#*historyedit

“Humble & Loyal”

It is widely believed that Anastasia had a moderating influence on Ivan's volatile character. Sir Jerome Horsey, an agent for the Russia Company and envoy for English court, wrote in his memoirs about Anastasia and Ivan IV: "He being young and riotous, she ruled him with admirable affability and wisdom”.

Very little is known of her background. She married Ivan in January 1575 without the blessing of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. She was repudiated by her husband and made a nun in a monastery. The date of her death is uncertain, having been variously described as occurring in 1576–77.

After two years of marriage, Ivan began to tire of his wife due to her sterility. He repudiated her, and sent her to the convent of Vedenski-Tikhvinski where she assumed the monastery name of Daria. Only she and Maria Nagaya, the eighth wife of Ivan the terrible, outlived the tsar.

Her death increased her husband's paranoia, because she died in what was meant to be an impregnable fortress filled with loyal subjects. Ivan, remembering the death of his first wife, immediately suspected poison and put to death many of his subjects, including Mikail Temrjuk (brother to the Tzar's previous wife) who was impaled.