Tsar Boris I

Boris Feodorovich Godunov (Бори́с Фёдорович Годуно́в) (c. 1551 – April 13, 1605) was de facto regent of Russia from 1584 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. Boris Godunov as painted during his lifetime. ... Boris Godunov as painted during his lifetime. ... Events Russia, Reforming Synod of the metropolite Macaire, Orthodoxy: introduction of a calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code ( Stoglav ) Major outbreak of the sweating sickness in England. ... Jump to: navigation, search 13 April is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... Events April 13 - Tsar Boris Godunow dies - Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 - Paul V becomes Pope June 1 - Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. ... 1584 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Events January 7 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia following the death of his brother-in-law, Tsar Feodor I April 13 - Edict of Nantes - Henry IV of France grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. ... The Rurik Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Russia from 862 to 1598. ... Jump to: navigation, search Tsar (Bulgarian цар, Russian царь, listen â–¶(?); often spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the Bulgarian Empire in 913-1396/1422 and 1908-1946, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in... Events January 7 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia following the death of his brother-in-law, Tsar Feodor I April 13 - Edict of Nantes - Henry IV of France grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. ... Events April 13 - Tsar Boris Godunow dies - Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 - Paul V becomes Pope June 1 - Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. ...

Early years

Boris was the most famous member of an ancient, now extinct, Russian family of Tatar origin, which migrated from the Horde to Kostroma in the early 14th century. Boris's career of service began at the court of Ivan the Terrible. He is mentioned in 1570 as taking part in the Serpeisk campaign as one of the archers of the guard. This article refers to the Mongol state in what is now Russia. ... Kostroma (Russian: Кострома́) is a historic city in central Russia, administrative centre of the Kostroma Oblast. ... Ivan IV (August 25, 1530–March 18, 1584) was the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of tsar. ... Events January 23 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war February 25 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England with the bull Regnans in Excelsis May 20 - Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas. ...

In 1571 he strengthened his position at court by his marriage with Maria, the daughter of Ivan's abominable favorite Malyuta Skuratov. In 1580 the Tsar chose Irene, the sister of Boris, to be the bride of the Tsarevich Theodore, on which occasion Boris was promoted to the rank of boyar. On his deathbed Ivan appointed Boris, together with the Romanovs, as guardians of his son and successor; for Theodore, despite his 27 years, was of somewhat weak intellect. Events January 11 - Austrian nobility is granted Freedom of religion. ... Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky, better known as Malyuta Skuratov (Григорий Лукьянович Скуратов-Бельский, Малюта Скуратов in Russian) (? - January 1, 1573) was one of the organizers and leaders of the oprichnina during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. ... Events March 1 - Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. ... Jump to: navigation, search Feodor presents a golden chain to Boris Godunov. ... Jump to: navigation, search A boyar (also spelt bojar; Romanian: boier) was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Russian and Romanian aristocracy, second only to the ruling princes, from the 10th through the 17th century. ... The House of Romanov (Рома́нов, pronounced Ro-MAH-nof), the second and last royal dynasty of Russia, which ruled Muscovy and the Russian Empire for five generations from 1613 to 1762. ...

Years of regency

The reign of Theodore began with a rebellion in favor of the infant Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan's fifth wife Maria Nagaya, a rebellion resulting in the banishment of Dmitry, with his mother and her relations, to their appanage at Uglich. On the occasion of the Tsar's coronation (May 31, 1584), Boris was given honors and riches, yet he held the second place in the regency during the lifetime of the Tsar's uncle Nikita Romanovich, on whose death, in August, he was left without any serious rival. Dmitry Ivanovich, also known as Dmitry of Uglich and Dmitry of Moscow (Дмитрий Иванович, Дмитрий Угличский, Дмитрий Московский in Russian) (October 19, 1582 — May 15, 1591) was a Russian tsarevich, son of Ivan the Terrible and Maria Nagaya. ... Transfiguration cathedral in the kremlin Uglich (Russian: У́глич, pronounced ooglitch) is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, on the Volga River. ... Jump to: navigation, search The House of Romanov (Рома́нов, pronounced Ro-MAH-nof) was the second and last imperial dynasty of Russia, which ruled Muscovy and the Russian Empire for five generations from 1613 to 1762. ...

A conspiracy against him of all the other great boyars and the metropolitan Dionysy, which sought to break Boris's power by divorcing the Tsar from Godunov's childless sister, only ended in the banishment or tonsuring of the malcontents. Henceforth Godunov was omnipotent. The direction of affairs passed entirely into his hands, and he corresponded with foreign princes as their equal.

Godunov's estate near Moscow

His policy was generally pacific, but always most prudent. In 1595 he recovered from Sweden the towns lost during the former reign. Five years previously he had defeated a Tatar raid upon Moscow, for which service he received the title of konyushy, an obsolete dignity even higher than that of boyar. Towards Turkey he maintained an independent attitude, supporting an anti-Turkish faction in the Crimea, and furnishing the emperor with subsidies in his war against the sultan. 16th-century phallic church at Boris Godunovs estate near Moscow. ... 16th-century phallic church at Boris Godunovs estate near Moscow. ... Events January 30 - William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is performed for the first time. ... Konyushy (Belarusian: Канюшы, Polish: Koniuszy, Russian: Конюший) is literally translated as Master of the Horse, Equerry. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Crimea (officially Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Russian transliteration: Avtonomnaya Respublika Krym, Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, , pronounced cry-MEE-ah in English) is a peninsula and an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. ...

Godunov encouraged English merchants to trade with Russia by exempting them from tolls. He civilized the north-eastern and south-eastern borders of Russia by building numerous towns and fortresses to keep the Tatar and Finnic tribes in order. These towns includedSamara, Saratov, Voronezh, Tsaritsyn and a whole series of lesser towns. He also re-colonized Siberia, which had been slipping from the grasp of Russia, and formed scores of new settlements, including Tobolsk and other large centres. Jump to: navigation, search Ivan IV of Russia demonstrates his treasures to the English ambassador (1875) Muscovy Company (also called Russian Company or Muscovy Trading Company, Polish Kompania Moskiewska, Russian: Московская компания), was a trading company chartered in 1555. ... Samara (fruit) — a type of winged tree fruit Samara, Russia — a large city to the east of the Volga River. ... Saratov flag Saratov (Сара́тов) is a major city in southern European Russia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Voronezh (Воро́неж) is a large city in the south of Central Russia, not far from Ukraine. ... Jump to: navigation, search Volgograd â–¶(?) (Russian: Волгогра́д) (population: 1,012,000), formerly called Tsaritsyn â–¶(?) (Цари́цын, Caricyn) (1598–1925) and Stalingrad â–¶(?) (Сталингра́д) (1925–1961) is a city on the west bank of Volga river in southwestern Volgograd Oblast (province), Northern Caucasus district, Russia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... View of Tobolsk in the 1910s. ...

It was during his government that the Russian Orthodox Church received its patriarchate, which placed it on an equal footing with the ancient Eastern churches and emancipated it from the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This reform was meant to please the ruling monarch, as Theodore took extraordinary interest in church affairs. Jump to: navigation, search Christ the Redeemer, a well-known Russian Orthodox icon from Zvenigorod. ... A patriarchate is the office or jurisdiction of a patriarch. ... Jump to: navigation, search Map of Constantinople. ...

Boris's most important domestic reform was the 1587 decree forbidding the peasantry to transfer themselves from one landowner to another, thus binding them to the soil. The object of this ordinance was to secure revenue, but it led to the institution of serfdom in its most grinding form. Costumes of Slaves or Serfs, from the Sixth to the Twelfth Centuries, collected by H. de Vielcastel, from original Documents in the great Libraries of Europe. ...

The sudden death of the Tsarevich Dmitry at Uglich on May 15, 1591 has commonly been attributed to Boris, because it cleared his way to the throne; but there is no clear proof that he was personally concerned in that tragedy. The same may be said of the many, often absurd, accusations subsequently brought against him by jealous rivals or ignorant contemporaries who hated Godunov's reforms as novelties. Transfiguration cathedral in the kremlin Uglich (Russian: У́глич, pronounced ooglitch) is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, on the Volga River. ... Jump to: navigation, search May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... Events June - Capture of Zutphen by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau. ...

Years of tsardom

On the death of the childless tsar Theodore (January 7, 1598), self-preservation quite as much as ambition constrained Boris to seize the throne. Had he not done so, lifelong seclusion in a monastery would have been his lightest fate. His election was proposed by the Patriarch Job, who acted on the conviction that Boris was the one man capable of coping with the extraordinary difficulties of an unexampled situation. Boris, however, would only accept the throne from a Zemsky Sobor, or national assembly, which met on 17 February, and unanimously elected him on 21 February. On 1 September he was solemnly crowned tsar. Jump to: navigation, search January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 7 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia following the death of his brother-in-law, Tsar Feodor I April 13 - Edict of Nantes - Henry IV of France grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. ... Jove (real name: Иоанн, or Ioann), also known as Jove of Moscow (2nd quarter of the 16th century - June 19, 1607) was the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. ... The zemsky sobor (Russian: зе́мский собо́р) was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. ... Jump to: navigation, search February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search September 1 is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search Tsar (Bulgarian цар, Russian царь, listen ▶(?); often spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the Bulgarian Empire in 913-1396/1422 and 1908-1946, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in...

Boris Godunov overseeing the studies of his son.

During the first years of his reign he was both popular and prosperous, and ruled the people excellently. Enlightened as he was, he fully recognized the intellectual inferiority of Russia as compared with the West, and did his utmost to bring about improvements. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a great scale, the first to send young Russians abroad to be educated, the first to allow Lutheran churches to be built in Russia. He also felt the necessity of a Baltic seaboard, and attempted to obtain Livonia by diplomatic means. He cultivated friendly relations with the Scandinavians, in order to intermarry if possible with foreign royal houses, so as to increase the dignity of his own dynasty. Image File history File links N. Nekrasov. ... Image File history File links N. Nekrasov. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainlands of Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Danish islands. ... Livonia (Latvian: Livonija; Estonian: Liivimaa; German: Livland; Polish: Inflanty; Russian: Лифляндия or Liflandiya) once was the land of the Finnic Livonians, but came in the Middle Ages to designate a much broader territory controlled by the Livonian Order on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea in present-day Latvia and...

That Boris was one of the greatest of the Russian tsars there can be no doubt. But his great qualities were overbalanced by an incurable suspiciousness, which made it impossible for him to act cordially with those about him. His fear of possible pretenders induced him to go so far as to forbid the greatest of the boyars to marry. He also encouraged informers and persecuted suspects on their unsupported statements. The Romanov family especially suffered severely from this behaviour. He also declined the personal union proposed to him in 1600 by the diplomatic mission led by Lew Sapieha from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Boris died suddenly on April 13, 1605, leaving one son, Theodore II, who succeeded him for a few months and then was murdered by the enemies of the Godunovs. A personal union is a political union of two or more entities that, internationally, are considered separate states, but through established law, share the same head of state —hence also whatever political actions are vested in the head of state, but none (or at least extremely few) others. ... // Events January January 1 - Scotland adopts January 1st as being New Years Day February February 17 - Giordano Bruno burned at the stake for heresy July July 2 - Battle of Nieuwpoort: Dutch forces under Maurice of Nassau defeat Spanish forces under Archduke Albert in a battle on the coastal dunes. ... Jump to: navigation, search Seal on the building of German Embassies. ... Lew Sapieha (1557-1633) (Lithuanian: Leu Sapega). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Jump to: navigation, search 13 April is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... Events April 13 - Tsar Boris Godunow dies - Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 - Paul V becomes Pope June 1 - Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. ... Assassination of Feodor II (1862). ...

Arts based on Boris Godunov

Boris's life was fictionalized by Alexander Pushkin in the famous play inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth. Modest Mussorgsky based his great opera (see Boris Godunov (opera)) upon Pushkin's play. Sergei Prokofiev later wrote incidental music to the play. Aleksandr Pushkin was a Russian poet and a founder of modern Russian literature Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин) (June 6 (May 26, O.S.), 1799 - February 10 (January 29, O.S.), 1837), Russian author, whom many consider the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... Jump to: navigation, search Scene from Macbeth, depicting the witches conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I. Painting by William Rimmer Macbeth is William Shakespeares shortest tragedy and one of his most popular works. ... Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Russian: Моде́ст Петро́вич Му́соргский) (March 21, 1839 – March 28, 1881; sometimes spelled Modeste Moussorgsky), was an innovative Russian composer famed for his colourful, exotic, and lush orchestral pieces dedicated to various subjects of medieval Russian history. ... Jump to: navigation, search The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera refers to an art form particular to Europe, which is made up of a dramatic stage performance set to music. ... Jump to: navigation, search Boris Godunov (Бори́с Годуно́в in Russian, Boris Godunov in transliteration) is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky to a Russian libretto by the composer, based on the drama of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin and on Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzins History of the Russian State. The music is... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев) (April 271, 1891 – March 5, 1953) was one of the Soviet Unions greatest composers. ...

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Jump to: navigation, search Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Jump to: navigation, search Feodor presents a golden chain to Boris Godunov. ... Jump to: navigation, search At different times, a ruler in Ruthenia/Kievan Rus/Muscovy/early Russia/Imperial Russia bore the title of Kniaz (translated as Duke or Prince), Velikiy Kniaz (translated as Grand Duke, Grand Prince or Great Prince), Tsar, Emperor. ... Assassination of Feodor II (1862). ...

External links

• Free eBook of Boris Godunov: a drama in verse at Project Gutenberg
• Godunov to Nicholas II by Saul Zaklad