According to many contemporaries, False Dmitry I had the right to the throne.
Who was this man who had grasped the highest power is a mystery. He was considered both the fugitive monk Grishka Otrepiev, and the Portuguese, and the cunning Italian. Some are even Jewish. There was also an opinion that the first wife of Vasily III, allegedly exiled to the monastery, gave birth to a boy there, who became the half-brother of Ivan the Terrible and the famous robber Kudeyar. And Dmitry is Kudeyarov's son and nephew of the last tsar. However, contemporaries did not rule out the version that the new tsar was Tsarevich Dmitry, who happily escaped death in Uglich. It is worth remembering that the accepted version of the tragic events in Uglich is closely connected with the name of the boyar Vasily Shuisky, who was entrusted with the investigation. A modern historian, professor, doctor of historical sciences Ruslan Grigorievich Skrynnikov writes: “Suspicions have arisen for a long time,that the original of the "Uglich case" was falsified. Even with a cursory examination, the traces of its hasty processing are striking … Drafts of interrogations in Uglich have not been preserved. There is every reason to assert that the Uglich source became a victim of a retrospective assessment of events. " So the replacement of the tsarevich with another murdered child was beneficial to the group of the highest Russian aristocracy and could indeed take place.
Otherwise, for example, the Polish tycoon Prince Adam Wysznevetsky, to whom the "orphan" was discovered, could not have thought. To one of the most powerful princes in Eastern Europe, who maintained his own army, whose title began with the words "We, by God's mercy …", besides, a zealot of Orthodoxy who was related to Ivan the Terrible, the young man had to provide real evidence of his origin. And then only Vishnevetsky would write to the king. To hassle, so to speak, in a relative way for the removed from the throne of the prince. And Marina Mnishek was the sister of the wife of Prince Konstantin Vishnevetsky - the brother of Prince Adam. And why would Boris Godunov begin to offer Prince Vishnevetsky certain territorial concessions in exchange for the newly-minted "prince" (Adam Vishnevetsky led independent military operations with Moscow for the disputed border lands).
But all of this is out of speculation. But in fact, the tsarist troops almost did not resist Dmitry on his way with a mercenary army to Moscow. Often they even went over to the side of the "lawful sovereign". Tsar Boris died on April 13.
On May 7, the entire army, led by Voevoda Basmanov, went over to the side of False Dmitry. In Moscow, the recently proclaimed tsar Fyodor Borisovich, the son of Boris Godunov, was killed. And Dmitry solemnly ascended the throne. Patriarch Job was deposed, and on July 21, Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan, who took his place, crowned False Mithrius as king.
The young tsar reorganized the Duma, doubled the salary of servicemen, and then … The boyars were worried: Dmitry decided to significantly alleviate the fate of slaves and peasants, wanted to organize a political alliance of European powers against Turkey. On May 8, 1606, Dmitry was married to Marina Mnishek. His adherence to Western fashion, foreign customs, and even incomprehensible ideas for the arrangement of Russia did not like the boyars. They were afraid of losing their real power and influence in the state. A conspiracy led by Vasily Shuisky (future king) arose against the current tsar. On the night of May 17, 1606, the people, deceived by shouts that the Poles were beating the king, rushed to the palace. The boyars forced the guards to extradite Dmitry, and they shot him. According to legend, the body of Dmitry Ioannovich was burned and, having loaded a cannon with ashes, they fired in the direction from which he came.
But the common people in Russia did not want to believe in the death of the tsar, whom they considered "good and lawful." They said that he was saved. And False Dmitry went for a walk around the country.
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Treasure of the slain monarch
And in the treasury after the murder of False Dmitry I, 300,000 gold rubles were missing. They say that the boyars were perplexed: "the devil only knows where he threw money in one year." It was simply impossible for the sovereign to spend such an amount in Russia. For example, not a single member of the Boyar Duma received more than 120 rubles a year, they said that False Dmitry (as he was called under the Romanovs) buried money - somewhere in Tushino or in the basements of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin Thousands of people were looking for him but four hundred years of searching did not lead to success. The False Dmitry's treasure is still one of the ten most famous and mysterious treasures in Russia. But the silver kopecks minted under False Dmitry in the Pskov monetary court were found in 1605 in other treasures. And transferred to the museum. In particular, they are kept in the collection of the Pushkin Museum named after A. S. Pushkin in Moscow.
Magazine: Mysteries of History, №6 / С. Victor Nazarov