Natalya Naryshkina | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tsaritsa consort of All Russia | |||||
Reign | 1 February 1671 – 29 January 1676 | ||||
Born | 1 September 1651 | ||||
Died | 4 February 1694 | (aged 42)||||
Burial | Ascension Convent, Kolomenskoye Archangel Cathedral, Kremlin (1929) |
||||
Spouse | Alexei I of Russia | ||||
Issue |
Peter the Great Tsarevna Natalya Alexeevna Tsarevna Fyodora Alexeevna |
||||
|
|||||
House | House of Romanov | ||||
Father | Kirill Poluektovich Naryshkin | ||||
Mother | Anna Leontyevna Leontyeva | ||||
Religion | Eastern Orthodox |
Full name | |
---|---|
Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina |
Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (Russian: Ната́лья Кири́лловна Нары́шкина; 1 September 1651 – 4 February 1694) was the Tsaritsa of Russia from 1671–1676 as the second spouse of Tsar Alexei I of Russia, and mother of Tsar Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great).
Coming from a noble family, daughter of Kirill Poluektovich Naryshkin (1623–1691) and wife Anna Leontyevna Leontyeva (d. 1706, daughter of Leonty Dimitriyevich Leontyev and spouse Praskovya Ivanovna Rayevskaya who died in 1641), she was brought up in the house of the great Western-leaning boyar Artamon Matveyev. She was given a freer and more Western-influenced upbringing than most Russian women of the time.
On 1 February 1671 she became the second spouse of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. They had three children, the future Emperor Peter I (1672–1725); Tsarevna Natalya who founded the first public theatre in Russia, writing a number of its plays herself; and Tsarevna Theodora (Feodora). After the throne was secured for her son Peter, Natalya, her brothers, and the patriarch effectively controlled the government.
She became widowed in 1676; a son from the Tsar's previous marriage ascended the throne as Feodor III. Feodor and brother Ivan treated their stepmother with affection, always referring to her as "Mama".
When Feodor died in 1682, her 10-year-old son became tsar. She became regent, with her foster father Artamon Matveyev who was called back from exile, as advisor. However, during the revolt of the Streltsy on 15 May 1682, two of her brothers and Matveyev were killed and her biological father Kyril Naryshkin was forced to become a monk in a convent. Feodor's elder sister, Sofia Alekseyevna replaced her as regent.