This year the Museum of Ivan the Terrible is celebrating the 495th anniversary of the first Russian tsar. To mark the occasion, the museum staff are preparing various events: exhibitions, concerts, lectures, the traditional open-air festival 'Ivanov Day', etc. In addition, we are launching a themed series in which we will tell stories from the ruler's life, primarily connected with the new medieval capital — Alexandrovskaya Sloboda.
Today we tell about the very first wedding of Ivan the Terrible, which took place on 13 February (according to other sources, 3 February) 1547 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. The tsar's first chosen bride was Anastasia Romanovna, the daughter of the childless okolnichy Zakharyin-Yuryev, whose brother had served as guardian to the young Ivan. The cautious royal relatives, the Glinskys, perceiving no danger in such an undistinguished family, made no effort to prevent the marriage. At the time of the wedding Ivan the Terrible was 16 years old, and his chosen one was 14.
In our collection there is a copy of a miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle Compilation that illustrates the ruler's arrival with his young wife in the Sloboda shortly after the wedding during the tsar's outing (14 September - 28 October 1548). The young family are shown going to pray at the Trinity, and from there to their 'royal amusements' in the Sloboda, Dmitrov, Zvenigorod, and Mozhaisk. The 'tsar's retinue' is depicted in the center of the miniature: the tsarina in a carriage, the tsar on horseback, and many boyars mounted around them. By studying the depictions of the places visited and taking into account that the artists closely followed the text, one can conclude that the depiction of the Sloboda is placed centrally between the Trinity and Dmitrov (the images of Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk and Moscow are on the next miniature). This is the most schematic of all the other depictions of the Sloboda: on the miniature it is just the roof of a single royal chamber. Probably, on this miniature the compilers of the Chronicle wanted to emphasize solely the secular character of this royal residence. By the way, the holdings also include copies of miniatures illustrating the ruler's meeting and marriage with Anastasia,
- says Marina Rybakova, acting director of the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda Museum-Reserve.
In this marital union, which lasted 13 years, the wife bore the tsar six children. But only two survived childhood — Ivan, who later died as a result of the tragedy in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, and Fyodor, who became the last ruler of the Rurik dynasty.
Despite her royal status, Anastasia led the traditional, even for someone of such high rank, terem life. It is known that she was actively engaged in decorative embroidery (litsevoe shitie), which has survived to this day.
She died on 7 August 1560, not yet 30 years old. The cause of her death, according to some scholars, was exhaustion from frequent childbirth. The tsarina was buried in the cathedral of the Ascension Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin, which had served as the burial place of great princesses since the early 15th century. However, the conclusions of modern forensic experts do not coincide with those of historians. As with Grand Princess Elena Glinskaya (mother of Ivan the Terrible), traces of poisons were found in Anastasia Romanovna's remains during examination. Many historians note a sharp change in Tsar Ivan's temperament after the death of his first wife, with whom he had spent a significant part of his reign. From a wise ruler he turned into a furious and merciless man, instituting the Oprichnina terror. This is further confirmed by the tsar's letter to his famous opponent-defector Andrey Kurbsky, in which the sovereign justifies the executions of the boyars accused of his wife's death: 'And why did you part me from my wife? If only they had not taken away my maiden, there would have been no Kronov sacrifices…'. The sovereign made large donations for memorial services sent to Russian churches, to Mount Athos and to Jerusalem. The tsar's sorrow was indeed great…
Latest news on the museum's website https://shop-kreml-alexandrov.ru/muzey/novosti/
