Background
He was the third child and first son of the couple and died in infancy, leaving his younger brother, Ivan Ivanovich, heir.
He was the third child and first son of the couple and died in infancy, leaving his younger brother, Ivan Ivanovich, heir.
Ivan became Grand Prince of Moscow at the age of three, in 1533. Holding all of the power in his empire, he could choose his bride. He eventually picked Anastasia Romanovna, the daughter of a wealthy boyar.
Both died in infancy, Anna at the age of eleven months and Maria before her sixth month.
However, on 11 October 1552, Anastasia gave birth to a son, whom they named Dmitri, presumably after ancestor Dmitri Donskoy. Historians cannot agree whether this episode occurred in 1552 or 1553.
In the summer of 1553, Ivan proposed a pilgrimage to Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, near the present-day village of Kirillov. While on the Sora River, the royal boat was hit by a wave, it overturned and the Tsesarevich was dropped by his wet nurse
The adults managed to escape, but by the time they got to the baby, Dmitri had drowned.
"The Chronicle" records that Maximus the Greek, who had recently visited Ivan, foresaw the death of the Tsesarevich. Dmitri was interred in the Archangel Cathedral. After his death, Anastasia would have three more children, two of whom would survive infancy.