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01/16/1648 AD married

In 1647, tsar Alexis I of Russia reached the age required for marriage. The tsar was to choose his bride from a bride-show of hundreds of daughters of the nobility, who were summoned to the imperial court for selection. This method to select a bride for the tsar reportedly originated from the reign of Ivan III, whose spouse Sophia Palaiologina came from the Byzantine empire, where this method had once been used to choose a bride for the Byzantine emperor.

The bridal selection of Alexis I was managed by Boris Morozov, and gathered to almost two hundred daughters of the nobility, among them Maria Miloslavskaya. She had the support of Boris Morozov, who intended to marry her sister Anna Miloslavskaya, and hoped that Alexis I would choose Maria, which would make him the brother-in-law of the tsar.

During the selection ceremony, however, the tsar chose Euphemia Fedorovna Vsevolozhskaya by presenting her with a handkerchief and a ring as a symbol of their engagement. Boris Morozov then bribed a courtier to make Vsevolozhskaya faint; he then bribed a court physician to diagnose her with epilepsy.

This disqualified Vsevolozhskaya as tsaritsa and resulted in both her and her father to be exiled accused of attempting to hide her illness from the tsar, and thus the first choice of the tsar was annulled.

Maria Miloslavskaya was selected as the tsar's second choice. She was reportedly a beauty, and was declared perfectly healthy after an examination by a court physician.

Upon the advise of the tsar's confessor, the wedding was a very somber ceremony, excluding all music, games and other festivities except for religious singing, to follow the wish of the famously ascetic Patriarch Joseph of Moscow.

Ten days after the wedding of the tsar to Maria Miloslavskaya, Boris Morozov married her sister Anna Miloslavskaya, making him brother-in-law to the tsar and strengthening his power at court. Her father, additionally, was made boyar and became one of the most influential power holders at court, making the Miloslavsky family a key power clan at the Russian court during Maria's tenure as tsaritsa.

Moscow

Lattitude: 55.7558° N
Longitude: 37.6172° E
Region: Russia and Eastern Bloc