Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva, Tsaritsa of All Russia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva, Tsaritsa of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva was the second wife of the first Romanov ruler, Michael I, Tsar of All Russia. She was probably born in 1608 in Meshchovsk, Kaluga, Russia, the eldest of the five children of Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnev and Princess Anne Konstantinovna Volkonskaya.

Eudoxia had four siblings:

  • Maria Anna Lukyanovna Streshneva (died 1635), married Prince Alexei Ivanovich Vorotynsky
  • Feodosya Lukyanovna Streshneva, married Ivan Pavlovich Matyushkin
  • Stepan Lukyanovich Streshnev (died 1666), married Princess Maria Alekseevna Lykova
  • Irina Lukyanovna Streshneva, married Elizar Chebukov

Mikhail Fyodorovich Choosing His Bride, by Ilya Repin; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1624, Michael I, Tsar of All Russia married Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova but she died four months after the wedding. The following year, Michael ordered a bride-show, a custom of Byzantine emperors and Russian tsars to choose a wife from among the most beautiful maidens of the country. Sixty young Russian women were assembled but Michael did not like any of them. Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva had accompanied one of the sixty women. Michael’s parents forced him to make a choice but he called for an examination of all the unmarried women present. He chose Eudoxia for her beauty, courtesy, and gentle temper.

On February 5, 1626, Michael and Eudoxia were married at the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

Wedding of Michael and Eudoxia; Credit – Wikipedia

Michael and Eudoxia wife had ten children, but only four reached adulthood:

Eudoxia’s life under the watchful eye of her powerful mother-in-law who dominated the court, the nun Marfa, was not easy. Marfa was ever-present, always accompanying Eudoxia. Eudoxia’s life was concerned with childbearing to continue the new Romanov dynasty and there was much pressure on her to produce a son, especially after her first two children turned out to be girls. Eudoxia became the founder of many charitable institutions that helped the poor and the church. In 1642, she made a large contribution to fund the restoration of St. George Monastery in her birthplace.

Michael I, Tsar of All Russia died in Moscow on July 23, 1645, at the age of 49. Consumed by grief over her husband’s death, Eudoxia survived him by only a few weeks, dying on August 18, 1645, at the age of 36. She was buried at the Ascension Convent, a Russian Orthodox nunnery in the Moscow Kremlin where royal and noblewomen were buried. In 1929, the Ascension Convent was dismantled by the Soviets to make room for the Red Commanders School. At that time, the remains of those buried there were moved to the crypt of the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

Ascension Convent, Eudoxia’s original burial place; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Archangel Cathedral, Eudoxia’s current burial place; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Eudoxia Streshneva. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudoxia_Streshneva [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2017). Стрешнева, Евдокия Лукьяновна. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0,_%D0%95%D0%B2%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9B%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%8C%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].