Michael I, Tsar of All Russia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Michael I, Tsar of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Michael I (Mikhail Feodorovich) was the first ruler of the House of Romanov. He was born July 22, 1596, in Moscow, the fifth of the six children of Feodor Nikitich Romanov and Xenia Ivanovna Shestova. His father was a boyar (noble) and was the first cousin of Tsar Feodor I, son of Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) by his first wife Anastasia Romanovna. Later Feodor Nikitich became Patriarch of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Michael had four brothers who all died young and one sister:

  • Boris (born and died 1592)
  • Nikita (born and died 1593)
  • Lev (born and died 1597)
  • Tatiana (died 1611), married Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Katyrev-Rostovski, had one daughter
  • Ivan (born and died 1599)

Michael’s grandfather Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev was the elder brother of Tsaritsa Anastasia Romanova, wife of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible). During the reign of his brother-in-law, Nikita Romanovich served as a general, statesman, and courtier. He refused to serve with the Oprichniki, an organization that suppressed people or groups opposed to the Tsar, often using violence. The honesty and decency of Tsaritsa Anastasia and her brother Nikita Romanovich during the turbulent and violent reign of Ivan the Terrible were remembered by the Russian people for decades. Nikita’s children were the first in Russia to use the surname Romanov, taken from Nikita’s patronymic Romanovich (son of Roman), which eventually became the name of the ruling dynasty of Russia.

In 1598, following the death of Feodor I, the son of Ivan the Terrible and the last of the Rurik dynasty, Russia fell into a succession crisis. Feodor I had no male heirs so the Russian Zemsky Sobor (feudal parliament) elected his brother-in-law Boris Godunov Tsar. Boris Godunov’s reign was marked by famine and anarchy.

In 1601, when Michael was five years old, his father Feodor Nikitich was accused of treason by Tsar Boris Godunov because he considered the Romanov family too powerful. Feodor and his wife were forced to take monastic vows under the names Filaret and Marfa. Filaret was exiled to a monastery and Marfa was separated from her surviving children Tatiana and Michael and exiled to a small village on the shore of Lake Onega 640 miles/1024 kilometers north of Moscow. Michael and his sister were secretly taken to an area that was an old Romanov stronghold by their paternal aunt.

After the death of Boris Godunov in 1605, Michael’s parents could resume a more normal life in Rostov where Filaret was raised to the position of Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Rostov. The couple still had to live apart because they were still under their monastic vows but they were able to spend time with their son and daughter. During the next eight years, a series of four tsars rules Russia. Together with the reign of Boris Godunov, this time period is known in Russian history as the Time of Troubles.

Michael in his coronation robes; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1613, 16-year-old Michael became the first ruler of the House of Romanov when he was elected Tsar of All Russia by the Russian nobility. The nobles rejected several other candidates, and Michael then became the consensus candidate. His ties to his great-aunt Tsaritsa Anastasia and his grandfather Nikita Romanovich made him popular with the Russian people. Michael had no ties to the noble families whose feuds had caused many problems. On July 22, 1613, in the Assumption Cathedral at the Moscow Kremlin, Michael’s coronation was held and the new ruling Romanov dynasty was founded.

In 1616, Michael selected a bride, Maria Ivanovna Khlopova. Michael was naive and inexperienced in court politics and had chosen a bride with no allies at court. When Maria Ivanovna and her family arrived at court for the betrothal, the court intrigue began. The Saltykovs, relatives of Michael’s mother, arranged to have a strong emetic placed in Maria Ivanovna’s food, resulting in violent spasms. Then the Saltykovs bribed several doctors to tell Michael that Maria Ivanovna suffered from an incurable disease and her family was deceiving him about her health. Michael was then persuaded to send the Khlopova family to Siberia as punishment. Several years later, Michael learned the truth and banished the Saltykovs from the court and took away some of their estates.

Filaret, Michael’s father, attempted to find a bride from Europe’s lesser royal families but Europe’s royalty was not yet willing to ally themselves with the new dynasty. On September 19, 1624, Michael married Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova, his mother’s choice, but she died four months after the wedding.

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

In 1625, 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 and Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva was Michael’s choice. On February 5, 1626, Michael and Eudoxia were married at the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva; Credit – Wikipedia

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

Although Michael was inexperienced at the beginning of his reign, his reign had many accomplishments including:

  • Making peace with Sweden (Treaty of Stolbovo) and Poland (Truce of Deulino) who were occupying parts of Russia
  • Restoring the economy and trade after the Times of Troubles
  • Reorganizing the army
  • Establishing strong centralized power throughout the country
  • Making an inventory of all land for tax purposes
  • Founding the first iron-making plant so weapons could be made in Russia
  • Founding a German settlement in Moscow for German engineers and military specialists – this would prove important for the reforms during the reign of Michael’s grandson Peter I (the Great)

Michael had a horse accident when he was younger and the results of that injury plagued him for the rest of his life. By the time he was 30-years-old, he was often carried around in an armchair. Michael I, Tsar of All Russia died in Moscow on July 23, 1645, at the age of 49 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin where many of the earlier rulers of Russia were buried. His wife Eudoxia survived him by only a few weeks, dying on August 18, 1645.

Tomb of Michael I, Tsar of All Russia (third from the left). Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Romanov Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Michael I of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I_of_Russia [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2017). Михаил Фёдорович. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D0%A4%D1%91%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].