Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa

Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa^[1][2] (c. 1560 in Staritsa – 1612, 1614, or 1617) was a Russian princess.

Maria Vladimirovna of Staritsa
Queen of Livonia
Portrait of Maria of Staritsa (1568)
Born	c. 1560 Staritsa
Died	13 May 1610
Burial	Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius
Spouse	Magnus, Duke of Holstein
Issue	Maria of Holstein Eudoxia of Holstein
House	Daniilovichi (by birth) Oldenburg (by marriage)
Father	Vladimir Andreyevich of Staritsa
Mother	Eudoxia Romanovna Odoyvskaya
Religion	Eastern Orthodoxy

Early life and ancestry

Born into the Daniilovichi branch of the House of Rurik, she was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa by his second wife, Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoyevskaya (d. 1569), and, through her father, descended from Sophia Palaiologina.

Marriage and issue

On 12 April 1574, in Novgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia, member of the House of Oldenburg, second son of Christian III of Denmark and his wife, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. They had:

1. Maria of Holstein (July 1580 – 1597).
2. Eudoxia of Holstein (January 1581 – 18 March 1589).

Biography

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.

Death and burial

There are various resources about her death. In some documents she died on 13 May 1610, but in other resources, she died after 1611.^[3] She is buried in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.^[4]