Irina, Agafya and Natalia: Three queens who opened windows to Europe even before Peter I

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

There is a myth that before Peter the Russian tsars did not look in the direction of Europe: there is only one shame and demonic technical progress. And only Peter suddenly realized that it was possible to take technology and education from the West. But Peter did not dawn out of the blue: before him, at least three queens were actively interested in Europe and brought European trends to Russia (and their husbands).

Irina Godunova

The wife of the future Fyodor Ivanovich grew up with him in the Kremlin chambers, thanks to the fact that her uncle, Dmitry Godunov, was the tsar's bed-room. Episodes of interest in the West in the life of Ivan the Terrible - and he himself considered himself non-Russian and from time to time turned his gaze to Europe - for Irina became a constant hobby. In her youth, Korolev Time fell on, and, following rumors from distant countries, Irina began to dream of becoming the same ruler, capable of unleashing wars and concluding truces. A dream that seemed fruitless - the lot of queens was then a reclusive life.

Irina married Tsarevich as a girl of eleven or twelve years old. Fyodor would not have seemed like a prominent groom to anyone. With an asymmetrical face, an eternal shy half-smile on his lips, he, although he was much older than Irina, seemed like a child in his mind. But he adored his wife, and this gave Godunova a chance to become his co-ruler - when the father-in-law dies.

And so it happened. Despite the fact that the tsarina for a very long time could not give birth to a child to her husband, the tsar adored her and obeyed her in everything, so Irina shocked the boyars, going out with her husband to the ambassadors and participating in the meetings of the Duma. Very active participation! She actively established foreign contacts. To the west - with Queen Elizabeth of England. To the south - with Constantinople: it was thanks to Irina that the Russian Orthodox Church became the patriarchy, which was very important for the country in the sixteenth century. To the east - with Tinatin, queen of Kakheti (historical region of Georgia), wife of Tsar Alexander - vassal of the Iranian shah.

In addition, due to the problems of the queen with childbirth - when her husband became interested in her as a woman, it turned out that Irina could not give birth normally - Irina's brother Boris tried to prescribe an English midwife. The boyars were not allowed. Like, he will replace the prince, if the fate of the prince will appear at all. And when Fyodor Ivanovich was seriously ill, Boris hastily negotiated the marriage of his sister with the Austrian prince. This was later blamed on Irina herself: they say, they still know that she is looking to the west, Boris could not decide on this himself without her …

After the death of Fyodor Ivanovich, Irina remained the ruling queen, but for a very short time. She was literally forced to renounce the throne and go to a monastery - and this despite the fact that she was supported by the patriarch of All Russia. For many years Moscow had to forget about the queens of the European model - active socially and politically, not lurking in the chambers.

Agafya Grushetskaya

If Godunova wanted to introduce only a Western view of the queen's place, transferring it to the boyar duma and receptions of ambassadors, then queen Agafya brought Western trends in clothing, and, to the horror of the gray-haired boyars and churchmen, young Muscovites began to adapt to Polish outfits. Agafya was the wife of the predecessor of Peter I, the young Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, so that even in the memory of little Peter, many around were parting with the old styles.

Now this is rarely remembered, but in history many Polish noblemen, going into the service of the Moscow tsars, converted to Orthodoxy and received estates in the east. Agafia was from a family of Poles who, in the opinion of those who remained in Catholicism, were “sold out”. She grew up in Smolensk and from childhood spoke Polish and Russian equally fluently.

When Agafya and Fedor saw each other, she was seventeen, he was eighteen. She stood in the crowd, looking at the procession, and fainted when the young man passed by. Many believed that Agafya did it with calculation, and the calculation was successful - a beautiful girl attracted the attention of the king. He found out more about her and decided to marry. They had a lot in common: for example, Fyodor Alekseevich, whose tutor was personally Simeon Polotsky, spoke excellent Polish.

For decency, before the wedding, they arranged a review of brides, but it was clear to everyone who would be chosen. Agafya constantly amazed the Russian nobility. She spoke not according to rank and sex, boldly and directly, she was well educated not according to custom, besides, she was Orthodox, but a foreigner, and the Russian tsars had never entered into such marriages before.

Gradually, under the influence of Agafya, not only young boyar sons, but also sometimes very respected people, began to cut their beards. Someone has tasted tobacco and is addicted to the straw. Agreeing with his wife, the young tsar ordered that they no longer wear "Tatar dresses", that is, bulky and lush robes. Polish or simple Russian costumes flashed at court. Finally, it was Agafya who obtained permission to open Latin and Polish schools in Moscow.

Agafia's opponents began to assert that she was trying to convert the tsar to the "Lyatsk", that is, Polish, faith. Princess Sophia, who dreamed of increasing her own political weight, led the intrigues against Agafia. I must say that she herself was not alien to much of the Western, but in the struggle against Agafya she had to rely on the zealots of the old - there was no other opposition. At the same time, her sisters walked without braiding, in fashionable tiny caps that reveal their hair and fitted dresses. They definitely liked the order established by Agafya: now things were chosen for purchases by the princesses, not by employees of a special order, but by themselves. The order only paid for and delivered purchases.

Just as Western queens acquired maids of honor, Agafya kept courtyard nobles near her. All of them, as one, wore European fitted dresses. In fact, in the field of fashion and reforms according to palace etiquette, Peter only continued the affairs of his daughter-in-law.

Alas, the birth of the firstborn was so difficult that the queen died on the third day after them. Her son died soon after. Having lost his beloved wife, Tsar Fyodor plunged into the deepest depression. He outlived his beloved by less than a year.

Natalia Naryshkina

Tsar Fyodor's stepmother, Natalya, was also officially chosen by Tsar Alexei at the bride show, and unofficially, he liked him much earlier. By that time, the king was already a widow, so he was much older than all the girls shown to him. Natalya so sunk into his soul that when they tried to slander - they say, her eyes are bulging, I suppose she was sick - deigned to be angry. Like Fedor and Agafya, Natalia and Alexei had common interests. Natalia's uncle, boyar Matveev, who raised Natalia, was very fond of everything European, like Alexei Mikhailovich himself. Up to the point that Matveyev's wife was a Scottish woman - who, in fact, was engaged in Natalia's upbringing.

Soon after the wedding, the tsar and the tsarina had a son, Peter, and then two daughters. When Peter was four years old, Natalya was widowed and all the upbringing of her son actually lay on her shoulders.

If Aleksey Mikhailovich liked to read Western literature and furniture in the Baroque style, translated for him on purpose, Natalia was obsessed with Western models of education. It was she who encouraged Petrusha's enthusiasm for campaigns in the German settlement, she ordered him books for teaching on the most modern European pedagogical methods, she chose Peter's circle of friends.

In fact, it was the queen who brought up in Peter a powerful desire for technical progress, education and Westernism - those qualities that are usually credited to him. Even in his youth, Peter was often reproached with the widow queen, and sometimes they simply said that she had entered into an agreement with the Germans and even a child that was born - by the way, a girl, not a boy! - exchanged for German, so that he etched everything Russian in Russia. This version is included in cryptotheories around Peter I: the father of the great scientist, who died from the curse of his wife, and the German changeling.