Anna Vasilchikova (''Анна Васильчикова'') was

Tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; ; ; ) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife ...

of the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. ...

and was the fifth spouse of

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...

(Иван Грозный). Very little is known of her background. She married Ivan in January 1575 without the blessing of the Ecclesiastical Council of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

. She was repudiated by her husband and made a nun in a monastery. The date of her death is uncertain, having been variously described as occurring in 1576–77.

References

* Troyat, Henri ''Ivan le Terrible''. Flammarion, Paris, 1982 * de Madariaga, Isabel ''Ivan the Terrible''. Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005 , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilchikov, Anna Wives of Ivan the Terrible Russian nuns 1570s deaths Year of birth unknown Forcibly monasticised