Maria Dolgorukaya
Appearance
Maria Dolgorukaya (died 1580) was the seventh wife of Ivan IV ("the Terrible") of Russia. The marriage (unauthorized by the church) have been celebrated in 1580. Legend says she did not bear the tsar any children and was revealed to have a lover after their first night together, when the Tsar discovered she wasn't a virgin. Ivan subsequently had her drowned. Maria was about fourteen or fifteen years old when she was murdered. [citation needed]
There is no evidence of her existence in primary sources.[1] The first mention can be found in 19th-century Russian literature.[2] Nikolay Kostomarov in 1866 wrote that the notice about her was found by Afanasiy Byichkov in a manuscript in the Imperial Public Library.