The founder of the dynasty, Michael Romanov, the scion of a noble family that had distinguished itself in the wars against the Poles, acceded painlessly to the vacant, disputed throne at the age of fifteen in 1613, thanks to a general longing for order, and to a surge of patriotic feeling in reaction to foreign invasion after the twenty-nine-year ‘Time of Troubles’ that followed the death of Ivan the Terrible. Almost immediately, however, Michael had to use ruthless force to crush new peasant or Cossack rebellions that threatened to plunge the country back into anarchy.
