False Dmitry II
False Dmitry II (Russian: Лжедимитрий II), also called the thief of Tushino, was the second of three pretenders to the Russian throne who claimed to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, tsarevich Dmitry. The real Dmitry had died under incertain circumstances, while still a child, in 1591, at Uglich, his widowed mother's appanage.
He first appeared on the scene circa 1607 at Starodub. He is supposed to have been either a priest's son or a converted Jew, and was highly educated, relative to the times he lived in, knowing as he did the Russian and Polish languages and being somewhat of an expert in liturgical matters. He pretended at first to be the Muscovite boyarin Nagoy; but confessed, under torture, that he was tsarevich Dmitry, whereupon he was taken at his word and joined by thousands of Cossacks, Poles and Muscovites.
In the course of the year Jerzy Mniszech, father of Marina Mniszech, widow of the first Dimitry, 'reunited' him with Marina, who miraculously recognizes his late husband in second Dimitry (subsequently quieting her conscience by privately marrying this impostor, who in no way resembled her first husband, False Dmitry I). This brought him the support of the magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who supported the False Dmitry I. Adam Wisniowiecki, Samuel Tyszkiewicz, Roman Różyński, Jan Sapieha decided to support the second pretender as well, supplying him with some early funds and 7500 of soldiers.
He speedily captured Karachev, Bryansk and other towns; was reinforced by the Poles; and in the spring of 1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Vasily Shuisky, at Bolkhov, on his way. Liberal promises of the wholesale confiscation of the estates of the boyars drew the common people to him, and he entrenched himself at the village of Tushino, twelve versts from the capital, which he converted into an armed camp, collecting therein 7000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and 10,000 of other rag tag soldiers, including former members of the failed rokosz of Zebrzydowski. His forces soon exceeded 100,000 men. He raised to the rank of patriarch another illustrious captive, Philaret Romanov, and won over the cities of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Kashin and other places to his allegiance.
The arrival of King Sigismund III at Smolensk caused majority of his Polish supporters to desert him and join with the armies of the Polish king. A series of subsequent disasters induced him to fly his camp disguised as a peasant and go to Kostroma, where Marina joined him and he lived once more in regal state. He also made another but unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and, supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all south-eastern Russia. He was killed, while half drunk, on the 11th of December 1610, by a Tatar princeling whom he had flogged.
See also
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.