False Dmitriy I
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Image:Pseudo-Dmitrius.jpg False Dmitriy I, Cyrillic Дмитрий (other transliterations: Dmitry, Dmitri, Dmitrii), (ruled 1605-1606) was one of three pretenders to the Russian throne who claimed to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, tsarevich Dmitriy Ivanovich, who had supposedly miraculously escaped the assassination attempt. It is generally believed that the real Dmitriy was assassinated in Uglich and this False Dmitriy's real name was Grigory Otrepyev, although this is far from certain.
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Background of the pretender
This would-be Dmitriy appeared in history circa 1600, when he impressed the Muscovite patriarch Jove with his learning and assurance. Tsar Boris, however, ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he fled to Prince Constantine Ostrogsky at Ostrog (modern Ostroh), and subsequently entered the service of another Lithuanian family, Wisniowiecki's. Princes Adam and Michał Wiśniowiecki, accepted him for what he pretended to be because it gave them an opportunity to get involved in the affairs of Russia.
There were vague rumours that Dmitriy was an illegitimate son of previous Polish king, Stefan Batory. According to a later tale, False Dmitriy blurted out his identity when his master had slapped him in anger. Dmitriy himself claimed that his mother, the widow of Tsar Ivan, had anticipated the Godunov's assassination attempt and had given him into a care of a doctor who hid with him in Russian monasteries. After the doctor died, he had fled to Poland where he worked as a teacher for a brief time before coming to the service of Wisniowiecki. A number of people who had known the Tsar Ivan later claimed that Dmitriy did resemble the young tsarevich. Dmitriy displayed noble skills like riding and literacy and spoke both Russian and Polish.
Regardless of whether they believed the tale of Dmitriy, Adam Wiśniowiecki, Roman Różyński, Jan Sapieha and several other Polish noblemen decided to support him against Boris Godunov. On March 1604, Dmitriy visited the royal court of Sigismund III in Kraków. The king provisionally supported him, but did not promise any direct aid to help him in his way to the throne of Russia. To attract the support of powerful Jesuits, Dmitriy publicly converted to Roman Catholicism on the April 17 1604, and convinced the papal nuncio Rangoni to back up his claim. At that time he also met Marina Mniszech, a Polish Catholic noblewoman, who was a daughter of Jerzy Mniszech. He asked for her hand and was promised it in return for giving Mniszech family Pskov, Novgorod, Smolensk and Novhorod-Siverskyi.
Way to the Russian throne
When Boris Godunov heard about the pretender, he claimed that the man was just a runaway monk called Grigory Otrepyev (born Yury Otrepyev; Grigory was the name given at the monastery), although on what information he based this claim is unclear. Regardless, his support began to wane, especially when he tried to spread counter-rumors. Some of the Russian boyars also claimed to accept Dmitriy's claim because it gave them legitimate reason not to pay taxes to Godunov.
Dmitriy attracted a number of followers, formed a small army and gained support of Commonwealth magnate's who gave him approximately 3500 soldiers from their private armies. With them he rode to Russia on June 1604. Enemies of Godunov, including the southern Cossacks, joined his forces on his way to Moscow. Dmitriy's forces fought two engagements with reluctant Russian soldiers; they won the first capturing Chernigov (modern Chernihiv), Putivl (Putyvl), Sevsk, and Kursk but badly lost the second and nearly disintegrated. Dmitriy's cause was only saved when the news of the death of Tsar Boris reached the troops.
The sudden death of Tsar Boris (April 13, 1605) removed the last barrier to the pretender's further progress. Russian troops begun to defect to Dmitriy's side and on June 1 boyars in Moscow imprisoned the newly-crowned tsar, Feodor II, and his mother and later killed them. On the 20 June the impostor made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on the July 21 he was crowned tsar by a new patriarch of his own choosing, the Greek Ignatius.
False Dmitriy's policies as a tsar
At first the new tsar tried to consolidate his power by visiting the sepulchre of Tsar Ivan, and the convent of his widow Maria Nagaya, who accepted him as her son. Then he begun to propagate his new policies. Contemporary accounts described him as a man of original genius and extraordinary resource.
At once he proceeded to introduce a whole series of political and economical reforms. He did his best to relieve the burdens of the peasantry; he formed the project of a grand alliance between the emperor, the pope, Republic of Venice, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy against the Turks; he displayed an amazing toleration in religious matters which made people suspect that he was a crypto-Arian; and far from being, as was expected, the tool of Poland and the pope, he maintained from the first a dignified and independent attitude, for example by supporting the rokosz of Zebrzydowski against Sigismund.
Dmitriy was also lenient to his enemies, pardoning Vasily Shuisky who began to plot against him. His extravagant opinion of his own authority (he lost no time in styling himself emperor), and his predilection for Western civilization, alarmed the ultraconservative boyars, who had formerly supported him only to get rid of Boris Godunov.
The boyars, headed by Prince Vasily Shuisky, began to plot against him, accusing him of sodomy, spreading Roman Catholicism and other Polish customs. They gained popular support, especially as Dmitriy was guarded by Commonwealth forces, who still garrisoned Moscow and often engaged in various criminal acts and angered the local population.
On May 8 1606 when Dmitriy finally married Marina Mniszech in Moscow. Usually when a Russian Tsar married a woman of another faith, she first converted to Orthodox Christianity. It is believed that Dmitriy made a concession to his Polish supporters to convert Russia to Catholicism after gaining the throne. For this reason Mniszech did not convert to the Orthodox faith. This angered the Russian Orthodox Church, the boyars, and the population alike and increased the support of his enemies.
At the morning of May 17 1606, about two weeks after the marriage, conspirators stormed the Kremlin. Dmitriy 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 reportedly shot from a cannon towards Poland. Dmitriy's reign had lasted a mere ten months. Vasili Shuisky took his place as Tsar.
Portrayals in literature
- Dmitriy's story was dramatized by Schiller, Sumarokov, Pushkin, and by Modest Mussorgsky in the opera Boris Godunov.
- Rainer Marie Rilke recounts the overthrow of Otrepyev in The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Rilke's only longer prose work.
See also
Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:End boxde:Dimitri II. (Russland) fr:Dimitri II pl:Dymitr Samozwaniec I ru:Лжедмитрий I fi:Dmitri II uk:Лжедмитрій I