At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Russia lived in a state of political confusion. During this period, many people turned to impersonating Dmitri Ivanovich, the youngest son of Emperor Ivan the Terrible who was said to have died in 1591, in the hope of ascending to the throne of Russia. After the three fake Dmitriyevich murdered between 1606 and 1612 in the midst of this political turmoil, in 1614 it was the turn of the child Ivan Dmitriyevich, who was hanged at the age of three after being designated by many as the rightful heir to the throne of Russia.
Portrait of Emperor Ivan the Terrible
Falsified Demeters
In November 1605, the Polish noblewoman Marina Mniszech married the fake Tsar Dmitry I, who ascended the throne of the Russian Empire from June 1605 to May 1606, thus becoming Empress of Russia.
In addition, the latter held this position for a few months. By May 1606, her husband was removed from power and executed following a plot against him. Rather than executing her, too, the conspirators spared Marina Mnishek’s life, which was soon exiled outside Moscow.
With the help of her father, Marina Mnishek tried to regain her position. She moved to rural Tushino, where she secretly married another man, surnamed the false Dmitriy II, assuring everyone in her novels that he was her first husband, Dimitri, who had been removed from power by a conspiracy. According to her statements, the latter talked about her husband’s escape from death and her meeting with him by chance.
Portrait of Marina Mnishek
Marina Mnishek’s novel did not last long. In December 1610, her fake husband Dimitri II was murdered, only to find herself widowed for the second time. Meanwhile, Marina Mneshk lost her husband in a difficult period, as this former Russian empress was pregnant with a child that most historians confirmed to be the fake son of Dmitriy II.
hang the child
At the beginning of January 1611, Marina Mnishek gave birth to a son of the male sex, which she went on to call Ivan Dmitrievich. By April of the same year, this woman met Ivan Zarutsky, ranked as one of the leaders of the Cossack divisions, and married him, thus making the latter her third husband. Through this marriage, Zarutsky attempted to become regent of the Russian throne at the same time as declaring Ivan Dmitrievich, the son of Marina Mnishek, the legitimate heir to the throne. Being harassed and persecuted by Russian officials, Zarutsky fled to the Atrakhan region in the hope of gaining popular support for his cause.
After the inauguration of Michael I, ‘Emperor of Russia, he pursued the people of Astrakhan Zarutsky and his family with the aim of handing them over to the Russian authorities. Failing to obtain the support of the Cossacks, Zarutsky and his family fell into the hands of the Russian authorities, who proceeded to transport them to the capital, Moscow.
A portrait of Tsar Michael I
In Moscow, Marina Mnishek was imprisoned in the Kolomna fortress in the Kremlin. On the other hand, the new Russian officials impaled her husband, Ivan Zarutsky, and proceeded to execute her 3-year-old son, Ivan, in front of the parents to end the controversy over his right to rule Russia.
In the middle of July 1614, three-year-old Ivan was taken to a public square in Moscow, where he was hanged in public. According to several accounts, the child Ivan did not die in the event of a fall as the noose failed to break his neck. Because of this, the child was hung to death by suffocation in front of the eyes of the Muscovites.
Five months after the death of her husband and son, Marina Mnishek died in mysterious circumstances in prison at the age of 26.