Nikita Romanovich

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Nikita Romanovich also known as Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev (Russian: Никита Романович, d. 23 April 1586) was a Muscovite Boyar in 1563 whose grandson Mikhail Feodorovich founded the Romanov dynasty of Russian tsars. He was son of the Boyar Roman Yurievich Zakharyin-Yuriev, Okolnichi, who died on 16 February 1543, who gave his name to the Romanov Dynasty of Russian monarchs, and wife Uliana Ivanovna, who died in 1579, and the brother-in-law of Ivan IV of Russia, who had married his sister Anastasia Romanovna.

Nikita Romanovich is first recorded in 1547, when, on account of the tsar's wedding with Anastasia Zakharyina, he was promoted to spalnik and stolnik. He participated as a rynda (bodyguard) of the tsar in the unlucky campaigns against the Khanate of Kazan in 1547 and 1548. Later, he was the assistant to the Princes Vasily Serebryany and Andrey Nogtev-Suzdalsky with the rank of okolnichy in the Livonian campaign of 1559.

He was granted a boyar dignity in 1562. Four years later, following the death of his brother Daniil Romanovich, he became the governor of Tver. He commanded detachments of the Muscovite army during the winter campaign of 1572 in Novgorod and against Sweden. He also took part in the Livonian campaigns of 1573 and 1577.

On his deathbed Ivan the Terrible left his two sons, Fyodor and Dmitry, to the care of trusted associates. Until the illness incapacitated him in late 1584, Nikita Romanovich led the regency, as the only uncle of the young tsar. He died on 23 April 1586 and was buried in the Novospassky Monastery.

He married twice, to Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina (d. 18 June 1556) and to Princess Evdokia Alexandrovna Gorbataia-Schuiskaya (d. 4 April 1581), a sixth cousin of the future Vasili IV.

His children by first marriage were:

His children by second marriage were:


[edit] References

  • This article includes content derived from the Russian Biographical Dictionary, 1896 - 1918.