Irina Godunova

Throughout her husband's reign (and, indeed, ever since her marriage), Irina was expected to produce a male heir. Feodor was physically and mentally frail and, were he to die without male issue, it was questionable whether his half-brother, Dmitri, would be considered legitimate, as he was the result of Ivan the Terrible's seventh marriage and the Orthodox Church recognized only up to four marriages as legitimate. Indeed, even with Dmitri as a possible successor, Irina remained under pressure to produce an heir and in 1585, she traveled to the Trinity-St. Sergei Monastery north of Moscow in hopes of a miraculous cure for her alleged infertility,[5] but still she did not bear a child until 1592 — a daughter named Feodosia Fedorovna who died less than two years later in January 1594.[6]

The couple's continued infertility led to court intrigue. Thus, in 1585, Metropolitan Dionysius proposed that Feodor divorce Irina, blaming her for being infertile and arguing that, for the good of the state and the dynasty, the tsar ought to remarry and produce a male heir. The suggestion was seen as an effort on the part of the Shuiskies and other boyar clans to undercut the Godunovs. In response, Boris Godunov had the metropolitan deposed and confined to the Khutyn Monastery just outside Novgorod the Great. In 1587, several leading boyar families advised Feodor to divorce Irina for the same reason. As a response, Feodor approved of the punishment proposed by Irina and Boris for the boyars and had the boyar daughters who had been suggested as a replacement for Irina forcibly made nuns.[3]

With the death of Dmitry under strange circumstances in Uglich, north of Moscow, on 15 May 1591, Irina was placed under increasing pressure to produce an heir. If she failed and Feodor died without a son, the Rurikid dynasty that had ruled Rus and Muscovy since the ninth century would become extinct, likely resulting in a bloody succession struggle. The couple remained barren for more than a decade, although whether this was due to Feodor's poor health or to infertility on Irina's part is uncertain.

Tsaritsa Irina had great influence during the reign of Feodor and participated in state affairs, to a degree that exceeded the expected limits of a Russian tsaritsa and a monarch's wife in general. Initially she did so discreetly without advertising her influence. Soon, however, she began participating in government more directly, frequently placing her own name on Feodor's decrees. Irina also became well known abroad, corresponding with Queen Elizabeth I of England and Patriarch Meletis Pigasos of Alexandria. Feodor trusted Irina, deferred to her, did not wish to exalt himself at her expense, trusted her to handle the affairs of state for him and relied on her advice. In one version, the tsar named a new fortress Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) after her to strengthen her authority. [3]

Engraving of Irina Godunova

Upon her husband's death on 17 January 1598, the Rurikids in the male line were extinct. Some days before his death, on 3 January, Feodor had stated that Irina would become a nun after his death and made her promise to honor his wish.[3] However, after his death, Irina, with no other candidate to the throne, announced her intention to "take power for a short time, so as to protect the Tsardom from tumult".[3] No woman had ever before reigned in her own right in Rus' or Russia. The Godunov family convinced the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church to grant its consent to Irina as an autocrat, and the Boyar Duma to pledge loyalty to her as "Great Sovereign".[3] The legal situation was difficult, however: as Irina had never been crowned, she had no authority to hold or convey power: furthermore, although the church and nobility was willing to accept her rule, the public in Moscow rioted at the suggestion of her succession and called her "shameless".[3] For nine days after the death of Feodor, the situation was unclear and Irina was de facto ruler. Her first act as sovereign was to declare an amnesty of prisoners to win good will of the public, but this act failed as it released dangerous criminals and caused discontent.[3]

Nine days after the death of her spouse, "in order to prevent great revolt", Irina relinquished formal power to the Boyar Duma and de facto power to her brother Boris Godunov.[3] She retired (some historians call it an abdication)[7] to the Novodevichy Monastery (Convent) on the south side of Moscow, where she took monastic vows under the name Aleksandra. In fact, it was at the monastery that Boris Godunov was asked by Patriarch Job of Moscow and the Zemsky Sobor to become tsar.[8] Upon the wish of her brother, her name always preceded any other member of the imperial family in the church prayers until her death.[3]

Irina died on 27 October 1603 (others sources give the date 26 September, still others the year 1604) in the Novodevichy Monastery.

Several embroideries created by Irina are in the collection of the State Historical Museum on Red Square (along with similar work by Sophia Palaiologina, the wife of Ivan III, and Anastasia, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible.)