Vladimir Andreyevich (1533 – 9 October 1569) was the last appanage

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n prince. His complicated relationship with his cousin, Ivan the Terrible, was dramatized in

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...

's movie '' Ivan the Terrible''. The only son of

Andrey of Staritsa Andrey Ivanovich (5 August 1490 – 11 December 1537) was the youngest son of Ivan III of Russia the Great by Sophia Palaiologina of Byzantium. Since 1519, his appanages included Volokolamsk and Staritsa. When his elder brother Vasily III ascen ...

and Princess Evfrosinia Staritskaia ''née'' Khovanskaia, Vladimir spent his childhood under strict surveillance in

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 ...

. In 1542, he was reinstated in his father's appanages, Staritsa and Vereya. There he married and lived in peace until 1553, when the tsar fell mortally ill. During the final crisis of Ivan's illness, most boyars refused to swear fealty to his baby son and decided to put Vladimir on the throne instead. To their dismay, the

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

rapidly recovered, but a great change took place in his behaviour and manners. He summoned Vladimir to Moscow and signed with him a treaty whereby Vladimir was to live in Moscow with a small retinue and avoid contacts with Ivan's

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were ...

s. In the event of the tsar's death, Vladimir was to become

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

for his minor son. Goritsy Auferstehungskloster 01

After Vladimir's mother was forced to take the veil and his boyars exiled, Ivan permitted Vladimir to marry Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoevskaya in April 1555. With the start of Oprichnina, however, Ivan's suspicions against his cousin were resuscitated. In 1564 the Oprichniks burnt Vladimir's palace in Moscow, and most of his lands were confiscated into Oprichnina. In 1569, accused of high treason by Ivan IV, Vladimir and his children were forced to take poison at Ivan's residence of Alexandrov. His mother and wife, who resided at the Goritsy Convent near

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as a major transport hu ...

, were forcibly drowned in the Sheksna River several days later. The extermination of Vladimir's family precipitated the extinction of the Muscovite branch of the

Rurik Dynasty The Rurik dynasty ( be, Ру́рыкавічы, Rúrykavichy; russian: Рю́риковичи, Ryúrikovichi, ; uk, Рю́риковичі, Riúrykovychi, ; literally "sons/scions of Rurik"), also known as the Rurikid dynasty or Rurikids, was ...

and the dynastic crisis known as the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (russian: Смутное время, ), or Smuta (russian: Смута), was a period of political crisis during the Tsardom of Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Fyodor I (Fyodor Ivanovich, the last of the Rurik dy ...

. Vladimir's only surviving daughter, Maria, was married in 1573 to king Magnus of Livonia (son of

Christian III of Denmark Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...

). Upon her husband's death, she was summoned from

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia ...

to the court of

Boris Godunov Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...

and forced to take the veil in a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. In 1609, Maria entered into correspondence with her false cousin who had proclaimed himself tsar. Her subsequent fate is not documented.

References

External links

*{{cite web , last=Marek , first=Miroslav , url=http://genealogy.euweb.cz/russia/rurik15.html#I4 , title= Genealogy of Vladimir's family , publisher= Genealogy.EU 1533 births 1569 deaths Rurik dynasty Tsardom of Russia people 16th-century Russian people People of Byzantine descent Deaths by poisoning