Feodor II of Russia

Feodor II
Tsar of All Russia
Reign 23 April 1605 10 June 1605 (N. S.)
Predecessor Boris Godunov
Successor Dmitriy I
Born 1589
Died 20 June 1605
(aged 16)
Moscow Kremlin
Burial 1605; reburied 1606
Varsonofy monastery, Moscow; reburied 1606 in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (a separate Godunov Vault since 1783)
Full name
Feodor Borisovich Godunov
Dynasty Godunov
Father Boris Godunov
Mother Maria Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya

Fyodor II Borisovich Godunov of Russia (Russian: Фёдор II Борисович) (1589 – 10 or 20 June 1605) was a tsar of Russia (1605) during the Time of Troubles.

Life

He was born in Moscow, the son and successor to Boris Godunov. His mother Maria Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya was one of the daughters of Malyuta Skuratov, the infamous favourite of Ivan the Terrible.[1]

Feodor Godunov's map of Russia, as published by Hessel Gerritsz.
False Dmitry's Agents Murdering Feodor Godunov and his Mother, by Konstantin Makovsky (1862). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Physically robust and passionately beloved by his father, he received the best education available at that time, and from childhood was initiated into all the minutiae of government, besides sitting regularly in the council and receiving the foreign envoys. He seems also to have been remarkably and precociously intelligent, creating a map of Russia, which is still preserved.[1][2] It was edited with some additions by Hessel Gerritsz in Amsterdam, in 1613, and had been reedited until 1665.

On the sudden death of Boris the sixteen-year-old was proclaimed tsar (13 April 1605). Though his father had taken the precaution to surround him with powerful friends, he lived from the first moment of his reign in an atmosphere of treachery. On 11 June (N. S.) 1605 the envoys of False Dmitriy I arrived at Moscow to demand his removal, and the letters which they read publicly in Red Square decided his fate.[1] A group of boyars, unwilling to swear allegiance to the new tsar, seized control of the Kremlin and arrested him.

On 10 or 20 June Feodor was strangled in his apartment, together with his mother. Officially, he was declared to have been poisoned, but the Swedish diplomat Peter Petreius stated that the bodies, which had been on public display, showed traces of a violent struggle.[3] Although aged 16 at best, Feodor was known to be physically strong and agile and it took four men to overpower him.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Chisholm 1911.
  2. Картографирование Сибири
  3. Peter Petreius de Erlesund: Historien und Bericht von dem Groszfürstentumb Muschkow, Leipzig, 1630
  4. R. G. Skrynnikov: Boris Godunov, Moscow: Nauka, 1978/1983 and Gulf Breeze, Fla: Academic International Press, 1978/1982, ISBN 0-87569-046-7
Attribution
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Boris I
Tsar of Russia
1605
Succeeded by
Dmitriy I
Russian royalty
Preceded by
Dmitriy Ivanovich
Heir to the Russian Throne
15981605
Succeeded by
Sigismund III Vasa
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