Xenia Shestova
mother of Tsar Mikhail Romanov
Xenia Ivanovna Shestova (Russian: Ксения Ивановна Шестова (or Романова); 1560–1631) was the wife of boyar Fyodor Romanov and the mother of Tsar Michael of Russia.
Life
The origins of Xenia Ivanovna Shestova have been disputed by genealogists for centuries. It is currently accepted that her surname was Shestova (Шестова; rather than Shastunova, as was previously thought) and that her maternal grandfather was Timofey Gryaznoy, a rich landowner from Uglich.
During Boris Godunov's repression of the Romanovs, she was forced to take the veil, changing her name to Martha (Russian: Марфа). After several years of exile at Tolvuyskiy pogost, she settled with her son in Kostroma. It was there that the ambassadors arrived to inform Mikhail about his election to the Russian throne in 1613. As the previous tsars had been either killed or disgraced, Martha at first declined to bless her son and let him go to Moscow.
During the first years of his reign, Martha (or the "great nun" as she came to be known) exerted her influence on her young and collaboration-minded son. She spoke ill of Michael’s three choices of wives. Unbidden, she assumed education of her grandchildren.
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This entry incorporates text from “Xenia Shestova” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.