| Marina Mniszech | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Official portrait, early 17th century | |||||
| Tsaritsa consort of all Russia | |||||
| Tenure | 18 May [O.S. 8 May] 1606 – 27 May [O.S. 17 May] 1606 | ||||
| Coronation | 18 May [O.S. 8 May] 1606 | ||||
| Predecessor | Maria Skuratova-Belskaya | ||||
| Successor | Maria Buynosova-Rostovskaya | ||||
| Born | 1588 Laszki Murowane,Crown of the Kingdom of Poland[1] | ||||
| Died | 24 December 1614(1614-12-24) (aged 25–26) Kolomna Kremlin,Tsardom of Russia | ||||
| Spouses | |||||
| Issue | Ivan Dmitriyevich | ||||
| |||||
| House | Mniszech | ||||
| Father | Jerzy Mniszech | ||||
| Mother | Jadwiga Tarło-Mniszech | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
Marina Mniszech orMnishek (Polish:Maryna Mniszech,IPA:[maˈrɨnaˈmɲiʂɛk];Russian:Марина Мнишек,IPA:[mɐˈrʲinəˈmnʲiʂɨk];c. 1588 – 24 December 1614) was a Polishnoblewoman who was thetsaritsa of all Russia in May 1606 during theTime of Troubles as the wife ofFalse Dmitry I.[2][3] Following the death of her husband, she later married another imposter to the throne,False Dmitry II.[4] A devoutCatholic, she hoped to convert Russia's population toCatholicism.
MarinaMniszech was a daughter of JadwigaTarło andPolishVoivode-Governor of SandomierzJerzy Mniszech, who was one of the organizers of theDimitriads, which were instigated by the appearance of a man who claimed to beIvan the Terrible's son.[5] Marina Mniszech's marriage toFalse Dmitriy I provided an opportunity for the Polishmagnates to control their protégé. Mniszech met False Dmitry I around 1604 or 1605, at the court of one of the Commonwealthmagnates, and was betrothed to him.[6] In return for her hand Dmitri promised herPskov andNovgorod, and her fatherSmolensk andSeveria. After the death ofBoris Godunov, Dmitri captured Moscow in June 1605. In November he sent adiplomatic mission to Poland, asking for Marina's hand and proposing a military alliance to defeat theOttoman Empire.
The first wedding ceremony, performed in November 1605 by theBishop of Kraków,Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski was heldper procura inKraków, at theMontelupi complex (Pod Jaszczurami andFirlejowska) and was attended by the Polish kingSigismund III Vasa himself, as well as hundreds of high-rankingszlachta members and foreign guests. Dmitri was represented by Muscovite envoy Afanasy Vlasiev. Afterwards, Marina went with her father and aretinue of approximately 4,000 to Moscow. At the beginning of May 1606, Marina entered Moscow in a triumphant parade, and on 8 May wascrowned inAscension Cathedral whenPatriarch Ignatius confirmed their marriage and put theRurikid crown on her head. It is unknown whether Marina converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy. She wore a Polish wedding dress, and Dmitri wore the armor of a Polishhussar.
However, Marina did not reign long. On the morning of 17 May 1606, about two weeks after the coronation, conspirators opposed to Dmitri and his policy of close cooperation with Poland stormed theKremlin. Dmitri tried to flee through a window but broke his leg in the fall. One of the plotters shot him dead on the spot. At first the body was put on display, then cremated and the ashes were shot from a cannon towards Poland. Dmitri's reign had lasted a mere ten months.Vasili Shuisky, whom Dmitri earlier pardoned for conspiring against him, took his place as Tsar. Thiscoup d'état caused thousands of deaths, including many from the Polish entourage. Marina and her fatherJerzy Mniszech were imprisoned. However, the story of the False Dmitri was just beginning.
After the death of False Dmitry I, Marina Mniszech was spared her life – after she had rejected her royal title – and sent back to Poland in July 1608.[7] However, her father Jerzy Mniszech didn't give up on his plan to become father-in-law of the Tsar. Exiled toYaroslavl, he searched for a way to regain his favours. With his help, Marina turned up inTushino, where she would secretly marry another impostorFalse Dmitry II, after supposedly recognizing him as her husband. PolishhetmanStanisław Żółkiewski wrote in his memoirs that the only two things False Dmitris I and II had in common was that "they were both human and usurpers". False Dmitry II was killed in December 1610.
Marina Mniszech then found herself a protector in the person ofatamanIvan Zarutsky, who would try to support thenomination of her sonIvan (born in January 1611) for the Russianthrone. His henchmen called Marina Mniszech's son "Ivan Dmitriyevich" (literallyIvan, son of Dmitri), however,Patriarch Hermogenes would later dub[citation needed] him an "offspring of the rebel/criminal" (voryonok; at the time, the word "vor" which now means thief, meant "political criminal"). In the summer of 1613, after having lost their supporters, Mniszech and Zarutsky fled toAstrakhan but with the election ofMichael Romanov as tsar, the citizens of Astrakhan wanted the pretender and his family gone from their city. In 1614, an uprising of townspeople was aimed solely at capturing the family and they fled into the steppes. Near theYaik River in May 1614, after failing to gather support for a Cossack uprising, they were captured by theCossacks and handed over to the new Tsar the following month.
Ivan Zarutsky and Mniszech's little son were executed in 1614. Marina Mniszech died inprison inKolomna Kremlin fortress, soon afterwards.[8] According to some sources she was found strangled.
Marina Mniszech appears as a character inAlexander Pushkin'sblank verse dramaBoris Godunov andModest Mussorgsky'sopera of the same name. Although both depict Marina's impending marriage toFalse Dmitriy I, the depictions of the future Tsaritsa are quite different. Pushkin wrote, "A tragedy without love attracted my imagination. But apart from love entering a great deal into the character of my adventurer, I made Dmitri fall in love with Marina to make the strange character of the latter stand out better. It is barely outlined inKaramzin. But certainly, she was an odd and pretty woman. She had only one passion and that was ambition, but with such a degree of energy, or fury, that it is difficult to imagine it. Look how having sampled royalty, drunk on a dream, she prostitutes herself to one adventurer after another -- shares now the disgusting bed of a Jew, now the tent of a Cossack, always ready to give herself to whoever can show her a faint hope of a throne which no longer exists. Look at her brave war, poverty, shame, at the same time negotiating with the King of Poland like one crowned head to another, and then end her most stormy and most extraordinary existence so miserably. I have only one scene for her, but I will return to her if God lets me live long enough. She upsets me like a violent emotion. She is horribly Polish, as Mme. Lubomirska's cousin said."[9]
In Mussorgsky's opera, however, Marina Mniszech's ambitious manipulation of her future husband is shown to be instigated by aJesuit priestErcole Rangoni, who eventually threatens her with hellfire unless she seduces the pretender. Then Rangoni informs False Dmitry about Marina coming to the garden and secretly being in love with him [with False Dmitry]. The pretender confesses his feelings but the proud Marina rejects the love of a "daring vagabond", and promises to share his feelings only after he becomes a tsar to make her a tsaritsa of all Russia.[10][11]
When Marina's three-year-old son,Tsarevich Ivan Dmitriyevich, was publicly hanged, Marina – according to the Russian ambassador to the Polish royal court – “died of longing for her own fate”. According to other sources, she either was hanged or was drowned.
A popular legend inRussian folklore has it that Mnishek, a powerful witch known asMarinka the Witch,[12] put a curse on theRomanov dynasty because of the execution of her son by the new TsarMikhail and his father,Patriarch Filaret of Moscow. The boy's body had been left hanging near the Serpukhov Gate for months. Marina said: "Damn you! In theIpatiev's [Monastery] you started, in theIpatiev's [House] you will end! You began with the death of atsarevich, you will end with the death of a tsarevich!" Thus, according to the legend, the barbaric[13] murder of TsarNicholas II and his family, including his thirteen-year-old son, Alexei, was Marinka the Witch's revenge for the barbaric public execution of her tsarevich-son.[14][15]
Marina Mniszech Born: 1588 Died: 1614 | ||
| Russian royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by Maria Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya | Tsaritsa of Russia 1605–1606 | Vacant Title next held by Maria Buynosova-Rostovskaya |
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