Tsarevich Ivan

Tsarevich Ivan was the first child and first son of Ivan the Terrible and Anastasia Zakharina-Yurieva. He was born in 1554. Ivan had three wives – Eudoxia Saburova, Praskovia Solovaya and Elena Sheremeteva. On 15 November 1581, Ivan the Terrible entered the apartments of his son and came across his pregnant daughter-in-law. Outraged at her appearance, which to him seemed indecent, the tsar began to beat her. The woman went into labour and gave birth to a stillborn child. The tsarevich came running when he heard his wife’s cries and tried to stop his father, who dealt him a fatal blow to the head with his mace. Ivan died four days later. The remorseful father made a large endowment to the church in his memory and even planned on abdicating and retiring to a monastery.