Huge numbers of Boyars and commoners stormed the Kremlin on the morning of 17th May 1606. Boyars were old Russian aristocracy, one rank below a prince. Dmitry tried to flee by jumping out of a window. Unfortunately he broke his leg and staggered to a bathhouse where he tried to hide. The Boyars found him, dragged him out, and killed him.
Dmitry had claimed to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible. He also claimed to have escaped an assassination attempt by Boris Godunov, when he was eight years old. Apparently his mother, Maria Nagaya, anticipated it and took him to a monastery. When he was 22 he invaded Russia with the help of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The regent Boris Godunov died, and Feodor II became Tsar at the age of 16. The boyars seem to have been unimpressed by Feodor, so they killed him. They then made Dmitry the tsar.
Tsar Dmitry I instituted some good reforms. He allowed peasants to change their allegiance to another lord. Dmitry planned a war against the Ottomans. Then he married a Catholic and allowed Catholics to worship in Russian Orthodox churches. Dmitry gained the support of Pope Paul V by pledging to reunite the Russian Orthodox Church with the Holy See. This enraged the Boyars and they killed him.
Dmitry inspired many fictional adaptations. Alexander Pushkin, Friedrich Schiller, Antonín Dvorak, and Harold Lamb have all written works inspired by him. There is even an episode of Doctor Who, Back to Earth, based on him. My novels have not made use of his story, but Pope Paul V is the villain in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Pope Paul V hired an assassin to murder Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian cleric, lawyer, and writer.
Astonishingly two further Dmitriy’s tried to follow in Dmitry I’s footsteps, unsuccessfully.