Romodanovsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Romodanovsky (Russian: Ромодановские) was a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. Their progenitor was Prince Vasily Fyodorovich Starodubsky (Василий Фёдорович Стародубский) who changed his name to Romodanovsky after the village of Romodanovo where he lived in. Although the family was one of the first Rurikids to enter the service of the Grand Duke of Muscovy, it was in the 17th century that they finally rose to the highest offices of Muscovite Russia.
Contents |
[edit] Early history
Among Vasily's sons, one was Ivan III's okolnichi, another sat in the Boyar Duma during Vasily III's reign. Their nephew was sent by Ivan the Terrible as a Russian ambassador to Copenhagen. The latter's nephew, Prince Ivan Petrovich Romodanovsky, was killed by the Kalmucks on his way from Persia in 1607.
Since the 17th century, the family was divided into senior and cadet lines, both of which benefited from extinction of the higher-placed families of Muscovy after the Oprichnina purges and the Time of Troubles. During the reign of the first Romanovs, the Romodanovsky came to be regarded among the noblest families of Muscovy. It was one of a few clans whose adult males were promoted boyars skipping the lower ranks like stolnik.
[edit] Service to Tsar Alexis
The most important member of the senior branch was Prince Grigory Grigorievich Romodanovsky (Григорий Григорьевич Ромодановский). He took part in the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 and led his Streltsy against the Poles during a war which resulted in the reunification of Russia with Ukraine. During the 1660s and 1670s, he was instrumental in spreading Muscovite influence in the Cossack Hetmanate, sometimes openly interfering into election of hetmans and promoting the candidates backed up by Moscow. He was in charge of the Russian army during the Chigirin Campaigns, but his rivalry with a cousin, Prince Vasily Galitzine, stymied his later career. Prince Grigory Romodanovsky was killed by the mob during the Moscow Uprising of 1682.
Grigory's cousin, Prince Yury Ivanovich Romodanovsky (Юрий Иванович Ромодановский), was a personal friend of Tsar Alexis and one of his most trusted courtiers. It was he who galvanized Alexis into rupture with Patriarch Nikon and announced to Nikon the tsar's anger for his having styled himself "grand sovereign". The matter ended in Nikon resigning his patriarchy.
[edit] Their Caesarean Majesties
The cadet line was continued by Yury's son Fyodor Yurievich Romodanovsky (Фёдор Юрьевич Ромодановский), who was given the post of the head of the Preobrazhenskoye prikaz in 1686. His integrity and resolution won him the admiration of young Tsar Peter, who made him commander of his toy army. He was the one to whom Peter entrusted governing the country during his frequent absence from the capital between 1695 and 1699. When the Streltsy Uprising erupted in Peter's absence, it was Romodanovsky who ruthlessly suppressed it. For his vital services to the crown Peter had him jocundly styled "His Caesarean Majesty" (кесарское величество) and "Prince Caesar" (князь-кесарь). Romodanovsky also had the right to keep his own court at Ropsha and to promote officers. The tsar addressed him as "Min Herr Koenig" and signed his own letters "Your Majesty's humblest servant Piter".
Until his death (September 17, 1717), Romodanovsky remained in charge of the secret police, Siberian prikaz, and the Apothecary; basically he was the second most powerful man (and the most feared man) in Russia till his death. Only after his death he was described as a "monstrum by the appearance, vicious tyrant by the character" by Klyuchevsky. Most of Peter the Great's biographies tend to overlook the role of Romodanovsky, who was unconditional supporter of Peter and his most feared and very effective official. While other Peter's adherents built and fought, Romodanovsky ensured with a leaden hand, that there was no opposition.
Upon his death, the Prince-Caesar's extraordinary titles devolved upon his son, Prince Ivan Fyodorovich Romodanovsky (Иван Фёдорович Ромодановский). He was related to the tsar through his sister Feodosiya, the wife of Eudoxia Lopukhina's brother, and through his wife Anastasia Saltykova, Ivan V's sister-in-law. Despite his high position, Prince Ivan was not well suited for active service. Under Peter II of Russia, he served as governor of Moscow but retired a year before his death, which followed in 1730, whereupon the family became extinct. Princess Catherine, his only daughter and heir, was married by her first cousin, Empress Anna, to Gavrila Golovkin's son, thus bringing the Romodanovsky estates under control of that Chancellor of the Russian Empire.
This was not the end of their story, however. Seven decades later, on April 8, 1798, Emperor Paul authorized his favourite general, Nikolay Ivanovich Lodyzhensky, to take the title and arms of Princes Romodanovsky on account of his matrilineal descent from Prince Grigory Grigorievich Romodanovsky. Nikolay's descendants became known as Princes Romodanovsky-Lodyzhensky.
