Vladimir of Staritsa
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Andreyevich was the last appanage
Appanage
An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...

 Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n prince. His complicated relationship with his cousin, Ivan the Terrible, was dramatized in Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...

's movie Ivan the Terrible.

The only son of Andrey of Staritsa
Andrey of Staritsa
Andrey Ivanovich was the youngest son of Ivan the Great by Sophia of Byzantium. Since 1519, his appanages included Volokolamsk and Staritsa....

 and Princess Euphrosyne Khovanskaya, Vladimir spent his childhood under strict surveillance in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. In 1542, he was reinstated in his father's appanages, Staritsa
Staritsa
Staritsa is a town and the administrative center of Staritsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River, from Tver. Population: -History:...

 and Vereya
Vereya
Vereya is a town in Naro-Fominsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Protva River southwest of Moscow. Population: 6,500 ....

. 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 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 he was to live in Moscow with a small retinue and avoid contacts with Ivan's boyars. In the event of the tsar's death, Vladimir was to become regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 for his minor son.
After Vladimir's mother was forced to take the veil and his boyars exiled, Ivan finally decided to call it square. In April 1555, he permitted Vladimir to marry Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoevskaya. With the start of Oprichnina
Oprichnina
The oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation and his 1572 disbanding of a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats...

, 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
Alexandrov
Alexandrov or Aleksandrov is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, north-east of Moscow. Population: Alexandrov Sloboda served as the capital of Russia for three months under Tsar Ivan the Terrible until he agreed to return his court and the relics of Moscow which he had taken with him...

.His mother and wife, who resided at the Goritsy Convent near Vologda
Vologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...

, were forcibly drowned in the Sheksna River
Sheksna River
The Sheksna is a river in Belozersky, Kirillovsky, Sheksninsky, and Cherepovetsky Districts of Vologda Oblast in Russia. It is a left tributary of the Volga River. It is long, and the area of its basin...

 several days later.

In the long run, extermination of Vladimir's family precipitated the extinction of the Rurik Dynasty
Rurik Dynasty
The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...

 and the dynastic crisis known as the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...

. His only surviving daughter, Maria
Maria of Livonia
Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa was a Russian princess. She was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa and his wife, Princess Evdokiya Odoyevskaya, and, through her father, descended from Zoe Palaiologina .On 12 April 1574, in Novgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia...

, was married in 1573 to king Magnus of Livonia
Magnus of Livonia
Magnus of Holstein was a Prince of Denmark and a member of the House of Oldenburg. As a vassal of Ivan IV of Russia, he was the titular King of Livonia from 1570 to 1578.-Early life:...

 (Christian III's son). Upon her husband's death, she was summoned from Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...

 to the court of Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...

 and forced to take the veil in a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to...

. In 1609, Maria entered into correspondence with her false cousin
False Dmitry II
False Dmitry II , also called the rebel of Tushino, was the second of three pretenders to the Russian throne who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible...

who had proclaimed himself tsar. Her subsequent fate is not documented.

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