Scandals around the ladies at the court of the Moscow tsars: the rejection of makeup and other causes of conflicts

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Not only the European monarchies, the courts of the centuries ago were shaken by scandals, captured in history. The Moscow tsars and the tsarist entourage did not escape them either. And many scandalous situations men unfolded around women, and on such occasions that now seem trivial or simply strange.

The hostage groom: how the Danish prince was captured by the Muscovites

Two granddaughters of Vladimir Monomakh, known by their Scandinavian names, the Kiev princesses Ingeborga and Malmfrida were married to noble Danes - one to the duke, and the other to the king. These marriages were successful, at least for Denmark, so it is not surprising that in the seventeenth century the Danish prince Waldemar Christian decided to look for a bride somewhere in the east. By the seventeenth century, politically, Moscow had become stronger than Kiev, so that the prince turned his eyes to the court of the Moscow Tsar.

At that time, the father of Alexei Tishaishiy, the first king of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, sat on the throne. And Waldemar Christian came to Moscow to woo his daughter - and Alexei Mikhailovich's sister - Princess Irina. For the sake of truth, Waldemar was prompted by the ambassadors sent by Tsar Michael on purpose, so it is not surprising that the Danish prince was immediately given consent. It seemed that all that remained was to appoint the wedding day …

However, the father of Princess Irina said that the future son-in-law must first convert to Orthodoxy. It was unprecedented - the wife always passed into the faith of the husband. The opposite situation developed only in the days of active baptism of pagans a century ago. Waldemar did not consider himself a pagan, he understood all the political consequences of the transition to Orthodoxy for a European aristocrat and, as usual, felt wounded by his male pride.

In general, the prince refused to change my faith and went home. In turn, the king of all Russia refused to release Valdemar from Moscow until he converts to Orthodoxy and marries Irina. The prince was literally held hostage. For a year and a half, he filed petition after petition, demanding and begging to let him go to his homeland. Fortunately for him, Tsar Michael died. Valdemar was released to Denmark and never attempted to marry anyone again. He died at thirty-three years old single and childless. Irina did not marry either.

Substitution of the royal child

The Godunov family was one of the first noble families in Moscow, for the first time after a long hiatus - the breakup between Moscow and Kiev - looking to the west. Irina Godunova, daughter-in-law of Ivan the Terrible and wife of his son Fyodor, dreamed of leading a life in the spirit of European queens. She received ambassadors, conducted diplomatic negotiations, attended meetings of the Boyar Duma, and corresponded with other monarchs of her sex. This aroused the indignation of the boyars.

One of the problems of Queen Irina was the inability to give birth to a child. She conceived normally, but her husband could not wait for a living son or at least a daughter from her. Then her brother, Boris Godunov, decided to write out a qualified doctor and a midwife from England - during the next pregnancy of his sister. Moreover, the personal physician of the Queen of England, Robert Jacobi, left for Russia.

But there was, as they would say now, a leak of information. The midwife and the doctor were intercepted, and a scandal erupted - Godunov de wrote the queen a basurman for the sake of either converting the prince on the sly to the Basurman faith, or even replacing it. Godunov had to try to ensure that the incident was not brought up for discussion in the Boyar Duma.

However, in the minds of people, he had already become a Zlochin, wishing to harm the Tsar and Tsarina, and when Irina finally had a daughter, rumors spread that in fact Irina gave birth to an heir to her husband, but Boris replaced the Tsarevich with a girl - and either killed or whether he hid the heir to the throne.

Too brave women

Sometimes in the center of scandals was the behavior of women, which contemporaries considered too bold, more precisely - impudent. And it's not just about Godunova, who “climbed into politics”. Boyarynya Cherkasskaya, for example, caused a scandal by not whitening or blushing her face. She was proud of her natural beauty and did not consider it necessary to hide it.

In those days, not everyone could see a woman's face, at least of the boyar class, and nevertheless, the entire female half of the Moscow boyar families discussed the “naked” face of Cherkasskaya. They found him amazingly indecent. Finally, the boyars came to an agreement and settled on their husbands, forcing them to talk to Cherkassky about the behavior of his wife. The boyaryna had to start applying lead whitewash, hazardous to health, not counting other, less dangerous elements of cosmetics.

The young Tsarina Natalya Naryshkina also caused confusion in her face. Only she … did not close it, riding in a cart through the city. For the sake of decency, a noble woman during such a trip had to draw up the curtains in the windows of the cart. Naryshkina, on the other hand, did not like to sit in the dark, she was brought up by a Scottish aunt and did not see anything wrong with taking a ride with the curtains drawn open and looking out into the street for the sake of boredom.

In addition, when Tsar Alexei Tishaishy started fashion for dance and theatrical performances, only the first performance of Naryshkin watched from behind bars, like the Tatar noble Muslim women (only this was considered decent in Moscow). It was uncomfortable for her to look through the cracks, and already at the next performance, although she sat with the women separately from the men, she no longer hid behind bars.

But in comparison with Queen Naryshkina, her daughter-in-law, Queen Agafya, amazed her contemporaries with even greater “shamelessness” - she, in addition to her face, also opened her hair! The fact is that Agafya Grushetskaya was either Polish or Polonized Belarusian, and preferred European fashion. Under her influence, Tsar Fyodor, the elder brother of Peter I, even banned the “Tatar dress” that was previously worn in Moscow, allowing either Polish or “Russian” (according to the Novgorod and Pskov fashion). Agafya herself, of course, did not go out to people with bare heads - this was not allowed anywhere in Europe, but her hat was almost conventional and revealed a lot of hair.

And, of course, there were love scandals. The mother of Ivan the Terrible, a native of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Elena Glinskaya, a woman of European customs in her upbringing, was early widowed. She was able to establish a regency over her son, using the help of the only ally among the boyars - Prince Telepnev-Obolensky. By all accounts, Glinskaya was in a romantic relationship with a married prince, and this angered the boyars. It is believed that the probability that Elena was poisoned precisely for refusing to break off relations with Obolensky is not zero.

Not only scandals have remained in the history of Moscow tsaritsa. Irina, Agafya and Natalia: Three queens who opened windows to Europe even before Peter I.