Irina Mikhailovna (russian: Ирина Михайловна; 22 April 1627 – 8 April 1679), was a Russian

Tsarevna Tsarevna (russian: Царевна) was the daughter of a Tsar of Russia before the 18th century. The name is meant as a daughter of a Tsar, or as a wife of a Tsarevich. All of them were unmarried, and grew old in convents or in the Terem Palace, ...

, the eldest daughter of

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Michael of Russia Michael I (Russian: Михаил Фёдорович Романов, ''Mikhaíl Fyódorovich Románov'') () became the first Russian tsar of the House of Romanov after the Zemskiy Sobor of 1613 elected him to rule the Tsardom of Russia. He w ...

from his second marriage to

Eudoxia Streshneva Eudoxia Streshneva (, ''Yevdokiya Lukyanovna Streshneva''; 1608 – 18 August 1645) was the Tsaritsa of Russia as the second spouse of Tsar Michael of Russia. Life Eudoxia Streshneva was a daughter of the noble Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnev (d ...

, a noblewoman from

Mozhaysk MozhayskAlternative transliterations include ''Mozhaisk'', ''Mozhajsk'', ''Mozhaĭsk'', and ''Možajsk''. ( rus, Можа́йск, p=mɐˈʐajsk) is a town and the administrative center of Mozhaysky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located to th ...

. She was the elder sister of

Alexis of Russia Aleksey Mikhaylovich ( rus, Алексе́й Миха́йлович, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ; – ) was the Tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars ...

Biography

Irina was

baptize Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation and Adoption ...

d in the

Chudov Monastery The Chudov Monastery (russian: Чу́дов монасты́рь; more formally known as Alexius’ Archangel Michael Monastery) was founded in the Moscow Kremlin in 1358 by Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow. The monastery was dedicated to the mira ...

by her grandfather

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

Filaret. In 1640, Irina was engaged to marry

Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1622–26 February 1656) was the son of king Christian IV of Denmark and his morganatic spouse Kirsten Munk. He had the title Count of Schleswig-Holstein. Biography Born as the youngest legitimate son o ...

. Valdemar arrived in Russia for the wedding in 1644, but after arriving in Russia he refused to convert to the

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

faith. Valdemar was imprisoned until 1645, when he was allowed to leave Russia. Irina never married. Irina was close to her brother, Tsar Alexis, who mentions her before his wife and children in his letters and seem to have regarded her as the first lady of the family. She exerted some degree of influence over him, but their relationship cooled down during Alexis' second marriage in 1671; and after this, she spent more time on an estate which she had inherited outside of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. She devoted her later life mainly on her estate, and also showed support for the religious conservatives, whom she on several occasions saved from execution. In 1672, she was present at the baptism of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

References

* Филина Е.И. "Дело" королевича Вальдемара // Российская государственность: Этапы становления и развития. Кострома, 1993. Ч. 1. С. 46–49. 1627 births 1679 deaths House of Romanov Russian tsarevnas 17th-century Russian people 17th-century Russian women {{Russia-royal-stub

Biography

See also

References