Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised, as legend
Speaker 1: has it, Shortly after dawn on May seventeenth, sixteen o six,
Speaker 1: Sar Dmitri crouched on a window ledge outside his palace
Speaker 1: in Moscow. This was not part of the Russian Emperor's
Speaker 1: typical morning routine and was definitely not an activity that
Speaker 1: he and his new bride, who was hiding inside in
Speaker 1: an adjacent room, would have had on their ideal post
Speaker 1: wedding itinerary. But times were desperate. There were assassins closing in,
Speaker 1: so Sar Dmitri gazed down from his window perch. The
Speaker 1: drop was substantial, but over in the direction of Red Square.
Speaker 1: Loyal citizens were street onto the Kremlin grounds. If Dmitri
Speaker 1: could leap to the next building, his supportive subjects would
Speaker 1: surely be able to arrive in time to protect him
Speaker 1: from the horde of coordinated assassins who had surrounded his
Speaker 1: bedchambers and were about to break in at any moment.
Speaker 1: The next few seconds would prove vital for Czar Dmitri's
Speaker 1: life and reign, as well as for the entire course
Speaker 1: of early modern Russian history. He prepared to make his
Speaker 1: daring leap, But unfortunately for Dmitri, like so many aspects
Speaker 1: of the period of political turmoil that would become known
Speaker 1: as the Time of Troubles, Dmitri's plan took an almost
Speaker 1: comically dire turn. Dmitri slipped and plummeted to the ground,
Speaker 1: breaking his leg in the process. He was soon at
Speaker 1: the mercy of his enemies, and that's where things got
Speaker 1: even more peculiar. In the heat of a violent coup,
Speaker 1: plenty of rulers find themselves in the tense and awkward
Speaker 1: position of needing to beg for their lives. But even
Speaker 1: within that pantheon of impassioned please, the back and forth
Speaker 1: that Czar Dmitri had with his particular group of would
Speaker 1: be assassins stands out because a good portion of his
Speaker 1: pleading supposedly focused on him trying to convince them that
Speaker 1: he was in fact who he claimed to be. He
Speaker 1: begged his captors to bring him to his people. They'd
Speaker 1: embrace him as Czar Dmitri, their rightful leader, or they
Speaker 1: could go ask his mother. She'd certainly vouch for him
Speaker 1: that he was her son. And the heir of former
Speaker 1: Zar Ivan, why not even pray those of ardent faith
Speaker 1: would receive confirmation from God that he Dmitri, had been
Speaker 1: divinely chosen to rule. With the larger crowd fast approaching, however,
Speaker 1: the assassins chose not to waste time praying and to
Speaker 1: avoid any further delay by shooting, hacking, and bludgeoning their target,
Speaker 1: who may or may not have been the rightful Czar Dmitri,
Speaker 1: to death. But Dmitri's story was far from over. Whoever
Speaker 1: he truly was, that young emperor who literally fell from
Speaker 1: power kicked off quite a trend. Many more so called
Speaker 1: false Dmitries would eventually come forward, all claiming to be
Speaker 1: the one, the only, the original Czar Dmitri. I'm Danish
Speaker 1: forts and this is noble blood. Unlike other famous characters
Speaker 1: who probably never existed, such as your King Arthur's or Odysseus's,
Speaker 1: there is evidence that at least at the start of
Speaker 1: this heightened tale, there was a real person named Dmitri
Speaker 1: Ivanovitch who had a hereditary link to the Russian monarchy.
Speaker 1: In fifteen eighty two, Tsarevich, or son of the Tsar Dmitri,
Speaker 1: was born to Tsar Ivan Vassilovitch, commonly known to the
Speaker 1: modern world as Ivan the Terrible, and his sixth wife, Maria.
Speaker 1: Relatively few details seem to be known about Dmitri's earliest years,
Speaker 1: especially since many accounts of this period focused more on
Speaker 1: the royal succession plan, of which the young Tsarevich was
Speaker 1: not initially a featured contender. According to some, Dmitri was
Speaker 1: not even a fully legitimate Tsarvich. His parentage was not
Speaker 1: necessarily in doubt, but per Russian Orthodox law, the offspring
Speaker 1: of a man's fourth marriage was typically deemed to be illegitimate,
Speaker 1: so the child of a sixth marriage pretty far down
Speaker 1: the potential inheritance standings. After Ivan died, his oldest living
Speaker 1: son became czar. The new power dynamic was complicated, however,
Speaker 1: because Ivan's heir purportedly possessed what might be classified today
Speaker 1: as significant neurodivergence or learning disabilities. Ivan had foreseen his
Speaker 1: oldest son struggling to rule on his own, and he
Speaker 1: appointed a council of regents to help run Russia behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. What could go wrong right? An ambitious member
Speaker 1: of that council named Boris Godunov soon relished his newfound
Speaker 1: influence so much that he didn't see why he should
Speaker 1: stop at being mere regent with a sidelined, ineffectual tsar
Speaker 1: Boris envisioned taking the throne for himself. This path meant
Speaker 1: weeding out all likely future challengers, so Boris pushed the
Speaker 1: illegitimate Tsarevich narrative while also exiling Dmitri, along with his
Speaker 1: mother and numerous members of their family, to the far
Speaker 1: off principality of Uglik. Unfortunately, few memorable personal details about
Speaker 1: Dmitri's upbringing appear to have survived. Sources recount that his
Speaker 1: grandfather and several relatives, having not taken their banishment very amicably,
Speaker 1: plotted to topple Boris. It is highly unlikely that young
Speaker 1: Dmitri meaningfully participated in any of that planning, given that
Speaker 1: he would have been under the age of eight, but
Speaker 1: it is probable that on some level, his family's desired
Speaker 1: retribution triggered his tragic demise. In May of fifteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: young Dmitri reportedly died in Uglik. His family members were incensed,
Speaker 1: certain that the event was a covert murder orchestrated by
Speaker 1: Boris as retaliation for their opposition to his governmental control,
Speaker 1: and their argument may very well have been valid. As
Speaker 1: the circumstances of young Dmitri's death were dubious. Boris sent
Speaker 1: an official delegation led by a zealous prince named Vasily
Speaker 1: Schiski who will become integral later on, so remember that name,
Speaker 1: to investigate the death. But given the conflicts of an
Speaker 1: interests involved, it seemed like less an act of proper
Speaker 1: due diligence and more like let's say, an oil company
Speaker 1: sending a team to check if they were at fault
Speaker 1: for an oil spill. Sure enough, the commission ruled that
Speaker 1: Dmitri's death was accidental, reporting he had suffered a seizure
Speaker 1: at the exact time that he had been playing with
Speaker 1: a knife, which had led him to inadvertently cut his
Speaker 1: own throat. A possible explanation, sure plausible, you be the judge. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: despite being sad and a little suspicious, more than a
Speaker 1: little suspicious, the death of a debatably legitimate tsarvich did
Speaker 1: not initially seem to cause that much of a stir
Speaker 1: in larger Russian society. After all, in those days, individuals
Speaker 1: in line for the throne frequently died in odd accidental
Speaker 1: ways years before. Zar Ivan himself had even been said
Speaker 1: to have accidentally killed his own eldest son at the time,
Speaker 1: which we actually covered in the fittingly titled Ivan the
Speaker 1: Terrible and his Oldest Son episode. In general, to many
Speaker 1: Russians outside of Moscow, news of Dmitri's passing was likely
Speaker 1: met with fairly mild reactions, ranging from who to well
Speaker 1: these things happen. Flash forward to sixteen o two. Boris
Speaker 1: had successfully become Tzar by out maneuvering and dispatching all
Speaker 1: of Ivan the Terrible's remaining descendants, or at least he
Speaker 1: thought he was rid of the lineage. Rumblings began that
Speaker 1: young Dmitri Ivanovitch had miraculously survived the attempt to kill
Speaker 1: him as a boy. After a few months, a man
Speaker 1: finally came forth in Poland Lithuania in sixteen o three
Speaker 1: and declared that he was, in fact Dmitri, the rightful
Speaker 1: claimant to the throne. It was quite the assertion then
Speaker 1: and even now. Historians continue to debate the origins of
Speaker 1: this mysterious figure. The most widespread theory at the time
Speaker 1: was that this Dmitri impostor was originally a monk named
Speaker 1: Gregory Otrepev, who had been defrocked for dabbling in dark sorcery.
Speaker 1: Sar Boris tried to push that idea to undermine his challenger,
Speaker 1: and for centuries that presumption prevailed, largely due to how
Speaker 1: the political climate under subsequent regimes dissuaded historians from questioning
Speaker 1: that theory. However, modern scholars, less fearful of Russian Tsars
Speaker 1: threatening their lives and freedoms, have pretty persuasively shown that
Speaker 1: this adult Tsarevich Dmitri impostor could not have been Otripev.
Speaker 1: Another key theory is that the pretender was someone raised
Speaker 1: to believe he truly was Dmitri. Contemporary witnesses marveled at
Speaker 1: how convincing he was, believing that not even a talented
Speaker 1: actor could so seamlessly inhabit the role. The proposed timeline
Speaker 1: is critical here, since producing a Dmitri who so wholeheartedly
Speaker 1: bought into his backstory would have meant in doctrinating him
Speaker 1: at a very young age. Considering the contentious rift between
Speaker 1: Dmitri's family and Boris Godunov, it's not unthinkable that after
Speaker 1: the murder of actual Dmitri as a child, his calculating
Speaker 1: relatives had the foresight to immediately start training a replacement
Speaker 1: Dmitri to have ready to go when the opportunity arose.
Speaker 1: There's a third main theory as to who the pretender
Speaker 1: or false Dmitri was the real Dmitri. This notion was
Speaker 1: laughed off by many historians over the years, but there
Speaker 1: is actually a bit of evidence to possibly bolster that argument. Specifically,
Speaker 1: there were many suspicious details involved in the aftermath of
Speaker 1: Dmitri's young death. For example, there was a highly irregular
Speaker 1: four day delay in bearing his body. The investigative commission
Speaker 1: apparently could not confirm that the body was Dmitri, and
Speaker 1: a few sources at the time declared outright that the
Speaker 1: real Dmitri had been swapped for a different boy before
Speaker 1: the alleged murder took place. Dmitri's godfather, at one point
Speaker 1: even apparently swore on a cross that the man claiming
Speaker 1: to be Dmitri was his true godson, who he'd been
Speaker 1: hiding from Boris since the assassination ordeal. But again in
Speaker 1: terms of conflicts of interest, Dmitri's close relative insisting that
Speaker 1: he had outwitted the man he'd been trying to overthrow
Speaker 1: for a quarter of a century is not exactly the
Speaker 1: most reliable testimony. Whatever his true identity, this adult Tsarevich
Speaker 1: Dmitri was soon making waves, and he amassed an impressive
Speaker 1: army to take the throne as Russia's reputedly rightful and
Speaker 1: if overlooking the Church's debatable fine print on sons of
Speaker 1: sixth marriages, wholly knew ruler naturally, at this point you
Speaker 1: might be wondering how this adult Dmitri was able to
Speaker 1: sow effectively hoodwink people, or if he was the real deal,
Speaker 1: how he managed to convince everyone of that. Looks mattered little,
Speaker 1: since few knew or remembered what Dmitri looked like as
Speaker 1: a boy. This adult version was apparently not the most
Speaker 1: striking or handsome. He was of middling height and had
Speaker 1: a distinctive wart by his nose, but he won people
Speaker 1: over with his demeanor. As a supposedly twenty two year
Speaker 1: old man, this Dmitri was a skilled horse rider, a
Speaker 1: brave warrior, smart, and very eloquent. In short, he was popular. Still,
Speaker 1: launching a full scale rebellion was not as simple as
Speaker 1: trotting around on horseback and making charismatic speeches. Many elements
Speaker 1: were involved in winning support from both the Russian people
Speaker 1: and the nobility. One massive tragic factor that greatly aided
Speaker 1: this Dimitri's case among the people was starvation. One of
Speaker 1: the worst famines in Russian history arrived in sixteen o two,
Speaker 1: and it was so devastating that contemporary reports estimate that
Speaker 1: it ultimately killed roughly one third of the total population.
Speaker 1: To czar Boris's credit, he desperately tried to help his
Speaker 1: subjects by distributing food and money, but the situation was
Speaker 1: so extreme and corruption so rampant that the crisis snowballed,
Speaker 1: and with unceasing hunger, disease, and death being overwhelming obstacles
Speaker 1: to nuanced reflections on macroeconomics, many surviving citizens predominantly blamed
Speaker 1: their leader for the horrific state of things. Thus, when
Speaker 1: this new Tsarevich Dmitri emerged, many disgruntled Cossacks, soldiers, merchants,
Speaker 1: and townsfolks quickly backed him. Religion was another crucial factor
Speaker 1: that helped Dmitri. Throughout the sixteenth century, the major players
Speaker 1: at the Kremlin had strived to fortify their standing by
Speaker 1: sacrilizing the monarchy. Essentially, the goal was to assure the
Speaker 1: Russian Orthodox masses that it was not worth bothering to
Speaker 1: question Azar's right to rule, since God handed down that right.
Speaker 1: This effectively laid the groundwork for Dmitri in the sense
Speaker 1: that his apparent evasion of the assassination attempt against him
Speaker 1: when he was a child fit with a story that
Speaker 1: he was divinely selected. It was easy enough to even
Speaker 1: promote parallels between his grand reas appearance and Christ himself
Speaker 1: rising from the grave. Plenty of Lord's influential families and
Speaker 1: exiled boyars, members of the highest ranking nobility, also harbored
Speaker 1: ample animosity toward tsar Boris, and so they joined the
Speaker 1: Tsarevich Dmitri's cause, hoping to sway the political scene back
Speaker 1: in their favor. Dmitri's own mother, Maria, had been stripped
Speaker 1: of her privileges and forced to go live in cramped
Speaker 1: confinement as a nun. So when the plucky supposed Tsavich
Speaker 1: arrived with his growing army and promised to bring his
Speaker 1: mother back to Moscow and restore her to status if
Speaker 1: she confirmed that he was in fact her son, it
Speaker 1: likely didn't take her long to declare something along the
Speaker 1: lines of yep, definitely this guy is my son everyone. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in Moscow, Tsar Boris grew increasingly paranoid about the man
Speaker 1: leading a military campaign through the country against him. Thus,
Speaker 1: in citing the first civil war in early modern Russian history,
Speaker 1: harsh punishments awaited anyone deemed to be a supporter of
Speaker 1: the impostor Dmitri. Boris tried to counter his rival's popularity
Speaker 1: by continuing to espouse the idea that this impostor was
Speaker 1: the disgraced monk Otrapev, who was disgraced since he was
Speaker 1: clearly debauched and evil. However, it should be noted that
Speaker 1: accusing a political foe of being a wicked heretic was
Speaker 1: pretty standard practice in those days, and in this case
Speaker 1: it does not appear to have significantly helped zar Boris's cause.
Speaker 1: Far less helpful to his cause was an illness that
Speaker 1: killed him before Tsarevich Dmitri even reached Moscow. So faced
Speaker 1: with a magnetic young warrior prince leading a sizeable army
Speaker 1: toward them, the noble classes at the Kremlin were suddenly
Speaker 1: also offered a relatively easy choice over whether to acknowledge
Speaker 1: this Dmitri's legitimacy or call him out as a sacrilegious poser,
Speaker 1: to loosely paraphrase their general response, Hi, the long lost Dmitri,
Speaker 1: welcome back. We are your loyal supporters and we always
Speaker 1: thought so. Dmitri air Quotes was crowned on July twenty first,
Speaker 1: sixteen oh five. Historians would later refer to him by
Speaker 1: names such as false Dmitri, the first, the pretender Dmitri,
Speaker 1: and the quote first false Dmitri. But for now, since
Speaker 1: he did undeniably attain the title of Czar, I think
Speaker 1: we can simply call him Czar Dmitri. But after riding
Speaker 1: Russia's f first Civil War to the highest seat of power,
Speaker 1: did he actually have a plan for ruling. It's tricky
Speaker 1: to get a complete sense of Czar Dmitri's short reign,
Speaker 1: since his successor ordered numerous court documents be destroyed, and
Speaker 1: he vigorously tried to discredit his predecessor through an intense
Speaker 1: propaganda campaign. Nonetheless, in spite of being frequently labeled a
Speaker 1: conniving impostor or evil runaway monk, perhaps the biggest shock
Speaker 1: of all is that, gasp, this Dmitri may have been
Speaker 1: a deserving and effective monarch. Many of his contemporaries, including
Speaker 1: some avowed enemies agreed that he possessed many outstanding qualities.
Speaker 1: He was apparently well educated, adept at state craft, and
Speaker 1: highly resourced and wise. Czar Dmitri was also an ambitious
Speaker 1: military leader who sought to greatly improve Russia's army. Unlike
Speaker 1: countless other rulers who eschewed the nitty gritty of battle
Speaker 1: preparation in favor of lounging around and bragging about the
Speaker 1: size of their conquered territories, Dmitri enjoyed immense popularity with
Speaker 1: his soldiers because he actually trained with them. Fun fact,
Speaker 1: he was also the first Russian czar to use the
Speaker 1: title of emperor, so yeah, he was feeling himself a little.
Speaker 1: But still, many biographers point out how, rather than fully
Speaker 1: descending into egomania once he gained power, Zar Dmitri actually
Speaker 1: apparently tried to use his platform to improve Russia's government.
Speaker 1: For example, he ushered in more progressive laws, promoted plans
Speaker 1: to further education and scientific research, and even tried to
Speaker 1: cut down on bribery of public officials. That last one
Speaker 1: may sound basic to the point of obvious, but it
Speaker 1: was a decidedly rare stance for seventeenth century Russia. Former
Speaker 1: czars were extremely reliant on their private police forces to
Speaker 1: terrorize enemies and extort peasants, so the idea of even
Speaker 1: proclaiming that someone would want to limit corruption, much less
Speaker 1: taking any relevant action, would have been likely laughable to them.
Speaker 1: Dmitri was no old school czar, and he went a
Speaker 1: step further to try to ensure timely justice for average citizens.
Speaker 1: He allowed them to come and petition him in person
Speaker 1: twice a week. Imposter or not, you have to give
Speaker 1: the guy credit for his dedication. Dmitri's different ruling style
Speaker 1: started to rub a few at court the wrong way. However.
Speaker 1: He reportedly cut back on traditional ceremonies and dressed in informal,
Speaker 1: quote Western ways. He supposedly scorned certain entitled or uneducated,
Speaker 1: high born lords. Dmitri also flummixed many of his nobles
Speaker 1: by essentially being a bit too chummy. Many nobles were
Speaker 1: used to living in fear of provoking vitriol and retribution,
Speaker 1: and they were apparently confused as to why Dmitri sometimes
Speaker 1: seemed to want to hear them talk without first threatening
Speaker 1: them or commanding them to do so. Perhaps far more consequentially,
Speaker 1: Dmitri was unusually welcoming of foreign intellectuals, and he did
Speaker 1: not follow many of the same religious rights as former czars. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: he was reluctant to spend hours in every day he
Speaker 1: ate food seen as unclean by the Russian Orthodox Church,
Speaker 1: and he was relatively tolerant of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.
Speaker 1: The friction between Czar Dmitri and some members of the
Speaker 1: aristocracy all came to a head with his planned marriage
Speaker 1: Marina Mnishek, was a Polish Catholic princess, daughter of the
Speaker 1: commander who had led Dmitri's forces during his rebellious military campaign.
Speaker 1: Many higher ups in the Russian Church eventually signed off
Speaker 1: on the marriage agreement, but there were fanatical holdouts who
Speaker 1: saw this as proof of a plan to secretly convert
Speaker 1: Russia to Catholicism. While there is essentially no convincing evidence
Speaker 1: that a religious overhaul was ever Zar Dmitri's goal, his
Speaker 1: plan to marry Marina gave his usurper the ammunition and
Speaker 1: opportunity they needed. His primary usurper would be Vasily Shuisky, who,
Speaker 1: if you'll recall, was the power hungry prince who happened
Speaker 1: to be the man who once oversaw the dodgy investigation
Speaker 1: into the death of Dmitri the child back when he
Speaker 1: was eight years old. In an ironic turn of fate,
Speaker 1: all these years later, Vasily's ascension to the throne hinged
Speaker 1: on him covertly gaining enough allies to oversee a deadly
Speaker 1: coup of Dmitri the grown man. Despite some of the
Speaker 1: initial wariness regarding Czar Dmitri marrying a Polish Catholic woman,
Speaker 1: Russians living in the capitol were still clearly suckers for
Speaker 1: a big, glamorous royal wedding. Marina was reportedly given a
Speaker 1: warm public welcome in Moscow on May second, sixteen o six,
Speaker 1: and over the course of two celebratory weeks there there
Speaker 1: were grand processions, Lavish festivities, and on the wedding day itself,
Speaker 1: huge crowds who gave the bride enthusiastic ovations. However, cross
Speaker 1: cultural tensions also ratcheted up between certain resident Russian factions
Speaker 1: and incoming Polish wedding guests. Behind the scenes, Vasily sought
Speaker 1: to maximize this chaos by fanning the flames of xenophobia.
Speaker 1: While it is again difficult to separate the truth from
Speaker 1: rumors that he perpetuated. There were multiple reports of thefts, vandalism,
Speaker 1: and even the alleged murder of a Russian by a
Speaker 1: Polish visitor. But rather than put his assassination plan into
Speaker 1: action as fights spilled onto the streets when Ri and
Speaker 1: his security forces were on highest alert, Prince Vasily waited. Finally, cunningly,
Speaker 1: Vasly struck at a time when Dmitri was most vulnerable,
Speaker 1: the direct aftermath of all the wedding celebrations. By then,
Speaker 1: Dmitri was feeling confident that most of the discord and
Speaker 1: danger had passed, so seemingly, ever, striving to be a
Speaker 1: thoughtful boss, he told half his guard to stand down
Speaker 1: to rest. In the wee hours of May seventeenth, sixteen six,
Speaker 1: Vasily snuck his amassed group of over two hundred armed horsemen, merchants, clerics,
Speaker 1: and relatives into the Kremlin. At the same time, he
Speaker 1: played up the idea around Moscow that the Polish were attacking,
Speaker 1: so that angered crowds would storm the gates and inadvertently
Speaker 1: block reinforcements from coming to Czar Dmitri's aid. Dmitri still
Speaker 1: had enough time to retreat through his chambers and try
Speaker 1: to leap out the window to safety. But we now
Speaker 1: know how that turned out. Even for an athletic guy
Speaker 1: who loved military training exercises, he likely never practiced specific
Speaker 1: window escapes. After he fell and unsuccessfully tried to reason
Speaker 1: with his attackers, who clearly did not buy into his
Speaker 1: identity and overall hype, he was murdered. Thus ended the
Speaker 1: life of an enigmatic figure who had ruled for a
Speaker 1: little under a year, been married for a little over
Speaker 1: a week, had played a starring role in Russia's first
Speaker 1: Civil War, and ostensibly became the only czar to take
Speaker 1: over the throne thanks to popular uprisings and a military campaign.
Speaker 1: It's worth taking a moment here to recognize just how
Speaker 1: influential this young man's unprecedented reign potentially was, even though
Speaker 1: it was so brief. From Zar Dmitri's legal reforms to
Speaker 1: his incentives that improved many citizens' livelihoods, to his military innovations,
Speaker 1: Zar Dmitri demonstrably backed up his purported goal of governing
Speaker 1: as a fair minded emperor rather than a ruthless tyrant.
Speaker 1: Historian Richard Helley went so far as to call Zar
Speaker 1: Dmitri quote one of the few really enlightened rulers Russia
Speaker 1: has ever had. Several scholars have even argued that Czar
Speaker 1: Dmitri's short but productive rule made him a clear forerunner
Speaker 1: to Peter the Great. The flip side of his legacy
Speaker 1: is that while he was a potential role model for
Speaker 1: future czars, Dmitri also served as a an excellent proof
Speaker 1: of concept for subsequent royal pretenders. Following Czar Dmitri's assassination,
Speaker 1: Vasily immediately began fretting over his victim's legendary popularity and
Speaker 1: hold on Russia's collective imagination. He ordered that Dmitri's body
Speaker 1: be dragged through the street in a horrific manner to
Speaker 1: show everyone that he was not some divinely selected monarch
Speaker 1: and that he was very clearly dead. But if there
Speaker 1: was one thing that Vasily had not prepared for in
Speaker 1: all of his scheming, it was having to deal with
Speaker 1: a czar who would not remain dead, a czar whose
Speaker 1: ghost would insist on haunting him throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: his life. Really, this oversight was silly, a Vasily, having
Speaker 1: led the investigation of Dmitri's murder back when Dmitri was
Speaker 1: a child, Vasily knew as well as anyone that this
Speaker 1: wasn't the first time that Dmitri had quote unquote died
Speaker 1: and returned from beyond the grave. The last time Dmitri
Speaker 1: had been murdered, Ham had accidentally slit his own throat
Speaker 1: as an unsupervised knife wielding caeizure prone child. It took
Speaker 1: over a decade for rumors to start spreading that Dmitri
Speaker 1: had miraculously survived this time, though whispers that Dmitri Ivanovitch
Speaker 1: had somehow, yet again cheated death would begin circulating within
Speaker 1: a matter of days. That's the first part of the
Speaker 1: wild and duplicitous story of the false Dmitris. But stick
Speaker 1: around after a brief sponsor break to hear about another
Speaker 1: key slip up that helped to seal Csar Dmitri's fate.
Speaker 1: The intriguing duality of Zar Dmitri was such that some
Speaker 1: of the same traits that won him favor, like his
Speaker 1: thoughtful approach to doling out justice, also directly contributed to
Speaker 1: his own downfall. Specifically, this was the case with an
Speaker 1: early assassination attempt on the Czar's life. The assassination attempt
Speaker 1: was easily sniffed out right after Zar Dmitri took over
Speaker 1: in Moscow, and guess who was behind it? One Vasily Schwisky.
Speaker 1: That's right, good old Vasily tried to pull off a
Speaker 1: murderous plan with his two brothers, but this time early on,
Speaker 1: he was caught and put on trial in what basically
Speaker 1: played out like a riveting Time of Troubles era episode
Speaker 1: of Law and Order. Zar Dmitri himself acted as prosecutor.
Speaker 1: He reportedly wowed the crowd with his eloquent argument against
Speaker 1: Vasily's family history of traitorous behavior, and Vasily was sentenced
Speaker 1: to death several days later in Red Square. However, Dmitri
Speaker 1: allegedly halted Vasily's execution at the last second, in a
Speaker 1: dramatic reversal likely intended to foster unity. Dmitri mercifully exiled
Speaker 1: Vasily to a far off town where we know now.
Speaker 1: Vasily spent time strategizing about how to return for his
Speaker 1: next assassination attempt. So as strategic as his eventual successful
Speaker 1: usurping was, Vasily perhaps does not deserve too much credit,
Speaker 1: considering it was his second try. He bungled his first
Speaker 1: attempt and was still granted a second chance to go,
Speaker 1: perfect his plan and return once he was ready to
Speaker 1: fully step in to ahem starring role. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional
Speaker 1: writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy
Speaker 1: Hit and Julia Melaney. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 1: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il KLi and
Speaker 1: executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.