Anna Koltovskaya

Anna Alexeievna Koltovskaya (Анна Колтовская) (before 1572 5 April 1626) was Tsaritsa of the Tsardom of Russia and the fourth spouse of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Anna Koltovskaya
Tsaritsa of All Russia
Tenure29 April 1572 – 1574
Bornc.1552
Died5 April 1626 (aged 73-74)
Convent of Vedenski-Tikhvinski
Burial
Convent of Tikhvine
SpouseIvan IV of Russia
Full name
Anna Alexeievna Koltovskaya
DynastyRurik
FatherAlexei Koltovski
ReligionEastern Orthodox

Life

After the sudden death of his third wife Marfa Sobakina on 13 November 1571, Ivan had difficulty in securing another marriage, due to the laws of the Russian Orthodox Church prohibiting fourth marriages; "The first marriage is law; the second an extraordinary concession; the third is a violation of the law; the fourth is an impiety, a state similar to that of animals." Ivan countered this by claiming he did not consummate the marriage.

He married Koltovskaya, the daughter of Alexei Koltovski, a courtesan, on 29 April 1572 without asking the Church's blessing. Ivan organised a meeting in the church of the Assumption, and gave a heartfelt speech which moved the prelates to tears. They agreed to Ivan's marriage, although on the condition that he not attend church until Easter, and that for a year, he spend time with penitents, and a year later, with common Christians. Their honeymoon took place in Novgorod, which only two years earlier had been decimated by Ivan in the Massacre of Novgorod.

After two years of marriage, Ivan began to tire of his wife due to her sterility. He repudiated her, and sent her to the convent of Vedenski-Tikhvinski where she assumed the monastery name of Daria. Only she and Maria Nagaya, the seventh wife of Ivan the terrible, outlived the tsar.

References

  • Troyat, Henri Ivan le Terrible. Flammarion, Paris, 1982
  • de Madariaga, Isabel Ivan the Terrible. Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005
Russian royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Marfa Sobakina
Tsaritsa of All Russia
1572–1574
Vacant
Title next held by
Anna Vasilchikova
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