Ivan Nikitich Romanov, ''Russian'' Иван Никитич Романов (156? – 16 July 1640) was the uncle of Tsar Michael I, first

Romanov The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning dynasty, imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russi ...

Tsar of Russia The Tsar of all Russia, formally the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, was the title of the Russian monarch from 1547 to 1721. During this period, the state was a tsardom. The first Russian monarch to be crowned as tsar was Ivan ...

Background

Ivan was the seventh child and second surviving son of Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin by his second wife, Princess Evdokiya Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya (d. 4 April 1581). Ivan had two half-sisters, the daughters of his father by an earlier marriage, and ten full siblings, many of whom died young. Among his full siblings was his elder brother Feodor Nikitich Romanov, the father of Mikhail Fedorovich, first

. Ivan's father, Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin, was the brother of Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, first wife of Tsar

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 ...

. He was one of the closest advisors of that Tsar, and later served for two years as regent for his underage nephew

Feodor I Feodor I Ioannovich () or Fyodor I Ivanovich (; 31 May 1557 – 17 January 1598), nicknamed the Blessed (), was Tsar of all Russia from 1584 until his death in 1598. Feodor's mother died when he was three, and he grew up in the shadow of his ...

. The family was therefore politically influential and very affluent; Nikita Romanov was one of the largest landowners in Russia.

Loss of election

The

Rurikid dynasty The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage allegedly founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the ...

became extinct with the death of Tsar Feodor I (Ivan's first cousin) in 1598. Russia then went through the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (), also known as Smuta (), was a period of political crisis in Tsardom of Russia, Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I of Russia, Feodor I, the last of the Rurikids, House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 wit ...

, a time of civil war and foreign occupation interspersed with drought and famine. Finally, in 1612-13, Prince

Dmitry Pozharsky Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky ( rus, Дми́трий Миха́йлович Пожа́рский, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ pɐˈʐarskʲɪj; 17 October 1577 – 30 April 1642) was a Tsardom of Russia, Russian prince known for his ...

drove the Poles out of the Kremlin and convened a Grand National Assembly to elect a new Tsar. Ivan, as a leading member of the

family, was a serious candidate for the throne. This was particularly so because his elder brother, Feodor Nikitich Romanov,

Patriarch of Moscow The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus (), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the title of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is often preceded by the honorific "His Holiness". As the ordinary of the diocese ...

, was at that time a captive of the Polish-Lithuanian monarch

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa (, ; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Re ...

; Feodor's wife and children were living at the

Ipatievsky Monastery The Ipatiev Monastery (; also Ipatievsky Monastery), sometimes translated into English as Hypatian Monastery, is a male monastery situated on the bank of the Kostroma River just opposite the city of Kostroma. It was founded around 1330 by a Ta ...

in remote

Kostroma Kostroma (, ) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. In the 2021 census, the population is 267, ...

. Nevertheless, the Grand National Assembly unanimously elected the captive Feodor's underage son, Mikhail Fedorovich, as the new Tsar, even though Mikhail was not even present there at that time. When the

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

gave their support to his nephew Mikhail, Ivan Nikitich purportedly said to them: "This prince Mikhail Fedorovich is too young and not yet in his full reason." As a result, his brother and nephew tended to mistrust Ivan in later years, and he never held any governmental posts under their rule. However, he was made a

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

, and as the Tsar's uncle, was one of the highest-ranking nobles of the land. He is said to have been the greatest private proprietor of his day, with vast estates and hundreds of thousands of serfs.

Jerome Blum Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century is a political-social-economic history of Russia written by historian Jerome Blum and published by Princeton University Press in 1961. The work covers the period from Varangia ...

Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century is a political-social-economic history of Russia written by historian Jerome Blum and published by Princeton University Press in 1961. The work covers the period from Varangia ...

, 1961, page 260

Personal life

Ivan was married to Princess Uliana Fyodorovna Litvinova-Massalaskaya (d. 1650) and had six children by her. They were: #

Nikita Romanov Nikita Ivanovich Romanov (''Russian'' Никита Иванович Романов) (c. 1607 – December 21, 1654) was a first cousin of Tsar Michael of Russia. His cousin Michael became the first Romanov Tsar of Russia by election in 1613. Nikita ...

(c. 1607 – 21 December 1654),

Boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

1645 # Andrey (d. 25 April 1609) # Dmitry (d. 4 November 1611) # Irina (d. 10 September 1615) # Praskovia (d. 25 October 1622) # Ivan (d. 30 July 1625) Most of Ivan's children died young. The only one of his sons to survive to any advanced age was

, who did not marry, and who was the last non-royal member of the

family at his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romanov, Ivan House of Romanov 1640 deaths Year of birth unknown Forcibly monasticised