View source for Tsarina

{{Short description|Title of a female autocratic ruler of Bulgaria or Russia}}
{{about|the autocratic title|the song by [[Anna Asti]]|Tsaritsa (song)}}
[[Image:Marfa Matveevna by Workshop of Kremlin Armoury (before 1682, GRM).jpg|right|thumb|Tsarina [[Marfa Apraxina]] of [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]], wife of Tsar [[Feodor III of Russia|Feodor III]] and [[Peter the Great]]'s sister-in-law]]
[[File:Vasilisa Melentieva.jpeg|thumbnail|One of the young wives of Ivan the Terrible. Painting by [[Nikolai Nevrev]], 19th century]]
{{Monarchism}}
'''Tsarina''' or '''tsaritsa''' (also spelled '''''csarina''''' or '''''csaricsa''''', '''''tzarina''''' or '''''tzaritza''''', or '''''czarina''''' or '''''czaricza'''''; {{cyrl|царица}}) is the title of a female [[Autocracy|autocratic]] ruler ([[monarch]]) of [[Bulgaria]], [[Serbia]], and [[Russia]], or the title of a [[tsar]]'s wife.  The English spelling is derived from the German ''czarin'' or ''zarin'', in the same way as the French ''tsarine'' / ''czarine'', and the Spanish and Italian ''czarina'' / ''zarina''.<ref>{{citation|title=Oxford English Dictionary|edition=2nd|date=1989|contribution=tsarina}}</ref> 
(A tsar's daughter is a [[tsarevna]].)

"Tsarina" or "tsaritsa" was the title of the female supreme ruler in the following states:
*[[Bulgaria]]: in 913–1018, in 1185–1422 and in 1908–1946
*[[Serbia]]: in 1346–1371
*[[Russia]]: officially from about 1547 until 1721, unofficially in 1721–1917 (officially "Empresses").

==Russia==
Since 1721, the official titles of the Russian male and female monarchs were [[emperor]] ({{Langx|ru|император|imperator|label=none}}) and [[empress]] ({{Langx|ru|императрица|imperatritsa|label=none}}) or empress consort, respectively. Officially the last Russian tsarina was [[Eudoxia Lopukhina]], [[Peter the Great]]'s first wife. [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)]], the wife of [[Nicholas II of Russia]], was the last Russian empress.

Eudoxia Lopukhina was sent to a monastery in 1698 (which was the usual way the emperor "divorced" his wife), and she died in 1731. In 1712 Peter married in church [[Catherine I of Russia]]. The [[Russian Empire]] was officially proclaimed in 1721, and Catherine became empress by marriage. After Peter's death she became ruling empress by her own right. In following centuries, the title "tsarina" was in unofficial informal use – a kind of "pet name" for empresses, whether [[Queen regnant|ruling queens]]<ref>Several "tsarinas" in the 18th century were the rulers of Russia, including empresses [[Catherine I of Russia|Catherine I]] (reigned 1725–27), [[Anna of Russia|Anna]] (1730–40), [[Elizabeth of Russia|Elizabeth]] (1741–62), and [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great]] (1762–96).</ref> or [[Queen consort|queen consorts]]. ("Mother dear-tsaritsa" ({{lang|ru|матушка-царица}}) was used only for [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great]], the most popular empress.)

[[File:Alexis I's bride-show by G.Sedov (1882, GTG).jpg|thumbnail|left|Tsar [[Alexis of Russia]] choosing his bride in 1648. Painting by [[Grigory Sedov]], 19th century]]
''[[De jure]]'' tsarinas in Russia existed from 1547 until 1721. Among the most famous tsarinas of this period were six or seven wives of [[Ivan the Terrible]], who were poisoned by his enemies, killed or imprisoned by him in monasteries. However, only the first four of them were crowned tsarinas, as the later marriages were not blessed by the Orthodox Church and were considered as [[cohabitation]]. Polish noblewoman [[Marina Mnishek]] also became tsarina of Russia by her marriage to the impostor [[False Dmitry I]] and later to [[False Dmitry II]].

Many wives were chosen by [[bride-show]] (the custom of beauty pageant, borrowed from the Byzantine Empire), when hundreds of poor but handsome noblewomen gathered in Moscow from all the regions of Russia and the tsar chose the most beautiful. This deprived Russia of the benefits of [[royal intermarriage]] with European monarchs, but protected from [[inbreeding]], as well as from the political influence of foreign princesses (Catholic or Protestant). The only foreign wife of a Russian tsar in this early era (except [[Marina Mnishek|Mnishek]]) was [[Maria Temryukovna]], a Circassian princess, who converted to Orthodoxy.

==Bulgaria==
The second Bulgarian ruler to use the title tsar (the first having been [[Tervel]]<ref>https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tervel</ref>) was [[Simeon I of Bulgaria]], and his consort (her name is uncertain, reportedly Maria Sursuvul) used the title tsarina. The title was used by subsequent Bulgarian consorts until the end of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] in 1018.  The last royal spouse to use the title was [[Maria (wife of Ivan Vladislav)|Maria]], the wife of [[Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria]]. 

When the [[Second Bulgarian Empire]] was created in 1185 the rulers again adopted the title tsar and their consorts were therefore called tsarinas. 

In the [[Third Bulgarian Empire|Third Bulgarian State]], [[Ferdinand I of Bulgaria]] adopted the title tsar after he [[Bulgarian Declaration of Independence|proclaimed Bulgaria's Independence]] in 1908, and his wife, [[Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz]], previously ''[[knyaginya]]'', became ''tsaritsa''. The last Bulgarian tsaritsa was [[Giovanna of Italy]], the wife of Tsar [[Boris III of Bulgaria]]. [[Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela]], the wife of [[Simeon II of Bulgaria]], is also sometimes referred to as a tsaritsa.

==Serbia==
The first Serbian tsarina was [[Helena of Bulgaria, Empress of Serbia|Helena of Bulgaria]], sister of Bulgarian Tsar [[Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria|Ivan Alexander]] and wife of Tsar [[Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia]]. She was the empress consort of Serbia from 1346 until Dušan's sudden death in 1355. 

The second (and the last) Serbian tsarina was [[Anna of Wallachia, Empress of Serbia|Anna, Empress of Serbia]], from the [[Wallachia]]n noble [[house of Basarab]]. She married Dušan's son, Tsar [[Stephen Uroš V of Serbia]], sometime in the 1350s, and ruled until the Serbian empire's demise in 1371.

==See also==
*[[Tsarevna]], a tsar's daughter
*[[List of Russian consorts]]
*[[List of Serbian consorts]]
*[[List of Bulgarian consorts]]

== Further reading ==
* [[Ivan Zabelin|Zabelin, Ivan]]. (1872). ''The Domestic Life of Russian Tsarinas''.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{commons category|Tsarinas}}

[[Category:Tsarinas of Russia| ]]
[[Category:Royal titles]]
[[Category:Autocracy]]