The Time of Troubles was a period of political crisis, famine and foreign intervention in Russia between the end of the Rurik dynasty and the establishment of the Romanov dynasty. When Tsar Feodor I died without an heir, Boris Godunov became tsar, but his rule was undermined by a catastrophic famine in the early 1600s. Several pretenders claiming to be Dmitry, the dead son of Ivan the Terrible, challenged the throne with Polish and Lithuanian support, and Poland occupied Moscow. Peasant revolts and boyar rivalries added to the chaos. In 1612 a volunteer army raised by the merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky freed Moscow, and in 1613 an assembly chose Michael Romanov as tsar.
Before and after
- 28 January 1596Death of Francis Drake
- 31 March 1596Birth of René Descartes
- from June 1597 to August 1597Islands Voyage
- from 18 October 1597 to 15 November 1597Third Spanish Armada
- from 1598 to 1613Time of Troubles
- 13 April 1598Edict of Nantes
- 7 November 1598Birth of Francisco de Zurbarán
- 7 December 1598Birth of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
- 1599Birth of Diego Velázquez
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- c. 1500Modern period
- from 1526 to 1857Mughal Empire
- from 1543 to 1687Scientific Revolution
- from 1613 to 1762House of Romanov
- June 1644The Manchus take Beijing and found Qing rule
- 1748Excavations begin at Pompeii
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.