The first emperor of the Romanov dynasty. Always be in the mood

The first known ancestor of the Romanovs was Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla. Until the beginning of the 16th century, the Romanovs were called Koshkins, then Zakharyins-Koshkins and Zakharyins-Yuryevs.

Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva was the first wife of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. The ancestor of the family is the boyar Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuryev. From the house of Romanov, Alexei Mikhailovich and Fyodor Alekseevich reigned; During the childhood of Tsars Ivan V and Peter I, their sister Sofya Alekseevna was the ruler. In 1721, Peter I was proclaimed emperor, and his wife Catherine I became the first Russian empress.

With the death of Peter II, the Romanov dynasty ended in direct male generation. With the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, the Romanov dynasty came to an end in the direct female line. However, the surname Romanov was borne by Peter III and his wife Catherine II, their son Paul I and his descendants.

In 1918, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov and members of his family were shot in Yekaterinburg, other Romanovs were killed in 1918-1919, some emigrated.

https://ria.ru/history_infografika/20100303/211984454.html

It just so happens that our Motherland has an unusually rich and varied history, a huge milestone in which we can confidently consider the dynasty of Russian emperors who bore the name Romanov. This rather ancient boyar family actually left a significant mark, because it was the Romanovs who ruled the country for three hundred years, until the Great October Revolution of 1917, after which their family was practically interrupted. The Romanov dynasty, whose family tree we will definitely consider in detail and closely, has become iconic, reflected in the cultural as well as economic aspect of the life of Russians.

The first Romanovs: family tree with years of reign

According to a well-known legend in the Romanov family, their ancestors came to Russia around the beginning of the fourteenth century from Prussia, but these are only rumors. One of the famous historians of the twentieth century, academician and archaeographer Stepan Borisovich Veselovsky, believes that this family traces its roots to Novgorod, but this information is also quite unreliable.

The first known ancestor of the Romanov dynasty, the family tree with photos is worth considering in detail and thoroughly, was a boyar named Andrei Kobyla, who “went under” the prince of Moscow Simeon the Proud. His son, Fyodor Koshka, gave the family the surname Koshkin, and his grandchildren received a double surname - Zakharyin-Koshkin.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, it happened that the Zakharyin family rose significantly and began to claim its rights to the Russian throne. The fact is that the notorious Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Zakharyina, and when the Rurik family was finally left without offspring, their children began to be aspired to the throne, and not in vain. However, the Romanov family tree as Russian rulers began a little later, when Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected to the throne, perhaps this is where we need to start our rather lengthy story.

Magnificent Romanovs: the tree of the royal dynasty began with disgrace

The first tsar of the Romanov dynasty was born in 1596 into the family of a noble and rather wealthy boyar Fyodor Nikitich, who later took the rank and began to be called Patriarch Filaret. His wife was born Shestakova, named Ksenia. The boy grew up strong, savvy, grasped everything on the fly, and on top of everything else, he was also practically a direct cousin of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, which made him the first contender for the throne when the Rurik family, due to degeneration, simply died out. This is precisely where the Romanov dynasty begins, whose tree we view through the prism of the past tense.

Sovereign Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus'(ruled from 1613 to 1645) was not elected by chance. The time was troubled, there was talk of an invitation to the nobility, boyars and kingdom of the English king James the First, but the Great Russian Cossacks became enraged, fearing a lack of grain allowance, which is what they received. At the age of sixteen, Michael ascended the throne, but gradually his health deteriorated, he was constantly “mournful on his feet,” and died of natural causes at the age of forty-nine.

Following his father, his heir, the first and eldest son, ascended the throne Alexey Mikhailovich, by nickname The quietest(1645-1676), continuing the Romanov family, whose tree turned out to be branched and impressive. Two years before his father’s death, he was “presented” to the people as an heir, and two years later, when he died, Mikhail took the scepter in his hands. During his reign, a lot happened, but the main achievements are considered to be reunification with Ukraine, the return of Smolensk and Northern Land to the state, as well as the final formation of the institution of serfdom. It is also worth mentioning that it was under Alexei that the famous peasant revolt of Stenka Razin took place.

After Alexey the Quiet, a man by nature of weak health, fell ill and died, his blood brother took his placeFedor III Alekseevich(ruled from 1676 to 1682), who from early childhood showed signs of scurvy, or as they said then, scurvy, either from a lack of vitamins, or from an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, the country was ruled by various families at that time, and nothing good came of the tsar’s three marriages; he died at the age of twenty, without leaving a will regarding the succession to the throne.

After the death of Fedor, strife began, and the throne was given to the first oldest brother Ivan V(1682-1696), who had just turned fifteen years old. However, he was simply not capable of ruling such a huge power, so many believed that his ten-year-old brother Peter should take the throne. Therefore, both were appointed kings, and for the sake of order, their sister Sophia, who was smarter and more experienced, was assigned to them as regent. By the age of thirty, Ivan died, leaving his brother as the legal heir to the throne.

Thus, the Romanov family tree gave history exactly five kings, after which the anemone Clio took a new turn, and a fresh turn brought a new product, the kings began to be called emperors, and one of the greatest people in world history entered the arena.

Imperial tree of the Romanovs with years of reign: diagram of the post-Petrine period

He became the first All-Russian Emperor and Autocrat in the history of the state, and in fact, its last tsar.Peter I Alekseevich, who received his great merits and honorable deeds, the Great (years of reign from 1672 until 1725). The boy received a rather weak education, which is why he had great respect for the sciences and learned people, hence the passion for the foreign lifestyle. He ascended the throne at the age of ten, but actually began to rule the country only after the death of his brother, as well as the imprisonment of his sister in the Novodevichy Convent.

Peter’s services to the state and people are countless, and even a cursory review of them would take at least three pages of dense typewritten text, so it’s worth doing it yourself. In terms of our interests, the Romanov family, whose tree with portraits is definitely worth studying in more detail, continued, and the state became an Empire, strengthening all positions on the world stage by two hundred percent, if not more. However, a banal urolithiasis felled the emperor who seemed so indestructible.

After the death of Peter, power was taken by force by his second legal wife,Ekaterina I Alekseevna, whose real name is Marta Skavronskaya, and her years of reign stretched from 1684 to 1727. In fact, the real power at that time was held by the notorious Count Menshikov, as well as the Supreme Privy Council, created by the empress.

Catherine’s wild and unhealthy life bore its terrible fruits, and after her, Peter’s grandson, born in his first marriage, was elevated to the throne.Peter II. He began to reign in the year 27 of the eighteenth century, when he was barely ten, and by the age of fourteen he was struck down by smallpox. The Privy Council continued to rule the country, and after it fell, the boyars Dolgorukovs continued to rule.

After the untimely death of the young king, something had to be decided and she ascended the throneAnna Ivanovna(reign years from 1693 to 1740), disgraced daughter of Ivan V Alekseevich, Duchess of Courland, widowed at the age of seventeen. The huge country was then ruled by her lover E.I. Biron.

Before her death, Anna Ionovna managed to write a will, according to it, the grandson of Ivan the Fifth, an infant, ascended the throneIvan VI, or simply Ivan Antonovich, who managed to be emperor from 1740 to 1741. At first, the same Biron handled state affairs for him, then his mother Anna Leopoldovna took over the initiative. Deprived of power, he spent his entire life in prison, where he would later be killed on the secret orders of Catherine II.

Then the illegitimate daughter of Peter the Great came to power, Elizaveta Petrovna(reigned 1742-1762), who ascended the throne literally on the shoulders of the brave warriors of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. After her accession, the entire Brunswick family was arrested, and the favorites of the former empress were executed.

The last empress was completely barren, so she left no heirs, and transferred her power to the son of her sister Anna Petrovna. That is, we can say that at that time it again turned out that there were only five emperors, of whom only three had the opportunity to be called Romanovs by blood and origin. After the death of Elizabeth, there were absolutely no male followers left, and the direct male line, one might say, was completely cut off.

The permanent Romanovs: the tree of the dynasty was reborn from the ashes

After Anna Petrovna married Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, the Romanov family had to end. However, he was saved by a dynastic treaty, according to which the son from this unionPeter III(1762), and the clan itself now became known as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. He managed to sit on the throne for only 186 days and died under completely mysterious and unclear circumstances to this day, and even then without a coronation, and he was crowned after his death by Paul, as they now say, retroactively. It is remarkable that this unfortunate emperor left behind a whole heap of “False Peters”, which appeared here and there, like mushrooms after rain.

After the short reign of the previous sovereign, the real German princess Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, better known as the Empress, made her way to power through an armed coup.Catherine II, the Great (from 1762 until 1796), the wife of that very unpopular and stupid Peter the Third. During her reign, Russia became much more powerful, her influence on the world community was significantly strengthened, and she did a lot of work within the country, reuniting the lands, and so on. It was during her reign that the peasant war of Emelka Pugachev broke out and was suppressed with noticeable effort.

Emperor Paul I, Catherine’s unloved son from a hated man, ascended the throne after the death of his mother in the cold autumn of 1796, and reigned for exactly five years, minus several months. He carried out many reforms useful for the country and the people, as if in spite of his mother, and also interrupted the series of palace coups, abolishing the female inheritance of the throne, which from now on could be passed exclusively from father to son. He was killed in March 1801 by an officer in his own bedroom, without even having time to really wake up.

After his father's death, his eldest son ascended the throneAlexander I(1801-1825), liberal and lover of the silence and charm of rural life, and also intended to give the people a constitution, so that he could rest on his laurels until the end of his days. At the age of forty-seven years, all he received in life in general was an epitaph from the great Pushkin himself: “I spent my whole life on the road, caught a cold and died in Taganrog.” It is remarkable that the first memorial museum in Russia was created in his honor, which existed for more than a hundred years, after which it was liquidated by the Bolsheviks. After his death, brother Constantine was appointed to the throne, but he immediately refused, not “wanting to take part in this pandemonium of ugliness and murder.”

Thus, Paul's third son ascended the throne -Nicholas I(reign from 1825 to 1855), direct grandson of Catherine, who was born during her lifetime and memory. It was under him that the Decembrist uprising was suppressed, the Code of Laws of the Empire was finalized, new censorship laws were introduced, and many very serious military campaigns were won. According to the official version, it is believed that he died of pneumonia, but it was rumored that the king committed suicide.

A leader of large-scale reforms and a great asceticAlexander II Nikolaevich, nicknamed the Liberator, came to power in 1855. In March 1881, Narodnaya Volya member Ignatius Grinevitsky threw a bomb at the feet of the sovereign. Soon after this, he died from his injuries, which turned out to be incompatible with life.

After the death of his predecessor, his own younger brother was anointed to the throneAlexander III Alexandrovich(from 1845 to 1894). During his time on the throne, the country did not enter into a single war, thanks to a uniquely faithful policy, for which he received the legitimate nickname Tsar-Peacemaker.

The most honest and responsible of the Russian emperors died after the crash of the royal train, when for several hours he held in his hands a roof that threatened to collapse on his family and friends.

An hour and a half after the death of his father, right in the Livadia Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, without waiting for a memorial service, the last emperor of the Russian Empire was anointed on the throne,Nicholas II Alexandrovich(1894-1917).

After the coup in the country, he abdicated the throne, handing it over to his half-brother Mikhail, as his mother had wished, but nothing could be corrected, and both were executed by the Revolution, along with their descendants.

At this time, there are quite a lot of descendants of the imperial Romanov dynasty who could lay claim to the throne. It’s clear that there is no longer any smell of the purity of the family there, because the “brave new world” dictates its own rules. However, the fact remains that if necessary, a new tsar can be found quite easily, and the Romanov tree in the scheme today looks quite branched.

Last update:
August 20, 2018, 21:37

Family tree: diagrams with photographs and years of reign.

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Boyar family, from 1613 - royal dynasty, from 1721 - imperial dynasty in Russia; ruled until February 1917. On the throne were such representatives of the Romanov dynasty as Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-45), Alexey Mikhailovich(1645-76), Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-82), Ivan V (1682-96), Peter I(1682-1725), Peter II (1727-30, with his death the Romanov dynasty ended in the direct male generation), Anna Ioanovna (1730-40), Ivan VI (1740-41), Elizaveta Petrovna(1741-61, with her death the R. dynasty ended in the direct female line, but the Romanov surname was inherited by representatives Holstein-Gottorp dynasty), Peter III (1761-62), Catherine II (1762-96), Paul I (1796-1801), Alexander I(1801-25), Nicholas I(1825-55),Alexander II (1855- 81), Alexander III (1881-94), Nicholas II (1894-1917).

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During the February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917, the Romanian dynasty was removed from power, Nicholas II was overthrown, and later secretly executed by the Bolsheviks and his entire family. Some representatives of the Romanov family are in exile. (see materials above). The ruling representatives of the dynasty are marked in green:

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They descended from a boyar family known since the 14th century. The surname R. was received on behalf of the boyar Roman Yurievich(died 1582), whose daughter Anastasia the Tsar married Ivan IV Vasilievich(Ivan groznyj). The latter's nephew Fedor Nikitich R. became a Moscow. patriarch under the name Philareta. His son Mikhail Fedorovich R. was elected Russian. king (1613-45). The heirs of this monarch on the throne were: son Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-76), grandchildren - Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-82), Ivan V (1682-96), Peter / Alekseevich
(1682-1725), second wife of Peter I Catherine I (1725-27), his grandson Peter // Alekseevich (1727-30) In 1730-40, the daughter of Ivan V Anna Ivanovna ruled, in 1741-61 - the daughter of Peter I Elizaveta Petrovna , after which the R. dynasty ended and for women. lines. However, the surname R. was borne by representatives of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty: Peter III (1761-62) (son of the Duke of Holstein Karl Friedrich and daughter of Peter I Anna), his wife Catherine II (1762-96), their son Paul I (1796-1801) and his descendants: sons Alexander I (1801-25) and Nicholas I (1825-55), the latter's son Alexander II (1855-81), his son Alexander III (1881-94) and grandson Nicholas II (1894-1917).

The Romanov dynasty was in power for just over 300 years, and during this time the face of the country completely changed. From a lagging state, constantly suffering due to fragmentation and internal dynastic crises, Russia turned into an abode of an enlightened intelligentsia. Each ruler from the Romanov dynasty paid attention to those issues that seemed most relevant and important to him. For example, Peter I tried to expand the territory of the country and make Russian cities similar to European ones, and Catherine II put her whole soul into promoting the ideas of enlightenment. Gradually, the authority of the ruling dynasty fell, which led to a tragic ending. The royal family was killed, and power passed to the communists for several decades.

Results of the Romanov reign

During the reign of the Romanovs, the Russian monarchy experienced an era of prosperity, several periods of painful reforms and a sudden decline. The Muscovite Kingdom, in which Mikhail Romanov was crowned king, in the 17th century annexed vast territories of Eastern Siberia and reached the border with China. At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia became an empire and became one of the most influential states in Europe. Russia's decisive role in the victories over France and Turkey further strengthened its position. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian Empire, like other empires, collapsed under the influence of the events of the First World War.

In 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne and was arrested by the Provisional Government. The monarchy in Russia was abolished. Another year and a half later, the last emperor and his entire family were shot by decision of the Soviet government. Nicholas's surviving distant relatives settled in different European countries. Today, representatives of two branches of the Romanov dynasty: the Kirillovichs and the Nikolaeviches - claim the right to be considered locums of the Russian throne.

The family belongs to the ancient families of the Moscow boyars. The first ancestor of this family known to us from the chronicles is Andrei Ivanovich, who had the nickname Mare, in 1347 he was in the service of the Great Prince of Vladimir and Moscow, Semyon Ivanovich Proud.

Semyon Proud was the eldest son and heir and continued the policies of his father. At that time, the Moscow principality strengthened significantly, 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 considered the eldest, and few of them dared to contradict him. His character was clearly evident in his family life. After the death of his first wife, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Semyon remarried.

His chosen one was the Smolensk princess Eupraxia, but 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 Moscow's old rivals - the Tver princes. In 1347, an embassy went to Tver to woo Princess Maria, the daughter of Tver Prince Alexander Mikhailovich.

At one time, Alexander Mikhailovich died tragically 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 to Tver was headed by two Moscow boyars - Andrei Kobyla and Alexey Bosovolkov. This is how the ancestor of Tsar Mikhail Romanov appeared on the historical stage for the first time.

The embassy was successful. But Metropolitan Theognost unexpectedly intervened and refused 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 Moscow Metropolitan was subordinate, and received permission for the marriage. 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 genealogists, the offspring of Andrei Kobyla was extensive. He left five sons, who became the founders of many famous noble families. The sons' names were: Semyon Stallion (didn't he get his name in honor of Semyon the Proud?), Alexander Yolka, Vasily Ivantey (or Vantey), Gavrila Gavsha (Gavsha is the same as Gabriel, only in a diminutive form; such endings of names in “-sha” were common in Novgorod land) and Fedor Koshka. In addition, Andrei had a younger brother Fyodor Shevlyaga, from whom came the noble families of Motovilovs, Trusovs, Vorobins and Grabezhevs. The nicknames Mare, 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 from the same semantic circle. However, what was the origin of the brothers Andrei and Fyodor Ivanovich themselves?

The genealogies of the 16th – early 17th centuries do not report anything about this. But already in the first half of the 17th century, when they gained a foothold on the Russian throne, a legend about their ancestors appeared. Many noble families traced themselves to people from other countries and lands. This became a kind of tradition of the ancient Russian nobility, which, thus, almost entirely had “foreign” origin. Moreover, the most popular were the two “directions” from which the noble ancestors supposedly “exited”: either “from the Germans” or “from the Horde”. “Germans” meant not only the inhabitants of Germany, but all Europeans in general. Therefore, in the legends about the “excursions” of the founders of the clans, one can find the following clarifications: “From German, from Prus” or “From German, from 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 ears, came, often with a retinue, to serve one of the Grand Dukes. Here he was baptized, and his descendants became part of the Russian elite. Then noble families arose from their nicknames, and since many families traced themselves back to the same ancestor, it is understandable that different versions of the same legends appeared. The reasons for creating these stories are quite clear. By inventing foreign ancestors for themselves, Russian aristocrats “justified” their leadership position in society.

They made their families more ancient, constructed a high origin, because many of the 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 a real basis (for example, the ancestor of the Pushkins, Radsha, judging by the end of the name, was related to Novgorod and lived in the 12th century, according to some researchers, could actually be of foreign origin). But it is quite difficult to isolate these historical facts behind the layers of conjectures and conjectures. And besides, it can be difficult to unambiguously 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 “took upon themselves” by representatives of those families who had common ancestors with the Romanovs: the Sheremetevs, the already mentioned Trusovs, the Kolychevs. When the official genealogical book of the Muscovite kingdom was created in the 1680s, which later received the name “Velvet” because of its binding, noble families submitted their genealogies to the Rank Order, which was in charge of this matter. 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 in fact a prince who came from Prussia.

The “Prussian” origin of the ancestor was very common at that time among ancient families. It has been suggested that this happened because of the “Prussian Street” at one end of ancient Novgorod. Along this street there was a road to Pskov, the so-called. "The Prussian Way". After the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow state, many noble families of this city were resettled to the Moscow volosts, and vice versa. Thus, 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 legend, very famous at that time.

At the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, when a unified Moscow state was formed and the Moscow princes began to lay claim to the royal (cesar, 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 continuity of power was ensured by the marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaeologus, and the legend “about the gifts of Monomakh” - the Byzantine emperor, who transferred the royal crown and other regalia of royal power to his grandson Vladimir Monomakh in Rus', 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 maintained at the genealogical level. It was at this time that the legend about the origin of the then ruling Rurik dynasty arose. Rurik’s foreign, Varangian origin could not fit into the new ideology, and the founder of the princely dynasty became a 14th-generation descendant of a certain Prus, a relative of Emperor Augustus himself. Prus was supposedly the ruler of ancient Prussia, once inhabited by 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.
Subsequently, the legend acquired new details. In a more complete form, it was drawn up by the steward Stepan Andreevich Kolychev, who under Peter I became the first Russian king of arms. In 1722, he headed the Heraldry 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 origins of Andrei Kobyla have “acquired” new features.

In 373 (or even 305) AD (at that time the Roman Empire still existed), the Prussian king Pruteno gave the kingdom to his brother Weidewut, 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 Dubissa and Nevyazha rivers, at the confluence of which grew a sacred, evergreen oak tree of extraordinary height and thickness. Before his death, Veidevuth 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, a descendant of Nedron was Divon. He lived already in the 13th 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 began to be called 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 about it is fantastic, and no matter how hard some historians tried to verify its authenticity, their attempts were unsuccessful. Two characteristic motifs are striking. Firstly, the 12 sons of Veydevut are very reminiscent of the 12 sons of Prince Vladimir, the baptist of Rus', and the fourth son 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 Arms Book of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire,” created on the initiative of Paul I, who decided to streamline all Russian noble heraldry. The noble family coats of arms were entered into the armorial book, 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 - the Sheremetevs, Konovnitsyns, Neplyuevs, Yakovlevs and others, noting their “Prussian” origin, introduced the image of a “sacred” oak as one of the figures in their family coats of arms, and borrowed the central image itself (two crosses above which a crown is placed) from the heraldry of the city of Danzig (Gdansk).

Of course, as historical science developed, researchers not only were critical of the legend about the origin of the Mare, but also tried to discover any real historical basis in it. 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 Glanda Kambila and the real situation in the Prussian lands of the 13th century. Historians did not abandon such attempts in the future. But if the legend about Glanda Kambile could convey to us some grains of historical data, then its “external” design practically reduces this significance to nothing. It may be of interest from the point of view of the social consciousness of the Russian nobility of the 17th–18th centuries, but not in the matter of clarifying the true origin of the reigning family. Such a brilliant expert on 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 pedigree of his descendants. The eldest son of Mare, Semyon Stallion, became the founder 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 Stallion - Grigory Lodyga (“lodyga” is an ancient 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 descend from the grandson of Grigory Lodyga - Ivan Semyonovich Konovnitsa. Among them, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1764–1822), a hero of many wars waged by Russia at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, including the Patriotic War of 1812, became famous. 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 Prince P.I. was wounded. Bagration. In 1815–1819, Konovnitsyn was Minister of War, and in 1819, together with his descendants, he was elevated to the dignity of count of the Russian Empire.
From the second son of Andrei Kobyla, Alexander Yolka, came the families of the Kolychevs, Sukhovo-Kobylins, Sterbeevs, Khludenevs, Neplyuevs. Alexander's eldest son Fyodor Kolych (from the word "kolcha", i.e. lame) became the founder of the Kolychevs. Of the representatives of this genus, the most famous is St. Philip (in the world Fyodor 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.

The Sukhovo-Kobylins descend from another son of Alexander Yolka, Ivan Sukhoi (i.e., “thin”). The most prominent representative of this family was the playwright Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817–1903), author of the trilogy “Krechinsky’s Wedding”, “The Affair” and “The Death of Tarelkin”. In 1902, he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. His sister, Sofya Vasilievna (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 the 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 Evgenia Tour. Her son, Count Evgeniy Andreevich Salias de Tournemire (1840–1908), was also a famous writer and historical novelist in his time (he was called the Russian Alexandre Dumas). His sister, Maria Andreevna (1841–1906), was the wife of Field Marshal Joseph 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 the governor of the Orenburg region, and from 1760 a senator and conference minister, stands out.
Vasily Ivantey's descendants ended with his son Gregory, who died childless.

From the fourth son of Kobyla, Gavrila Gavsha, came the Boborykins. This family produced the talented writer Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836–1921), the author of the novels “Dealers”, “China Town” and, among others, by the way, “Vasily Terkin” (except for the name, this literary character has nothing in common with the hero A. T. Tvardovsky).
Finally, Andrei Kobyla's fifth son, Fyodor Koshka, was the direct ancestor of the Romanovs. He served Dmitry Donskoy and is repeatedly mentioned in the chronicles among his entourage. Perhaps it was he who was entrusted by the prince to defend Moscow during the famous war with Mamai, which ended in the victory of the Russians on the Kulikovo Field. Before his death, the Cat took monastic vows and was named Theodoret. His family became related to the Moscow and Tver princely dynasties - branches of the Rurikovich family. Thus, Fyodor’s daughter Anna was married to the Mikulin prince Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1391. The Mikulin inheritance was part of the Tver land, and Fyodor 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 from the Horde for the Great Reign of Vladimir, but each time, due to Dmitry’s opposition, he could not become the main Russian prince. However, gradually the strife between the Moscow and Tver princes faded away. Back in 1375, at the head of an entire 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. The marriage with the Koshkins was probably supposed to help establish friendly relations between the eternal enemies.

But not only Tver was embraced by the descendants of Fyodor Koshka with their matrimonial politics. Soon the Moscow princes themselves fell into their orbit. Among the sons of Koshka was Fyodor Goltai, whose daughter, Maria, was married in the winter of 1407 by one of the sons of the Serpukhov and Borovsk prince Vladimir Andreevich, Yaroslav.
Vladimir Andreevich, the founder of Serpukhov, was Dmitry Donskoy’s cousin. There were always the kindest friendly relations between them. The brothers took many important steps in the life of the Moscow state together. So, together they supervised 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, he also bore the name Afanasy at baptism. This was one of the last cases when, according to a long-standing tradition, the Rurikovichs gave their children double names: secular and baptismal. The prince died of a pestilence in 1426 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where his grave exists to this day. From his marriage to the granddaughter of Fyodor Koshka, Yaroslav had a son, Vasily, who inherited the entire Borovsk-Serpukhov inheritance, and two daughters, Maria and Elena. In 1433, Maria was married to the young Moscow prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, grandson of Dmitry Donskoy.
At this time, a brutal strife began on Moscow soil between Vasily and his mother Sofia Vitovtovna, on the one hand, and the family of his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, Prince of Zvenigorod, on the other. Yuri and his sons - Vasily (in the future, blinded in one eye and became Kosym) and Dmitry Shemyaka (the nickname comes from the Tatar “chimek” - “outfit”) - laid claim to the Moscow reign. Both Yuryevichs attended Vasily’s wedding in Moscow. And it was here that the famous historical episode took place, fueling this irreconcilable struggle. Seeing Vasily Yuryevich wearing a gold belt that once belonged to Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tore it off, deciding that it did not rightfully belong to the Zvenigorod prince. One of the initiators of this scandal was Fyodor Koshka’s grandson Zakhary Ivanovich. The offended Yuryevichs left the wedding feast, and war soon broke out. During it, Vasily II was blinded by Shemyaka and became Dark, but ultimately victory remained on his side. With the death of Shemyaka, 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 the arrest of a relative and sent him 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 on 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 his second wife and her son from her first marriage, Ivan, managed to flee to Lithuania. The family of Borovsk princes continued there for a short time.

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 on 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. Chistyakova. 1861
The descendants of Fyodor Koshka successively bore the family names Koshkins, Zakharyins, Yuryevs and, finally, Romanovs. In addition to his daughter Anna and son Fyodor Goltai, mentioned above, Fyodor Koshka had sons Ivan, Alexander Bezzubets, Nikifor and Mikhail Durny. Alexander's descendants were called the Bezzubtsevs, and then the Sheremetevs and Epanchins. The Sheremetevs descend from Alexander’s grandson, Andrei Konstantinovich Sheremet, and the Epanchins from another grandson, Semyon Konstantinovich Epancha (ancient clothing in the form of a cloak 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 field marshals (the first Russian by origin), he participated in the Crimean and Azov campaigns, became famous for his victories in the Northern War, and commanded the Russian army in the Battle of Poltava. He was one of the first to be 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 Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, and his son Pavel Sergeevich (1871–1943) also became a famous historian and genealogist. This branch of the family owned the famous Ostafyevo 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 found themselves in exile, became related there with the Romanovs. This family still exists today, in particular, the 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 pearls near Moscow: Ostankino and Kuskovo. How can one not 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 N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Medicine is located in its building). Sergei Dmitrievich was the grandson of N.P. Sheremetev and the serf actress.

The Epanchins 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 Epanchin (1857–1941), a famous military historian, served as director of the Corps of Pages 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 descends from the eldest son of Fyodor Koshka, Ivan, who was a boyar of Vasily I. It was Ivan Koshka’s son Zakhary Ivanovich who identified the notorious belt in 1433 at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. Zachary had three sons, so the Koshkins were divided into three more branches. The younger ones - the Lyatskys (Lyatskys) - left to serve in Lithuania, and their traces were lost there. The eldest son of Zakhary, Yakov Zakharyevich (died in 1510), a boyar and governor under Ivan III and Vasily III, served as viceroy in Novgorod and Kolomna for some time, took part in the war with Lithuania and, in particular, took the cities of Bryansk and Putivl, which then seceded to the Russian state. The descendants of Yakov 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 Aleksandrovich Herzen (1871–1947) - one of the largest domestic surgeons, a specialist in the field of clinical oncology). And in 1819, his brother Lev Alekseevich Yakovlev had an illegitimate son, Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (died in 1898), one of the most famous Russian photographers (who was thus A.I. Herzen’s cousin).

Zakhary's middle son, Yuri Zakharyevich (died in 1505 [?]), a boyar and governor under Ivan III, like his older 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 famous noble family. The surname Romanov came from one of the sons of Yuri and Irina, the okolnichy 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 half a month earlier in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, married the daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, Anastasia. Ivan's family life with Anastasia was 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 ceremony at court: the baby was carried in the arms of a nanny, and she was supported by two boyars, relatives of Queen Anastasia. The journey took place along rivers and on plows. One day, the nanny with the prince and the boyars stepped onto the shaky gangplank of the plow, and, unable to resist, they all fell into the water. Dmitry choked. Then Ivan named his youngest son from his last marriage with Maria Naga by this name. However, the fate of this boy turned out to be tragic: at the age of nine he... The name Dmitry turned out to be unlucky for the Grozny family.

The tsar’s second son, Ivan Ivanovich, had a difficult character. Cruel and domineering, he could become a complete image 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 appeared to her father-in-law in a light shirt, “in an indecent appearance.” The king beat his daughter-in-law, who later 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 Leonidas in one of the monasteries.

After the death of the heir, Ivan the Terrible was succeeded by 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, atonement for the sins of his ancestors. Such a high spiritual attitude of the tsar seemed strange to his subjects, which is why the popular legend about Fedor’s dementia appeared. In 1598, he serenely fell asleep forever, and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov took over the throne. Fyodor's only daughter Theodosia died before reaching the age of two. Thus ended the offspring of Anastasia Romanovna.
With her kind, gentle character, Anastasia restrained the king’s cruel temper. But in August 1560 the queen died. An analysis of her remains, now located 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 was part of the inner circle of Tsar Fedor. Shortly before his death, Nikita took monastic vows with the name Nifont. Was married twice. His first wife, Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina, came from the Khovrin-Golovin family, which later produced several famous figures in Russian history, including Peter I’s associate, Admiral Fyodor Alekseevich Golovin. Nikita Romanovich’s second wife, Princess Evdokia Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya, belonged to the descendants of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Rurikovichs. Nikita Romanovich lived in his chambers on Varvarka Street in Moscow, where in the middle of the 19th century. a museum was opened.

Seven sons and five daughters of Nikita Romanovich continued this boyar family. For a long time, researchers doubted from which marriage of Nikita Romanovich his eldest son Fyodor Nikitich, the future Patriarch Filaret, the father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, was born. After all, if his mother was Princess Gorbataya-Shuiskaya, then the Romanovs are thus descendants of the Rurikovichs through the female line. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, historians assumed that Fyodor Nikitich was most likely born from his father’s first marriage. And only in recent years has this issue apparently been finally resolved. During the study of the Romanov necropolis in the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, the tombstone of Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina was discovered. In the tombstone epitaph, the year of her death should perhaps be read as 7063, i.e. 1555 (she died on June 29), and not 7060 (1552), as previously believed. This dating removes the question of the origin of Fyodor Nikitich, who died in 1633, being “more than 80 years old.” The ancestors of Varvara Ivanovna and, therefore, the ancestors of the entire royal House of Romanov, the Khovrins, came from the trading people of the Crimean Sudak and had Greek roots.

Fyodor Nikitich Romanov served as a regimental commander, took part 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 Crimean raids. A prominent position at court made it possible for the Romanovs to become related to other then-known families: the princes of Sitsky, Cherkasy, as well as the Godunovs (Boris Fedorovich’s nephew married Nikita Romanovich’s daughter, Irina). But these family ties did not save the Romanovs from disgrace after the death of their benefactor Tsar Fedor.

With his accession to the throne, everything changed. Hating the entire Romanov family and fearing them as potential rivals in the struggle for power, the new tsar began to eliminate his opponents one by one. In 1600–1601, repression fell on the Romanovs. Fyodor Nikitich was forcibly tonsured a monk (under the name Filaret) and sent to the distant Anthony Siysky Monastery in Arkhangelsk district. The same fate befell his wife Ksenia Ivanovna Shestova. Tonsured under the name of Martha, she was exiled to the Tolvuisky 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 prison on Beloozero along with her aunt Anastasia Nikitichna, who later became the wife of a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky. Fyodor Nikitich's brother, boyar Alexander, was exiled on a false denunciation to one of the villages of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, where he was killed. Another brother, the okolnichy Mikhail, also died in disgrace, transported from Moscow to the remote Perm village of Nyrob. There he died in prison and in chains from hunger. Another son of Nikita, steward Vasily, died in the city of Pelym, where he and his brother Ivan were kept chained to the wall. And their sisters Efimiya (monastically Evdokia) and Martha went into exile together with their husbands, the princes of Sitsky and Cherkassy. Only Martha survived imprisonment. Thus, almost the entire Romanov family was destroyed. Miraculously, only Ivan Nikitich, nicknamed Kasha, survived, returned 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 Grigory Otrepiev was once 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 took a prominent place in the church hierarchy.

He made a new career “leap” with the help of another impostor - False Dmitry II, the “Tushinsky Thief”. In 1608, during the capture of Rostov, the Tushins captured Filaret and brought the impostor to the camp. False Dmitry invited him to become patriarch, and Filaret agreed. In Tushino, in general, a kind of second capital was formed: it had its own king, it had its own boyars, its own orders, and now also its 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 this included the younger brother of the “patriarch” Ivan Nikitich Romanov, who received the boyars on the day of Otrepiev’s crowning. As is known, the new government decided to invite the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne and concluded a corresponding agreement with Hetman Stanislav Zolkiewski, and in order to settle all the formalities, a “great embassy” was sent from Moscow to Smolensk, where the king was located, headed by Filaret. However, negotiations with King Sigismund reached a dead end, the ambassadors were arrested and sent to Poland. There, in captivity, Filaret remained until 1619 and only after the conclusion of the Deulin truce and the end of the many years of war did he return to Moscow. His son Mikhail was already the Russian Tsar.
Filaret had now become the “legitimate” Moscow Patriarch and had a very significant influence on the policies of the young tsar. He showed himself to be a very powerful and at times even tough person. His courtyard was built on the model of the royal one, and several special, patriarchal orders were formed to manage land holdings. Filaret also cared about education, resuming the printing of liturgical books in Moscow after the ruin. He paid great attention to foreign policy issues and even created one of the diplomatic ciphers of that time.

Fyodor-Filaret's wife Ksenia Ivanovna came from the ancient Shestov family. Their ancestor was considered to be Mikhail Prushanin, or, as he was also called, Misha, an associate of Alexander Nevsky. He was also the founder 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 Shestovs’ ancestral estates included the Kostroma village of Domnino, where Ksenia and her son Mikhail lived for some time after the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. 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 lady” Martha helped him in governing the country until his father, Filaret, returned from captivity.

Ksenia-Marfa had a kind character. So, remembering the widows of previous tsars who lived in monasteries - Ivan the Terrible, Vasily Shuisky, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - she repeatedly sent them gifts. She often went on pilgrimages, 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, which produced beautiful fabrics and clothes for the royal court.
Mikhail Fedorovich's uncle Ivan Nikitich (died in 1640) also occupied a prominent place at his nephew's court. 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, were cut short. The ancestral tomb of the Romanovs was the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, where in recent years much work has been carried out to study and restore this ancient necropolis. As a result, many burials of the ancestors of the royal dynasty were identified, and from some remains, experts even recreated portrait images, including those of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, the great-grandfather of Tsar Mikhail.

The Romanov family coat of arms dates back to Livonian heraldry and was created in the mid-19th century. the outstanding Russian heraldist Baron B.V. Köne based on emblematic images found 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 is a scarlet vulture holding a golden sword and tarch, crowned with a small eagle; on the black border are eight severed lion heads: four gold and four silver.”

Evgeny Vladimirovich Pchelov
Romanovs. History of a great dynasty

The Romanovs are a large family of rulers and kings of Russia, an ancient boyar family. The family tree of the Romanov dynasty goes back to the 16th century. Numerous descendants of this famous family live today and continue the ancient family.

House of Romanov 4th century

At the beginning of the 17th century, there was a celebration dedicated to the accession to the throne of Moscow by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. The crowning ceremony, which took place in the Kremlin in 1613, marked the beginning of a new dynasty of kings.

The Romanov family tree gave Russia many great rulers. The family chronicle dates back to 1596.

Origin of the surname

The Romanovs are an inaccurate historical surname. The first known representative of the family was the boyar Andrei Kobyla during the time of the ruling prince Ivan Kalita. The descendants of Mare were called Koshkins, then Zakharyins. It was Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin who was officially recognized as the founder of the dynasty. His daughter Anastasia married Tsar Ivan the Terrible, they had a son, Fyodor, who, in honor of his grandfather, took the surname Romanov and began to call himself Fyodor Romanov. This is how the famous surname was born.

The family tree of the Romanovs grows from the Zakharyins’ family, but from what places they came to Muscovy is unknown to historians. Some experts believe that the family were natives of Novgorod, others claim that the family came from Prussia.

Their descendants became the most famous royal dynasty in the world. The large family is called the “House of Romanov”. The family tree is extensive and huge, with branches in almost all the kingdoms of the world.

In 1856 they acquired an official coat of arms. The sign of the Romanovs depicts a vulture holding a fairytale blade and tarch in its paws; the edges were decorated with the severed heads of lions.

Ascension to the throne

In the 16th century, the boyars of Zakharyin acquired a new position by becoming related to Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Now all relatives could hope for the throne. The chance to seize the throne came quite soon. After the interruption of the Rurik dynasty, the decision to take the throne was taken up by the Zakharyins.

Fyodor Ioannovich, who, as mentioned earlier, took the surname Romanov in honor of his grandfather, was the most likely contender for the throne. However, Boris Godunov prevented him from ascending the throne, forcing him to take monastic vows. But this did not stop the smart and enterprising Fyodor Romanov. He accepted the rank of patriarch (called Filaret) and, through intrigue, elevated his son Mikhail Fedorovich to the throne. The 400-year era of the Romanovs began.

Chronology of the reign of direct representatives of the clan

• 1613-1645 - years of reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov;
• 1645-1676 - reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov;
• 1676-1682 - autocracy of Fyodor Alekseevich Romanov;
• 1682-1696 - formally in power, Ivan Alekseevich was co-ruler of his younger brother Peter Alekseevich (Peter I), but did not play any political role,
• 1682-1725 - the family tree of the Romanovs was continued by the great and authoritarian ruler Peter Alekseevich, better known in history as Peter I. In 1721 he established the title of emperor, from then on Russia began to be called the Russian Empire.

In 1725, Empress Catherine I ascended the throne as the wife of Peter I. After her death, a direct descendant of the Romanov dynasty, Peter Alekseevich Romanov, the grandson of Peter I (1727-1730), came to power again.

• 1730-1740 - The Russian Empire was ruled by Anna Ioannovna Romanova, niece of Peter I;
• 1740-1741 - formally Ivan Antonovich Romanov, the great-grandson of Ivan Alekseevich Romanov, was in power;
• 1741-1762 - as a result of a palace coup, Elizaveta Petrovna Romanova, daughter of Peter I, came to power;
• 1762 - Peter Fedorovich Romanov (Peter III), nephew of Empress Elizabeth, grandson of Peter I, reigns for six months.

Further history

1. 1762-1796 - after the overthrow of her husband Peter III, Catherine II rules the empire
2. 1796-1801 - Pavel Petrovich Romanov, son of Peter I and Catherine II, came to power. Officially, Paul I belongs to the Romanov family, but historians are still fiercely debating his origins. Many consider him an illegitimate son. If we assume this, then in fact the family tree of the Romanov dynasty ended with Peter III. Subsequent rulers may not have been blood descendants of the dynasty.

After the death of Peter I, the Russian throne was often occupied by women representing the House of Romanov. The family tree became more branchy, as descendants of kings from other states were chosen as husbands. Paul I already established a law according to which only a male blood successor has the right to become king. And from that time on, women were not married to the kingdom.

• 1801-1825 - reign of Emperor Alexander Pavlovich Romanov (Alexander I);
• 1825-1855 - reign of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich Romanov (Nicholas I);
• 1855-1881 - Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov (Alexander II) reigns;
• 1881-1894 - the years of the reign of Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov (Alexander III);
• 1894-1917 - autocracy of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II), he and his family were shot by the Bolsheviks. The imperial family tree of the Romanovs was destroyed, and with it the monarchy in Rus' collapsed.

How the reign of the dynasty was interrupted

In July 1917, the entire royal family, including children, Nicholas, and his wife, were executed. The only successor, Nikolai's heir, was also shot. All relatives hiding in different places were identified and exterminated. Only those Romanovs who were outside Russia were saved.

Nicholas II, who acquired the name "Bloody" due to the thousands killed during the revolutions, became the last emperor to represent the House of Romanov. The family tree of the descendants of Peter I was interrupted. Descendants of the Romanovs from other branches continue to live outside Russia.

Results of the board

During the 3 centuries of the dynasty, many bloodsheds and uprisings took place. However, the Romanov family, whose family tree covered half of Europe in shadow, brought benefits to Russia:

• complete separation from feudalism;
• the family increased the financial, political, and military power of the Russian Empire;
• the country was transformed into a large and powerful State, which became on an equal footing with developed European countries.