The life of Marina Mnishek, this amazing woman, the true daughter of the adventurous seventeenth century, is like an adventure novel, in which there is love, and battles, and chases. There is only no happy ending.
Marina was the daughter of the Sandomierz governor Jerzy Mniszek. She was born in 1588 in her father's ancestral castle. Her origin, beauty and wealth promised her the life of a Polish lady, full of contentment and entertainment, in which there would be a brilliant appearance in the world, and cheerful feasts and hunts, and household chores for managing her husband's estate, and, finally, there would be a place for novels, where can a Polish beauty in the seventeenth century do without them! However, fate decreed otherwise.
In 1604, someone appeared on the estate of Jerzy Mnishek who called himself the happily escaped Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of the Russian Tsar John.
It is unlikely that Marina was very interested in the affairs of neighboring Russia, these were the concerns of the noble lords at the Diet, and the newly-minted "tsarevich" was not particularly good at himself. However, the newcomer fell in love with Marina, and soon she was persuaded to respond to his passion by Catholic monks, who hoped in this way to take the first step towards Catholicizing Russia. The Sandomierz voivode promised his help to "Tsarevich Dmitry" only on the following conditions: his daughter becomes a Russian tsarina, she receives the cities of Novgorod and Pskov in her patrimony, retains the right to profess Catholicism, and if the "tsarevich" fails, she can marry another. On such conditions, the betrothal of young Marina and False Dmitry took place.
However, the impostor's personal charisma may have played a role as well. Apparently, he was a very extraordinary person, and for young girls charisma means, sometimes, more than a beautiful appearance.
When False Dmitry occupied Moscow, Marina arrived to him with great pomp, accompanied by a huge retinue. On May 3, 1606, Marina's wedding and coronation took place. By the way, she was the only woman before Catherine I, crowned in Russia.
For Marina, a life full of balls and holidays began. It began and lasted … only a week. On May 17, a rebellion broke out, the archers and Muscovites who rebelled against foreigners broke into the palace, staged a massacre. False Dmitry died, and Marina escaped, because she was not recognized.
Marina spent some time in exile in Yaroslavl, and then was sent home. However, on the way, she was intercepted by rioters, who were going to Moscow, hiding behind a new impostor, False Dmitry II, who posed as a second-time rescued Tsarevich, the son of Ivan the Terrible. Marina was taken to his camp and forced to recognize this man as her husband. She lived in the Tushino camp until 1610, and then fled, disguised as a hussar. However, she did not manage to run far. The country was engulfed in civil war, poor Marina was in danger at every step, and she was forced to return under the patronage of the Tushinsky thief - that is how False Dmitry II was called.
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When the Tushinsky thief fell, Marina changed patrons, running away with the Cossacks, then with the Polish governors, then to Ryazan, then to Astrakhan, then to Yaik. The matter was complicated by the fact that in 1611 her son was born. They called him Ivan, but more often they called him "varenok". Marina sought not only to save him from dangers, but also to proclaim the heir to the Russian throne. In this she did not succeed.
Marina's wanderings across Russia and her stormy life ended in 1614, when she was captured by the Moscow archers and taken in chains to Moscow.
At that time there was already a contender for the kingdom - the young Misha Romanov, elected by the people. And on his way to the throne stood little Ivan, a "little vorenok", the son of Marina Mnishek and some rogue who was hiding under the name of Dmitry. Marina was a crowned Russian tsarina, her son was adopted in a marriage consecrated by the church, so it is quite understandable that the three-year-old baby was indeed a serious obstacle. And it is clear that it was necessary to get rid of him publicly, in front of the entire people, to get rid of him once and for all, so that there would be no new “princes of John” later.
Therefore, the end of the "varenka" was terrible. The executioner hung it up in public, taking the sleeping child from the mother's arms.
They say that Marina Mnishek cursed the entire Romanov family, promising that none of the Romanov men would die a natural death. If you look closely at the history of this royal family, you will involuntarily come to mind that the curse of the mother, distraught with grief, really worked. Almost all of the Romanovs died either from strange diseases, which were often attributed to the action of poisons, or were killed. Particularly indicative in this sense is the terrible fate of the last Romanovs.
Marina Mnishek herself died either in captivity (one of the towers of the Kolomna Kremlin is called the “Marina Tower”), or was drowned or strangled. In general, it doesn't matter anymore. It is obvious that Marina's life ended the instant the executioner snatched the sleeping baby from her hands.