Ресейлік боярин Никита Романович Захарьин-Юрьев

Russian boyar (d. 1586)

Nikita Romanovich (Никита Романович; born c. 1522 – 23 April 1586), also known as Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin Yuriev, was a prominent Russian boyar. His grandson Michael I (Tsar 1613 1645) founded the Romanov dynasty of Russian tsars.

He was a son of the okolnichy Roman Yurievich Zakharyin (who died on 16 February 1543, and who gave his name to the Romanov dynasty of Russian monarchs), and of Roman Yurievich's wife Uliana Ivanovna, who died in 1579. Nikita Romanovich became the brother in law of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible), who married his sister Anastasia Romanovna in 1547. His great grandfather was Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin. Nikita Romanovich first appears in the historical record in 1547, when, on the occasion of the Tsar's wedding with Anastasia Romanovna, he was promoted to spalnik and stolnik. He participated as a rynda (bodyguard) of the tsar in the unlucky campaigns against the Khanate of Kazan in 1547 and in 1548. Later he became the assistant to the Princes Vasily Serebryany and Andrey Nogtev Suzdalsky with the rank of okolnichy in the Livonian campaign of 1559. He was granted boyar status in 1562. Four years later, following the death of his brother Daniil Romanovich, he became the governor of Tver. He commanded detachments of the Russian army during the winter campaign of 1572 in Novgorod and against Sweden. He also took part in the Livonian campaigns of 1573 and 1577. Before his death (March 1584) Ivan the Terrible left his two sons, Feodor and Dmitry, to the care of trusted associates. Until illness incapacitated him in late 1584, Nikita Romanovich, as the only uncle of Tsar Feodor I, led the regency. He died on 23 April 1586 and was buried in the Novospassky Monastery near Moscow.