Romanovs- an ancient Russian noble family. Its ancestor is Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla, whose father (according to a more accepted view), Glanda-Kambila Divonovich, baptized Ivan, came to Russia in the last quarter of the 13th century. from Lithuania or "from Prussia". Among historians, there is also a worldview that the Romanovs came from Novgorod. Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla had 5 offspring: Semechki Horse, Alexander Elka, Vasily Ivantai, Gavriil Gavsha and Fedor Koshka, who became the founders of 17 Russian noble houses. The branch that laid the foundation for the Romanov dynasty came from Fyodor Koshka. In the first generation, Andrei Ivanovich and his sons were nicknamed Kobylins, Fedor Andreevich and his offspring Ivan - Koshkins. The children of Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin became the Koshkin-Zakharyins, and the grandchildren became simply the Zakharyins.
From Yuri Zakharyevich came the Zakharyins-Yuryevs, and from his brother Yakov, the Zakharyins-Yakovlevs. The surname of the Romanovs came to the dynasty from the nobleman Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev. Thanks to the marriage of his sister Anastasia to Tsar Ivan IV Severe, the Zakharyin-Yuryev family intersected in the 16th century with the Rurik dynasty and approached the royal court. The great-nephew of Anastasia, the offspring of the nobleman Fyodor Nikitich Romanov (later - the Metropolitan Patriarch Filaret) Misha Fedorovich was elected by the Zemsky Sobor to the kingdom in 1613, and his offspring (which is usually referred to as the “Romanov House”) ruled Russia until 1917.
Below are the names of all the kings, kings and rulers of the Romanov dynasty.
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Meeting of the Great Embassy by Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov and nun Martha at the Holy Gates of the Ipatiev Monastery on March 14, 1613. Miniature from the Book of the Election of the Great Sovereign and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich of All Great Russia to the Highest Throne of the Great Russian Tsardom. 1673"
It was 1913. A jubilant crowd met the Emperor, who arrived with his family in Kostroma. The solemn procession was heading to the Ipatiev Monastery. Three hundred years ago, young Mikhail Romanov was hiding from the Polish interventionists within the walls of the monastery, here Moscow diplomats begged him to marry the kingdom. Here, in Kostroma, the history of the service of the Romanov dynasty to the Fatherland began, which tragically ended in 1917.
First Romanovs
Why was Mikhail Fedorovich, a seventeen-year-old boy, given responsibility for the fate of the state? The Romanov clan was closely connected with the vanished Rurik dynasty: the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina, had brothers, the first Romanovs, who received a surname on behalf of their father. The most famous of them is Nikita. Boris Godunov saw the Romanovs as serious rivals in the struggle for the throne, so all the Romanovs were exiled. Only two sons of Nikita Romanov survived - Ivan and Fedor, who was tonsured a monk (in monasticism he received the name Filaret). When the Time of Troubles, disastrous for Russia, ended, it was necessary to choose a new tsar, and the choice fell on the young son of Fedor, Mikhail.
Mikhail Fedorovich ruled from 1613 to 1645, but in fact the country was ruled by his father, Patriarch Filaret. In 1645, sixteen-year-old Alexei Mikhailovich ascended the throne. During his reign, foreigners were willingly called up for service, there was an interest in Western culture and customs, and the children of Alexei Mikhailovich were influenced by European education, which largely determined the further course of Russian history.
Alexei Mikhailovich was married twice: the first wife, Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, gave the king thirteen children, but only two of the five sons, Ivan and Fedor, survived their father. The children were sickly, and Ivan also suffered from dementia. From his second marriage to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the tsar had three children: two daughters and a son, Peter. Alexei Mikhailovich died in 1676, and Fyodor Alekseevich, a fourteen-year-old boy, was crowned king. The reign was short - until 1682. His brothers had not yet reached adulthood: Ivan was fifteen years old, and Peter was about ten. Both of them were proclaimed kings, but the government was in the hands of their regent, Princess Sophia Miloslavskaya. Having reached adulthood, Peter returned power. And although Ivan V also bore the royal title, only Peter ruled the state.
The era of Peter the Great
The Petrine era is one of the brightest pages in Russian history. However, it is impossible to give an unambiguous assessment of either the personality of Peter I himself or his reign: despite the progressiveness of his policy, his actions were sometimes cruel and despotic. This is confirmed by the fate of his eldest son. Peter was married twice: from the union with his first wife, Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, a son, Alexei, was born. Eight years of marriage ended in divorce. Evdokia Lopukhina, the last Russian Empress, was sent to a monastery. Tsarevich Alexei, raised by his mother and her relatives, was hostile to his father. Opponents of Peter I and his reforms rallied around him. Alexei Petrovich was accused of treason and sentenced to death. He died in 1718 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, without waiting for the execution of the sentence. From the second marriage with Catherine I, only two children - Elizabeth and Anna - survived their father.
After the death of Peter I in 1725, the struggle for the throne began, in fact, provoked by Peter himself: he abolished the old order of succession to the throne, according to which power would pass to his grandson Peter, the son of Alexei Petrovich, and issued a decree according to which the autocrat could appoint himself successor, but did not have time to make a will. With the support of the guards and the inner circle of the deceased emperor, Catherine I ascended the throne, becoming the first empress of the Russian state. Her reign was the first in a series of reigns of women and children and marked the beginning of the era of palace coups.
Palace coups
The reign of Catherine was short-lived: from 1725 to 1727. After her death, eleven-year-old Peter II, the grandson of Peter I, came to power. He ruled for only three years and died of smallpox in 1730. This was the last representative of the Romanov family in the male line.
The administration of the state passed into the hands of the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ivanovna, who ruled until 1740. She had no children, and according to her will, the throne passed to the grandson of her sister Ekaterina Ivanovna, Ivan Antonovich, a two-month-old baby. With the help of the guards, the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, overthrew Ivan VI and his mother and came to power in 1741. The fate of the unfortunate child is sad: he and his parents were exiled to the north, to Kholmogory. He spent his whole life in prison, first in a remote village, then in the Shlisselburg fortress, where his life ended in 1764.
Elizabeth ruled for 20 years from 1741 to 1761. - and died childless. She was the last representative of the Romanov family in a straight line. The rest of the Russian emperors, although they bore the name of the Romanovs, actually represented the German dynasty of Holstein-Gottorp.
According to Elizabeth's will, her nephew, the son of Anna Petrovna's sister, Karl Peter Ulrich, who received the name Peter in Orthodoxy, was crowned king. But already in 1762, his wife Catherine, relying on the guards, made a palace coup and came to power. Catherine II ruled Russia for more than thirty years. Perhaps that is why one of the first decrees of her son Paul I, who came to power in 1796 already at a mature age, was the return to the order of succession to the throne from father to son. However, his fate also had a tragic ending: he was killed by conspirators, and his eldest son Alexander I came to power in 1801.
From the Decembrist uprising to the February revolution.
Alexander I had no heirs, his brother Constantine did not want to reign. The incomprehensible situation with the succession to the throne provoked an uprising on Senate Square. It was severely suppressed by the new Emperor Nicholas I and went down in history as the Decembrist uprising.
Nicholas I had four sons, the eldest, Alexander II, ascended the throne. He ruled from 1855 to 1881. and died after an assassination attempt by the Narodnaya Volya.
In 1881, the son of Alexander II, Alexander III, ascended the throne. He was not the eldest son, but after the death of Tsarevich Nicholas in 1865, they began to prepare him for public service.
Exit of Alexander III to the people on the Red Porch after the coronation. May 15, 1883. Engraving. 1883
After Alexander III, his eldest son, Nicholas II, was crowned king. A tragic event took place at the coronation of the last Russian emperor. It was announced that gifts would be handed out at Khodynka Field: a mug with the imperial monogram, half a loaf of wheat bread, 200 grams of sausage, a gingerbread with a coat of arms, a handful of nuts. Thousands of people died and were maimed in the stampede for these gifts. Many who are inclined to mysticism see a direct connection between the Khodynka tragedy and the murder of the imperial family: in 1918, Nicholas II, his wife and five children were shot in Yekaterinburg on the orders of the Bolsheviks.
Makovsky V. Khodynka. Watercolor. 1899
With the death of the royal family, the Romanov family did not die out. Most of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses with their families managed to escape from the country. In particular, the sisters of Nicholas II - Olga and Xenia, his mother Maria Feodorovna, his uncle - Alexander III's brother Vladimir Alexandrovich. It is from him that the clan that heads the Imperial House today comes.
In Russia in the 17th - early 20th centuries, monarchs from the Romanov clan (family) who succeeded each other on the throne by right of succession, as well as members of their families.
The synonym is the concept House of Romanovs- the corresponding Russian equivalent, which was also used and continues to be used in the historical and socio-political tradition. Both terms became widespread only from 1913, when the 300th anniversary of the dynasty was celebrated. Formally, the Russian tsars and emperors who belonged to this family did not have a surname and never officially indicated it.
Generic naming of the ancestors of this dynasty, known in history from the 14th century and leading the pedigree from Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla, who served the Grand Duke of Moscow Simeon the Proud repeatedly changed in accordance with the nicknames and names of famous representatives of this boyar family. At different times they were called Koshkins, Zakharyins, Yurievs. At the end of the 16th century, they were nicknamed the Romanovs by the name of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin-Koshkin (d. 1543) - the great-grandfather of the first tsar from this dynasty Mikhail Fedorovich, who was elected to the kingdom by the Zemsky Sobor on February 21 (March 3), 1613 and received the royal crown on July 11 (21), 1613. Until the beginning of the 18th century, representatives of the dynasty were titled kings, then emperors. In the conditions of the beginning of the revolution, the last representative of the dynasty NicholasII On March 2 (15), 1917, he abdicated for himself and his son-heir Tsarevich Alexei in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. He, in turn, on March 3 (16) refused to take the throne until the decision of the future Constituent Assembly. The question of the fate of the throne, who will take it, was no longer raised in a practical plane.
The Romanov dynasty fell with the Russian monarchy, moving between two of the biggest upheavals in Russian history. If its beginning marked the end of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, then its end was associated with the Great Russian Revolution of 1917. For 304 years, the Romanovs were the bearers of supreme power in Russia. It was a whole era, the main content of which was the modernization of the country, the transformation of the Muscovite state into an empire and a great world power, the evolution of a representative monarchy into an absolute one, and then into a constitutional one. For the main part of this path, the supreme power in the person of the monarchs from the House of Romanov remained the leader of the modernization processes and the initiator of the corresponding transformations, enjoying the wide support of various social groups. However, at the end of its history, the Romanov monarchy lost not only the initiative in the processes taking place in the country, but also control over them. None of the opposing forces that contested the various options further development Russia did not consider it necessary to save the dynasty or rely on it. It can be said that the Romanov dynasty fulfilled its historical mission in the past of our country, and that it has exhausted its possibilities, has outlived its usefulness. Both statements will be true depending on their meaningful context.
Nineteen representatives of the Romanov dynasty succeeded each other on the Russian throne, and three rulers came from it, who were formally not monarchs, but regents and co-rulers. They were connected with each other not always by blood, but always by family ties, self-identification and awareness of belonging to a royal family. Dynasty is not an ethnic or genetic concept, except, of course, for special cases of forensic medical examination to identify specific individuals from their remains. Attempts to determine belonging to it by the degree of biological relationship and national origin, which some amateurs and professional historians often do, are meaningless from the point of view of social and humanitarian knowledge. Dynasty is like a relay team, whose members, replacing each other, transfer the burden of power and the reins of government according to certain complex rules. Birth in the royal family, marital fidelity to the mother, etc. are the most important, but not the only and mandatory conditions. There was no change from the Romanov dynasty to some Holstein-Gottorp, Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov or other dynasty in the second half of the 18th century. Even the indirect degree of kinship of individual rulers (Catherine I, Ivan VI, Peter III, Catherine II) with their predecessors did not prevent them from being considered the successors of the family of Mikhail Fedorovich, and only in this capacity could they ascend the Russian throne. Also, rumors about “true” non-royal parents (even if they were true) could not prevent those who were confident in their origin from the “royal seed”, who were perceived as such by the main mass of subjects (Peter I, Paul I) from occupying the throne.
From the standpoint of religion, the royal family is endowed with a special sacredness. In any case, even without accepting a providentialist approach, the dynasty should be understood as an ideological construction, whatever the emotional attitude towards it, however it correlates with the political preferences of the historian. The dynasty also has a legal justification, which in Russia was finally formed at the end of the 18th century in the form of legislation on the imperial house. However, with the change of the state system as a result of the abolition of the monarchy, the legal norms relating to the imperial house lost their force and meaning. The ongoing disputes about the dynastic rights and dynastic affiliation of certain descendants of the royal family of the Romanovs, their “rights” to the throne or the order of “succession to the throne” currently have no real content and are, perhaps, a game of personal ambitions in genealogical incidents. If it is possible to extend the history of the Romanov dynasty after the abdication, then only until the martyrdom of the former Emperor Nicholas II and his family in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, or, in extreme cases, until death on October 13 1928 of the last reigning person - Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Alexander III and mother of Nicholas II.
The history of the dynasty is far from being an ordinary family chronicle and not even just a family saga. It is possible not to attach mystical significance to mysterious coincidences, but it is difficult to pass them by. Mikhail Fedorovich received news of his election to the kingdom in the Ipatiev Monastery, and the execution of Nikolai Alexandrovich took place in the Ipatiev House. The beginning of the dynasty and its collapse fall on the month of March with a difference of several days. On March 14 (24), 1613, the still completely inexperienced teenager Mikhail Romanov fearlessly agreed to accept the royal title, and on March 2-3 (March 15-16), 1917, it would seem that wise and adult men, who from childhood were trained for the highest positions in the state, relieved themselves of responsibility for the fate of the country by signing the death warrant for themselves and their loved ones. The names of the first of the Romanovs called to the kingdom, who accepted this challenge, and the last, who, without hesitation, renounced it, are the same.
The list of tsars and emperors from the Romanov Dynasty and their reigning spouses (morganatic marriages are not taken into account), as well as the actual rulers of the country from among members of this family who did not formally occupy the throne, is given below. The controversy of some datings and inconsistencies in names are omitted; if necessary, this is discussed in articles devoted to specifically indicated persons.
1. Mikhail Fedorovich(1596-1645), tsar in 1613-1645. Queen's spouses: Maria Vladimirovna, nee. Dolgorukova (d. 1625) in 1624-1625, Evdokia Lukyanovna, nee. Streshnev (1608-1645) in 1626-1645.
2. Filaret(1554 or 1555 - 1633, in the world Fyodor Nikitich Romanov), patriarch and "great sovereign", father and co-ruler of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1619-1633. Wife (from 1585 to tonsure in 1601) and mother of the tsar - Ksenia Ivanovna (in monasticism - nun Martha), nee. Shestov (1560-1631).
3. Alexey Mikhailovich(1629-1676), tsar in 1645-1676. Spouses-Queens: Maria Ilyinichna, nee. Miloslavskaya (1624-1669) in 1648-1669, Natalya Kirillovna, nee. Naryshkin (1651-1694) in 1671-1676.
4. Fedor Alekseevich(1661-1682), tsar in 1676-1682. Spouses-Queens: Agafya Semyonovna, nee. Grushetskaya (1663-1681) in 1680-1681, Marfa Matveevna, nee. Apraksin (1664-1715) in 1682.
5. Sofia Alekseevna(1657-1704), princess, ruler-regent under the young brothers Ivan and Pyotr Alekseevich in 1682-1689.
6. IvanVAlexeyevich(1666-1696), tsar in 1682-1696. Queen's wife: Praskovya Feodorovna, nee. Grushetskaya (1664-1723) in 1684-1696.
7. PeterIAlexeyevich(1672-1725), tsar since 1682, emperor since 1721. Spouses: Empress Evdokia Feodorovna (in monasticism - nun Elena), nee. Lopukhin (1669-1731) in 1689-1698 (before she was tonsured into a monastery), Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, nee. Marta Skavronskaya (1684-1727) in 1712-1725.
8. CatherineIAlekseevna, born Marta Skavronskaya (1684-1727), widow of Peter I Alekseevich, empress in 1725-1727.
9. PeterIIAlexeyevich(1715-1730), grandson of Peter I Alekseevich, son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich (1690-1718), emperor in 1727-1730.
10. Anna Ivanovna(1684-1727), daughter of Ivan V Alekseevich, empress in 1730-1740. Spouse: Friedrich-Wilhelm, Duke of Courland (1692-1711) in 1710-1711.
12. IvanVIAntonovich(1740-1764), great-grandson of Ivan V Alekseevich, emperor in 1740-1741.
13. Anna Leopoldovna(1718-1746), granddaughter of Ivan V Alekseevich and ruler-regent with her young son, Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich in 1740-1741. Spouse: Anton-Ulrich of Braunschweig-Bevern-Lüneburg (1714-1776) in 1739-1746.
14. Elizaveta Petrovna(1709-1761), daughter of Peter I Alekseevich, empress in 1741-1761.
15. Peter III Fedorovich(1728-1762), before converting to Orthodoxy - Karl-Peter-Ulrich, grandson of Peter I Alekseevich, son of Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1700-1739), emperor in 1761-1762. Wife: Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, nee. Sophia-Frederick-August of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg (1729-1796) in 1745-1762.
16. CatherineIIAlekseevna(1729-1796), born Sophia-Frederick-Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, empress in 1762-1796. Spouse: Emperor Peter III Fedorovich (1728-1762) in 1745-1762.
17. Pavel I Petrovich ( 1754-1801), son of Emperor Peter III Fedorovich and Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, emperor in 1796-1801. Spouses: Tsesarevna Natalya Alekseevna (1755-1776), nee. Augusta Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1773-1776; Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828), born Sophia-Dorotea-August-Louise of Württemberg in 1776-1801.
18.Alexander I Pavlovich ( 1777-1825), emperor from 1801-1825. Wife: Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, nee. Louise-Maria-Augusta of Baden-Durlach (1779-1826) in 1793-1825.
19. Nicholas I Pavlovich ( 1796-1855), emperor from 1825-1855. Wife: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, nee. Frederica Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia (1798-1860) in 1817-1855.
20. Alexander II Nikolaevich(1818-1881), Emperor 1855-1881. Wife: Empress Maria Alexandrovna, nee. Maximilian-Wilhelmina-August-Sophia-Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824-1880) in 1841-1880.
21. Alexander III Alexandrovich(1845-1894), Emperor 1881-1894. Wife: Empress Maria Feodorovna, nee. Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmar of Denmark (1847-1928) in 1866-1894.
22.Nicholas II Alexandrovich ( 1868-1918), emperor in 1894-1917. Wife: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, nee. Alice-Victoria-Helena-Louise-Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt (1872-1918) in 1894-1918.
All the tsars descended from the Romanov family, as well as Emperor Peter II, are buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. All the emperors of this dynasty, starting with Peter I, were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. The exception is the aforementioned Peter II, and the burial place of Nicholas II remains in question. Based on the conclusion of the government commission, the remains of the last tsar from the Romanov dynasty and his family were discovered near Yekaterinburg and were reburied in 1998 in the Catherine's chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Orthodox Church casts doubt on these conclusions, believing that all the remains of the executed members of the imperial family were completely destroyed in the Ganina Yama tract in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg. The funeral service for the reburied in the Ekaterininsky chapel was performed according to the church rite provided for the deceased, whose names remained unknown.
Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (July 12, 1596 - July 13, 1645) - the first Russian tsar from the Romanov dynasty (ruled from March 24, 1613). After the death of Patriarch Hermogenes (Germogenes), the Russian land "beheaded". The "Third Rome" turned out to be both without a Tsar and without a Patriarch. For the first time in Russian history, the Council of the Russian Land was convened - not by the will of the supreme ecclesiastical or highest secular authorities, but by the will of the people. The Zemsky Sobor, held in Moscow in January-February 1613, was the most representative of all the Zemsky Sobors. His meetings were held in the Assumption Cathedral, since in Moscow at that time there was no other room that could accommodate such a large society. According to the historian S.F. Platonov, at least 700 "delegates" took part in the Council (when Godunov was elected, there were 476 of them). It was indeed the "Russian National Assembly", whose representatives were especially concerned that their decision expressed the will of "the whole earth." The electives, although they had broad powers, still sent their decisions to the survey of cities. Having gathered after many years of cruel events, civil strife, people were divided by the recent past. It was still alive, and at first it made itself felt with mutual reproaches and accusations, especially since among the contenders for the Russian throne there were persons and families directly involved in the political conflicts of the Time of Troubles: Prince D.T. Trubetskoy, Prince V.V. Golitsyn, Prince F.I. Mstislavsky, Prince D.M. Pozharsky and some others.
All of them were distinguished by the antiquities of the family, but none of them had clear advantages for the throne. The name of the sixteen-year-old nephew of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, the boyar Mikhail Romanov, was also mentioned. Avraamiy Palitsyn, the cellar of the Holy Trinity Monastery (Lavra), recalled: “And for many days all sorts of people of the entire Russian Kingdom spoke about this with great noise and weeping.” For the first time, after the fall of Tsar Vasily Shuisky, in the summer of 1610, the name of the boyar son, as the only person worthy of the royal dignity, was named by Patriarch Hermogen. But then the words of the Holy Shepherd were not heard. Now they have acquired the character of a great historical political action. The decision in favor of Mikhail Romanov turned out to be universal. As one of the authors rightly concluded, “only by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit can one explain such a unanimous decision of an assembly of people who, a year ago, looked at each other as if they were worst enemies". Much has been written and said about the Council of 1613, which became crucial in the history of Russia. “Various groups promoted their candidates, blocked others. The case threatened to drag on. And here a compromise was found. The Cossacks called out the name of 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov, who, after the liberation of the Kremlin, was in his estate in the Kostroma district ... The boyars also supported him, since the Romanovs were part of the elite of the Russian aristocracy, and Mikhail was the great-nephew of Anastasia Romanova, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible. In addition, the boyar group did not abandon the old idea - to put a monarch dependent on it on the Russian throne and thereby limit autocratic despotism. One of the influential boyar-electors argued: "Misha Romanov is young, he has not yet reached his mind, and he will be familiar with us." According to the ingenuous remark of the chronicler, "many are from the nobles, who want to be a king, bribe, many and give and promise many gifts." Be that as it may, but in the fact that on February 21, 1613 in the Assumption Cathedral, in front of the main altar of Rus', the name of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was unanimously approved - a sign of the special God's grace of Russia was revealed.
In the Time of Troubles twice before, the Russian land, at the zemstvo councils of 1598 and 1606, proclaimed the tsar and was twice mistaken. These failures cost too much, and everyone knew about it. It was not about "choice", as a kind of mechanical procedure for obtaining the maximum number of votes by one or another applicant, but about establishing "worthiness". General M.K. wrote very well about the Orthodox perception of the procedure for the election of the king. Diterichs (1874 - 1937), who investigated the circumstances of the murder of the Royal Family in Yekaterinburg. He made a detailed account of the circumstances of that atrocity. At the same time, the general carried out a historical reconstruction of popular ideas about royal power, in the system of understanding of which the events of 1613 were of key importance. “To Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov,” wrote M.K. Diterichs, - it is impossible to apply the definition that he was an “elected tsar”, since the actions that took place at the Zemsky Sobor of 1613 do not at all fit the concepts of “elections” established by the rules and trends of modern “civil ideas” .. The debate at the Zemsky Sobor focused not on the question of “whom to elect,” but on the question of “who can be king in Russia,” in accordance with the ideological concepts of power that existed at that time among the Russian people of “the whole earth” ... Zemstvo people 1613 of the year, having gathered to “choose” the Sovereign, they left it to the Lord God to “choose” the Tsar, waiting for the manifestation of this election in the fact that He would put in the heart of His Anointed One “one thought and affirmation” in the heart of all people. The Lord sends a king to people, and sends them when they are worthy to earn His mercy. And the destiny of the earthly is to discern this providential gift and accept it with a prayer of thanksgiving. Such is the highest spiritual meaning of the event that took place on February 21, 1613 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
Even with the most thorough documentary reconstruction of the situation in 1613, the meaning of the event, its inner meaning, cannot be comprehended without taking into account providential predestination. For all the textural evidence and logical arguments still do not clarify the main thing: why exactly did Mikhail Romanov become the tsar in Rus'. Mikhail Romanov was little known. Father Fyodor Nikitich (c. 1564–1633), who became a monk in 1601 under the name Filaret, languished in Polish captivity. The mother, who under Godunov's compulsion took the tonsure under the name of Martha, was in the monastery. All the main boyar families, who fought for their advantages, actually bowed in favor of the foreign tsar. And only the righteous Patriarch Hermogenes, in his prayerful zeal, recognized the name of the future king. The people and all the delegates of the Council, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, bowed meekly in favor of a single decision. As noted by S.F. Platonov, "according to the general idea, God himself chose the Sovereign, and the whole Russian land rejoiced and rejoiced." A participant in those events, the cellar of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (Lavra), Avraamy Palitsyn, concluded that Mikhail Fedorovich "was chosen not from a man, but truly from God." He saw the proof of this exclusivity in the fact that during the "collection of votes" at the Council there was no disagreement. This, however, could happen, as Palitsyn concluded, only “at the sight of the One Almighty God.” Already after the election of Michael, after sending letters about "to all corners of the Russian land" and after the oath and the kiss of the cross - even after all this, Moscow did not know where the new Tsar was. The embassy sent to him at the beginning of March 1613 departed for Yaroslavl, or "where he, the Sovereign, will be." The chosen one was hiding in the Kostroma family estate "Domnino", and later, together with his mother, he moved to the Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery, where the delegation of the Zemsky Sobor found him. As you know, initially both the nun Martha herself and her son Mikhail flatly refused the royal fate ... "God's work is the work, not the human mind ..." In the events of 1613, it was not worldly passions that won, not "political technologies", not group interests, but a religious idea. Michael became king not by the will of the well-born and eminent, not by the will of his parents, and not by virtue of pragmatic or selfish calculations of certain forces, but, as the researcher concluded, “by the pressure of the masses.” A reflection of this national enthusiasm was the Approved Diploma on the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the Moscow State, signed by the participants of the Council and drawn up in May 1613. The Diploma contains various episodes of the following hours, when the future fate of Rus' was being decided and when mother and son stubbornly said “no” to all the groans and pleas of the assembled people. Then Archbishop Theodorit delivered a pastoral sermon, beginning with the words: “Merciful Sovereign Mikhailo Fedorovich! Do not be repugnant to the Higher God's providence, obey His holy will; no one is righteous, contrary to the words of the judgments of God. The archpastor outlined the gospel understanding of the duty of a Christian, referred to the authority of the Holy Fathers of the Church, and cited the unanimous decision of the Council as God's chosen one. "The voice of God is the voice of the people." Vladyka did not confine himself to announcing the unshakable rules of other laws and turned to historical examples related to the history of the Second Rome. This is a very important point, which makes it possible to understand that in the Russian mind "Russian history" and "Greek history" existed in a single conceptual space. The "Greek Kingdom" gave examples of how "should" and how "should not" live and rule. Both those and others in Rus' knew and drew answers to their seemingly very local questions from a long-standing storehouse of experience. The task for Christian authority is the same at all times. That is why Theodoret referred to the examples of Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine, the emperors Theodosius the Great, Justinian and other Constantinople emperors and basileus, who ruled by the will of God and affirmed the Cause of Christ on earth. The same fate is prepared for Mikhail Fedorovich, and he, as a Christian, cannot evade the fulfillment of the Will of the Most High. Prayers and exhortations broke the stubbornness of nun Martha and young Michael. The mother turned to her son with the words: “God's work is the work, not the human mind; if it be the will of God, so be it, and do it.” And Michael, shedding tears, accepted the royal burden as a Christian obedience. Mikhail Romanov arrived in Moscow, and on July 11, 1613, his wedding to the kingdom took place in the Assumption Cathedral.
Mikhail Romanov became the first tsar of the new dynasty, occupying the royal throne from 1613 to 1645. Under him, an amazing union was formed between the Priesthood and the Kingdom, which had no analogues either before or after. Under Mikhail Fedorovich, the functions of "kingdom" and "priesthood" were, as it were, harmonized in favor of the Church, when the spiritual shepherd played a decisive role in worldly affairs. The Romanov dynasty will rule Russia for more than three hundred years, until it tragically ends, again in July, in the basement of the Ipatiev House ... It is known that the Romanovs are the youngest branch of one of the most ancient Moscow boyar families of the Koshkins - Zakharyins - Yuryevs. In the earliest genealogies of the 16th-17th centuries, everyone unanimously called the progenitor of the clan Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla, the boyar of the Grand Duke, who lived in the 14th century. The descendants of Andrei Kobyla are well known from various documents of medieval Rus'. But in vain to look for their names there. Then there was, as they say, a three-part form of the name: a proper name - father - grandfather. Fyodor Nikitich Romanov (father of the future Tsar Mikhail), his father Nikita Romanovich Yuryev, then Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin
After the absentee election to the kingdom of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the Zemsky Sobor appointed a large delegation headed by the Ryazan Archbishop Theodorit to go to him. The delegates-petitioners included Chudovsky, Novospassky and Simonovsky archimandrites, Trinity cellar Avraamy Palitsyn, boyars F.I. Sheremetev and V.I. Bakhteyarov-Rostovsky, okolnichiy F. Golovin, as well as stewards, clerks, residents and elected from cities. Due to the fact that no one knew the exact location of the newly elected tsar, their order was as follows: “Go to the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich of All Rus' in Yaroslavl or wherever he, sovereign, will be.” Only on the way did the delegates find out that Mikhail and his mother were in the Ipatiev Monastery not far from Kostroma, where they arrived on March 13, 1613. The next day they were given an audience. The first reaction of the nun Martha and her sixteen-year-old son to the news of the election of Michael as king was a decisive refusal, as chronicles note, "with anger and tears." There were serious reasons behind this refusal, for there are few examples in history when a new sovereign at such a young age would take the throne in such an extremely difficult situation. The main difficulty was that the state was at war with two powers at once - Poland and Sweden, which, having occupied part of the Russian territory, put forward their candidates for the Moscow throne. Moreover, one of the opponents had the father of the newly elected Moscow Tsar, Filaret (Fyodor) Nikitich Romanov, as a prisoner, and the accession of his son to the throne could adversely affect his fate. The internal state of the Muscovite kingdom was also difficult. The Cossack ataman Ivan Zarutsky continued to pose a great danger to the state with his unmarried wife and her son “tsarevich Ivan”, who had broad support from the Cossacks and the Russian freemen, who had unbelted during the years of the Time of Troubles and kept the population of almost all regions in fear, including the Moscow suburbs. But the most terrible danger for Mikhail and his mother lay, as they said then, in the cowardice of the Moscow people, who, having sworn successively to Boris Godunov, his son Fyodor, Grishka Otrepiev, Vasily Shuisky, the Tushinsky thief, Prince Vladislav, betrayed them one by one, guided by with their selfish motives. Mother and son had every right to fear that the new king would face the same fate - treason, followed by a shameful death. Nun Martha, of course, did not want such a fate for her son. And only the embassy's threat that "God will exact upon him the final ruin of the state," if Michael refuses to obey the will of the Earth about his election to the throne, melted the ice of mistrust. Martha blessed her son, and he received from the archpastor cathedral letters and a royal staff, promising to be in Moscow soon. However, the journey from Kostroma to Moscow dragged on for almost two months. As he approached the capital, Mikhail Fedorovich became more and more clearly aware that he was naked, poor and incompetent. The state treasury was empty, as were the food supplies of the royal court. The army, due to non-payment of salaries, broke up and was engaged in robbery for its own food. The roads were dominated by robbers, their own and others. The consequences of this insight were numerous royal letters, one after another leaving for Moscow. In them, Mikhail, presumably at the suggestion of his advisers, demanded from the Zemsky Sobor that the boyars, nobles, merchants fulfill their part of the “social contract”, namely, curb the robber gangs that roamed the cities and villages; they cleared the roads of robbers and murderers who paralyzed any movement of people and goods; restored the palace villages and volosts, which were the main source of replenishment of the royal treasury with cash, food and other supplies intended not only for the “royal household”, but also for the maintenance of the servants of the sovereign people. The impoverishment of the royal treasury reached the point that the royal train did not have enough horses and carts, in connection with which some of the people accompanying the king were forced to walk. Yes, and the capital city itself, as the corresponding correspondence testifies, was not ready to receive the king, because “in chorus, what the sovereign ordered to be prepared cannot be rebuilt soon, and there is nothing: there is no money in the treasury and there are few carpenters; chambers and mansions are all without a roof. There are no bridges, shops, doors and windows, everything must be made new, and the forest will soon not be able to get it.” Nevertheless, the tsarist train was slowly but surely approaching Moscow. From March 21 to April 16, the tsar was in Yaroslavl, on April 17 he arrived in Rostov, on April 23 - in the village of Svatkovo, and on April 25 - in the village of Lyubimovo. The next day, April 26, he solemnly entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and on Sunday, May 2, "Moscow people of all ranks" went out of town to meet their sovereign. On the same day, his solemn entry into the capital took place, and then a thanksgiving service in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. July 11, 1613 is considered the birthday of the new dynasty. On this day, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was crowned king. Before the wedding, two stewards - Ivan Borisovich Cherkassky, a relative of the tsar, and the leader-liberator Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Pozharsky - were elevated to boyar dignity. After that, in the Assumption Cathedral, Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan held an exciting ceremony of anointing and crowning the king. He was assisted by Prince Mstislavsky, who showered the tsar with gold coins, Ivan Nikitich Romanov, who held Monomakh's hat, the boyar, Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy, with a scepter, and the new boyar, Prince Pozharsky, with an apple (power). The next day, on the occasion of the royal name day, the new Duma nobleman Kuzma Minin was honored. The new tsar, unlike his predecessors, could not give any other awards, benefits, favors, gifts to the common people and noble people: the treasury was empty. The difficulty of the position of the new tsar was aggravated by the fact that, according to the researchers, there were no people in his inner circle, if not equal, then at least remotely resembling Metropolitan Alexy, Sylvester, Alexei Adashev or Boris Godunov. There were no people in his team who were able to formulate and consistently implement a state program that would meet the national requirements of the Russian people, exhausted by half a century of “strength tests” by the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, the natural disasters of Borisov’s reign, foreign invasion and internal unrest. As foreign observers noted, “all the tsar's close associates are ignorant youths; dexterous and business clerks - greedy wolves; all without distinction plunder and ruin the people. No one brings the truth to the king; there is no access to the king without great expense; Petitions cannot be submitted without huge money, and then it is still not known how the matter will end ... ". The first violin in this "orchestra" was played by the relatives of Mikhail's mother - Boris and Mikhail Saltykov, who cared exclusively about their official position and their enrichment, while the heroes of the First and Second People's Militias were relegated to the background or completely left the historical stage. Moreover, at every opportunity, new favorites, under various pretexts, tried to humiliate and infringe on them. Thus, Prince Pozharsky, who for parochial reasons refused to declare boyars to the newly granted boyar Boris Saltykov, was subjected to a humiliating procedure - “extradition in the head”. Issuance of the head is a rite of satisfaction of claims. In this case, the deacon brought Prince Pozharsky on foot to Saltykov's courtyard, placed him on the lower porch, and announced to Saltykov that the tsar was betraying Pozharsky to him with his head. Saltykov voiced Pozharsky his guilt before him and released him with the words: "The sword does not cut a guilty head." The only thing that saved the Muscovite kingdom from the resumption of turmoil was the active position and active role of the Zemsky Sobor and the Boyar Duma, which did everything in their power to bring the fatherland out of the crisis. After all, in essence, Mikhail Fedorovich, accepting the royal crown, seemed to be doing a favor to the Zemstvo. The Council, begging him to take responsibility for the fate of the state, for its part, undertook the obligation to restore order in the country: to stop civil strife, robbery and robbery, to create acceptable conditions for the exercise of sovereign functions, to fill the royal treasury with everything necessary for a worthy "everyday life" of the royal court and maintenance of the troops. The popularly elected Zemsky Sobor began to fulfill its obligations immediately, as evidenced by his correspondence with Mikhail. Here is an extract from his report to the tsar, who was still on the way: “To collect supplies, it was sent and it was written to the collectors that they hastily go to Moscow with supplies ... A strong order was made about robberies and thefts, we are looking for thieves and robbers and order them to be punished. Nobles and children of the boyars without the sovereign's decree from Moscow, we did not let anyone go, and who went home, they were all ordered to be at the sovereign's arrival in Moscow. The Council sent an embassy to the Polish king with a proposal for a truce and an exchange of prisoners, and letters were sent to the "stolen" Cossacks and numerous gangs of "walking people" with a proposal to stop "fratricide" and go to serve the newly elected tsar against the Swedish king, who captured Veliky Novgorod and its environs. ... Having learned about the election of Mikhail Romanov as tsar, the Poles tried to prevent him from taking the throne. A small detachment of Poles went to the Ipatiev Monastery in order to kill Mikhail, but got lost along the way. A simple peasant Ivan Susanin, having given "consent" to show the way, led them into a dense forest. After torture, Susanin was hacked to death, without showing the way to the monastery, the Poles also died - the attempt failed.
Upon his return to Moscow, Filaret agreed to be patriarch. From that moment (1619) there were actually two sovereigns in Rus': Mikhail - the son, Filaret - the father. State affairs were decided by both, the relationship between them, according to the chronicles, was friendly, although the patriarch had a large share in the government. With the arrival of Filaret, the troubled and powerless time ended. Under Mikhail Fedorovich, a war was waged with Sweden, as a result of which, according to the Stolbovsky Peace of 1617, the Novgorod lands returned to Russia, and the shores of the Baltic Sea remained with Sweden. It was not possible to win back Smolensk and a number of Russian territories from Poland during the war of 1632-1634. The colonization of Siberia and the construction of the notch lines - defensive structures on the southern outskirts of the state - were successfully continued.
The genus belongs to the ancient families of the Moscow boyars. The first ancestor of this family known to us from the annals, Andrei Ivanovich, who had the nickname Mare, in 1347 was in the service of the Great Vladimir and Moscow Prince Semyon Ivanovich Proud.
Semyon Gordy was the eldest son and heir and continued his father's policy. At that time, the Moscow principality was significantly strengthened, and Moscow began to claim leadership among other lands of North-Eastern Rus'. The Moscow princes not only established good relations with the Golden Horde, but also began to play a more important role in all-Russian affairs. Among the Russian princes, Semyon was revered as the eldest, and few of them dared to contradict him. His character was clearly manifested in family life. After the death of his first wife, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Semyon married a second time.
The Smolensk princess Evpraksia became his chosen one, but already a year after the wedding, the Moscow prince for some reason sent her back to her father, Prince Fyodor Svyatoslavich. Then Semyon decided on a third marriage, this time turning to the old rivals of Moscow - the princes of Tver. In 1347, an embassy went to Tver to woo Princess Maria, the daughter of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver.
At one time, Alexander Mikhailovich tragically died in the Horde, falling victim to the intrigues of Ivan Kalita, Semyon's father. And now the children of irreconcilable enemies were united by marriage. The embassy in Tver was headed by two Moscow boyars - Andrei Kobyla and Alexei Bosovolkov. Thus, for the first time, the ancestor of Tsar Mikhail Romanov appeared on the historical arena.
The embassy has been successful. But Metropolitan Theognost suddenly intervened, refusing to bless this marriage. Moreover, he ordered the closure of Moscow churches to prevent weddings. This position was apparently caused by Semyon's previous divorce. But the prince sent generous gifts to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom the Metropolitan of Moscow was subordinate, and received permission to marry. In 1353, Semyon the Proud died from the plague that raged in Rus'. Nothing more is known about Andrei Kobyl, but his descendants continued to serve the Moscow princes.
According to the pedigrees, the offspring of Andrei Kobyla was extensive. He left five sons, who became the founders of many famous noble families. The sons were named: Semyon the Stallion (did he get his name in honor of Semyon the Proud?), Alexander Yolka, Vasily Ivantei (or Vantei), Gavrila Gavsha (Gavsha - the same as Gabriel, only in a diminutive form; such endings of names on "-sha" were common on Novgorod land) and Fedor Koshka. In addition, Andrei had a younger brother, Fyodor Shevlyaga, from whom the noble families of the Motovilovs, Trusovs, Vorobins and Grabezhevs descended. The nicknames Kobyla, Stallion and Shevlyaga (“nag”) are close in meaning to each other, which is not surprising, since several noble families have a similar tradition - representatives of the same family could bear nicknames, as it were, of the same semantic circle. However, what was the origin of the brothers Andrei and Fyodor Ivanovich themselves?
Genealogies of the 16th - early 17th century do not report anything about this. But already in the first half of the 17th century, when they strengthened themselves on the Russian throne, a legend about their ancestors appeared. Many noble families erected themselves to people from other countries and lands. This became a kind of tradition of the ancient Russian nobility, which, therefore, almost without exception had a "foreign" origin. Moreover, the most popular were two “directions”, from where the “departure” of the noble ancestors allegedly took place: either “from the German”, or “from the Horde”. By "Germans" was meant not only the inhabitants of Germany, but in general all Europeans. Therefore, in the legends about the "departure" of the founders of the clans, one can find the following clarifications: "From the Germans, from the Prus" or "From the Germans, from the Svei (i.e. Swedish) land."
All these legends were similar to each other. Usually a certain “honest man” with a strange name, unusual for Russian hearing, came, often with a retinue, to one of the Grand Dukes for the service. Here he was baptized, and his descendants found themselves in the Russian elite. Then noble families arose from their nicknames, and since many clans erected themselves to the same ancestor, it is quite understandable that various versions of the same legends appeared. The reasons for creating these stories are quite clear. By inventing foreign ancestors for themselves, Russian aristocrats “justified” thereby their leading position in society.
They made their clans older, constructed a high origin, because many ancestors were considered descendants of foreign princes and rulers, thereby emphasizing their exclusivity. Of course, this does not mean that absolutely all the legends were fictitious; probably, the most ancient of them could have had real grounds (for example, the ancestor of the Pushkins - Radsha, judging by the end of the name, was related to Novgorod and lived in the XII century, according to some researchers, could indeed be of foreign origin). But it is not easy to single out these historical facts behind layers of speculation and conjecture. And besides, it can be difficult to unequivocally confirm or refute such a story due to the lack of sources. By the end of the 17th century, and especially in the 18th century, such legends acquired an increasingly fabulous character, turning into pure fantasies of authors poorly familiar with history. The Romanovs did not escape this either.
The creation of the family legend was “undertaken” by representatives of those families that had common ancestors with the Romanovs: the Sheremetevs, the already mentioned Trusovs, the Kolychevs. When in the 1680s the official genealogy book of the Moscow kingdom was created, which later received the name “Velvet” because of its binding, noble families submitted their genealogies to the Discharge Order in charge of this business. The Sheremetevs also presented the painting of their ancestors, and it turned out that, according to their information, the Russian boyar Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla was actually a prince who came from Prussia.
The "Prussian" origin of the ancestor was very common at that time among the ancient families. It has been suggested that this happened because of the "Prussian street" in one of the ends of ancient Novgorod. Along this street there was a road to Pskov, the so-called. "Prussian way". After the annexation of Novgorod to the Muscovite state, many noble families of this city were resettled in Moscow volosts, and vice versa. So, thanks to a misunderstood name, “Prussian” immigrants joined the Moscow nobility. But in the case of Andrei Kobyla, one can rather see the influence of another, very famous at that time, legend.
At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, when a single Moscow state was formed and the Moscow princes began to claim the royal (Caesar, i.e., imperial) title, the well-known idea “Moscow is the Third Rome” appeared. Moscow became the heir to the great Orthodox tradition of the Second Rome - Constantinople, and through it the imperial power of the First Rome - the Rome of the emperors Augustus and Constantine the Great. The succession of power was ensured by the marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaiologos, and the legend of "the gifts of Monomakh" - the Byzantine emperor, who transferred the royal crown and other regalia of royal power to Rus' to his grandson Vladimir Monomakh, and the adoption of the imperial double-headed eagle as a state symbol. Visible proof of the greatness of the new kingdom was the magnificent ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin built under Ivan III and Vasily III. This idea was also supported at the genealogical level. It was at this time that a legend arose about the origin of the then ruling Rurik dynasty. The foreign, Varangian origin of Rurik could not fit into the new ideology, and the founder of the princely dynasty became a descendant in the 14th generation of a certain Prus, a relative of Emperor Augustus himself. Prus was allegedly the ruler of ancient Prussia, once inhabited by the Slavs, and his descendants became the rulers of Rus'. And just as the Rurikovichs turned out to be the successors of the Prussian kings, and through them the Roman emperors, so the descendants of Andrei Kobyla created a “Prussian” legend for themselves.
In the future, the legend acquired new details. In a more complete form, it was framed by the stolnik Stepan Andreyevich Kolychev, who under Peter I became the first Russian king of arms. In 1722, he headed the King of Arms office under the Senate, a special institution that dealt with state heraldry and was in charge of accounting and class affairs of the nobility. Now the origin of Andrey Kobyla has "acquired" new features.
In 373 (or even 305) from the Nativity of Christ (at that time the Roman Empire still existed), the Prussian king Pruteno gave the kingdom to his brother Veydevut, and he himself became the high priest of his pagan tribe in the city of Romanov. This city seemed to be located on the banks of the rivers Dubyssa and Nevyazh, at the confluence of which a sacred, evergreen oak of unusual height and thickness grew. Before his death, Veidewut divided his kingdom among his twelve sons. The fourth son was Nedron, whose descendants owned the Samogit lands (part of Lithuania). In the ninth generation, the descendant of Nedron was Dibo. He lived already in the XIII century and constantly defended his lands from the knights of the sword. Finally, in 1280, his sons - Russingen and Glanda Kambila were baptized, and in 1283 Glanda (Glandal or Glandus) Kambila came to Rus' to serve the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich. Here he was baptized and became known as the Mare. According to other versions, Glanda was baptized with the name Ivan in 1287, and Andrei Kobyla was his son.
The artificiality of this story is obvious. Everything in it is fantastic, and no matter how some historians tried to verify its authenticity, their attempts were unsuccessful. Two characteristic motifs stand out. Firstly, the 12 sons of Veydevut are very reminiscent of the 12 sons of Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of Rus', and the fourth son of Nedron is the fourth son of Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise. Secondly, the author's desire to connect the beginning of the Romanov family in Rus' with the first Moscow princes is obvious. After all, Daniil Alexandrovich was not only the founder of the Moscow principality, but also the founder of the Moscow dynasty, whose successors were the Romanovs.
Nevertheless, the “Prussian” legend became very popular and was officially recorded in the “General Armorial of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire”, created on the initiative of Paul I, who decided to streamline the entire Russian noble heraldry. The noble family coats of arms were entered into the coat of arms, which were approved by the emperor, and along with the image and description of the coat of arms, a certificate of the origin of the family was also given. The descendants of Kobyla - Sheremetevs, Konovnitsyns, Neplyuevs, Yakovlevs and others, noting their "Prussian" origin, introduced the image of the "sacred" oak as one of the figures in their family coats of arms, and the central image itself (two crosses, over which the crown is placed) borrowed from the heraldry of the city of Danzig (Gdansk).
Of course, with the development of historical science, researchers not only critically treated the legend about the origin of the Mare, but also tried to find in it any real historical foundations. The most extensive study of the "Prussian" roots of the Romanovs was undertaken by the outstanding pre-revolutionary historian V.K. Trutovsky, who saw some correspondence between the information in the legend about Gland Kambile and the real situation in the Prussian lands of the 13th century. Historians did not leave such attempts in the future. But if the legend of Gland Kambile could convey to us some grains of historical data, then its “external” design practically reduces this meaning to nothing. It may be of interest from the point of view of the public consciousness of the Russian nobility of the 17th-18th centuries, but in no way in the matter of clarifying the true origin of the reigning family. Such a brilliant connoisseur of Russian genealogy as A.A. Zimin, wrote that Andrei Kobyla "probably came from native Moscow (and Pereslavl) landowners." In any case, be that as it may, it is Andrei Ivanovich who remains the first reliable ancestor of the Romanov dynasty.
Let's return to the real genealogy of his descendants. The eldest son of Kobyla, Semyon Zherebets, became the ancestor of the nobles Lodygins, Konovnitsyns, Kokorevs, Obraztsovs, Gorbunovs. Of these, the Lodygins and Konovnitsyns left the greatest mark on Russian history. The Lodygins come from the son of Semyon the Stallion, Grigory Lodyga (“lodyga” is an old Russian word meaning foot, stand, ankle). The famous engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin (1847–1923), who in 1872 invented the electric incandescent lamp in Russia, belonged to this family.
The Konovnitsyns are descended from the grandson of Grigory Lodyga, Ivan Semyonovich Konovnitsa. Among them, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1764–1822), the hero of many wars waged by Russia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, became famous, including Patriotic War 1812. He distinguished himself in the battles for Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, in the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig, and in the Battle of Borodino he commanded the Second Army after the wounding of Prince P.I. Bagration. In 1815-1819, Konovnitsyn was Minister of War, and in 1819 he was elevated, together with his offspring, to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire.
From the second son of Andrei Kobyla, Alexander Yolka, the Kolychevs, Sukhovo-Kobylins, Sterbeevs, Khludenevs, and Neplyuevs descended. The eldest son of Alexander Fyodor Kolych (from the word "kolcha", that is, lame) became the ancestor of the Kolychevs. Of the representatives of this genus, St. Philip (in the world Fedor Stepanovich Kolychev, 1507-1569). In 1566 he became Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. Angrily denouncing the atrocities of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Philip was deposed in 1568 and then strangled by one of the leaders of the guardsmen, Malyuta Skuratov.
Sukhovo-Kobylins descend from another son of Alexander Yolka - Ivan Sukhoi (that is, "thin"). The most prominent representative of this kind was the playwright Alexander Vasilievich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817–1903), the author of the trilogy Krechinsky's Wedding, The Case and Tarelkin's Death. In 1902, he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. His sister, Sofya Vasilyevna (1825–1867), an artist who received a large gold medal from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1854 for a landscape from life (which she depicted in a painting of the same name from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery), also painted portraits and genre compositions. Another sister, Elizaveta Vasilievna (1815–1892), married Countess Salias de Tournemire, gained fame as a writer under the pseudonym Eugenia Tour. Her son, Count Evgeny Andreevich Salias de Tournemire (1840–1908), was also a famous writer in his time, a historical novelist (he was called the Russian Alexandre Dumas). His sister, Maria Andreevna (1841–1906), was the wife of Field Marshal Iosif Vladimirovich Gurko (1828–1901), and his granddaughter, Princess Evdokia (Eda) Yuryevna Urusova (1908–1996), was an outstanding theater and film actress of the Soviet era.
The youngest son of Alexander Yolka, Fyodor Dyutka (Dyudka, Dudka or even Detko), became the founder of the Neplyuev family. Among the Neplyuevs, Ivan Ivanovich Neplyuev (1693–1773), a diplomat, who was a Russian resident in Turkey (1721–1734), and then governor of the Orenburg Territory, since 1760 a senator and conference minister, stands out.
The offspring of Vasily Ivantey was cut short by his son Gregory, who died childless.
From the fourth son of Kobyla, Gavrila Gavsha, came the Boborykins. This family gave birth to the talented writer Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836–1921), the author of the novels "Businessmen", "China Town" and among others, by the way, "Vasily Terkin" (except for the name, this literary character has nothing to do with the hero A. T. Tvardovsky).
Finally, the fifth son of Andrei Kobyla, Fyodor Koshka, was the immediate ancestor of the Romanovs. He served Dmitry Donskoy and is repeatedly mentioned in the annals among his associates. Perhaps it was he who was instructed by the prince to defend Moscow during the famous war with Mamai, which ended with the victory of the Russians on the Kulikovo field. Before his death, Koshka took the tonsure and was named Theodorite. His family intermarried with the Moscow and Tver princely dynasties - branches of the Rurik family. So, the daughter of Fyodor - Anna in 1391 was married to the Mikulin prince Fyodor Mikhailovich. Mikulinsky inheritance was part of the Tver land, and Fedor Mikhailovich himself was the youngest son of the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail Alexandrovich was at enmity with Dmitry Donskoy for a long time. Three times he received a label in the Horde for the Great Vladimir reign, but each time, due to the opposition of Dmitry, he could not become the main Russian prince. However, gradually the strife between the Moscow and Tver princes came to naught. Back in 1375, at the head of a whole coalition of princes, Dmitry made a successful campaign against Tver, and since then Mikhail Alexandrovich abandoned attempts to seize leadership from the Moscow prince, although relations between them remained tense. Marriage with the Koshkins was probably supposed to contribute to the establishment of friendly relations between the eternal enemies.
But not only Tver was embraced by the descendants of Fyodor Koshka with their matrimonial policy. Soon, the Moscow princes themselves fell into their orbit. Among the sons of Koshka was Fyodor Goltyay, whose daughter, Maria, in the winter of 1407, one of the sons of Serpukhov and Borovsk prince Vladimir Andreevich, Yaroslav, married.
Vladimir Andreevich, the founder of Serpukhov, was a cousin of Dmitry Donskoy. Between them there were always the kindest friendships. The brothers took many important steps in the life of the Moscow State together. So, together they led the construction of the white-stone Moscow Kremlin, together they fought on the Kulikovo field. Moreover, it was Vladimir Andreevich with the governor D.M. Bobrok-Volynsky commanded an ambush regiment, which at a critical moment decided the outcome of the entire battle. Therefore, he entered with the nickname not only Brave, but also Donskoy.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich, and in his honor the city of Maloyaroslavets was founded, where he reigned, also bore the name Athanasius in baptism. This was one of the last cases when, according to a long tradition, the Rurikovich gave their children double names: secular and baptismal. The prince died from pestilence in 1426 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where his grave exists to this day. From marriage with the granddaughter of Fyodor Koshka, Yaroslav had a son, Vasily, who inherited the entire Borovsko-Serpukhov inheritance, and two daughters, Maria and Elena. In 1433, Maria was married to the young Moscow prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy.
At this time, a cruel strife began on Moscow soil between Vasily and his mother Sofya Vitovtovna, on the one hand, and the family of his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, Prince Zvenigorodsky, on the other. Yuri and his sons - Vasily (in the future blinded in one eye and became Oblique) and Dmitry Shemyaka (the nickname comes from the Tatar "chimek" - "outfit") - claimed the Moscow reign. Both Yuryevich were present at Vasily's wedding in Moscow. And it was here that the famous historical episode took place, fueling this irreconcilable struggle. Seeing on Vasily Yurievich a golden belt that once belonged to Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tore it off, deciding that it did not belong to the Zvenigorod prince by right. One of the initiators of this scandal was the grandson of Fyodor Koshka Zakhary Ivanovich. The offended Yurievichs left the wedding feast, and the war soon broke out. During it, Vasily II was blinded by Shemyaka and became the Dark One, but in the end, the victory remained on his side. With the death of Shemyaka, who was poisoned in Novgorod, Vasily could no longer worry about the future of his reign. During the war, Vasily Yaroslavich, who became the brother-in-law of the Moscow prince, supported him in everything. But in 1456, Vasily II ordered his relative to be arrested and sent to prison in the city of Uglich. There the unfortunate son of Maria Goltyaeva spent 27 years until he died in 1483. His grave can be seen at the left side of the iconostasis of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral. There is also a portrait image of this prince. The children of Vasily Yaroslavich died in captivity, and the second wife with her son from her first marriage, Ivan, managed to escape to Lithuania. There, the family of Borovsky princes did not last long.
From Maria Yaroslavna Vasily II had several sons, including Ivan III. Thus, all representatives of the Moscow princely dynasty, starting with Vasily II and up to the sons and granddaughter of Ivan the Terrible, were descendants of the Koshkins in the female line.
Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tearing off the belt from Vasily Kosoy at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. From a painting by P.P. Chistyakov. 1861
The descendants of Fyodor Koshka consistently bore the surnames of the Koshkins, Zakharyins, Yuryevs, and, finally, the Romanovs as generic names. In addition to the daughter of Anna and the son of Fyodor Goltai, mentioned above, Fyodor Koshka had sons Ivan, Alexander Bezzubts, Nikifor and Mikhail the Bad. The descendants of Alexander were nicknamed the Bezzubtsevs, and then the Sheremetevs and the Yepanchins. The Sheremetevs descend from Alexander's grandson, Andrey Konstantinovich Sheremet, and the Yepanchins from another grandson, Semyon Konstantinovich Yepanchi (an old cloak-like garment was called an epancha).
The Sheremetevs are one of the most famous Russian noble families. Probably the most famous of the Sheremetevs is Boris Petrovich (1652–1719). An associate of Peter the Great, one of the first Russian general field marshals (the first Russian by origin), he participated in the Crimean and Azov campaigns, became famous for victories in the Northern War, commanded the Russian army in the Battle of Poltava. One of the first he was elevated by Peter to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire (obviously, this happened in 1710). Among the descendants of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, Russian historians especially revere Count Sergei Dmitrievich (1844–1918), a prominent researcher of Russian antiquity, chairman of the Archaeographic Commission under the Ministry of Public Education, who did a lot for the publication and study of documents of the Russian Middle Ages. His wife was the granddaughter of Prince Peter Andreevich Vyazemsky, and his son Pavel Sergeevich (1871–1943) also became a famous historian and genealogist. This branch of the family owned the famous Ostafievo near Moscow (inherited from the Vyazemskys), preserved through the efforts of Pavel Sergeevich after the revolutionary events of 1917. The descendants of Sergei Dmitrievich, who ended up in exile, became related there with the Romanovs. This family still exists, in particular, a descendant of Sergei Dmitrievich, Count Pyotr Petrovich, who now lives in Paris, heads the Russian Conservatory named after S.V. Rachmaninov. The Sheremetevs owned two architectural gems near Moscow: Ostankino and Kuskovo. How not to recall here the serf actress Praskovya Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, who became Countess Sheremeteva, and her wife Count Nikolai Petrovich (1751–1809), the founder of the famous Moscow Hospice House (now the building houses the N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Emergency Medicine). Sergei Dmitrievich was the grandson of N.P. Sheremetev and a serf actress.
The Yepanchins are less noticeable in Russian history, but they also left their mark on it. In the 19th century, representatives of this family served in the navy, and two of them, Nikolai and Ivan Petrovich, heroes of the Battle of Navarino in 1827, became Russian admirals. Their great-nephew, General Nikolai Alekseevich Yepanchin (1857–1941), a well-known military historian, served as director of the Page Corps in 1900–1907. Already in exile, he wrote interesting memoirs “In the service of three emperors”, published in Russia in 1996.
Actually, the Romanov family comes from the eldest son of Fyodor Koshka - Ivan, who was the boyar of Vasily I. It was the son of Ivan Koshka Zakhary Ivanovich who identified the notorious belt in 1433 at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. Zacharias had three sons, so the Koshkins were divided into three more branches. The younger ones - Lyatsky (Lyatsky) - left to serve in Lithuania, and their traces were lost there. The eldest son of Zacharias - Yakov Zakharievich (died in 1510), boyar and governor under Ivan III and Vasily III, for some time governor in Novgorod and Kolomna, took part in the war with Lithuania and, in particular, took the cities of Bryansk and Putivl, which then departed to the Russian state. The descendants of Jacob formed the noble family of the Yakovlevs. He is known for his two “illegal” representatives: in 1812, the wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767–1846) and the daughter of a German official Louise Ivanovna Haag (1795–1851), who were not legally married, had a son, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (d. . in 1870) (grandson of A.I. Herzen - Pyotr Alexandrovich Herzen (1871–1947) - one of the largest domestic surgeons, a specialist in clinical oncology). And in 1819, his brother Lev Alekseevich Yakovlev had an illegitimate son, Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (d. 1898), one of the most famous Russian photographers (who was A.I. Herzen's cousin).
The middle son of Zacharias - Yuri Zakharievich (died in 1505 [?]), boyar and governor under Ivan III, like his elder brother, fought with the Lithuanians in the famous battle near the Vedrosha River in 1500. His wife was Irina Ivanovna Tuchkova, a representative of a well-known noble family. The surname of the Romanovs came from one of the sons of Yuri and Irina okolnichiy Roman Yuryevich (died in 1543). It was his family that became related to the royal dynasty.
On February 3, 1547, the sixteen-year-old tsar, who had been crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin a fortnight before, married Anastasia, the daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin. Family life Ivana and Anastasia were happy. The young wife gave her husband three sons and three daughters. Unfortunately, the daughters died in childhood. The fate of the sons was different. The eldest son Dmitry died at the age of nine months. When the royal family made a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Monastery on Beloozero, they took the little prince with them.
There was a strict ceremonial at court: the baby was carried in her arms by a nanny, and two boyars, relatives of Queen Anastasia, supported her by the arms. The journey took place along the rivers, on plows. One day, the nanny with the prince and the boyars stepped onto the shaky gangway of the plow, and, unable to resist, everyone fell into the water. Dimitri choked. Then Ivan called this name his youngest son from his last marriage to Maria Naga. However, the fate of this boy turned out to be tragic: at the age of nine he. The name Dmitry was unlucky for the Grozny family.
The second son of the tsar, Ivan Ivanovich, had a difficult character. Cruel and domineering, he could become a complete likeness of his father. But in 1581, the 27-year-old prince was mortally wounded by Grozny during a quarrel. The reason for the unbridled outburst of anger was allegedly the third wife of Tsarevich Ivan (he sent the first two to the monastery) - Elena Ivanovna Sheremeteva, a distant relative of the Romanovs. Being pregnant, she showed herself to her father-in-law in a light shirt, "in an indecent form." The king beat his daughter-in-law, who then had a miscarriage. Ivan stood up for his wife and immediately received a blow to the temple with an iron staff. A few days later he died, and Elena was tonsured with the name of Leonid in one of the monasteries.
After the death of the heir, Grozny's successor was his third son from Anastasia, Fedor. In 1584 he became the Tsar of Moscow. Fyodor Ivanovich was distinguished by a quiet and meek disposition. He was disgusted by the cruel tyranny of his father, and he spent a significant part of his reign in prayers and fasts, atoning for the sins of his ancestors. Such a high spiritual mood of the tsar seemed strange to his subjects, which is why the popular legend about Fedor's dementia appeared. In 1598, he peacefully fell asleep forever, and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov took over the throne. Fedor's only daughter, Theodosius, died a little before the age of two. Thus ended the offspring of Anastasia Romanovna.
With her kind, gentle character, Anastasia restrained the cruel temper of the king. But in August 1560, the queen died. An analysis of her remains, now in the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral, already carried out in our time, showed a high probability that Anastasia was poisoned. After her death, a new stage began in the life of Ivan the Terrible: the era of Oprichnina and lawlessness.
Ivan's marriage to Anastasia brought her relatives to the forefront of Moscow politics. The queen's brother, Nikita Romanovich (died in 1586), was especially popular. He became famous as a talented commander and brave warrior during the Livonian War, rose to the rank of boyar and was one of the close associates of Ivan the Terrible. He entered the inner circle and Tsar Fedor. Shortly before his death, Nikita took the tonsure with the name of Nifont. Was married twice. His first wife, Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina, came from the Khovrin-Golovin family, who later gave several famous figures Russian history, including an associate of Peter I, Admiral Fyodor Alekseevich Golovin. The second wife of Nikita Romanovich - Princess Evdokia Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuiskaya - belonged to the descendants of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Rurikovich. Nikita Romanovich lived in his chambers on Varvarka Street in Moscow, where in the middle of the 19th century. museum was opened.
Seven sons and five daughters of Nikita Romanovich continued this boyar family. For a long time, researchers doubted from which marriage Nikita Romanovich was born his eldest son Fyodor Nikitich, the future patriarch Filaret, the father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty. After all, if his mother was Princess Gorbataya-Shuiskaya, then the Romanovs are therefore descendants of the Rurikovichs through the female line. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, historians assumed that Fyodor Nikitich was most likely born from his father's first marriage. And only in recent years this question, apparently, was finally resolved. During the study of the Romanov necropolis in Moscow's Novospassky Monastery, a tombstone of Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina was discovered. In the tomb epitaph, the year of her death should probably be read as 7063, i.e. 1555 (she died on June 29), and not 7060 (1552), as previously thought. Such dating removes the question of the origin of Fyodor Nikitich, who died in 1633, having been “more than 80 years old”. The ancestors of Varvara Ivanovna and, consequently, the ancestors of the entire royal House of Romanov, Khovrina, came from the merchant people of the Crimean Sudak and had Greek roots.
Fyodor Nikitich Romanov served as a regimental governor, participated in campaigns against the cities of Koporye, Yam and Ivangorod during the successful Russian-Swedish war of 1590-1595, defended the southern borders of Russia from the Crimean raids. A prominent position at court made it possible for the Romanovs to intermarry with other then-known families: the princes Sitsky, Cherkassky, and also with the Godunovs (Boris Fedorovich's nephew married the daughter of Nikita Romanovich, Irina). But these family ties did not save the Romanovs after the death of their benefactor Tsar Fedor from disgrace.
With the accession to the throne, everything changed. Hating the entire Romanov family, afraid of them as potential rivals in the struggle for power, the new tsar began to eliminate his opponents one by one. In 1600-1601, repressions fell upon the Romanovs. Fyodor Nikitich was forcibly tonsured a monk (under the name Filaret) and sent to the distant St. Anthony Monastery in the Arkhangelsk district. The same fate befell his wife Xenia Ivanovna Shestova. She was tonsured under the name of Marfa, she was exiled to the Tolvuysky churchyard in Zaonezhye, and then lived with her children in the village of Klin, Yuryevsky district. Her young daughter Tatyana and son Mikhail (the future tsar) were taken to a prison on Beloozero together with her aunt Anastasia Nikitichnaya, who later became the wife of a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky. The brother of Fyodor Nikitich, boyar Alexander, was exiled on a false denunciation to one of the villages of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, where he was killed. Another brother died in disgrace, the devious Mikhail, who was transported from Moscow to the remote Permian village of Nyrob. There he died in prison and in chains from hunger. Another son of Nikita, stolnik Vasily, died in the city of Pelym, where he and his brother Ivan were kept chained to the wall. And their sisters Efimia (monastic Evdokia) and Martha went into exile together with their husbands - the princes of Sitsky and Cherkassky. Only Martha survived the imprisonment. Thus, almost the entire Romanov family was defeated. Miraculously, only Ivan Nikitich, nicknamed Kasha, survived after a short exile.
But the Godunov dynasty was not allowed to rule in Rus'. The fire of the Great Troubles was already flaring up, and in this seething cauldron the Romanovs emerged from oblivion. The active and energetic Fyodor Nikitich (Filaret) returned to "big" politics at the first opportunity - False Dmitry I made his benefactor Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl. The fact is that once Grigory Otrepyev was his servant. There is even a version that the Romanovs specially prepared the ambitious adventurer for the role of the "legitimate" heir to the Moscow throne. Be that as it may, Filaret occupied a prominent place in the church hierarchy.
He made a new career "leap" with the help of another impostor - False Dmitry II, "Tushinsky Thief". In 1608, during the capture of Rostov, the Tushinos captured Filaret and brought an impostor to the camp. False Dmitry offered him to become patriarch, and Filaret agreed. In Tushino, in general, a second capital was formed, as it were: there was its own tsar, there were their own boyars, their own orders, and now also their own patriarch (in Moscow, the patriarchal throne was occupied by Hermogenes). When the Tushino camp collapsed, Filaret managed to return to Moscow, where he participated in the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The Seven Boyars that formed after that included the younger brother of the "patriarch" Ivan Nikitich Romanov, who received the boyars on the day of Otrepiev's wedding to the kingdom. As you know, the new government decided to invite the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne and concluded an appropriate agreement with the hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky, and in order to settle all the formalities, a “great embassy” was sent from Moscow to Smolensk, where the king was Filaret. However, negotiations with King Sigismund stalled, the ambassadors were arrested and sent to Poland. There, in captivity, Filaret stayed until 1619, and only after the conclusion of the Deulino truce and the end of the long war, he returned to Moscow. The Russian Tsar was already his son Michael.
Filaret had now become the "legitimate" Patriarch of Moscow and exerted a very significant influence on the policy of the young tsar. He proved to be a very domineering and sometimes even tough person. His court was built on the model of the royal one, and several special, patriarchal, orders were formed to manage land holdings. Filaret also took care of enlightenment, resuming the printing of liturgical books in Moscow after the ruin. He paid great attention to foreign policy and even created one of the diplomatic ciphers of the time.
The wife of Fyodor-Filaret, Xenia Ivanovna, came from an ancient family of Shestovs. Mikhail Prushanin, or, as he was also called, Misha, an associate of Alexander Nevsky, was considered their ancestor. He was also the ancestor of such famous families as the Morozovs, Saltykovs, Sheins, Tuchkovs, Cheglokovs, Scriabins. Misha's descendants became related to the Romanovs back in the 15th century, since the mother of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin was one of the Tuchkovs. By the way, the Kostroma village of Domnino, where Ksenia and her son Mikhail lived for some time after the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, also belonged to the Shestovs' patrimonial estates. The headman of this village, Ivan Susanin, became famous for saving the young king from death at the cost of his life. After her son's accession to the throne, the "great old woman" Martha helped him in governing the country until his father, Filaret, returned from captivity.
Ksenia-Martha was distinguished by a kind character. So, remembering the widows of previous tsars - Ivan the Terrible, Vasily Shuisky, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - who lived in monasteries, she repeatedly sent them gifts. She often went on a pilgrimage, was strict in matters of religion, but did not shy away from the joys of life: in the Ascension Kremlin Monastery she organized a gold-embroidery workshop, from which beautiful fabrics and clothes came out for the royal court.
Mikhail Fedorovich's uncle Ivan Nikitich (died in 1640) also occupied a prominent place at the court of his nephew. With the death of his son, boyar and butler Nikita Ivanovich, in 1654, all other branches of the Romanovs, except for the royal offspring of Mikhail Fedorovich, ceased. The family tomb of the Romanovs was the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, where in recent years great work has been carried out to explore and restore this ancient necropolis. As a result, many burial places of the ancestors of the royal dynasty were identified, and according to some remains, experts even recreated portrait images, including those of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, the great-grandfather of Tsar Mikhail.
The family coat of arms of the Romanovs dates back to the Livonian heraldry and was created in the middle of the 19th century. outstanding Russian heraldist Baron B.V. Koene on the basis of emblematic images on objects that belonged to the Romanovs in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries. The description of the coat of arms is as follows:
“In a silver field, a scarlet vulture holding a golden sword and a tarch crowned with a small eagle; on a black border are eight torn off lion heads: four gold and four silver.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Pchelov
Romanovs. History of the great dynasty