Marina Mniszech or Mnishek was a Polish noblewoman who was the tsaritsa of all Russia in May 1606 during the Time of Troubles as the wife of False Dmitry I. Following the death of her husband, she later married another imposter to the throne, False Dmitry II. A devout Catholic, she hoped to convert Russia's population to Catholicism.
Official portrait, early 17th century
Official portrait of False Dmitry I
Coronation of Maryna Mniszech in Moscow by Tommaso Dolabella.
Marina Mniszech in coronation robes, 1606.
The Time of Troubles, also known as Smuta, was a period of political crisis in Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I, the last of the House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 with the accession of Michael I of the House of Romanov.
Konstantin Makovsky's Appeal of Minin (1896) depicts Kuzma Minin against the background of the church of St. John the Baptist appealing to the people of Nizhny Novgorod to raise a militia against the Polish invaders and Sigismund III Vasa.
Ilya Repin's Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885), depicting the accidental killing of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich by his father Ivan the Terrible; it made Feodor I heir to the Russian throne.
Palace in Uglich, where Tsarevich Dmitry lived and died
Sergey Ivanov's In the Time of Troubles (1886)
