Feodor III, Tsar of All Russia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Feodor III, Tsar of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Born in Moscow on June 9, 1661, Feodor III, Tsar of All Russia was the ninth child and the third but the eldest surviving son of Alexei I, Tsar of All Russia and his first wife Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya.

Feodor had twelve siblings. None of his sisters married. They lived in seclusion in the terem , the separate living quarters of women, with their sisters and aunts.

Sometime in early childhood, Feodor was disabled by an unknown disease that left him disfigured and partially paralyzed. Scurvy, the vitamin C deficiency disease, is mentioned in some sources as the disease Feodor had. Vitamin C is necessary for the body’s production of enzymes and collagen. The body uses collagen for wound healing and bone growth. Untreated scurvy is usually fatal.

However, Feodor was intelligent and received an excellent education from the monk Symeon Polotsky, a supporter of Eastern Slavic culture and a theologian, poet, playwright, and translator, the tutor of all Alexei’s children. Polotsky exposed Feodor to the Western European way of life.

Feodor’s mother, Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya; Credit – Wikipedia

In March 1669, Feodor’s mother Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya died due to childbirth complications following the birth of her thirteenth child who also died. The death of Feodor’s younger brother Simeon in June 1669 and the death of his elder brother the heir 15-year-old Tsarevich Alexei in January 1670, so soon after his mother’s death, was difficult for his father Tsar Alexei because his only surviving sons were Feodor who was disabled and Ivan who had serious physical and mental disabilities.

Nineteen-year-old Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, daughter of Kirill Poluektovich Naryshkin and his wife Anna Leontyevna Leontyeva, was picked as Tsar Alexei’s second wife during a bride-show. On February 1, 1671, the couple was married in Moscow. Tsar Alexei hoped his second marriage would give him a healthy son, and it did, Peter the Great.

Feodor had three half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina:

On February 9, 1676, five years after marrying Natalya Kiillovna, Alexei I, Tsar of All Russia unexpectedly died of a heart attack at the age of 46. His eldest surviving son succeeded him from his first marriage, 15-year-old Feodor. Even though Feodor had been well educated and had a fine intellect, his debilitating physical condition prevented him from really reigning. Throughout Feodor’s reign, the government was largely run by Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev, who had raised Natalya Kirillovna and had become a close friend of her husband Alexei.

During Feodor’s reign, many reforms were started, but most of them could not be completed due to his short reign. Military reforms begun during the reigns of the two previous tsars continued. Further reforms strengthened the centralization of the government and reduced the influence of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in state affairs. Like his father, Feodor was very devout and also wrote some hymns. He was also the first tsar to dress in the Western style and not to have a beard. Under his rule, the Russian Empire moved closer to European influence.

On the advice of his court favorites, Feodor married Agaphia Simeonovna Grushevskaya on July 18, 1680, at the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. Feodor’s only child Tsarevich Ilya Feodorovich was born on July 11, 1681, and died ten days later. Agaphia Simeonovna had died three days after her son’s birth. Feodor married a second time to Marfa Matveyevna Apraksin on February 24, 1682, but the marriage was childless.

A little more than two months after his second wedding, Feodor III, Tsar of All Russia died on May 7, 1682, at the age of 20, childless and without making an order concerning the succession to the throne. He was buried in the Cathedral of the Archangel in the Moscow Kremlin. His death triggered the Streltsy Uprising of 1682, a struggle for the succession between the families of the two wives of Alexei I. This was eventually resolved by the decision to have two tsars at the same time – Feodor’s brother Ivan V and his half-brother Peter I under the regency of Sofia Alexeevna, the eldest surviving daughter of Alexei and his first wife.

Tombs of Tsar Feodor III and his brother Tsar Ivan V; Credit – Wikipedia

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Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2017). Fjodor III.. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjodor_III. [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Feodor III of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feodor_III_of_Russia [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2017). Фёдор III Алексеевич. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%91%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80_III_%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].