rt in the Serpeisk campaign as one of the
archers of the guard. In 1571 he strengthened his position at court by
his marriage with Maria, the daughter of Ivan's abominable favourite
Malyuta Skuratov. In 1580 the tsar chose Irene, the sister of Boris, to
be the bride of the tsarevich Theodore, on which occasion Boris was
promoted to the rank of _boyar_. On his deathbed Ivan appointed Boris
one of the guardians of his son and successor; for Theodore, despite his
seven-and-twenty years, was of somewhat weak intellect. The reign of
Theodore began with a rebellion in favour of the infant tsarevich
Demetrius, the son of Ivan's fifth wife Marie Nagaya, a rebellion
resulting in the banishment of Demetrius, with his mother and her
relations, to their appanage at Uglich. On the occasion of the tsar's
coronation (May 31, 1584), Boris was loaded with honours and riches, yet
he held but the second place in the regency during the lifetime of his
co-guardian Nikita Romanovich, on whose death, in August, he was left
without any serious rival. A conspiracy against him of all the other
great boyars and the metropolitan Dionysy, which sought to break Boris'
power by divorcing the tsar from Godunov's childless sister, only ended
in the banishment or tonsuring of the malcontents. Henceforth Godunov
was omnipotent. The direction of affairs passed entirely into his hands,
and he corresponded with foreign princes as their equal. His policy was
generally pacific, but always most prudent. In 1595 he recovered from
Sweden the towns lost during the former reign. Five years previously he
had defeated a Tatar raid upon Moscow, for which service he received the
title of _sluga_, an obsolete dignity even higher than that of boyar.
Towards Turkey he maintained an independent attitude, supporting an
anti-Turkish faction in the Crimea, and furnishing the emperor with
subsidies in his war against the sultan. Godunov encouraged English
merchants to trade with Russia by exempting them from tolls. He
civilized the north-eastern and south-eastern borders of Muscovy by
building numerous towns and fortresses to keep the Tatar and Finnic
tribes in order. Samara, Saratov, and Tsaritsyn and a whole series of
lesser towns derive from him. He also re-colonized Siberia, which had
been slipping from the grasp of Muscovy, and formed scores of new
settlements, including Tobolsk and other large centres. It was during
his government that the Muscovite church received its pa