False Dmitriy (Russian: Лжедмитрий, Lžedmitrij) is a term that refers to the pretenders to the Russian throne during the Time of Troubles who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, after the real Dmitriy's death at the age of eight. These impostors claimed to have miraculously escaped the assassination attempt that appeared to have claimed Dmitriy's life. There were several people who claimed to be Dimitriy; the most prominent were the following three:
- False Dmitriy I, who actually became Tsar of Russia and reigned from 1605 to 1606
- False Dmitriy II
- False Dmitriy III
Famous quotes containing the word false:
“The barriers of conventionality have been raised so high, and so strangely cemented by long existence, that the only hope of overthrowing them exists in the union of numbers linked together by common opinion and effort ... the united watchword of thousands would strike at the foundation of the false system and annihilate it.”
—Mme. Ellen Louise Demorest 1824–1898, U.S. women’s magazine editor and woman’s club movement pioneer. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 203 (January 1870)