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DEMETRIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 984 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEMETRIUS , PSEUDO- (or FALSE), the name by which three See also:

Muscovite princes and pretenders, who claimed to be Demetrius, son of See also:Ivan the Terrible, are known in See also:history. The real Demetrius had been murdered, while still a See also:child, in 1591, at See also:Uglich, his widowed See also:mother's See also:appanage. 1. In the reign of See also:Tsar Boris Godunov (1598—1605), the first of these pretenders, whose origin is still obscure, emigrated to Lithuania and persuaded many of the magnates there of his tsarish See also:birth, and consequently of his right to the Muscovite See also:throne. His real name seems to have been Yury or See also:Gregory, and he was the See also:grandson of Bogdan Otrepev, a Galician See also:boyar, and a See also:tool in the hands of Tsar Boris Godunov's enemies. He first appears in history circa 1600, when his learning and assurance seem to have greatly impressed the Muscovite See also:patriarch See also:Job. Tsar Boris, however, ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he fled to See also:Prince See also:Constantine Ostrogsky at See also:Ostrog, and subsequently entered the service of another Lithuanian, Prince Wisniwiecki, who accepted him for what he pretended to be and tried to enlist the sympathy of the See also:Polish See also:king, See also:Sigismund III., in his favour. The king refused to support him officially, but his cause was taken up, as a See also:speculation, by the Polish See also:magnate Yury Mniszek, whose daughter Marina he after-wards wedded and crowned as his tsaritsa. The See also:Jesuits also seem to have believed in the See also:man, who was evidently an unconscious impostor brought up from his youth to believe that he was the real Demetrius; numerous fugitives from See also:Moscow also acknowledged him, and finally he set out, at the See also:head of an See also:army of Polish and Lithuanian See also:volunteers, See also:Cossacks and Muscovite fugitives, to drive out the Godunovs, after being received into the See also:Church of See also:Rome. At the beginning of 1604 he was invited to See also:Cracow, where Sigismund presented him to the papal See also:nuncio Rangoni. His public See also:conversion took See also:place on the 17th of See also:April. In See also:October the false Demetrius crossed the See also:Russian frontier, and shortly afterwards routed a large Muscovite army beneath the walls of See also:Novgorod-Syeversk.

The sudden See also:

death of Tsar Boris (April 13, 1605) removed the last barrier to the further progress of the pretender. The See also:principal Russian army, under P. F. Basmanov, at once went over to him (May 7); on the 20th of See also:June he made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on the 21st of See also:July he was crowned tsar by a new patriarch of his own choosing, the See also:Greek Isidore. He at once proceeded to introduce a whole See also:series of See also:political and economical reforms. From all accounts, he must have been a man of See also:original See also:genius and extraordinary resource. He did his best to relieve the burdens of the peasantry; he formed the project of a See also:grand See also:alliance between the See also:emperor, the See also:pope, See also:Venice, See also:Poland and Muscovy against the Turk; he displayed an amazing See also:toleration in religious matters which made See also:people suspect that he was a crypto-Arian; and far from being, as was expected, the tool of Poland and the pope, he maintained from the first a dignified and See also:independent attitude. But his extravagant See also:opinion of his own authority (he lost no See also:time in styling himself emperor), and his predilection for Western See also:civilization, alarmed the ultra-conservative boyars (the people were always on his See also:side), and a See also:conspiracy was formed against him, headed by See also:Basil Shuisky, whose See also:life he had saved a few months previously. A favourable opportunity for the conspirators presented itself on the 8th of May 1606, when Demetrius was married to Marina Mniszek. Taking See also:advantage of the hostility of the Muscovites towards the Polish regiments which had escorted Marina to Moscow and there committed some excesses, the boyars urged the citizens to rise against the Poles, while they themselves attacked and, slew Demetrius in the Kreml on the See also:night of the 17th of May. See Sergyei Solovev, History of See also:Russia (Rus.), vol. viii. (St See also:Peters-See also:burg, 1857,&c.); Nikolai Kostomarov, See also:Historical Monographs (Rus.) vols. iv.-vi.

(St See also:

Petersburg, 1863, &c.); Orest Levitsky, The First False Demetrius as the Propagandist of Catholicism in Russia (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1886) ; See also:Paul Pierling, Rome et Demetrius (See also:Paris, 1878) ; R. N. See also:Bain, Poland and Russia, cap. 10 (See also:Cambridge, 1907). 2. The second pretender, called " the thief of Tushino," first appeared on the See also:scene circa 1607 at See also:Starodub. He is supposed to have been either a See also:priest's son or a converted See also:Jew, and was highly educated, relatively to the times he lived in, knowing as he did the Russian and Polish See also:languages and being somewhat of an See also:expert in liturgical matters. He pretended at first to be the Muscovite boyarin Nagi; but confessed, under See also:torture, that he was Demetrius Ivanovich, whereupon he was taken at his word and joined by thousands of Cossacks, Poles and Muscovites. Hespeedily captured Karachev, Bryansk and other towns; was reinforced by the Poles; and in the See also:spring of i6o8 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Basil Shuisky, at See also:Bolkhov, on his way. Liberal promises of the wholesale See also:confiscation of the estates of the boyars See also:drew the See also:common people to him, and he entrenched himself at the See also:village of Tushino, twelve versts from the See also:capital, which he converted into an armed See also:camp, See also:collecting therein 7000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and ro,000 of the See also:rabble. In the course of the See also:year he captured Marina Mniszek, who acknowledged him to he her See also:husband (subsequently quieting her See also:conscience by privately marrying this impostor, who in no way resembled her first husband), and brought him the support of the Lithuanian magnates Mniszek and Sapieha so that his forces soon exceeded 100,000 men. He raised to the See also:rank of patriarch another illustrious See also:captive, See also:Philaret See also:Romanov, and won over the towns of See also:Yaroslavl, See also:Kostroma, See also:Vologda, Kashin and other places to his See also:allegiance.

But a series of subsequent disasters, and the arrival of King Sigismund III. at Sinolensk, induced him to See also:

fly his camp disguised as a See also:peasant and go to Kostroma, where Marina joined him and he lived once more in See also:regal See also:state. He also made another but unsuccessful attack o; Moscow, and, supported by the See also:Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all See also:south-eastern Russia. He was killed, while See also:half drunk, on the rrth of See also:December 161o, by a Tatar whom he had flogged. See Sergyei Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.) re_ viii. (St Peters-burg, 1657, &c.). 3. The third, a still more enigmatical See also:person than his predecessors, supposed to have been a See also:deacon called Siderka, appeared suddenly, " from. behind the See also:river Yanza," in the Ingrian See also:town of See also:Ivangorod (See also:Narva), proclaiming himself the tsarevich Demetrius Ivanovich, on the 28th of See also:March 1611. The Cossacks, ravaging the environs of Moscow, acknowledged him as tsar on the and of March 1612, and under See also:threat of vengeance in See also:case of non-compliance, the gentry of See also:Pskov also kissed the See also:cross to "the thief of Pskov," as he was usually nick-named. On the 18th of May 1612 he fled from Pskov, was seized and delivered up to the authorities at Moscow, and there executed. See Sergyei Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.), vol. viii. (St Peters-burg, 1857, &c.). (R.

N.

End of Article: DEMETRIUS

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