prince Pozharsky was made a boyar, while Kuzma Minin, a member of the duma council. Ivan Susanin's daughter Antonida and her husband Bogdan Sabinin were awarded half the village of Derevnische and all their descendants were freed from paying taxes. Michael Romanov was not particularly intelligent, strong or healthy. He was short-sighed and suffered from a weakness of the legs. He had a soft nature and was easily influenced by others. The new tsar was initially guided by his mother and her relatives, the  Saltykov family, and then by his father, who returned from Poland in 1619.

When Michael was twenty-eight, his mother sought a prospective bride for him and found Princess Maria Dolgorukova. Although Michael did not like his mother's choice, he dared not refuse her and the couple were married, but Maria fell ill during the wedding celebrations and died four months later.  Michael's mother instantly began looking for a new bride. This time, her choice fell on Eudokia Streshneva. This union was more successful. Michael and Eudokia were married and had ten children.

Michael's reign witnessed several other events, perhaps not so important, yet nonetheless interesting. They include the public execution of Maria Mniszech in Moscow, the construction of the Prison Yard in Moscow (1636), the capture by Cossacks of the Turkish Fortress of Azov (1637) and the unsuccessful attempt to marry the tsar's eldest daughter, Irina, to Prince Valdemar of Denmark (1644).

In spring 1645, Tsar Michael contracted an illness of the stomach and kidneys and died at the age of forty-nine on the night of 12/13 June 1645. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral.

Династия Романовых  1613-1917