Quick Facts
Biography
Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa (ca 1560, Staritsa – 13 May 1610) was a Russian princess. She was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa and his wife, Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoevskaya, and, through her father, descended from Sophia Palaiologina (being her last known descendant).
On 12 April 1574, in Novgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia.They had two children:
- Maria of Oldenburg (July 1580 – 1597).
- Eudoxia of Oldenburg (January 1581 – 18 March 1589).
Upon her husband's death, Jerome Horsey escorted Maria from the Bishopric of Courland to the court of Boris Godunov. Although Horsey proposed to marry her, Godunov was anxious to get rid of a potential claimant to the throne. As a result, Maria was forced to take the veil and entered a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.
In 1609, she entered into correspondence with her false cousin, False Dmitry II, who had proclaimed himself Tsar. Her subsequent fate is not documented.
