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Anastasia Romanov, Archduke Maximilian III of Austria, Election, King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland, Michael Romanov, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Time of Troubles, Tsar of Russia, Zemsky Sobor
Michael I (July 22, 1596 – July 3, 1645) was Tsar of all Russia from 1613 until his death in 1645. He was elected by the Zemsky Sobor and was the first tsar of the House of Romanov, which succeeded the House of Rurik.
Michael was the son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov (later known as Patriarch Filaret) and of Xenia Shestova. He was also a first cousin once removed of Tsar Feodor I, the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, through his great-aunt Anastasia Romanovna, who was the mother of Feodor I and first wife of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible.
Life and reign
Michael’s grandfather, Nikita, was brother to the first Russian Tsaritsa Anastasia and a central advisor to Ivan the Terrible. As a young boy, Michael and his mother had been exiled to Beloozero in 1600. This was a result of the recently elected Tsar Boris Godunov, in 1598, falsely accusing his father, Feodor, of treason. This may have been partly because Feodor had married Ksenia Shestova against Boris’s wishes.
Election
Michael was eventually chosen for the throne of Muscovy due to his father’s martyr-like captivity in Polish detention, as the patriotic mood swept the Russian elite after the expulsion of the Poles during the Time of Troubles.
Michael’s youth also contributed to his election as he was seen easy to be manipulated. On February 21, 1613, 700 delegates reached a consensus for Michael to be chosen as a compromise candidate as Tsar of Russia by the Zemsky Sobor of 1613.
The delegates of the council did not discover the young Tsar and his mother at the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma until March 24. He had been chosen after several other options had been removed, including Polish prince Vladislav, Archduke Maximilian III of Austria and the Swedish Prince Carl Philip. Initially, Martha protested, believing and stating that her son was too young and tender for so difficult an office, and in such a troublesome time.
According to Dunning, “The sixteen-year-old boy did not impress the boyars at all; he was poorly educated and not particularly intelligent. Nonetheless, those great lords consoled themselves with the knowledge that Trubetskoi would not become tsar and that Mikhail’s ambitious and highly intelligent father, Filaret, was still in Polish captivity. One of the boyars allegedly said at the time, ‘Let us have Misha Romanov for he is young and not yet wise; he will suit our purposes.’
In fact, under the strong influence of reactionary boyars, even in preparation for his coronation, the deeply conservative new tsar revealed his true feelings about his subjects by snubbing many patriots simply because they were commoners.”
The tsar’s family relationship with False Dmitry I, False Dmitry II, and Prince Wladyslaw was covered up, even the two years Mikhail spent in the Polish-occupied Kremlin with his collaborator uncle Ivan Romanov.
Michael’s election and accession to the throne marked the end of the Time of Troubles. The Ingrian and Polish–Muscovite Wars were brought to an end in 1617 and 1618 respectively, with continued Russian independence confirmed at the expense of territorial losses in the west.
King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland finally agreed to formally give up his claim to the Russian throne with the Treaty of Polyanovka in 1634.
To the east, Cossacks made unprecedented advances in the conquest of Siberia, and Russian explorers had reached the Pacific Ocean (Sea of Okhotsk) by the end of Michael’s reign.