Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich (1479-1534, Grand Duke from 1506) completed the unification of the Russian lands around Moscow. He became the first autocratic ruler. He went down in history as a brave and intelligent ruler, but a tough, domineering, vengeful man with a difficult personal life from a young age to adulthood.
How Vasily III became Tsar
At the age of 26, the prince Vasily decided to marry. To choose a bride, his father, Grand Duke Ivan III, ordered to collect the first beauties from all Russian principalities to Moscow, since he could not find a bride Vasily among foreign sovereign houses. 1,500 girls arrived in Moscow - very beautiful, noble and ordinary people, of whom the best 300 were selected in stages, then 200, 100 and 10 best were shown to Vasily, who chose the daughter of eminent Moscow boyars, Solomonia Saburova. In 1505, a wedding took place, after 4 months Ivan III died, Vasily became the Grand Duke. The marriage was long and happy, but there were no children. The grand-ducal couple traveled to monasteries, made rich contributions, but still there were no children, the marriage remained childless. Have Basil III there were four brothers to whom he did not want to leave the throne, did not allow them to marry. According to his father's will, the brothers received 30 cities in their possession, and Vasily - 66. Vasily III almost hated the brothers who considered his father's will unfair, awaiting his death and transition supreme power to one of them. Having become ill, Vasily III was even going to transfer the right of succession to the throne to the husband of his sister Evdokia - the Tatar prince Kuydakul, in Orthodoxy, Peter, but he died suddenly (most likely, he was poisoned). Vasily III learned about rumors about his own infertility. It also became known to him that his wife several times turned to fortune-tellers and witches to save the grand-ducal couple from childlessness. The Church categorically forbade (and forbids) contacting fortune-tellers, sorcerers, assesses such actions as a great sin. Then such actions of the queen were assessed not only as a sin, but also harm to her husband, who turned out to be a victim of corruption. One of the fortune tellers confidently told the queen that they would never have children. Vasily III began to think about the inevitability of their divorce, to resolve this issue he gathered a council of clergy and boyars. Metropolitan Daniel of Moscow expressed his readiness to take the sin of the prince's divorce upon his soul. Some boyars and clergymen openly opposed divorce (Prince Patrikeev - monk Vassian Kosoy, monk Makrsim the Greek, Prince Semyon Kurbsky), all of them were severely punished and imprisoned for this. Most of the people were against the divorce, they condemned the intention of Vasily III, but they were afraid of his anger and were silent.
Marriage of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova
Vasily III was guided by state interests in his personal life. After heavy deliberation, Vasily III decided to divorce. With the permission of Metropolitan Daniel, he divorced and received the right to remarry. Ex-wife Vasily III imprisoned Solomonia Saburova in 1525 in the Moscow Nativity monastery, then she was taken to the Suzdal Pokrovsky monastery, where she lived for 14 years and died, having survived ex-husband and his new wife... Legend claims that Solomonia, abandoned by the king, allegedly secretly gave birth to a son and was secretly brought up in one of the boyar houses. According to another version, he allegedly became the famous robber Kudeyar.
Basil III, probably in his heart felt sorry for his divorced wife, at least partially reproached himself for the sin of divorce, as he could (within the bounds of decency) showed concern for her and the city, the monastery where she found herself. So, in the Suzdal Kremlin in 1528-1530. at the behest and on the support of Vasily III, they carried out the restoration of the Nativity Cathedral. For the proper maintenance of the divorced queen in the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery, he allocated the village of Vysheslavskoye to the monastery with the peasants. In the Intercession Monastery, at the behest of Vasily III, was built in gate church a small room for a separate altar, intended only for one nun - Sophia, his divorced wife. In general, Vasily III somehow pre-singled out the Intercession Monastery from other women's monasteries, almost guessed about its special role in the fate of the grand ducal couple. During the first decade family life with Solomonia Saburova, he came to the Intercession Monastery, allocated significant funds that laid the foundation for the monastic welfare and allowed the start of detailed stone construction in it.
Marriage of Ivan III with Elena Glinskaya
The second wife of the tsar was Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (1509-1538), in whose veins Lithuanian blood flowed. Her uncle Alexander fled from Lithuania to Russia. This meant that the Tsar's chosen one came from a clan of fugitives and traitors who dishonored themselves in their homeland, in Lithuania. The fact is very unpleasant: the grand dukes usually chose their wives from the glorious boyar families or from respected families - royal, royal - outside Russia. Contemporaries wrote that Tsar Vasily III fell passionately in love with the young Elena Glinskaya, in order to please her, he decided on an unprecedented undertaking: he began to look younger and even shaved off his beard, used cosmetics. Two months after the divorce and tonsure of Solomonia Saburova, Tsar Vasily III married Elena Glinskaya (he was 48 years old, she was 18). The tsar, who was in love with his young wife, did not discern in her retinue her former lover, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Telepnev-Obolensky-Saburov-Ovchina (he was soon elevated to the noble ranks of the state and, possibly, is the father of the next tsar - Ivan IV, born in 1530) ... For seven years the tsar enjoyed life with his young wife, who bore him sons Ivan and Yuri (the first then became tsar). The fate of the young queen was hardly enviable. Only after the death of her husband, she was able, adding more honorary positions to I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky, how to legitimize him in the role of her almost official favorite, this happened in a grand-ducal family for the first time in Russia. E.V. Glinskaya, her brothers-princes and I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky, after the death of Vasily III, began to rule Moscow and Russia. But the fate of all of them turned out badly: Glinskaya was poisoned in 1538, Telepnev-Obolensky was starved to death in captivity, etc. It was a payback for feigned love for the king and the desire for power, profit, wealth by any means.
Program from the cycle "Hour of Truth" dedicated to Vasily III Ivanovich
The dispute about the succession to the throne, which arose at the end of the great reign of John III and in which the boyars, out of hatred for the wife of John III and the mother of Vasily Ioannovich, Sophia Fominishna Palaeologus, sided with Dimitri Ioannovich (see John III), was reflected throughout the time of the grand reign of Vasily Ioannovich. He ruled by means of clerks and people who did not stand out for the nobility and antiquity of the family. With this order, he found strong support in the influential Volokolamsk monastery, whose monks were called Josephians, after Joseph Volotsky, the founder of this monastery, a great adherent of Sophia Fominishna, in which he found support in the fight against the heresy of the Jews. Vasily III treated the old and noble boyar families coldly and distrustfully, he consulted with the boyars only for show, and even then rarely. The closest person to Vasily and his advisor was the butler Shigona-Podzhogin, from the Tver boyars, with whom he decided matters, locked himself together. In addition to Shigona-Podzhogin, there were five clerks as advisers to Vasily III; they were also the executors of his will. Vasily III treated the clerks and his ignorant confidants roughly and cruelly. Dyak Dalmatov for refusing to go to the embassy, Vasily Ioannovich deprived of his estate and sent to prison; when Bersen-Beklemishev, one of the Nizhny Novgorod boyars, allowed himself to contradict Vasily Ioannovich, the latter drove him away, saying: "Go away, smerd, away, I don't need you." This Bersen took it into his head to complain about the conductor. Prince and the changes, which, according to Bersen, made his mother led. prince - and they cut off his tongue. Vasily Ioannovich acted autocratic, due to his personal character, cold-cruel and extremely calculating. Regarding the old Moscow boyars and noble families from the tribe of St. Vladimir and Gedimin, he was extremely restrained, not a single noble boyar was executed with him; boyars and princes, who joined the ranks of the Moscow boyars, now and then recalled the old days and the ancient right of the squad to leave. Vasily III took notes from them, oaths to Lithuania not to leave for service; by the way, Prince V.V. Shuisky gave the following record: "From his sovereign and from his children from their land to Lithuania, also to his brothers and not to go anywhere until his death." The same records were given by the princes Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky. Under Vasily Ioannovich, only one prince V.D.Kholmsky fell into disgrace. His case is unknown, and only fragmentary facts that have come down to us throw some faint light on him. Under John III, an oath was taken from Vasily Kholmsky not to leave for Lithuania for service. This did not prevent him from taking first place among the boyars under Vasily and marrying his sister. prince. Why opal comprehends him is unknown; but the occupation of his place by Prince Danila Vasilyevich Shchenya-Patrikeev and the frequent change in this place of princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir princes from the Gedimin family give reason to think about discord among the boyars themselves (see Ioann the Terrible). The words of prof. Klyuchevsky, who led. the prince in the regimental paintings could not appoint the faithful Khabar Simsky instead of the unreliable Humpbacked-Shuisky ("Boyar Duma", p. 261), that is, he could not push from the first rows famous surnames and had to obey the order with which his son entered the struggle. At the slightest confrontation, he treated his relatives with the usual severity and ruthlessness of the Moscow princes, about which the enemy of the son of Vasily III, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, complained so much, calling the family of Kalita "bloodthirsty" for a long time. Basil's rival in the succession to the throne, his nephew Dimitri Ioannovich, died in prison, in need. The brothers of Vasily III hated the people who surrounded Vasily, therefore, the established order, and yet, due to the childlessness of Vasily III, these brothers had to inherit him, namely, his brother Yuri. People close to Vasily had to fear under Yuri the loss of not only influence, but even life. Therefore, they gladly met Vasily's intention to divorce his barren wife, Solomonia, from the Saburov family. Perhaps these close people inspired the very idea of divorce. Metropolitan Varlaam, who did not approve of the idea of divorce, was removed and replaced by the hegumen of the Volokolamsk monastery, Daniel. Daniel of Joseph, a young and determined man, approved of Basil's intention. But the monk Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev rebelled against the divorce, who, even under the monastic robe, preserved all the passions of the boyars; Monk Maxim, a learned Greek, a man completely alien to the calculations of Moscow politics, who was summoned to Russia to correct church books, joined him. Both Vassian and Maximus were both sent into captivity; the first died under Vasily, and the second survived both Vasily III and the metropolitan.
Under Vasily, the last appanage principalities and the veche city of Pskov. From 1508 to 1509 the governor in Pskov was Prince Repnya-Obolensky, whom the Pskovians greeted unfriendly from his very arrival, because he came to them not according to custom, without being asked and announced; the clergy did not come out to meet him with religious procession as always was done. In 1509 led. The prince went to Novgorod, where Repnya-Obolensky sent a complaint against the Pskovites, and after that the Pskov boyars and mayors came to Vasily, complaining about the governor himself. V. prince dismissed the complainants and sent trusted people to Pskov to sort out the case and reconcile the Pskovites with the governor; but there was no reconciliation. Then the Grand Duke summoned the mayor and boyars to Novgorod; however, he did not listen to them, but ordered all the complainants to gather in Novgorod for Epiphany, in order to judge everyone at once. When a very significant number of complainants gathered, they were told: "You have been caught by God and the Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of All Russia." Conducted. the prince promised them mercy if they removed veche bell, in order not to be forever, and in Pskov and the suburbs to rule only the governors. The clerk Tretyak-Dalmatov was sent to Pskov to convey his will to the Pskovites. prince. On January 19, 1510, the veche bell was removed from St. Trinity. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov. Boyars, posadniki and living people, three hundred families, were deported to Moscow, and Moscow orders were introduced in Pskov. Vasily III solicited election to the Great. Lithuanian princes. When his son-in-law Alexander died in 1506, Vasily wrote to his sister Elena, Alexander's widow, to persuade the gentry to elect him to the Great. princes, promising not to embarrass the Catholic faith; about the same he punished through ambassadors to Prince Voytekh, Bishop of Vilna, Pan Nikolai Radziwil and all the Rada; but Alexander had already appointed his successor, his brother Sigismund. Having not received the Lithuanian throne, Vasily III decided to take advantage of the turmoil that arose between the Lithuanian masters after Alexander's death. The culprit of this turmoil was Prince Mikhail Glinsky, a descendant of the Tatar Murza, who left for Lithuania under Vitovt. Mikhail Glinsky, Alexander's favorite, was an educated man who traveled a lot in Europe, an excellent commander, especially famous for his victory over the Crimean Khan; in education and military glory he was given importance and his wealth, for he was richer than all the Lithuanian nobles - almost half Lithuanian principality belonged to him. The prince enjoyed tremendous influence among the Russian population of the Grand Duchy, and therefore the Lithuanian nobles were afraid that he would seize the throne and transfer the capital to Russia. Sigismund had the imprudence to offend this strong man , which Vasily took advantage of, inviting Glinsky to go to his service. Glinsky's transfer to the Grand Duke of Moscow caused a war with Lithuania. At first, this war was marked by great success. On August 1, 1514, Vasily III, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk, but on September 8 of the same year, the Moscow regiments were defeated by Prince Ostrozhsky at Orsha. After the defeat at Orsha, the war, which lasted until 1522, was nothing remarkable. Through the Imperial. Peace negotiations of Maximilian I began as early as 1517. The emperor's representative was Baron Herberstein, who left notes about the Moscow state - the best of foreign writings about Russia. With all the diplomatic skill of Herberstein, the negotiations were soon interrupted, because Sigismund demanded the return of Smolensk, and Vasily III, for his part, insisted that not only Smolensk remained with Russia, but that Kiev, Vitebsk, Polotsk and other cities that belonged to Russia should be returned to Russia. to princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir. With such claims of the opponents, an armistice was concluded only in 1522. Smolensk remained with Moscow. This truce was confirmed in 1526, through the same Herberstein, who came to Moscow for the second time as an ambassador from Charles V. In the course of the war with Lithuania, Vasily finished with the last inheritance: Ryazan and the Seversk principalities. Ryazan Prince Ivan, they said in Moscow, planned to return independence to his principality with the help of the Crimean Khan Mahmet-Girey, whose daughter he intended to marry. Vasily III called Prince Ivan to Moscow, where he put him into custody, and his mother, Agrippina, was imprisoned in a monastery. Ryazan was annexed to Moscow; Ryazan residents were resettled in whole crowds to Moscow volosts. There were two princes in the Seversk land: Vasily Ivanovich, Shemyaka's grandson, Prince Novgorod-Seversky, and Vasily Semyonovich, Prince Starodubsky, grandson of Ivan Mozhaisky. Both of these princes constantly denounced each other; Vasily III allowed Shemyachich to expel the Starodub prince from his possession, which was annexed to Moscow, and a few years later he imprisoned Shemyachich, and his inheritance was also annexed to Moscow in 1523. Even earlier, the Volotsk inheritance was annexed, where the last prince, Theodor Borisovich, died childless. During the struggle with Lithuania, Vasily asked for help from Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg, and from the Grand Master of the German Order. Sigismund, in turn, sought an alliance with Mahmet-Girey, Khan of Crimea. The Gireys, the successors of the famous Mengli-Girey, an ally of John III, strove to unite all the Tatar kingdoms under the rule of their clan; That's why Crimean Khan Mahmet-Girey became a natural ally of Lithuania. In 1518, Kazan Tsar Magmet-Amin, a Moscow assistant, died childless, and the question of succession to the throne arose in Kazan. Vasily III put Shig-Alei, the grandson of Akhmet, the last khan of the Golden Horde, the ancestral enemy of the Gireys, to the kingdom of Shig-Alei. Shig-Alei was hated in Kazan for his tyranny, which was taken advantage of by Saib-Girey, the brother of Mahmut-Girey, and captured Kazan. Shig-Alei fled to Moscow. After that, Saib-Girey rushed to devastate the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir region, and Mahmut-Girey attacked the southern borders of the Moscow state. He reached Moscow itself, from where Vasily III withdrew to Volokolamsk. The khan took from Moscow a written obligation to pay him tribute and turned to Ryazan. Here he demanded that the governor come to him, because he was leading. the prince is now the tributary of the khan; but the governor Khabar-Simsky demanded proof that he was leading. the prince undertook to pay tribute. Khan sent a letter given to him near Moscow; then Khabar, holding her back, dispersed the Tatars with cannon shots. Saib-Girey was soon expelled from Kazan, where, as a result of the struggle between the Crimean and Moscow parties, constant turmoil took place, and Vasily appointed Enalei, Shig-Alei's brother, as khan. In this position, Vasily III left business in Kazan. The power of Father Grozny was great; but he was not yet an autocrat in the later sense. In the era preceding and following the decline Tatar yoke, word: autocracy, was opposed not to the constitutional order, but to vassalage: autocrat meant the lord of an independent, independent from other rulers. The historical meaning of the word: autocracy was clarified by Kostomarov and Klyuchevsky.
E. Belov
Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron
Vasily III (1505-1533)
From a kind of Moscow grand dukes. Son of Ivan III Vasilievich the Great and Byzantine princess Sophia Fominishny Palaeologus. Genus. March 25, 1479 led. book Moscow and All Russia in 1506 - 1534 Wives: 1) from 4 Sept. 1506 Solomoniya Yurievna Saburova (died 1542), 2) from 21 January. 1526 pr. Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (d. April 3, 1538).
Vasily III's childhood and early youth passed in anxiety and trials. Far from immediately he was proclaimed the heir of his father, since Ivan III had the eldest son from his first marriage - Ivan Molodoy. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died. Ivan III had to decide who to bequeath the throne - his son Vasily or his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich. Most of the boyars supported Dmitry and his mother Elena Stefanovna. Moscow did not like Sophia Paleologue; only the children of boyars and clerks took her side. Clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father wanted to welcome Dmitry to the great reign, and together with Afanasy Yaropkin, Poyark and other boyar children, he began to advise the young prince to leave Moscow, seize the treasury in Vologda and Beloozero and destroy Dmitry. The main conspirators recruited themselves and other accomplices and secretly led them to kissing the cross. But the conspiracy was discovered in December 1497. Ivan III ordered to keep his son in his own yard under guard, and to execute his followers. Six were executed on the Moskva River, many other boyar children were thrown into prisons. At the same time, the Grand Duke was angry with his wife for the fact that the sorcerers came to her with the potion; these dashing women were found and drowned in the Moscow River at night, after which Ivan began to beware of his wife.
On February 4, 1498, he married Dmitry, the "grandson", to the great reign in the Assumption Cathedral. But the triumph of the boyars did not last long. In 1499, disgrace overtook two noble boyar families - princes Patrikeevs and princes Ryapolovsky. The chronicles do not say what their sedition consisted, but there is no doubt that the reason must be sought in their actions against Sophia and her son. After the execution of the Ryapolovskys, Ivan III began, in the words of the chroniclers, to neglect his grandson and declared his son Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov. On April 11, 1502, he put Dmitry and his mother Elena in disgrace, put them in custody and did not order Dmitry to be called the Grand Duke, and on April 14 he granted Vasily, blessed and put the autocrat to the great reign of Vladimir, Moscow and All Russia.
The next concern of Ivan III was to find a worthy wife for Vasily. He instructed his daughter Elena, who was married to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, to find out which princes would have daughters for marriage. But his efforts in this regard were unsuccessful, as well as the search for brides and grooms in Denmark and Germany. Ivan was forced to Last year his life to marry Vasily to Solomonia Saburova, chosen from 1,500 maidens presented to the court for this. Solomon's father, Yuri, was not even a boyar.
Having become the Grand Duke, Vasily III followed the path indicated by his parent in everything. From his father, he inherited a passion for construction. In August 1506, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander died. After that, hostile relations between the two states resumed. Vasily received the Lithuanian rebel Prince Mikhail Glinsky. Only in 1508 was a peace concluded, according to which the king renounced all ancestors belonging to the princes who came under Ivan III under the rule of Moscow.
Having secured himself on the part of Lithuania, Vasily III decided to end the independence of Pskov. In 1509, he went to Novgorod and ordered the Pskov governor Ivan Mikhailovich Ryapne-Obolensky and the Pskovites to come to his place so that he could sort out their mutual complaints. In 1510, on the feast of Epiphany, he listened to both sides and found that the governors of Pskov did not obey the governor, and there was a lot of offense and violence from the Pskov people. Vasily also accused the people of Pskov that they despised the sovereign's name and did not show him due honors. For this, the Grand Duke imposed disgrace on the governors and ordered them to be seized. Then the posadniks and other Pskovites, admitting their guilt, beat Vasily with their foreheads so that he would grant his fatherland Pskov and arrange it as God had told him. Vasily III ordered to say: "There will be no evening in Pskov, but two governors in Pskov." The Pskovites, having assembled the veche, began to think whether to oppose the sovereign and lock themselves in the city. Finally we decided to submit. On January 13, they removed the veche bell and sent them to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov and arranged everything here at his discretion. The 300 most noble families, abandoning all their possessions, had to move to Moscow. The villages of the withdrawn Pskov boyars were given to the Moscow ones.
Vasily returned from Pskov affairs to Lithuanian affairs. In 1512 the war broke out. The main goal it was Smolensk. On December 19, Vasily III set out on a campaign with his brothers Yuri and Dmitry. For six weeks he besieged Smolensk, but to no avail, and returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign for the second time, he himself stopped in Borovsk, and sent the governor to Smolensk. They defeated the governor Yuri Sologub and laid siege to the city. Learning of this, Vasily III himself came to the camp near Smolensk, but this time the siege was unsuccessful: what the Muscovites destroyed during the day, the Smolensk people repaired at night. Satisfied with the devastation of the surroundings, Vasily ordered to retreat and returned to Moscow in November. On July 8, 1514, he set out for the third time to Smolensk with his brothers Yuri and Semyon. The siege began on July 29. The artillery was led by gunman Stefan. The fire of Russian cannons inflicted terrible damage on the Smolensk people. On the same day, Sologub with the clergy went to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the residents of Smolensk swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and on August 1, Vasily III solemnly entered the city. While he was arranging business here, the governors took Mstislavl, Krichev and Dubrovny.
The joy at the Moscow court was extraordinary, since the annexation of Smolensk was still Ivan III's cherished dream. Glinsky alone was dissatisfied, whose cunning the Polish chronicles mainly attribute to the success of the third campaign. He hoped that Vasily would give him Smolensk as an inheritance, but he was mistaken in his expectations. Then Glinsky started secret relations with King Sigismund. Very soon he was exposed and sent to Moscow in chains. a little while later Russian army under the command of Ivan Chelyadinov suffered a heavy defeat from the Lithuanians near Orsha, but the Lithuanians were unable to take Smolensk after that and thus did not take advantage of their victory.
Meanwhile, the gathering of Russian lands went on as usual. In 1517, Vasily III summoned the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich to Moscow and ordered to seize him. After that Ryazan was annexed to Moscow. Immediately after that, the Starodub principality was annexed, and in 1523 - Novgorod-Severskoe. Prince Novgorod-Seversky Vasily Ivanovich Shemyakin, like Ryazan prince, was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned.
Although there was virtually no war with Lithuania, no peace was concluded. Sigismund's ally, the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey, raided Moscow in 1521. The Moscow army, defeated on the Oka, fled, and the Tatars approached the walls of the capital itself. Vasily, without waiting for them, went to Volokolamsk to collect the regiments. Magmet-Girey was not, however, disposed to take the city. Having devastated the land and taking several hundred thousand prisoners, he went back to the steppe. In 1522, the Crimeans were again awaited, and Vasily III with a large army himself watched on the Oka. The Khan did not come, but his invasion had to be constantly feared. Therefore, Vasily became more accommodating in negotiations with Lithuania. In the same year, an armistice was concluded, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow.
So, state affairs were slowly taking shape, but the future of the Russian throne remained unclear. Basil was already 46 years old, but he did not yet have heirs: the Grand Duchess Solomonia was barren. In vain she used all the means that were attributed to her by the healers and healers of that time - there were no children, her husband's love also disappeared. Vasily weptly said to the boyars: "To whom is it for me to reign on the Russian land and in all my cities and its borders? Transfer to the brothers? But they do not know how to arrange their own inheritance." To this question, an answer was heard between the boyars: "Sovereign, the great prince! The barren fig tree is cut and swept from the grapes." The boyars thought so, but the first vote belonged to Metropolitan Daniel, who approved the divorce. Vasily III met unexpected resistance from the monk Vassian the Oblique, former prince Patrikeev, and the famous Maxim the Greek. Despite, however, this resistance, in November 1525 the Grand Duke's divorce from Solomonia was declared, who was tonsured under the name of Sophia in the Nativity Maiden Monastery, and then sent to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery. Since this matter was viewed from different points of view, it is not surprising that conflicting news reached us about it: some say that the divorce and tonsure followed according to the wishes of Solomonia herself, even at her request and insistence; in others, on the contrary, her tonsure seems to be a violent deed; rumors were even spread that shortly after the tonsure, Solomon had a son, George. In January 1526, Vasily III married Elena, daughter of the deceased Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, his own niece famous prince Michael.
The new wife of Vasily III was in many ways different from the then Russian women. Helen learned from her father and uncle foreign concepts and customs and, probably, captivated the Grand Duke. The desire to please her was so great that, as they say, Vasily III even shaved his beard for her, which, according to the then concepts, was incompatible not only with folk customs, but also with Orthodoxy. The grand duchess more and more possessed her husband; but time passed, and the desired goal of Vasily - to have an heir - was not achieved. The fear arose that Helen would remain as sterile as Solomonia. The Grand Duke traveled with his wife to various Russian monasteries. In all Russian churches they prayed for the childbirth of Vasily III - nothing helped. Four years and a half passed, until at last the royal couple resorted in prayers to the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky. Then only Elena became pregnant. The joy of the Grand Duke had no limits. Finally, on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan, and a year and several months later, another son, Yuri. But barely the eldest, Ivan, was three years old, as Vasily III was seriously ill. When he was driving from the Trinity Monastery to Volok Lamsky, on his left thigh, in the fold, he had a crimson sore the size of a pinhead. After that, the Grand Duke quickly began to faint and came to Volokolamsk already exhausted. Doctors began to treat Vasily, but nothing helped. More of the pelvis flowed out of the sore, and the rod came out, after which the Grand Duke felt better. From Voloka he went to the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery. But the relief was short-lived. At the end of November, Vasily arrived completely exhausted to the village of Vorobyov near Moscow. Glinsky's doctor Nikolai, having examined the patient, said that he only had to rely on God. Vasily realized that death was near, wrote a will, blessed his son Ivan for the great reign, and died on December 3.
Buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral.
Konstantin Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. Russia.
Vasily Ivanovich
(baptized given the name Gabriel)
Lived: March 25, 1479 - December 4, 1533
Reign: 1505-1533
From a kind of Moscow grand dukes.
Russian Tsar. Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia in 1505-1533.
Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir.
The eldest son and Sophia Palaeologus, niece of the last Byzantine emperor.
Vasily III Ivanovich - short biography
According to the existing marriage agreements, the children of the great Moscow prince and the Byzantine princess Sophia could not occupy the Moscow throne. But Sophia Palaeologus did not want to come to terms with this. In the winter of 1490, when the heir to the throne, Ivan Molodoy (the eldest son from the 1st marriage) fell ill, on the advice of Sophia, a doctor was called up, but after 2 months he died. At court, they suspected poisoning, but only the doctor was executed. The new heir to the throne was the son of the deceased heir, Dmitry.
On the eve of Dmitry's 15th birthday, Sophia Paleologue and her son conceived a conspiracy to assassinate the official heir to the throne. But the boyars exposed the conspirators. Some supporters of Sophia Palaeologus were executed, and Vasily Ivanovich was put under house arrest. Sophia managed to restore with great difficulty a good relationship with husband. His son was also forgiven by the father.
Soon the positions of Sophia and her son were so strengthened that Dmitry himself and his mother Elena Voloshanka fell into disgrace. Vasily was proclaimed heir to the throne. Until the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily Ivanovich was considered the Grand Duke of Novgorod, and in 1502 he also received the great Vladimir reign from his father.
Prince Vasily III Ivanovich
In 1505, the dying father asked his sons to make peace, but as soon as Vasily Ivanovich became the Grand Duke, he immediately ordered Dmitry to be put in a dungeon, where he died in 1508. The accession of Vasily III Ivanovich to the grand-ducal throne caused discontent among many boyars.
Like his father, he continued the policy of "collecting lands", strengthening 
grand-ducal power. During his reign, Pskov (1510), Ryazan and Uglich princedoms (1512, Volotsk (1513), Smolensk (1514), Kaluga (1518), and Novgorod-Seversky principality (1523) ceded to Moscow.
The successes of Vasily Ivanovich and his sister Elena were reflected in the agreement between Moscow and Lithuania and Poland in 1508, according to which Moscow retained the acquisitions of his father in western lands beyond Moscow.
From 1507, constant raids began Crimean Tatars to Russia (1507, 1516-1518 and 1521). The Moscow ruler hardly reached an agreement with Khan Mengli-Girey about peace.
Later, the Kazan and Crimean Tatars began to raid Moscow together. The prince of Moscow in 1521 made a decision to build fortress cities in the region of the "wild field" (in particular, Vasilsursk) and the Great Zasechnaya line (1521-1523) in order to strengthen the borders. He also invited Tatar princes to the Moscow service, giving them vast lands.
The chronicles indicate that Prince Vasily III Ivanovich received the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, and discussed with the Pope the possibility of a war against Turkey. At the end of the 1520s. began relations between Muscovy and France; in 1533, ambassadors arrived from Sultan Babur, the Hindu sovereign. Trade relations linked Moscow with Italy and Austria.
Politics in the reign of Vasily III Ivanovich
In its domestic policy in the struggle against the feudal opposition he enjoyed the support of the Church. The land nobility also increased, the authorities actively limited the privileges of the boyars.
The years of the reign of Vasily III Ivanovich was marked by the rise of Russian culture, the wide spread of the Moscow style of literary writing. Under him, the Moscow Kremlin turned into impregnable fortress.
According to the stories of contemporaries, the prince was of a tough disposition and did not leave a grateful memory of his rule in folk poetry.
The Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia Vasily Ivanovich died on December 4, 1533 from blood poisoning, which was caused by an abscess on his left thigh. In agony, he managed to get a monk's hair under the name of Barlaam. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. 3-year-old Ivan IV (the future Tsar the Terrible) was declared heir to the throne, son of Vasily Ivanovich, and Elena Glinskaya was appointed regent.
Vasily was married twice.
His wives:
Saburova Solomonia Yurievna (from September 4, 1506 to November 1525).
Glinskaya Elena Vasilievna (since January 21, 1526).
Grand Duke Vasily III Ioannovich, engraving by Andre Teve
- Years of life: March 25, 1479 - December 3, 1533
- Father and mother: Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue.
- Spouses: Solomonia Yurievna Saburova,.
- Children: George (alleged son), and Yuri.
Vasily III Ioannovich (March 25, 1479 - December 3, 1533) - Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir.
He was born into the family of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and his second wife Sophia Palaeologus. At birth, the child was named Gabriel.
Power struggle
He had one older brother and four younger ones, so all power had to go to. In addition, at that time, Ivan III was engaged in the centralization of power, so he decided to limit the power of his younger sons. In 1470, the prince appointed his eldest son as his co-ruler. But 20 years later, in 1490, Ivan Ivanovich died for an unknown reason.
After that, the question arose: who will be the next prince? Two camps were formed: the first advocated the appointment Dmitry Ivanovich(son of Ivan Ivanovich), and the second - for Vasily.
Initially, the majority were on the side of the first camp, most of nobles played for Dmitry and Elena Stefanovna. They did not like Sophia and Vasily, but Vasily was able to enlist the support of the children of boyars and clerks.
Clerk Fyodor Stromilov told Vasily that Ivan III had chosen Dmitry as his successor, so he, together with Yaropkin, Poyark and other supporters, advises to kill Dmitry, take the treasury in Vologda and leave the capital. Vasily III agreed, but this conspiracy was not carried out, in December 1497 the Grand Duke became aware of him. After that, Ivan III took into custody his son and everyone who was involved in this conspiracy. Some of the conspirators were executed, some were imprisoned.
In addition, his wife also aroused the prince's discontent, since Sophia Paleologus often invited sorcerers with a potion to her, Ivan III even began to fear that she wanted to poison him. All these women who came to Sophia were drowned.
On February 4, 1498, Dmitry was married to the great reign, a solemn event took place in the Assumption Cathedral.
But a year later, a conflict arose between the princes Patrikeevs and Ryapolovsky, they at that time were the main supporters of Dmitry, and Ivan III. The chronicles did not describe the reason for the quarrel, but the result was that the Ryapolovskys were executed. After this event, Ivan III appointed Vasily III the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov.
On April 11, 1502, the ruler ordered to take into custody Dmitry and Elena Stefanovna, Dmitry Ivanovich lost the status of the Grand Duke.
In 1505, the ruler died, and 4 years later Dmitry also died.
Personal life and family of Vasily III
Ivan III was looking for a wife for his son, he instructed his eldest daughter Elena Ivanovna to find out if there are brides for marriageable purposes in Poland, Denmark and Germany. At that time, Catherine was the wife of the Prince of Lithuania and the King of Poland. But all his attempts were unsuccessful. As a result, the bride Vasily was chosen from among 1,500 noble maidens who were invited to the court from all over the Russian state.
The choice fell on Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova, and her father was not a boyar. Only after the wedding, which took place on September 4, 1505, he received this title. For the first time in the history of the state, the monarch did not marry a princess or a representative of the princely aristocracy.
But for the entire time of marriage, they did not have children. Solomonia used all the means that healers from all over the world sent, but nothing helped. After 20 years of marriage, the Grand Duke began to worry about the lack of heirs, the boyars offered Vasily III to divorce, this idea was supported by Metropolitan Daniel. In November 1525, a divorce was reported between the spouses, Solomon was tonsured in the Christmas nunnery, giving her the name Sophia, after some time she was transferred to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery.
It is also believed that at the time of the divorce, Solomonia was pregnant. It is believed that she gave birth to a son to Vasily - George.
In January 1526, Vasily III married Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya... In the first years of marriage, she also could not get pregnant, but on August 25, 1530, their son was born -. In 1532 Elena gave birth to her second child - Yuri Vasilievich.
Domestic policy of Vasily III
The ruler was of the opinion that the power of the Grand Duke should be unlimited. He waged an active struggle with the opposition of the boyars, expelled and executed them.
In the church sphere, Vasily supported the followers of Joseph Volotsky, there was a struggle with non-possessors - they were executed or sent to monasteries.
Vasily III continued his father's policy of centralizing the state. During his reign, he annexed Pskov, Volotsk inheritance, Ryazan and Novgorod-Seversk principality.
Under Vasily, the immunity and privileges of the boyars were limited. The ruler consulted with the boyars on various issues more for the sake of appearance, since he made decisions himself.
The era of his reign is characterized by active construction. Under Vasily, the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye, and also stone fortifications in Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, etc.
Foreign policy of Vasily III
From the very beginning of his reign, the prince was forced to start a war with Kazan. His army, led by his brother Vasily, failed in the campaign and was defeated, but the inhabitants of Kazan offered to conclude a peace, the treaty entered into force in 1508.
After the death of Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Vasily claimed the Lithuanian throne, but he went to Sigismund. The new ruler demanded the return of the lands that had been conquered by Ivan III. But the lands remained within the Russian state.
In 1512 began war with Lithuania... Two years later, Vasily captured Smolensk, after which Prince Mstislavsky came over to his side. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania tried to return Smolensk, in the battle the Russian army under the leadership of Ivan Chelyadinov was defeated at Orsha. Smolensk did not come back to the power of Lithuania, but the question of who owns this territory was never resolved. Only in 1520 the parties concluded a peace treaty for 5 years, Smolensk remained with Vasily.
The previous relations with Crimea have been preserved. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania incited the Crimea to raids on Russian lands, and Russian state- to Lithuanian. In 1521, the Tatars made another raid on Moscow. They reached Moscow, while Vasily was absent, and forced the boyars to pay tribute, but on the way back the governor Khabar Simsky defeated their army.
Death of Basil III
When the prince was heading from the Trinity Monastery to Volokalamsk, a subcutaneous abscess appeared on his left thigh, which developed rather quickly. Doctors could not find out the reason and help Vasily III. The prince felt better for a while, when they were able to clear the abscess, but then the condition again noticeably worsened. At the end of November 1533, Vasily was greatly weakened. Doctor Nikolai Glinskoy examined the patient and said that there was no hope for a cure. After that, the prince gathered several boyars, invited Metropolitan Daniel, wrote a will and appointed his son Ivan IV as his heir. Before his death, Vasily aroused the desire to become a monk, Metropolitan Daniel tonsured him a monk with the name Barlaam.
On December 5, 1533, Vasily III died due to blood poisoning. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow.
– son of Ivan III from his first marriage, a struggle began to determine the future heir to the throne. Vasily III defeated. He managed to become a co-ruler of his father. Until the death of Ivan III, Vasily was considered the Grand Duke of Novgorod, in 1502 he also received the Grand Duke of Vladimir from his father.In September 1505 he married the daughter of the boyar Saburov Solomonia, chosen by his father out of 1,500 applicants. On October 27, 1505, immediately after the death of his father, he rightfully ascended the throne, having received, according to his father's will, the great reign of Moscow, the right to govern the capital and all its revenues, the right to mint coins, 66 cities and the title of "tsar of all Russia."
Like his father, Vasily III continued the policy of "collecting lands", strengthening the grand ducal power, including in relation to Lithuania and Poland. The ultimate goal it was the annexation of all Western Russian regions to Moscow, and the next tasks were the annexation of individual cities, the subordination of the border small princes, the defense of the interests of Orthodoxy in Western Russia (Vasily's sister Elena was married to the ruler of Lithuania and Poland Alexander Jagellonchik, after his death the new ruler Sigismund began oppress their Russian cousin). The successes of Vasily and his sister Elena, who continued to defend the interests of Moscow among the infidels, were expressed in the agreement between Moscow and Lithuania and Poland in 1508, which kept Moscow's acquisitions of Ivan III in the western lands beyond Moscow.
Subsequent actions of the Moscow prince were directed to the lands adjacent to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. So, in 1510, Pskov went to Moscow, its veche was destroyed, the veche bell was removed and taken to Moscow. In 1512 began new hike- to Smolensk, but it was unsuccessful. Only in 1514 did the city surrender, but the Poles did not give up hope of recapturing it again. The war continued with varying success, at the same time diplomatic negotiations were conducted (the Austrian emperor Maximilian acted as a mediator in them from 1517 through his ambassador, Baron Sigismund Herberstein), but only in 1520 was an armistice concluded for five years with the abandonment of Smolensk to Moscow. During the years of the Smolensk war, Vasily managed to seize the lands of Volotsk (1513) and Kaluga (1518). In 1521, the Ryazan and Uglich princedoms joined Moscow, and in 1523 - Novgorod-Seversk. The folding of the political territory of a single Great Russian nation state ended: "Vasily III thereby not only did not humiliate Russia, but elevated it" (N.M. Karamzin). This was all the more necessary since constant raids of the Crimean Tatars (1507, 1516-1518 and 1521) were made from the southern borders, threatening the integrity Russian territory... Only in 1520-1521 Tatar army numbered over 20 thousand soldiers under the leadership of the governor Khabar Simsky. They advanced relatively quickly to Tula and could have posed a threat to the capital if they had not been defeated in time at Pereyaslavl Ryazan. Lithuania also encouraged attacks on Moscow, so non-military forms of normalizing relations (the Crimeans were lavished with "commemoration" for the khan, the princes, the murzas) did not bring success.
Relations between Moscow and Kazan remained difficult by the early 1520s. Since 1505, when Khan Mohammed-Emin came to power in Kazan, the raids of the Kazan Tatars on Nizhny Novgorod continued regularly. The political coup in the Kazan Khanate in 1521 (Sahib-Girey came to power) also did not change the nature of relations, on the contrary, joint raids of the Crimean and Kazan Tatars began on Moscow. Therefore, Vasily III in 1521 decided to build fortress cities in the area of the "wild field" (in particular, Vasilsursk), and at the same time - the Great Zasechnaya line (1521-1523). Another diplomatic reception of Vasily III was the invitation of the Tatar princes to the Moscow service; the number of those who received vast lands grew rapidly.
In relation to more distant countries, the government of Vasily III pursued a policy as friendly as possible. Vasily III negotiated with Prussia, inviting her to an alliance against Lithuania and Livonia (in 1526, under the order of Vasily III, negotiations on eternal peace with the Lithuanians and Poles, but neither side wanted to sacrifice Smolensk). Chronicles testify that Vasily III also received the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, discussed with the Pope the possibility of a union and war against Turkey. In the late 1520s, relations between Muscovy and France began; in 1533 an embassy arrived from the Hindu sovereign, Sultan Babur. Trade relations linked Moscow with the Hanseatic cities, Italy, Austria.
Having collected the lands into a single kingdom, Vasily III carefully began the struggle against the noble boyars. He was distrustful of his brothers, Yuri and Andrei, although he entered into agreements with them. However, the brothers had their own courtyards, their own servants and military detachments, on which even smaller landowners, who were in the position of "official" princes or princes sitting in ancient estates, were dependent. To strengthen the autocracy, Vasily III took measures to exchange lands, withdrawing the remnants of appanage rule to new places. The result of this policy was fast growth local noble land tenure, the expansion of measures to limit the immunity political privileges of the princely-boyar aristocracy. At the same time, the border fortifications that existed in the princely estates were destroyed, while the boyars and other nobility took "handwritten notes" that they "would not leave him" ( Vasily III feared the growth of the princely-boyar opposition, as evidenced by the execution of the most suspected of them boyar Bersen Beklemishev). "Tips" and "sentences" with Boyar Duma were somewhat formal in his time: all matters were decided by Vasily III personally, in contact with clerks and a few trusted people, among whom the most prominent was the clerk of the Tver boyars, butler Ivan Shigona.
The reign of Vasily III was marked by the rise of Russian culture, the spread of the Moscow style of literary writing, which took a leading place among other regional literatures. At the same time, the architectural appearance of the Moscow Kremlin was formed, which turned into an impregnable fortress. The completed architectural look was acquired by the Archangel Cathedral. During the reign of Vasily III and the completion of the political folding of the Russian centralized state the controversy between the "Josephites" and the "non-possessors" also falls, which significant influence on the development of church thought and bookishness. Despite the proven personal closeness of Basil III to the leader of the "non-possessors" Vassian the Kosoy, the Josephites gained the upper hand in their polemics. Vasily actively used the authority of Joseph Volotsky and his ideas to substantiate the divine origin of his ancestors, allegedly leading a lineage from the Roman emperors. Vasily III showed particular mercy among the Josephites to Metropolitan Daniel, who rendered the Tsar and the Grand Duke a significant service in the divorce. The reason for the divorce was a childless marriage with Solomonia Saburova. Despite the protests of the church hierarchs, Vasily III achieved a divorce, insisted on the tonsure of Solomon as a nun and her expulsion to Kargopol convent... The tsar himself remarried - to Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, daughter Polish prince... From this marriage, sons Ivan (the future Terrible) and the feeble-minded Yuri were born.
According to the stories of contemporaries, Vasily III was of a tough disposition and did not leave a grateful memory of his time in folk poetry. He died of a malignant abscess on December 3, 1533, having managed to get a haircut in agony under the name of Barlaam. The Moscow reign was transferred to his 3-year-old son Ivan, E.V. Glinskaya was appointed regent.
Buried in the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow.
Lev Pushkarev,Natalia Pushkareva
