The Freelance History is pleased to welcome James Blake Wiener with a guest post on a medieval Circassian princess who married the Tsar of Russia. You can learn more about James from jameswiener.com.

The Circassian princess Maria Temryukovna (c. 1545-1569), the second wife of Tsar Ivan IV “the Terrible” of Russia (r. 1547-1584), is far too often relegated to the margins of Russian history. Her marriage brought Russian influence deep into the Caucasus for the first time. Moreover, her place within the complex web of Eurasian dynastic politics and internal Russian affairs merits further consideration and contemplation.

The Circassians and Power Politics

The Circassians – also called “Cherkess” or “Adyghe” – are one of the peoples indigenous to the mountainous Northwest Caucasus and thus historic neighbors to the Abkhazians, Ingush, Ossetians, Georgians, Chechens, Kumyks, and others. The more-powerful neighbors of the Circassians subjected them to the deprivations of slavery and war throughout the Middle Ages. Renowned for their beauty, intelligence, and strength, Circassians were an invaluable commodity that shaped fortunes and history across Eurasia. Enslaved Circassian mercenaries would form the core leadership of the Ayyubid (1171-1250) and Mamluk (1250–1517) Sultanates in Egypt, while Circassian slave women became the preferred concubines in the harems of Ottoman sultans and Safavid shahs.

Genoese and Venetian merchants  transported Circassian slaves to Europe. Some scholars have posited that Circassian or Tatar slaves from the Black Sea composed about five-percent of the population of Northern Italy during the 1400s. The “Godfather of the Renaissance,” Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464), even fathered an illegitimate son, Carlo de Medici (1428-1492), by his Circassian slave, Maddalena. As the Middle Ages drew to a close, Circassians began to form new political alliances and dynastic unions in order to secure their place at the frontline in the clash between Christendom and Islam.

Born “Kuchenei,” Maria Temryukovna was the youngest daughter of Temryuk of Kabardia (r. 1554-1571), the senior prince of East Karbadia. Little is known about her early life until her marriage to Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, but one can safely assume that the power politics of her father dominated her early life. Described in songs and legends as tall, muscular, and handsome, Temryuk was a dexterous politician and skilled warrior who brought unity to the Circassian people of Karbadia. Temryuk’s personality resembled that of his paternal grandfather, Inal “the Great” of Circassia (r. 1427-1453), who had briefly established a unified principality, which extended from the shores of the Sea of Azov to Chechnya. Temryuk strove to reunite the fragmented Circassian principalities and defend his patrimony. In doing so, he made a mortal enemy of his neighbor, Devlet I Giray (r. 1551-1577), the Khan of Crimea.

Devlet I Giray was a man consumed by honor and prestige. A favorite of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566) and Suleiman’s beloved wife, Roxelana, Devlet I Giray lived in grandeur at the Ottoman court in Istanbul before becoming khan. Seeing himself as a ghazi or Muslim warrior, Devlet I Giray claimed to be the heir of the Mongol Golden Horde (1241-1502), which had once controlled much of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia before fragmenting into several successor states.

Such a bold claim ensured perpetual military conflict between Devlet I Giray and Temryuk – the Crimean Tatars raided Kabardia repeatedly between 1553-1556. Devlet I Giray’s ambitions also unnerved Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, who had expanded Russia’s borders to the south and east of the Volga Basin. When Ivan IV conquered the Muslim Khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), the bellicose Devlet I Giray swore revenge. He would thereafter lead devastating raids deep into Russian territory, besieging Moscow in 1556 and 1558 with crucial Ottoman support. Noting the change in diplomatic headwinds, Temryuk sensed a path forward that could bring unity to the divided Kabardian lands and appeal to the Circassian feudal elite.

A Circassian-Russian Alliance

As relations between Russia and the Khanate of Crimea deteriorated, the tenacious Temryuk seized the opportunity to send embassies to Moscow in 1552 and 1557. On both occasions, he requested Russian financial aid as well as a military alliance against the Crimean Tatars and Ottomans. Although Temryuk’s children were still relatively young, he sent Maria’s older brothers, Bulgairuk and Saltankul, to Moscow in 1557, in order to convey the seriousness of his intentions. Ivan IV was impressed with the boys, and they resided in Moscow for a time as his guests. Although Temryuk had considered alliances with other polities, he believed that a Russian alliance would provide immediate, tangible benefits to his principality. Russia was an emergent power in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the combined might of Russia and Kabardia would check Crimean Tatar and Ottoman aspirations to regional hegemony.

Temryuk faced stiff competition in his pursuit of a Russian alliance from the Shamkhalate of Tarki, an Islamic state located to the east of Kabardia in what is now Dagestan. Budai I – the Shamkhal of Tarki – was the father-in-law of Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576), the second Safavid shah of Persia. He had sent his own dazzling embassy in 1556 to woo Russia to his side, replete with elephants, extravagant clothes, and priceless luxuries from Persia, which delighted Ivan IV.

It is a historical curiosity that Ivan IV ultimately negotiated an alliance with Kabardia instead of the Shamkhal of Tarki, especially as the Shia Safavids were the archrivals of the Sunni Ottomans within the Islamic World. Perhaps, in a moment of rare lucidity, Ivan IV believed that Temryuk might prove the more loyal ally as he was devoid of powerful, international connections. The Russian-Kabardian alliance was signed and sealed in 1557, much to the delight of Temryuk and his family.

The death of Ivan IV’s first wife, Anastasia Romanovna in 1560, would forever change Maria’s life. Ivan IV believed that nefarious boyars had poisoned his beloved “little dove.” Agitated and increasingly unpredictable, Ivan saw boyar betrayal and treachery in every corner. As a consequence of his lingering suspicions, he decided to forgo the smotrina ceremony, in which the daughters of the boyars would be presented to the tsar for personal evaluation and then selection for marriage. Ivan thus looked abroad to find a new wife. Ivan’s first choice of a bride fell neither upon the Circassian Maria nor upon an Orthodox princess – he pursued the wealthy Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), the daughter of Sigismund I of Poland (r. 1506-1548) and Bona Sforza of Milan (1494-1557). As Catherine was a devout Catholic and due to poor relations between Poland and Russia, the Poles declined Ivan IV’s proposal. She would marry the future John III of Sweden (r. 1569-1592) instead.

Ivan IV then sent emissaries to Temryuk, who had an attractive brood of five sons and three daughters, in early 1561. The offer of a marital alliance with the Rurikid dynasty was too good to ignore. Temryuk offered Ivan the hand of his daughter Maria, which Ivan eagerly accepted. Maria arrived in Moscow on June 15, 1561 with her older brother Saltankul (later baptized as Mikhail). When Ivan IV first saw Maria, it is said he was enamored by her beauty. A month later, Maria converted to Christianity and was baptized in honor of St. Mary Magdalene at the Kremlin’s Cathedral of the Annunciation.

She received precious betrothal gifts, as was the Russian custom, immediately following the ceremony. These included a scarf studded with rare pearls, a betrothal ring, and several bejeweled Orthodox crosses. On August 21, 1561, the sixteen-year-old Maria married the 30-year-old Ivan IV in a splendid ceremony, conducted by Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, at the Kremlin’s Assumption Cathedral. One object from the occasion survives to this day: Maria’s wedding dish. Made from a three-kilogram piece of gold, it is a masterpiece of Russian craftsmanship, and it is still held within the Kremlin Armory.

Who was the real Maria Temryukovna?

Maria resided in Russia from 1561-1569, but we sadly know very little about her tenure as tsarina. The Russian chronicles, in addition to the records kept by foreign residents from England and the Holy Roman Empire, are unreliable and often contradictory. There is some consensus among them that Maria was extremely beautiful and that she gave birth to a son, Vasily Ivanovich, in March 1563, who died two months later. It is also known that Maria accompanied Ivan IV on his visits and pilgrimages to monasteries outside of Moscow. Many of the chronicles, however, stress Maria’s wickedness, emphasizing that she had a negative influence on Ivan IV’s statecraft. Others attest that she was responsible for the creation of the dreaded oprichnina.

In operation between 1565-1572, the oprichnina was Ivan IV’s official policy of brutal state repression and subordination. Some 6,000 oprichniki – the first secret police in Russian history – oversaw the executions of boyars and others deemed “subversive” by Ivan IV. It seems unlikely that Maria provided the inspiration for the oprichnina – Ivan IV’s fragile mental state, erratic outbursts, and fear of the boyars were long apparent before his marriage to Maria.

It is undeniable that while Maria was tsarina, the Russian-Kabardian alliance was strong. Kabardian soldiers and cavalrymen fought alongside their Russian counterparts during the Livonian Wars (1558-1583), as well as in Russian campaigns against the Khanate of Crimea, the Ottoman Empire, and the Shamkhalate of Tarki. The alliance certainly benefited Temryuk, who expanded his territories and set up a joint Kabardian-Russian military training camp at Mozdok, located in what is now North Ossetia. It is probable that Maria helped facilitate the marriage of her brother Mikhail into the family of the former tsarina, Anastasia Romanovna.

She may even have also encouraged Ivan IV to grant large estates around the city of Gorokhovets to Mikhail. Nevertheless, the extent to which Maria delineated her personal and political powers appears limited; Ivan IV’s personal affection for Maria is worth questioning as well. Ivan IV retained a peculiar interest in Catherine Jagiellon, who was by then the happily married Duchess of Finland, throughout the 1560s. It is alleged that Ivan IV encouraged the equally unstable Eric XIV of Sweden (r. 1560-1569) to oversee Catherine’s divorce so that he could marry her. Furthermore, Ivan IV continued to mourn the death of his first wife for many years, and this is evidenced by the donations he made to the monasteries on Mt. Athos in Anastasia’s name.

What emerges after a thorough review of contemporaneous and later sources is that the demonization of Maria’s character was due to a combination of her ethnicity, paganism, and inability to stem Ivan IV’s paranoid behaviors. Dynastic marriage in medieval and Early Modern Russia was rarely straightforward. Foreign brides struggled to win the hearts of their Russian subjects, while contemptuous boyars accused them of political machinations, heresy, or witchcraft in order to undermine their political influence.

Such accusations were leveled against Ivan IV’s Byzantine paternal grandmother, Sophia Palaiologina (1455-1503), and his Serbian maternal grandmother, Princess Anna Jakšić (c. 1473-1553). One can additionally theorize that some boyar factions may have opposed Maria on the presumption that she would constrain their powers and promote the interests of her Circassian kin. This occurred with some frequency whenever foreign brides arrived in Russia with their relatives or advisors. This would additionally explain the assertions made that Maria and Mikhail played key roles in the formation of the oprichnina.

When Maria arrived in Russia, she understood neither the language nor the rigid, complex customs of the Muscovite court. She was illiterate too in all probability. Maria may have found the endless rituals of the royal court in Moscow tedious and absurd as a noble Circassian woman. It is a fact that Circassian women enjoyed many rights that were not afforded to noble Russian women in the Early Modern Era. They pursued the same pastimes as men – especially hunting and riding – and they were not brought up in seclusion. It is no surprise then that the Russian elite viewed Maria’s decorum and dress as aggressive and uncultivated.

Maria was also not born an Orthodox Christian. This distinction alone would have prejudiced a good many boyars and ordinary Russians against her even after her conversion. The Circassians were still predominantly pagan in the sixteenth century – Islamization came gradually in the seventeenth century – and they practiced a monistic faith known as Khabzism. The fact that Maria is compared so unfavorably to her predecessor, Anastasia Romanovna, is unmistakable. From the supposed lack of maternal concern for her stepsons, to her lack of piety, Maria is depicted as Anastasia’s antithesis in the available sources. The simple fact is that Maria was unable to calm Ivan IV’s nerves and manic episodes in contrast to Anastasia. For this reason, many hated her and blamed her unfairly for her husband’s excesses.

A Tragic End and Conflicting Legacies

Maria died in September 1569, in Alexandrov, at the age of 24. She was buried in the Kremlin’s Ascension Cathedral. Intriguingly, one of her pall bearers was none other than the future Tsar Boris Godunov (r. 1595-1605). The existent sources are again contradictory as to her demise. Some state that the prevalent rumor was that Ivan IV poisoned Maria, while other texts stress that Ivan IV believed a clique of boyars poisoned her. Others contend that Ivan IV had wanted to set Maria aside and banish her to a convent in order to remarry. All of that is doubtful given the subsequent actions of Maria’s family.

Maria’s relatives remained loyal to Ivan IV in the years after her death with tragic consequences. When the Crimean Tatars, led by Devlet I Giray, invaded Russia in 1571, Temryuk led a counter strike against them to honor his alliance with Russia. He would perish shortly after at the Battle of Akhuzh from battle wounds. Mikhail had served alongside Russian forces during the ferocious Crimean Tatar attack but was unable to repel their advances.

In a fit of rage, Ivan IV ordered Mikhail’s execution in May 1571 on trumped up charges of treason. Some texts suggest that he was brutally impaled, while others affirm that he was butchered to death by soldiers wielding axes and halberds. Hundreds of years later, the Soviets moved Maria’s tomb to the basement of the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral in 1929. It remains there to this day. When Soviet archaeologists reburied Maria, they found several items in her tomb, including a beautiful shroud made from Italian damask and a traditional volosnik bonnet – tantalizing glimpses of an enigmatic woman.

The elusive life of Maria Temryukovna leaves us with more questions than answers. Was she able to influence Ivan IV any advice on pressing political matters? How did she handle Ivan’s mental instability and the fierce opposition from the boyars? How did Maria’s relationship with her siblings and father change after her marriage? Maria’s unique position between cultures and civilizations, in addition to her place of centrality during one of the most tempestuous periods in Russian history, make her worthy of further research.

The complex ties that bound Kabardia and the rest of the Caucasus to Russia, as a direct consequence of Maria’s marriage, would endure the test of time. The descendants of Maria’s siblings and cousins, known as the “princes Cherkassky” or the “Circassian murzas,” would serve imperial Russia with distinction as administrators and military officers through the eighteenth century. Many would intermarry with the leading families of the boyar elite, leaving descendants alive today.

Yet, it is incontrovertible that the Caucasus has remained Russia’s most-troubled corner in centuries since Maria Temryukovna’s death. Subject to bloody crises and outbreaks of state-sponsored violence as evidenced by the Russo-Persian Wars (1651-1653), the Russo-Circassian War (1763-1864), the Circassian Genocide (1863-1878), the mass deportation of Chechens (1944), the First and Second Chechen Wars (1994-1996; 1999-2009), and the Russo-Georgian War (2008), the Caucasus are as volatile today as they were in the sixteenth century.

Biographical précis:

James Blake Wiener is a public relations professional, writer, and researcher based in Zürich, Switzerland. A Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia (formerly Ancient History Encyclopedia) and its former communications director, he has collaborated with professionals at leading museums and cultural organizations in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and East Asia. An occasional professor and journalist, he has additionally worked as a copywriter for companies, ministries, and startups in the US and across Europe. James earned his BA (History) and MA (World History) at New York University and was originally trained as a world historian. Learn more at jameswiener.com or read some of his essays on Swiss history via the Swiss National Museum’s blog: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/author/james-wiener/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswiener/