Russell E. Martin - The Tsars Happy Occasion: Ritual and Dynasty in the Weddings of Russias Rulers, 1495–1745

A volume in the NIU Series in

Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Edited by Christine D. Worobec

For a list of books in the series, visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu .

Frontispiece: The Russian Brides Attire , by Konstantin Makovsky (1889). Bequest of M. H. de Young. de Young/Legion of Honor Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (used with permission).

Copyright 2021 by Cornell University

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First published 2021 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Martin, Russell, 1963- author.

Title: The Tsar's happy occasion : ritual and dynasty in the weddings of

Russia's rulers, 14951745 / Russell E. Martin.

Description: Ithaca [New York] : Northern Illinois University Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2021. | Series: NIU series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020034809 (print) | LCCN 2020034810 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501754845 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501754852 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501754869 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Marriage customs and ritesPolitical aspectsRussia. | Marriage customs and ritesRussiaHistory16th century. | Marriage customs and ritesRussiaHistory17th century. | Royal housesRussiaHistory16th century. | Royal housesRussiaHistory17th century.

Classification: LCC GT2756. M37 2021 (print) | LCC GT2756 (ebook) | DDC 392.5086/210947dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034809

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034810

Cover illustration: Konstantin Makovsky, The Russian Brides Attire, 1889. Bequest of M.H. de Young. de Young/Legion of Honor Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Used with permission.

Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

The origins of this book lie in two reviews of my previous book, A Bride for the Tsar (2012). In one, Daniel Rowland wrote that he would love to have read more of the highly complex wedding rituals and how these rituals functioned within the court culture. In the other, Valerie Kivelson lamented the books avoidance of any consideration of gender. I decided they were right. Wedding rituals and the essential role of royal women in them were regrettable (albeit necessary) omissions from my book on bride-shows, but ones that I had the means to address. Although other projects intervened, the observations of Rowland and Kivelson weighed on my mind until I could get back to this book, where ritual and women (and other themes) are the center of attention. So my first word of thanks goes to these two esteemed colleagues and friends, who bear no responsibility for the arguments to follow beyond their genesis.

Others must be thanked as well. First, of course, there are the institutions that helped fund and facilitate my research. I received financial support over several years from Westminster College (including endowed funds from the Henderson, Hoon, McCandless, and Watto families), which supported my work in archives and libraries in the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom. These funds brought me into regular contact with the administrators and staffs of several Russian archives, who willingly and knowledgeably helped me collect the extensive archival material on which this study is based, particularly at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA), which remains a second home for me in Moscow.