Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa

Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa
Queen of Livonia
Bornc. 1560
Staritsa
Died13 May 1610
Burial
SpouseMagnus, Duke of Holstein
IssueMaria of Oldenburg
Eudoxia of Oldenburg
HouseDaniilovichi
FatherVladimir Andreyevich of Staritsa
MotherEudoxia Romanovna Odoevskaya
ReligionEastern Orthodoxy

Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa[1][2] (c. 1560 in Staritsa – 1612, 1614, or 1617) was a Russian princess. She was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa and his wife, Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoevskaya, and, through her father, descended from Sophia Palaiologina.

On 12 April 1574, in Novgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia. They had two children:

  1. Maria of Oldenburg (July 1580 – 1597).
  2. Eudoxia of Oldenburg (January 1581 – 18 March 1589).

Upon her husband's death, Jerome Horsey escorted Maria from the Bishopric of Courland to the court of Boris Godunov. Although Horsey proposed to marry her, Godunov was anxious to get rid of a potential claimant to the throne. As a result, Maria was forced to take the veil and entered a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.

In 1609, she entered into correspondence with her false cousin, False Dmitry II, who had proclaimed himself Tsar. Her subsequent fate is not documented.

  1. ^ De Madariaga, Isabel (2006). Ivan the Terrible. Yale University Press. p. 354. ISBN 0-300-11973-9.
  2. ^ Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe; P.46/Table 19; ISBN 0-7567-7364-4