“To Live Together in Holy Matrimony”

Abstract

This chapter explores the question of religion in the royal wedding ceremony by examining the few times when there was a mixed marriage: an orthodox dynast marrying a heterodox foreigner. The chapter notes that these instances were very rare and required such modification to the usual rubrics that we can more clearly apprehend what the Muscovites themselves saw as essential (or dispensable) elements of wedding rites. The chapter also presents an expanded view of the goings on inside the churches where these mixed marriages were solemnized. It then analyses how the Muscovites viewed the symbols and rituals they employed in their weddings, and how both pagan and Christian elements were unproblematic to them until Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich decided he had a problem with them at his own weddings. Ultimately, the chapter takes up the question of religious symbolism in royal weddings, comparing in detail three interfaith dynastic marriages: Elena Ivanovna, daughter of Grand Prince Ivan III, and Alexander of Lithuania (1495); Mariia Staritskaia, a cousin of Tsar Ivan IV, and Magnus of Denmark (1573); and the First False Dmitrii and Marina Mniszech (1605 and 1606). The three case studies reveal how religious attitudes were evolving, and how those attitudes produced liturgical and ritual adjustments to wedding rites over time.