Maria Ilyinichna
Miloslavskaya was a younger daughter of the noble
Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky (d. 1668) and his wife, Ekaterina Fedorovna
Narbekova. Her father was a relative and supporter of
Boris Morozov, the influential tutor and favorite of the tsar.
Marriage In 1647, tsar
Alexis I of Russia reached the age required for marriage. The tsar was to choose his bride from a
bride-show of hundreds of daughters of the nobility, who were summoned to the imperial court for selection. (This method to select a bride for the tsar reportedly originated from the reign of Ivan III, whose spouse
Sophia Palaiologina came from the
Byzantine Empire, where this method had once been used to choose a bride for the Byzantine emperor.) The bridal selection of Alexis I was managed by
Boris Morozov, and gathered together almost two hundred daughters of the nobility, among them Maria Miloslavskaya. She had the support of Boris Morozov, who intended to marry her sister Anna Miloslavskaya, and hoped that Alexis I would choose Maria, which would make him the brother-in-law of the tsar. During the selection ceremony, however, the tsar chose
Euphemia Fedorovna Vsevolozhskaya by presenting her with a handkerchief and a ring as a symbol of their engagement. Boris Morozov then bribed a courtier to make Vsevolozhskaya faint; he then bribed a court physician to diagnose her with
epilepsy. This disqualified Vsevolozhskaya as tsaritsa and resulted in both her and her father being exiled - accused of attempting to hide her illness from the tsar, and thus the first choice of the tsar was annulled. Maria Miloslavskaya was selected as the tsar's second choice. She was reportedly a beauty, and was declared perfectly healthy after an examination by a court physician. The wedding took place on 16 January 1648 in Moscow. Upon the advice of the tsar's confessor, the wedding was a very somber ceremony, excluding all music, games and other festivities except for religious singing, to follow the wish of the famously ascetic
Patriarch Joseph of Moscow. Ten days after the wedding of the tsar to Maria Miloslavskaya, Boris Morozov married her sister Anna Miloslavskaya, making him brother-in-law to the tsar and strengthening his power at court. Her father, additionally, was made a
boyar and became one of the most influential power-holders at court, making the Miloslavsky family a key power clan at the Russian court during Maria's tenure as tsaritsa.
Tsaritsa , depicts Alexis I selecting Maria Miloslavskaya as his tsaritsa. The marriage between tsar
Alexis of Russia and tsaritsa Maria Miloslavskaya is described as a happy one. During the
Moscow uprising of 1648, which followed the wedding, she evacuated with the tsar to
Kolomenskoye. Tsaritsa Maria was described as beautiful, but there was also a rumor that Maria was a
witch with a goat foot who could master sorcery. In contemporary Moscovian Russia, the role of the tsaritsa was semi-public; all Russian noblewomen were expected to
live their lives in seclusion, with as little contact with men as possible. Russian noblewomen did not socialize with male guests in their home, only meeting them for a ceremonial welcome before retiring without socializing with them; they traveled in covered sleighs and carriages when outside, and even the royal women, when visiting the church or participating in official processions, only did so covered by screens. and herself evacuated with her children and her court to
Kalyazin Abbey. Maria died of the fever after having given birth, several months after her father. When she died, it was first believed that her widower would never remarry. == Issue ==