When Feodor died in 1682 without issue, the court was faced with a crisis of succession, because Ivan, the next-oldest brother, was thought to be "infirm in body and mind.

"[1] It was proposed that he be passed over in favor of his younger half-brother, Peter, who was only 10 years old at this time, but was healthy in mind and body, and could be expected to provide adequate leadership in adulthood.

She was anxious that every outward sign of respect and deference be paid to Ivan, which was a subtle way of undermining the influence of Peter's faction in court.

The eventual result was that, over time, the outward signs of deference and power which Ivan had enjoyed during the regency slowly withered away, and he became a non-entity in the Russian court.

In late 1683 or early 1684, Ivan married Praskovia Saltykova, daughter of Fyodor Petrovich Saltykov, a minor nobleman, by his wife, whose name is uncertain – it was either Yekaterina Fyodorovna or Anna Mikhailovna Tatishcheva.

Praskovia Saltykova, who came from a rather obscure Russian noble family, had been raised in a middle-class household and adhered to conventional values and moral standards.

She earned the lifelong respect of her powerful brother-in-law, Peter the Great, who entrusted the care and education of his own two daughters to her, imploring her to bring them up to be just like herself.

[5] In 1730, more than 30 years after Ivan's death, his second surviving daughter, Anna, Duchess of Courland, was invited to the throne of Russia by the country's privy council.