Maria Miloslavskaya

Maria Miloslavskaya
Tsaritsa consort of All Russia
Tenure 1648–1669
Spouse Alexis Mikhailovich
Issue
among others...
Tsarevna Sofia Alexeevna
Fyodor III
Ivan V
Full name
Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya
House House of Romanov
Father Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky
Mother Ekaterina Feodorovna Narbekova
Born c. 1625
Moscow
Died 18 August 1669 (aged 4344)
Moscow
Burial Ascension Convent, Kolomenskoye
Archangel Cathedral, Kremlin (1929)
Religion Eastern Orthodox
Tsar Alexei chooses his bride by Grigory Sedov (the winner of the Tsardom-wide contest organized by Boris Morozov was his relative Maria Miloslavskaya)

Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya (Russian: Мария Ильинична Милославская, 1625–1669) was the first wife of tsar Alexis of Russia and mother of the tsars Feodor III of Russia and Ivan V of Russia, and regent princess Sophia Alekseyevna.

Biography

Maria Ilyinichna was a younger daughter of the noble Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky. In 1648 tsar Alexis I of Russia reached the age required for marriage. The tsar was to choose his bride among hundreds of noble girls. The selection was managed by the tsar's tutor Boris Morozov, who arranged the tsar's marriage to Maria, himself marrying her sister Anna. Another of the tsarina's sister, Irina, married Prince Dmitry Dolgorukov.

The weddings brought much power to Morozov and especially Ilya Miloslavsky, who was made boyar and was one of the most powerful courtiers between the wedding in 1648 and his own death in 1668. The marriage was described as happy. Maria was described as beautiful, but there was also a rumour that Maria was a witch with a goat foot who could master sorcery.[1] Maria died several months after her father. When she died, it was first believed that her widower would never remarry.

Family

Maria had thirteen children but only two sons survived infancy: the future tsar Feodor III of Russia and the future Ivan V of Russia, who co-ruled with his half-brother Peter I of Russia. Maria's granddaughter became Empress Anna of Russia. Maria also had six surviving daughters. The third daughter, Sophia Alekseyevna became regent of Russia during the minority of Peter I. Her last descendant Catherine Antonovna of Brunswick died in 1807, ending her line.

Maria's sisters died childless. A distant cousin, Solomonida Mikhailovna Miloslavskaya, however, married Andrey Vasiliyevich Tolstoy, becoming the ancestor of the later Tolstoys. In the 20th century, the senior of her descendants was authorized by Nicholas II to add the name of the long-extinct Miloslavskys to his surname. His posterity has been known as the Tolstoy-Miloslavskys.

Issue

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maria Miloslavskaya.
    • Henri Troyat (in Swedish edition): Peter den store (Peter the Great) 1981
Russian royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Eudoxia Streshneva
Tsaritsa consort of Russia
1648–1669
Vacant
Title next held by
Natalia Naryshkina