Feodor I of Russia

The night of 6–7 January 1598

Feodor I died in Moscow during the night of 6–7 January 1598 in the Julian calendar, corresponding to 16–17 January Gregorian. The Great Russian Encyclopedia dates the acute crisis to the evening of 6 January Old Style and his death roughly two hours later.

He left no surviving child and was the last member of the Moscow branch of the Rurikids to occupy the Russian throne.

An interim nobody could define

The succession was not transferred immediately and cleanly to Boris Godunov. A near-contemporary official narrative depicts the widowed Irina exercising authority, consulting Patriarch Job and ordering commanders to reinforce frontier cities.

Her constitutional status is disputed. Contemporary government records show her issuing commands and receiving allegiance, but she had not been crowned as a ruling tsaritsa.

Nine days, counted generously

On 15 January Old Style, Irina withdrew to Moscow's Novodevichy Convent and took vows under the monastic name Alexandra, leaving the throne unresolved until Boris's later election.

The conventional claim that she ruled for nine days uses inclusive counting and simplifies a legally confused transition.

The polity was the Tsardom, not the "Russian Empire" — that title was adopted under Peter I in 1721.