Maria Temryukovna

Maria Temryukovna (born Kucheney; ; ; – 1 September 1569) was the tsaritsa of all Russia from 1561 until her death as the second wife of Ivan the Terrible.

Life

Born Qochenay bint Teymour (Кученей), the daughter of Eastern Circassian Prince Temryuk of Kabardia, she was presented to Ivan in Moscow after the death of his first wife Anastasia Romanovna. Ivan was so smitten by her beauty, that he decided to marry her immediately. Before the marriage, she was baptized and took the name Maria. On 21 August 1561, they married, four days before Ivan's 31st birthday. Maria would have been about 15. The marriage took place after the marriage negotiations between Ivan and Catherine Jagiellon of Poland fell apart.

According to some contemporary opinions, Maria was viewed as cruel, illiterate and vindictive, unable to fully integrate to the Muscovite way of life, and was considered a poor stepmother to Ivan's two sons Ivan and Feodor. Some sources claim it was she who first incited her husband to form the oprichniki. However, according to Isabel de Madariaga, most historians reject the idea that Maria, or any of his other wives, ever exercised any influence over Ivan. On 21 March 1563, she gave birth to a son named Vasili, named after her father-in-law, though he died on 3 May that same year.

In the summer of 1564, she accompanied Ivan on a pilgrimage to Pereslavl-Zalessky, where the local monks and other observers "were impressed with her modest bearing, religious proclivities, and grasp of affairs."

She died on 1 September 1569, in her early 20s. It was rumored that she had been poisoned by her own husband, but there is no historical evidence to such rumours.

In popular culture She appears in The Terrible (2020), a Russian drama miniseries, played by Milena Radulovich. She appears in Tsar (2009), a Russian drama film directed by Pavel Lungin. The story of Maria and Ivan is described in the book Der Leibarzt der Zarin by Heinz Konsalik. She also appears (as Marie) in Georges Bizet's opera Ivan IV.