Vasilisa Melentyeva
Portrait by Nikolai Nevrev in 1886
Tsaritsa of All Russia
(Disputed existence)
Tenure1579
PredecessorAnna Vasilchikova
SuccessorMaria Dolgorukaya
(Disputed existence)
Born1560 or 1540
Ukraine or Kingdom of Georgia
DiedUnknown
SpouseIvan the Terrible
DynastyRurik
ReligionEastern Orthodox

Vasilisa Melentyeva (Russian: Васили́са Меле́нтьева) was the legendary or real sixth wife of Ivan the Terrible. The marriage (not authorized by the Church) may have been celebrated in 1575 or she was simply a concubine. Modern scholars now tend to consider her to be a 19th-century fraud.[1][2][3]

Life

Vasilisa is widely accepted by historians as a concubine in the court of Ivan. She was either a Ukrainian or a Georgian slave. After the end of his fifth marriage, Ivan wanted to marry again and have more children to secure the future of the dynasty. Ivan saw Vasilisa and decided to have an affair with her, since she was only a concubine. However shortly after, he freed her from slavery and married her, elevating her from a simple concubine to a Russian Queen consort. Ivan admired Vasilisa for her beauty and grace and Vasilisa was the only consort of Ivan that he actually loved since the death of his beloved first wife, Queen Anastasia Romanova. It is historically unclear whether Vasilisa betrayed Ivan or had a lover or not. However, unfortunately for her, Ivan divorced Vasilisa and sent her to a monastery, the usual place where unfavored Russian queen consorts were kept in a form of house arrest. Vasilisa didn't stay in the monastery long though. There are two possibilities: She died in the monastery or escaped from Russia. According to another legend, before her marriage to Ivan, Vasilisa is on record to have been a widow of a dyak, Melentiy Ivanov, serving in the Livonian War. Though the Tsar considered her beautiful and sweet natured, a few months after their marriage, he discovered her having an affair with a prince named Devletev. Ivan forced Vasilisa to watch her lover be impaled, and as further punishment, confined her to life in a cloister.[2]

Of all the eight wives of Ivan the Terrible, only Maria Dolgorukaya (who is also considered a 19th-century fraud) and Vasilisa Melentyeva do not have graves or any mentions in official court documents.[1][4]

There is apparently no evidence of her existence in the early modern sources except two minor mentions: the first, cited by Nikolay Karamzin, simply listed her name "as concubine" with Ivan's other spouses. The more extensive second mention, is believed to be the work of Alexander Sulakadzev, a notorious forger of the early 19th century.[1][5]

However it is claimed that researchers have more recently found documents confirming her special relationship with the tsar.[6]

Alexander Ostrovsky wrote a play about her in 1867: "Василиса Мелентьева".

References

  1. 1 2 3 Сперанский М. Н. Русские подделки рукописей в начале XIX в. — ПИ, 1956, т. V, с. 100
  2. 1 2 Йена, Детлеф. Русские царицы (1547—1918). М., 2008. С. 43
  3. ↑ Скрынников Р. Г. Иван Грозный. М., 2007
  4. ↑ Сергей Нечаев. Иван Грозный. Жены и наложницы "Синей Бороды"
  5. ↑ Зимин А. А. В канун грозных потрясений: Предпосылки первой Крестьянской войны в России. М., 1986
  6. ↑ Йена, Детлеф (2008). Русские царицы (1547—1918). Moscow, p. 43

Sources

  • Troyat, Henri Ivan le Terrible. Flammarion, Paris, 1982
  • de Madariaga, Isabel Ivan the Terrible. Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005
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