Anna Alexeievna Koltovskaya (''Анна Колтовская'') (c.1552 – 5 April 1626) was

Tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; bg, царица, tsaritsa; sr, / ; russian: царица, tsaritsa) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (mon ...

of the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

and the fourth spouse of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Life

After the sudden death of his third wife

Marfa Sobakina Marfa Vasilevna Sobakina (russian: Марфа Васильевна Собакина; 1552–1571), was Tsaritsa of the Tsardom of Russia and was the third wife of Ivan the Terrible. Life The daughter of a Novgorod-based merchant, Vasiliy Sobakin ...

on 13 November 1571, Ivan had difficulty in securing another marriage, due to the laws of the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

prohibiting fourth marriages; "The first marriage is law; the second an extraordinary concession; the third is a violation of the law; the fourth is an impiety, a state similar to that of animals." Ivan countered this by claiming he did not consummate his third marriage. He married Koltovskaya, the daughter of Alexei Koltovski, a courtier, on 29 April 1572 without asking the Church's blessing. Ivan organised a meeting in the church of the Assumption, and gave a heartfelt speech which moved the

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

s to tears. They agreed to Ivan's marriage, although on the condition that he not attend church until

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

, and that for a year, he spend time with penitents, and a year later, with common Christians. Their honeymoon took place in Novgorod, which only two years earlier had been decimated by Ivan in the

Massacre of Novgorod The Massacre of Novgorod was an attack launched by Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible)'s ''oprichniki'' on the city of Novgorod, Russia in 1570. Although initially an act of vengeance against the perceived treason of the local Orthodox church, the massac ...

. After two years of marriage, Ivan began to tire of his wife due to her sterility. He repudiated her, and sent her to the convent of Vedenski-Tikhvinski where she assumed the monastery name of Daria. Only she and

Maria Nagaya Maria Feodorovna Nagaya () (died 1608) was a Russian tsaritsa and sixth (possibly eighth) uncanonical wife of Ivan the Terrible. Life Maria married Ivan in 1581 and a year later, she gave birth to their son Dmitry. In 1582, the tsar suggested to ...

, the seventh wife of Ivan the terrible, outlived the tsar.

References

* Troyat, Henri ''Ivan le Terrible''. Flammarion, Paris, 1982 * de Madariaga, Isabel ''Ivan the Terrible''. Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005 , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Koltovskaya, Anna 16th-century births 1626 deaths Wives of Ivan the Terrible Year of birth unknown 17th-century Russian women Russian nuns