Maria Nagaya

Maria Nagaya

"Tsaritsa Marfa exposes the False Dmitry". Coloured lithograph in a sketch by V. Babushkin, middle of the 19th century.
Tsaritsa of All Russia
Tenure 1581–1584
Spouse Ivan IV of Russia
Issue Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich
Dynasty Rurik
Father Feodor Nagoy
Died c. 1608
Religion Eastern Orthodox

Maria Feodorovna Nagaya (Russian: Мария Фёдоровна Нагая) (died 1608) was a Russian tsaritsa and seventh (uncanonical) wife of Ivan the Terrible.

Maria married Ivan IV in 1581 and a year later gave birth to their son Dmitry. After the Tsar's death in 1584, Nagaya, her son and her brothers were sent into exile to Uglich by Boris Godunov, where she lived until the mysterious death of tsarevich Dmitry in 1591. Maria and her relatives were accused of "criminal negligence" and, as a result, her brothers were incarcerated and she was made a nun in a monastery. In 1605, after the accession of False Dmitriy I in Moscow, Nagaya "recognized" him as her son and returned to Moscow. All of her family members were freed, reinstated in their ranks, and given their confiscated property. After the death of False Dmitriy I in 1606, Maria Nagaya renounced him as her son.

Russian royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Maria Dolgorukaya
Tsaritsa of Russia
1581–1584
Vacant
Title next held by
Irina Godunova
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