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Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. As legend has it, shortly after dawn on May 17, 1606, Tsar Dimitri crouched on a window ledge outside his palace in Moscow. This was not part of the Russian Emperor's typical morning routine and was definitely not an activity that he and his new bride, who was hiding inside in an adjacent room, would have had on their ideal post wedding itinerary. But times were desperate. There were assassins closing in. So Tsar Dimitri gazed down from his window perfectly perch. The drop was substantial, but over in the direction of Red Square, loyal citizens were streaming onto the Kremlin grounds. If Dimitri could leap to the next building, his supportive subjects would surely be able to arrive in time to protect him from the horde of coordinated assassins who had surrounded his bedchambers and were about to break in at any moment. The next few seconds would prove vital for Czar Dimitri's life and reign, as well as for the entire course of early modern Russian history. He prepared to make his daring leap. But unfortunately for Dmitri, like so many aspects of the period of political turmoil that would become known as the Time of Troubles, Dimitri's plan took an almost comically dire turn. Dimitri slipped and plummeted to the ground, breaking his leg in the process. He was soon at the mercy of his enemies. And that's where things got even more peculiar. In the heat of a violent coup, plenty of rulers find themselves in the tense and awkward position of needing to beg for their lives. But even within that pantheon of impassioned pleas, the back and forth that Tsar Dimitri had with his particular group of would be assassins stands out because a good portion of his pleading supposedly focused on him trying to convince them that he was in fact who he claimed to be. He begged his captors to bring him to his people. They'd embrace him as Tsar Dimitri, their rightful leader. Or they could go ask his mother. She'd certainly vouch for him that he was her son and the heir of former Tsar Ivan. Why not even pray? Surely those of ardent faith would receive confirmation from God that he had been divinely Chosen to rule. With the larger crowd fast approaching, however, the assassins chose not to waste time praying and to avoid any further delay by shooting, hacking and bludgeoning their target, who may or may not have been the rightful Tsar Dimitri to death. But Dimitri's story was far from over. Whoever he truly was, that young emperor who literally fell from power kicked off quite a trend. Many more so called false Dimitris would eventually come forward, all claiming to be the one, the only, the original Tsar Dimitri. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is Noble Blood. Unlike other famous characters who probably never existed, such as your King Arthurs or Odysseuses, there is evidence that at least at the start of this heightened tale, there was a real person named Dmitri Ivanovich who had a hereditary link to the Russian monarchy. In 1582, tsarevich, or son of the Tsar Dmitri was born to Tsar Ivan Vasilovich, commonly known to the modern world as Ivan the Terrible and his sixth wife, Maria. Relatively few details seem to be known about Dmitri's earliest years, especially since many accounts of this period focused more on the royal succession plan, of which the young Tsarevich was not initially a featured contender. According to some, Dmitri was not even a fully legitimate Tsarvich. His parentage was not necessarily in doubt, but per Russian Orthodox law, the offspring of a man's fourth marriage was typically deemed to be illegitimate. So the child of a sixth marriage pretty far down the potential inheritance standings. After Ivan died, his oldest living son became Tsar. The new power dynamic was complicated, however, because Ivan's heir purportedly possessed what might be classified today as significant neurodivergence or learning disabilities. Ivan had foreseen his oldest son struggling to rule on his own, and he appointed a Council of Regents to help run Russia behind the scenes. What could go wrong? Right. An ambitious member of that council named Boris Godunov, soon relished his newfound influence so much that he didn't see why he should stop at being mere regent. With a sidelined, ineffectual Tsar, Boris envisioned taking the throne for himself. This path meant weeding out all likely future challengers. So Boris pushed the illegitimate Tsarevich narrative while also exiling Dmitri, along with his mother and numerous members of their family, to the far off principality of Ooglik. Unfortunately, few memorable personal details about Dimitri's upbringing appear to have survived. Sources recount that his grandfather and several relatives, having not taken their banishment very amicably, plotted to topple Boris. It is highly unlikely that young Dimitri meaningfully participated in any of that planning, given that he would have been under the age of eight. But it is probable that on some level, his family's desired retribution triggered his tragic demise. In May of 1591, young Dimitri reportedly died in Uglich. His family members were incensed, certain that the event was a covert murder orchestrated by Boris as retaliation for their opposition to his governmental control. And their argument may very well have been valid, as the circumstances of young Dimitri's death were dubious. Boris sent an official delegation led by a zealous prince named Vasily Schischky, who will become Integral later on, so remember that name, to investigate the death. But given the conflicts of interest involved, it seemed like less an act of proper due diligence and more like, let's say, an oil company sending a team to check if they were at fault for an oil spill. Sure enough, the commission ruled that Dimitri's death was accidental, reporting he had suffered a seizure at the exact time that he had been playing with a knife, which had led him to inadvertently cut his own throat. A possible explanation? Sure. Plausible. You be the judge. Nevertheless, despite being sad and a little suspicious, more than a little suspicious, the death of a debatably legitimate Czarevich did not initially seem to cause that much of a stir in larger Russian society. After all, in those days, individuals in line for the throne frequently died in odd accidental ways. Years before, Tsar Ivan himself had even been said to have accidentally killed his own eldest son. At the time, which we actually covered in the fittingly titled Ivan the Terrible and his oldest son episode in general, to many Russians outside of Moscow, news of Dmitri's passing was likely met with fairly mild reactions ranging from who to well, these things happen. Flash forward to 1602. Boris had successfully become Tsar by outmaneuvering and dispatching all of Ivan the Terrible's remaining descendants. Or at least he thought he was rid of the lineage. Rumblings began that young Dmitri Ivanovich had miraculously survived the attempt to kill him as a boy. After a few months, a man finally came forth in Poland, Lithuania in 1603 and declared that he was, in fact Dmitri, the rightful claimant to the throne. It was quite the assertion then, and even now, historians continue to debate the origins of this mysterious figure. The most widespread theory at the time was that this Dmitri imposter was originally a monk named Gregory Otrepov, who had been defrocked for dabbling in dark sorcery. Tsar Boris tried to push that idea to undermine his challenger, and for centuries that presumption prevailed, largely due to how the political climate under subsequent regimes dissuaded historians from Questioning that theory, however, modern scholars less fearful of Russian tsars threatening their lives and freedoms have pretty persuasively shown that this adult Tsarevich Dmitry impostor could not have been Otrepiv. Another key theory is that the pretender was someone raised to believe he truly was Dimitri. Contemporary witnesses marveled at how convincing he was, believing that not even a talented actor could so seamlessly inhabit the role. The proposed timeline is critical here, since producing a Dimitri who so wholeheartedly bought into his backstory would have meant indoctrinating him at a very young age. Considering the contentious rift between Dimitri's family and Boris Godunov, it's not unthinkable that after the murder of actual Dimitri as a child, his calculating relatives had the foresight to immediately start training a replacement Dimitri to have ready to go when the opportunity arose. There's a third main theory as to who who the pretender or false Dimitri was the real Dimitri. This notion was laughed off by many historians over the years, but there is actually a bit of evidence to possibly bolster that argument. Specifically, there were many suspicious details involved in the aftermath of Dimitri's young death. For example, there was a highly irregular four day delay in burying his body. The investigative commission apparently could not confirm that the body was Dimitri, and a few sources at the time declared outright that the real Dimitri had been swapped for a different boy before the alleged murder took place. Dimitri's godfather at one point even apparently swore on a cross that the man claiming to be Dimitri was his true godson, who he'd been hiding from Boris since the assassination ordeal. But again, in terms of conflicts of interest, Dimitri's close relative insisting that he had outwitted the man he'd been trying to overthrow for a quarter of a century is not exactly the most reliable testimony. Whatever his true identity, this adult Tsarevich Dmitry was soon making waves and he amassed an impressive army to take the throne as Russia's reputedly rightful. And if overlooking the church's debatable fine print on sons of sixth marriages, holy new ruler. Naturally, at this point you might be wondering how this adult Dimitri was able to so effectively hoodwink people. Or if he was the real deal. How he managed to convince everyone of that looks mattered little, since few knew or remembered what Dimitri looked like as a boy. This adult version was apparently not the most striking or handsome. He was of middling height and had a distinctive wart by his nose. But he won people over with his demeanor. As a supposedly 22 year old man, this Dimitri was a Skilled horse rider, a brave warrior, smart and very eloquent. In short, he was popular. Still, launching a full scale rebellion was not as simple as trotting around on horseback and making charismatic speeches. Many elements were involved in winning support from both the Russian people and the nobility. One massive tragic factor that greatly aided this Dmitri's case among the people was starvation. One of the worst famines in Russian history arrived in 1602, and it was so devastating that contemporary reports estimate that it ultimately killed roughly one third of the total population. To Tsar Boris credit, he desperately tried to help his subjects by distributing food and money. But the situation was so extreme and corruption so rampant that the crisis snowballed. And with unceasing hunger, disease and death being overwhelming obstacles to nuanced reflections on macroeconomics, many surviving citizens predominantly blamed their leader for the horrific state of things. Thus, when this new Tsarevich Dmitri emerged, many disgruntled Cossacks, soldiers, merchants and townsfolks quickly backed him. Religion was another crucial factor that helped dimitri. Throughout the 16th century, the major players at the Kremlin had strived to fortify their standing by sacralizing the monarchy. Essentially, the goal was to assure the Russian Orthodox masses that it was not worth bothering to question a Tsar's right to rule, since God handed down that right. This effectively laid the groundwork for Dmitri in the sense that his apparent evasion of the assassination attempt against him when he was a child fit with a story that he was divinely selected. It was easy enough to even promote parallels between his grand reappearance and Christ himself rising from the grave. Plenty of lords, influential families and exiled boyars, members of the highest ranking nobility, also harbored ample animosity toward Tsar Boris. And so they joined the Tsarevich Dmitry's cause, hoping to sway the political scene back in their favor. Dmitri's own mother, Maria, had been stripped of her privileges and forced to go live in cramped confinement as a nun. So when the plucky supposed Tsarevich arrived with his growing army and promised to bring his mother back to Moscow and restore her to status if she confirmed that he was in fact her son, it likely didn't take her long to declare something along the lines of, yup, definitely, this guy is my son, everyone. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Tsar Boris grew increasingly paranoid about the man leading a military campaign through the country against him, thus inciting the first civil war in early modern Russian history. Harsh punishments awaited anyone deemed to be a supporter of the impostor Dmitri. Boris tried to counter his rival's popularity by continuing to espouse the idea that this imposter was the disgraced monk Otrepov, who was disgraced since he was clearly debauched and evil. However, it should be noted that accusing a political foe of being a wicked heretic was pretty standard practice in those days, and in this case it does not appear to have significantly helped Tsarboros cause. Far less helpful to his cause was an illness that killed him before Tsarevich Dmitri even reached Moscow. So, faced with a magnetic young warrior prince leading a sizable army toward them, the noble classes at the Kremlin were suddenly also offered a relatively easy choice over whether to acknowledge this Dimitri's legitimacy or call him out as a sacrilegious poser. To loosely paraphrase their general response, hi the long lost Dimitri. Welcome back. We are your loyal supporters and we always thought so. Dimitri was crowned on July 21, 1605. Historians would later refer to him by names such as False Dimitri I, the Pretender Dimitri, and the First False Dimitri. But for now, since he did undeniably attain the title of Tsar, I think we can simply call him Tsar Dimitri. But after riding Russia's first civil war to the highest seat of power, did he actually have a plan for ruling? It's tricky to get a complete sense of Tsar Dimitri's short reign, since his successor ordered numerous court documents be destroyed, and he vigorously tried to discredit his predecessor through an intense propaganda campaign. Nonetheless, in spite of being frequently labeled a conniving impostor or evil runaway monk, perhaps the biggest shock of all is that gasp. This Dimitri may have been a deserving and effective monarch. Many of his contemporaries, including some avowed enemies, agreed that he possessed many outstanding qualities. He was apparently well educated, adept at statecraft, and highly resourceful and wise. Tsar Dimitri was also an ambitious military leader who sought to greatly improve Russia's army. Unlike countless other rulers who eschewed the nitty gritty of battle preparation in favor of lounging around and bragging about the size of their conquered territories, Dmitri enjoyed immense popularity with his soldiers because he actually trained with them. Fun fact, he was also the first Russian Tsar to use the title of Emperor. So yeah, he was feeling himself a little. But still, many biographers point out how, rather than fully descending into egomania once he gained power, Tsar Dimitri actually apparently tried to use his platform reform to improve Russia's government. For example, he ushered in more progressive laws, promoted plans to further education and scientific research, and even tried to cut down on bribery of public officials. That last one may sound basic to the point of obvious but it was a decidedly rare stance for 17th century Russia. Former tsars were extremely reliant on their private police forces to terrorize enemies and extort peasants. So the idea of even proclaiming that someone would want to limit corruption, much less taking any relevant action, would have been likely laughable to them. Dmitri was no old school tsar, and he went a step further to try to ensure timely justice for average citizens. He allowed them to come and petition him in person twice a week. Imposter or not. You have to give the guy credit for his dedication. Dimitri's different ruling style started to rub a few at court the wrong way. However, he reportedly cut back on traditional ceremonies and dressed in informal Western ways. He supposedly scorned certain entitled or uneducated highborn lords. Dmitri also flummoxed many of his nobles by essentially being a bit too chummy. Many nobles were used to living in fear of provoking vitriol and retribution, and they were apparently confused as to why Dimitri sometimes seemed to want to hear them talk without first threatening them or commanding them to do so. Perhaps far more consequentially, Dimitri was unusually welcoming of foreign intellectuals, and he did not follow many of the same religious rites as former tsars. Supposedly, he was reluctant to spend hours in church every day. He he ate food seen as unclean by the Russian Orthodox Church, and he was relatively tolerant of Catholics, Protestants and Jews. The friction between Tsar Dimitri and some members of the aristocracy all came to a head with his planned marriage. Marina Meniszek was a Polish Catholic princess, daughter of the commander who had led Dimitri's forces during his rebellious military campaign. Many higher ups in the Russian church eventually signed off on the marriage agreement, but there were fanatical holdouts who saw this as proof of a plan to secretly convert Russia to Catholicism. While there is essentially no convincing evidence that a religious overhaul was ever Tsar Dimitri's goal, his plan to marry Murena gave his usurpers the ammunition and opportunity they needed. His primary usurper would be Vasily Shuiski, who, if you'll recall, was the power hungry prince who happened to be the man who once oversaw the dodgy investigation into the death of Dmitri the child, back when he was 8 years old. In an ironic turn of fate all these years later, Vasily's ascension to the throne hinged on him covertly gaining enough allies to oversee a deadly coup of Dimitri the grown man. Despite some of the initial wariness regarding Tsar Dimitri marrying a Polish Catholic woman, Russians living in the capital were still clearly suckers for a big glamorous royal wedding. Murina was reportedly given a warm public welcome in Moscow on May 2, 1606. And over the course of two celebratory weeks there, there were grand processions, lavish festivities, and on the wedding day itself, huge crowds who gave the bride enthusiastic, enthusiastic ovations. However, cross cultural tensions also ratcheted up between certain resident Russian factions and incoming Polish wedding guests. Behind the scenes, Vasily sought to maximize this chaos by fanning the flames of xenophobia. While it is again difficult to separate the truth from rumors that he perpetuated, there were multiple reports of thefts, vandalism, and even the alleged murder of a Russian by a Polish visitor. But rather than put his assassination plan into action, as fights spilled onto the streets, when Dimitri and his security forces were on highest alert, Prince Vasily waited. Finally, cunningly, Vasily struck at a time when Dimitri was most vulnerable. The direct aftermath of all the wedding celebrations. By then, Dimitri was feeling confident that most of the discord and danger had passed. So seemingly ever striving to be a thoughtful boss, he told half his guard to stand down to rest. In the wee hours of May 17, 1606, Vasily snuck his amassed group of over 200 armed horsemen, merchants, clerics and relatives into the Kremlin. At the same time, he played up the idea around Moscow that the Polish were attacking so that angered crowds would storm the gates and inadvertently block reinforcements from coming to Tsar Dimitri. Dimitri still had enough time to retreat through his chambers and try to leap out the window to safety. But we now know how that turned out. Even for an athletic guy who loved military training exercises, he likely never practiced specific window escapes. After he fell and unsuccessfully tried to reason with his attackers, who clearly did not buy into his identity and overall hype, he was murdered. Thus ended the life of an enigmatic figure who had ruled for a little under a year, been married for a little over a week, had played a starring role in Russia's first civil war, and ostensibly became the only Tsar to to take over the throne. Thanks to popular uprisings and a military campaign, it's worth taking a moment here to recognize just how influential this young man's unprecedented reign potentially was. Even though it was so brief. From Tsar Dimitri's legal reforms to his incentives that improved many citizens livelihoods, to his military innovations, Tsar Dimitri demonstrably backed up his purported goal of governing as a fair minded emperor rather than a ruthless tyrant. Historian Richard Helley went so far as to call Tsar Dimitri one of the few really enlightened rulers Russia has ever Had. Several scholars have even argued that Tsar Dimitri's short but productive rule made him a clear forerunner to Peter the Great. The flip side of his legacy is that while he was a potential role model for future tsars, Dimitri also served as an excellent proof of concept for subsequent royal pretenders. Following Tsar Dimitri's assassination, Vasily immediately began fretting over his victim victim's legendary popularity and hold on Russia's collective imagination. He ordered that Dimitri's body be dragged through the street in a horrific manner to show everyone that he was not some divinely selected monarch and that he was very clearly dead. But if there was one thing that Vasily had not prepared for in all of his scheming, it was having to deal with a Tsar who would not remain dead. A tsar whose ghost would insist on haunting him throughout the rest of his life. Really, this oversight was silly of Vasily. Having led the investigation of Dimitri's murder back when Dimitri was a child, Vasily knew as well as anyone that this wasn't the first time that Dimitri had died and returned from beyond the grave. The last time Dimitri had been murdered, ahem. Had accidentally slit his own throat as an unsupervised, knife wielding, seizure prone child. It took over a decade for rumors to start spreading that Dimitri had miraculously survived. This time though, whispers that Dmitri Ivanovich had somehow yet again cheated death would begin circulating within a matter of days. That's the first part of the wild and duplicitous story of the false Dimitris. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear about another key slip up that helped to seal Tsar Dimitri's fate. Nobleblood is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. As Amica says, empathy is our best policy. That's why they'll go above and beyond to tailor your insurance coverage to best fit your needs. Whether you're on the road at home or traveling along life's journey, the their friendly and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to ensure that you have the right coverage in place. Amica will provide you with peace of mind. Go to amica.com and get a quote. Today, Nobleblood is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. As Amica says, empathy is our best policy. That's why they'll go above and beyond to tailor your insurance coverage to best fit your needs. Whether you're on the road at home or traveling along life's journey, their friendly and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to ensure that you have the right coverage in place. Amica will provide you with peace of mind. Go to ameca.com and get a quote today. The intriguing duality of Tsar Dimitri was such that some of the same traits that won him favorite, like his thoughtful approach to doling out justice, also directly contributed to his own downfall. Specifically, this was the case with an early assassination attempt on the Tsar's life. The assassination attempt was easily sniffed out right after Tsar Dimitri took over in Moscow, and guess who was behind it? One Vasily Shisky. That's right. Good old Vasily tried to pull off a murderous plan with his two brothers, but this time, early on, he was caught and put on trial in what basically played out like a riveting Time of Troubles era episode of Law and Order, Tsar Dimitri himself acted as prosecutor. He reportedly wowed the crowd with his eloquent argument against Vasily's family history of traitorous behavior, and Vasily was sentenced to death. Several days later in Red Square, however, Dimitri allegedly halted Vasily's execution at the last second. In a dramatic reversal likely intended to foster unity, Dimitri mercifully exiled Vasily to a far off town where, we know now, Vasily spent time strategizing about how to return for his next assassination attempt. So as strategic as his eventual successful usurping was, Vasily perhaps does not deserve too much credit considering it was his second try. He bungled his first attempt and was still granted a second chance to go perfect his plan and return once he was ready to fully step into a sorrowing roll. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Erin Menke. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hite, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer Rima Il Kayali and executive producers Erin Menke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite.