The Russian Tsar Ivan VI the Terrible was married by a church marriage 4 times, but there were much more unofficial wives not recognized by the church. Historians are sure that there were at least 6 of them, and the fate of most of the royal spouses was sad.
Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva
Ivan Vasilyevich entered his first marriage very young: he was barely 16 years old. The bride was also from the Romanov family and was the tsar's six-cousin. The girl was very beautiful and was selected at the bride from several hundred applicants. The origin of the tsar's bride aroused deep discontent among the nobility, but Ivan the Terrible insisted on his own and Anastasia became queen.
Historians believe that the marriage was quite happy. The young queen turned out to be not only beautiful, but also soft, kind, loving. She managed to soften the outbursts of anger to which the king was inclined from childhood. Anastasia gave birth to six children, of whom two survived. Family life proceeded happily and calmly, but after the last birth, the woman began to get sick, and then suddenly died before she was 30 years old. During the excavation of burials in the bones, traces of mercury were found, which allowed the researchers to assert. That the first wife of Grozny was poisoned by ill-wishers.
Maria Temryukovna
The second wife was the complete opposite of the meek and domestic Anastasia. She came from an ancient Cherkassk family, in baptism Princess Kuchenya received the name of Maria Temryukovna. The girl was very beautiful and wayward, she was distinguished by her love of freedom, independence, strong and even cruel character. She took part in hunting fun, rode a lot. Relations with the king were not even, and soon the new queen was convicted of treason. She was accused not only of adultery, but also of an attempted coup. The result was predictable - soon the rebellious queen died of an unknown disease. Some historians believe that Tsar Ivan himself is to blame for her death.
Martha Sobakina
The king chose his third wife at the bride, where about 2000 girls from the best families gathered. Martha Sobakina was a relative of one of the tsar's confidants, Malyuta Skuratov, was distinguished by her beauty and calm character. In the queens, the chosen one did not live long: 2 weeks after the wedding, she fell ill and could no longer recover. Ivan Vasilyevich suspected that his young wife had been poisoned. The relatives of the previous queen were accused of the crime. The culprits were executed, and the king announced that the young wife did not become a wife in the physical sense, which means that the marriage could be considered invalid. This decision angered the clergy, because the king was not going to remain a widower and was already planning his next marriage.
Anna Koltovskaya
According to Orthodox canons, a tsar could marry no more than 3 times. For the fourth marriage, a special permit was required, which was issued with great difficulty. As an atonement for sin, a three-year penance was imposed on the king.
The daughter of the boyar Koltovsky became a contender for the role of the new queen. She was selected at the same review as Martha Sobakina. The girl was distinguished by her beauty, liveliness and love, which served her in disservice. Six months later, the queen was convicted of treason, although she denied the love affair. Anna was forcibly tonsured into a nun under the name of nun Daria. The former queen was imprisoned in a monastery, where she remained for many years, much outlived by her husband.
Unmarried wives
Historians disagree about the following spouses of Ivan the Terrible. Some names are considered fake, biographers doubt whether these women existed in reality and whether they were related to the king. Among such dubious persons is Maria Dolgorukaya, who is considered by some to be the fifth wife of the tsar and Vasilis Melentyev. According to legend, the first was drowned by the king because of virginity violated before marriage. The second was tonsured as a nun, the exact reasons for the disgrace are unknown.
The other two women are more real. Anna Vasilchikova lived with the tsar for about a year without a church blessing. He married her out of great love, but then suddenly lost interest in the young woman. Anna was tonsured as a nun, but did not live long: after 2 years she died and was buried at the monastery.
The last wife of Grozny was Maria Nagaya. The marriage lasted 4 years, until the death of the king. After his death, the unrecognized queen, along with her young son Dmitry, was exiled to Uglich. After 7 years, the prince died under unexplained circumstances. The close ones believed that there was an accident while playing with knives, but their mother, distraught with grief, accused them of murder. The alleged perpetrators were torn to pieces by the crowd, and later Mary took monastic vows at the monastery and became nun Martha.
After 4 years, the disgraced queen returned to Moscow and recognized False Dmitry I as her resurrected son, but then recanted her words.
