False Dmitriy I - Way To The Russian Throne

Way To The Russian Throne

When the Tsar Boris heard about the pretender, he claimed that the man was just a runaway monk called Grigory Otrepyev (born Yury Otrepyev; Grigory was the name given at the monastery), although on what information he based this claim is unclear. Regardless, his support began to wane, especially when he tried to spread counter-rumors. Some of the Russian boyars also claimed to accept Dmitriy's claim because it gave them legitimate reason not to pay taxes to Boris.

Dmitriy attracted a number of followers, formed a small army, and gained the support of Commonwealth magnates who gave him approximately 3500 soldiers from their private armies. With them he rode to Russia on June 1604. Enemies of Boris, including the southern Cossacks, joined his forces on his way to Moscow. Dmitriy's forces fought two engagements with reluctant Russian soldiers; they won the first, capturing Chernigov (modern Chernihiv), Putivl (Putyvl), Sevsk, and Kursk but badly lost the second and nearly disintegrated. Dmitriy's cause was only saved when the news of the sudden death of Tsar Boris (13 April 1605) reached the troops.

This removed the last barrier to the pretender's further progress. Russian troops began to defect to Dmitriy's side, and on 1 June boyars in Moscow imprisoned the newly-crowned tsar, Feodor II, and his mother and later killed them. On 20 June Dmitriy made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on 21 July he was crowned tsar by a new patriarch of his own choosing, the Greek Ignatius.