Small stature of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry and the myth of a slender beauty on the throne

Alexei Tolstoy has lines about the pretender (False Dmitry) climbing onto the throne with his bride (Marina Mniszech) and dangling his legs beside her. The first crowned Russian tsarina, Marina Mniszech, and her husband were indeed of very slight stature. And while of Tsar Dmitry it was merely said "below average", that is, under 160 cm, Mniszech was described only in terms that stressed her narrow ribs, her fragility and her smallness. There is even a tale of how, thanks to her height, she hid with ease beneath the skirt of the governess Yaroslavtseva-Kazanovskaya and so escaped during the May conspiracy of 1606. To fit under the skirt of even a tall woman, one must surely be very small indeed, probably a little over 100 cm. With such figures, it is hard to credit the myth of a proud, statuesque beauty on the Russian throne.