Who did Vasily fight with 3. Illness and death of Vasily III

Basil III Ivanovich(1479 - 1533) - Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow from 1505, son of Ivan III Vasilyevich and Sophia Paleologus - niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Father of Ivan IV the Terrible.

Grand Duke Vasily III

According to existing marriage arrangements, the children of the Grand Duke of Moscow and the Byzantine princess Sophia could not occupy the Moscow throne. But Sophia Paleologue did not want to come to terms with this. In the winter of 1490, when the heir to the throne, Ivan the Young (the eldest son from his first marriage), fell ill, a doctor was called in on Sophia’s advice, but he died 2 months later. Poisoning was suspected at court, 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 Paleologus and her son hatched a plot to kill the official heir to the throne. But the boyars exposed the conspirators. Some supporters of Sophia Paleolog were executed, and Vasily Ivanovich was put under house arrest. Sophia managed to restore with great difficulty a good relationship with husband. The father and his son were forgiven.

Soon the positions of Sophia and her son became so strong that Dmitry himself and his mother Elena Voloshanka fell into disgrace. Vasily was proclaimed heir to the throne. Before 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 reign of Vladimir from his father.

Marriage of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova

At the age of 26, they decided to marry Prince Vasily. To choose a bride, his father, Grand Duke Ivan III, ordered the first beauties from all the Russian principalities to be collected in Moscow, since he was unable to find a bride for Vasily among the foreign ruling houses. 1,500 girls arrived in Moscow - very beautiful, noble and ignorant, of which 300 were gradually selected, then the 200, 100 and 10 best were shown to Vasily, who chose the daughter of eminent Moscow boyars, Solomonia Saburova.

Saburova, Solomonia Yurievna

In 1505 the wedding took place, 4 months later 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 deposits, but still there were no children, the marriage remained childless. Vasily III had four brothers to whom he did not want to leave the throne and did not allow them to marry. According to their father's will, the brothers received 30 cities into their possession, and Vasily - 66. Vasily III almost hated the brothers, who considered their father's will unfair, awaiting his death and the transfer of supreme power to one of them.

Having fallen ill, Vasily III even intended to transfer the right of inheritance to the throne to the husband of his sister Evdokia - the Tatar prince Kuidakul, in Orthodoxy Peter, but he died suddenly (most likely, he was poisoned). Vasily III learned of rumors about his own infertility. He also learned that his wife had turned to fortune-tellers and witches several times so that they could save the grand-ducal couple from childlessness. The Church categorically forbade (and forbids) turning to fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and evaluates such actions as a great sin.

Then such actions of the queen were assessed not only as a sin, but also as harm to her husband, who turned out to be a victim of damage. 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, and to resolve this issue he assembled a council of clergy and boyars. Moscow Metropolitan Daniel expressed his readiness to take the sin of the prince’s divorce upon his soul. Some boyars and clergy 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 people were against the divorce, condemned the intention of Vasily III, but were afraid of his anger and remained silent.

Vasily III was guided by state interests in his personal life. After difficult thoughts, 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 the Moscow Nativity Monastery in 1525, then she was taken to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, where she lived for 14 years and died, having survived ex-husband and his new wife.

Venerable Sophia, in the world Solomonia, Grand Duchess,

The legend claims that Solomonia, abandoned by the king, allegedly secretly gave birth to a son and he was secretly raised in one of the boyar houses. According to another version, he allegedly became the famous robber Kudeyar.

Vasily III Vasiliy III 1505-1533.

Vasily III probably felt sorry for his divorced wife in his soul, at least partially reproaching himself for the sin of divorce, and as best he could (within the bounds of decency) showed concern for her and the city and monastery where she ended up. So, in the Suzdal Kremlin in 1528-1530. At the behest and with the assistance of Vasily III, the restoration of the Nativity Cathedral was carried out. For the proper maintenance of the divorced queen in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, he allocated the village of Vysheslavskoye with peasants to the monastery. In the Intercession Monastery, by order of Vasily III, a small room for a separate altar was built in the gate church, intended only for one nun - Sophia, his divorced wife. In general, Vasily III somehow in advance singled out the Intercession Monastery from other women’s monasteries, almost guessing 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, which laid the foundation for the monastery’s well-being and made it possible to begin detailed stone construction in it.

Marriage of Ivan III with Elena Glinskaya

The tsar's second wife was Elena Vasilyevna 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 family of fugitives and traitors who had disgraced themselves in their homeland, Lithuania.

Elena Glinskaya Grand Duchess of Moscow

The fact is very unpleasant: the great princes usually chose their wives from 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 to do an unprecedented thing: he began to look younger and even shaved his beard and 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, in love with his young wife, did not notice in her retinue her former lover, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Telepnev-Obolensky-Saburov-Ovchina (he was soon elevated to noble ranks of the state and, perhaps, is the father of the next tsar - Ivan IV, born in 1530) .

Vasily III Ivanovich

For seven years the king enjoyed life with his young wife, who bore him sons Ivan and Yuri(the first then became Tsar Ivan the Terrible). The fate of the young queen was hardly enviable.

Only after the death of her husband was she able, by adding more honorary positions to I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky, to somehow legitimize him as her practically official favorite; this happened for the first time in a grand-ducal family in Rus'.

E.V. Glinskaya and her prince brothers and I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky after the death of Vasily III began to rule Moscow and Russia. But the fate of all of them was bad: Glinskaya was poisoned in 1538, Telepnev-Obolensky was starved to death in captivity, etc. This was retribution for feigned love for the king and the desire for power, profit, and wealth by any means.

PRINCE VASILY III IVANOVICH

Vasily III Ivanovich. Miniature from the Tsar's titular book. 1672

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 “gathering lands” and strengthening the grand ducal power. During his reign, Pskov (1510), the Ryazan and Uglich principalities (1512, Volotsk (1513), Smolensk (1514), Kaluga (1518), and the Novgorod-Seversky principality (1523) went to Moscow.

The successes of Vasily Ivanovich and his sister Elena were reflected in the treaty between Moscow and Lithuania and Poland in 1508, according to which Moscow retained his father’s acquisitions in the western lands beyond Moscow.

Since 1507, constant raids of the Crimean Tatars on Rus' began (1507, 1516-1518 and 1521). The Moscow ruler had difficulty negotiating peace with Khan Mengli-Girey.

Vasily III Ivanovich.

Later, joint raids of Kazan and Crimean Tatars on Moscow began. The Prince of Moscow in 1521 decided to build fortified cities in the area 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 Moscow service, giving them vast lands.

Chronicles indicate that Prince Vasily III Ivanovich received the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, and Turkey, and discussed with the Pope the possibility of war against Turkey. At the end of the 1520s. relations between Muscovy and France began; in 1533, ambassadors arrived from Sultan Babur, a Hindu sovereign. Trade relations connected Moscow with Italy and Austria.

Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich

POLITICS IN THE REIGN OF VASILY III IVANOVICH

In his domestic policy, he enjoyed the support of the Church in the fight against the feudal opposition. The landed nobility also increased, and the authorities actively limited the privileges of the boyars.

Vasily III treated the boyars carefully; not one of them, except for the comparatively humble Bersen Beklemishev, was subjected to death penalty, and there was little opal. But Vasily III did not show much attention to the boyars; he consulted with the boyar duma, apparently more for form and “meeting”, that is, he did not like objections, deciding matters mainly with clerks and a few trusted people, among whom he occupied the most prominent place butler - Ivan Shigona, a clerk from the Tver boyars.

The years of the reign of Vasily III Ivanovich were marked by the rise of Russian culture and the widespread spread of the Moscow style of literary writing. Under him, the Moscow Kremlin turned into an impregnable fortress.

According to the stories of his contemporaries, the prince was of a harsh disposition and did not leave a grateful memory of his reign in folk poetry.

The Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' 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 become a monk under the name of Varlaam. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. 3-year-old Ivan IV (the future Tsar the Terrible), the son of Vasily Ivanovich, was declared heir to the throne, 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 (from January 21, 1526).

There were 2 children (both from the 2nd marriage): Ivan IV the Terrible (1530 -1584) and Yuri (1532-1564).

Grand Duke Vasily III Ioannovich, engraving by Andre Theve

• Years of life: March 25, 1479 – December 3, 1533
• Father and mother: Ivan III and Sofia Paleologus.
• Spouses: Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova, .
• Children: Georgy (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 Paleologue. 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, during that period, Ivan III was centralizing power, so he decided to limit power 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 this, the question arose: who will become the next prince? Two camps emerged: the first advocated the appointment Dmitry Ivanovich(son of Ivan Ivanovich), and the second - for Vasily.

Initially, the majority was on the side of the first camp, most of the nobles supported Dmitry and Elena Stefanovna. They did not like Sophia and Vasily, but Vasily was able to enlist the support of the children of the boyars and clerks.

Clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that Ivan III had chosen Dmitry as his successor, so he, together with Yaropkin, Poyark and other supporters, advised 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 it. After this, Ivan III took into custody his son and everyone who was involved in this conspiracy. Some of the conspirators were executed, others were sent to prison.

In addition, his wife also displeased the prince, since Sophia Paleologus often invited sorcerers to her place with a potion; 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 crowned for the great reign; the solemn event took place in the Assumption Cathedral.

But a year later, a conflict arose between the princes Patrikeev and Ryapolovsky, who 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 Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov.

On April 11, 1502, the ruler ordered Dmitry and Elena Stefanovna to be taken into custody, Dmitry Ivanovich lost his status as Grand Duke.

In 1505, the ruler died, and 4 years later Dmitry also died.

Vasily III: personal life and family

Ivan III was looking for a wife for his son, he instructed his eldest daughter Elena Ivanovna to find out if there are brides of marriageable age in Poland, Denmark and Germany. At that moment, 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 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 throughout their marriage, they had no children. Solomonia used all the remedies sent by healers from all over the world, but nothing helped. After 20 years of marriage, the Grand Duke began to worry about the lack of heirs, the boyars suggested that Vasily III divorce, this idea was supported by Metropolitan Daniel. In November 1525, a divorce was announced between the spouses, Solomonia was tonsured at the Nativity nunnery, giving her the name Sophia, and after some time she was transferred to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery.

There is also an opinion that at the time of the divorce Solomonia was pregnant. It is believed that she gave birth to Vasily’s son, 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.

Vasily III: internal politics

The ruler was of the opinion that the power of the Grand Duke should be unlimited. He actively fought against the opposition boyars, expelled and executed them.

In the church sphere, Vasily supported the followers of Joseph of Volotsky; there was a struggle with non-covetous people - they were executed or sent to monasteries.

Vasily III continued his father's policy of centralizing the state. During his reign, he annexed Pskov, the Volotsk inheritance, the Ryazan and Novgorod-Seversk principalities.

Under Vasily, the immunity and privileges of the boyars were limited. The ruler consulted with the boyars on various issues more for show, 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, as well as stone fortifications in Nizhny Novgorod, Thule, etc.

Vasily III: foreign policy

From the very beginning of his reign, the prince was forced to start a war with Kazan. His army, led by Vasily's brother, failed in the campaign and was defeated, but the inhabitants of Kazan proposed to make peace, the treaty came into force in 1508.

After the death of Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Vasily laid claim to the Lithuanian throne, but it went to Sigismund. The new ruler demanded the return of the lands that had been conquered by Ivan III. But the lands remained part of the Russian state.

In 1512 it began war with Lithuania. Two years later, Vasily captured Smolensk, after which Prince Mstislavsky went 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 near Orsha. Smolensk did not return 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 Crimea to raid Russian lands, and the Russian state - to raid Lithuanian ones. In 1521, the Tatars made another raid on Moscow. They reached Moscow while Vasily was away and forced the boyars to pay tribute, but on the way back the governor Khabar Simsky defeated their army.

Vasily III: death

When the prince was heading from the Trinity Monastery to Volokalamsk, a subcutaneous abscess appeared on his left thigh, which developed quite quickly. Doctors were unable to find out the cause and help Vasily III. The prince felt better for a while when they were able to clear the abscess, but then his condition noticeably worsened again. 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 this, the prince gathered several boyars, invited Metropolitan Daniel, wrote a will and appointed his son Ivan IV as his heir. Just before his death, Vasily aroused the desire to become a monk, Metropolitan Daniel tonsured him as a monk with the name Varlaam.

On December 5, 1533, Vasily III died due to blood poisoning. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow.

Years of life : March 25, 1479 - December 4, 1534 .

Years of reign: Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' (1506 - 1534).

From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Ivan III Vasilyevich the Great and the Byzantine princess Sophia Fominishna Palaeologus.

Vel. book Moscow and All Rus' in 1506 - 1534.

Vasily's childhood and early youth were spent in worries and trials. It was not long before he was proclaimed his father’s heir, since Ivan III had an eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died. Ivan III had to decide who to bequeath the throne to - his son Vasily or his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich. Most of the boyars supported Dmitry and his mother Elena Stefanovna. Sophia Paleologue was not loved in Moscow; only the children of the boyars and clerks took her side. Clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father wanted to reward Dmitry with the great reign, and together with Afanasy Yaropkin, Poyarok 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 brought them secretly to the kiss of the cross. But the conspiracy was discovered in December 1497. Ivan III ordered his son to be kept in custody in his own yard, and his followers to be executed. Six were executed on the Moscow River, many other boyar children were thrown into prison. At the same time, the Grand Duke became angry with his wife because sorcerers came to her with a 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,” into the great reign in the Assumption Cathedral. But the triumph of the boyars did not last long. In 1499, disgrace overtook two of the noblest boyar families - the princes Patrikeev and the prince Ryapolovsky. The chronicles do not say what their sedition consisted of, 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, according to 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 into disgrace, put them in custody and did not order to call Dmitry the Grand Duke, and on April 14 he granted Vasily, blessed him and placed him in the great reign of Vladimir, Moscow and All Rus' as autocrat.

Ivan III's next concern 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 sovereigns would have marriageable daughters. But his efforts in this regard remained unsuccessful, as well as the search for brides and grooms in Denmark and Germany. Ivan was already forced to Last year of his life to marry Vasily to Solomonia Saburova, chosen from 1,500 girls presented to the court for this purpose. Solomonia's father, Yuri, was not even a boyar.

Having become the Grand Duke, Vasily followed in everything the path indicated by his parent. From his father he inherited a passion for construction. In August 1506, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander died. Hostile relations between the two states resumed after this. Vasily accepted the Lithuanian rebel Prince Mikhail Glinsky. Only in 1508 was a peace concluded, according to which the king renounced all the ancestral lands that belonged to the princes who came under the rule of Moscow under Ivan III. Having secured himself from Lithuania, Vasily 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 him 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 Pskov mayors did not obey the governor, and he received a lot of insults and violence from the Pskov people. Vasily also accused the Pskovites of despising the sovereign’s name and not showing him due honors. For this, the Grand Duke put disgrace on the governors and ordered them to be captured. Then the mayors and other Pskovites, admitting their guilt, beat Vasily with their foreheads so that he would grant his fatherland to Pskov and arrange it as God informed him. Vasily ordered to say: “I will not be in Pskov, but two governors will be in Pskov.” The Pskovites, having gathered a veche, began to think about whether to oppose the sovereign and fight in the city. Finally they decided to submit. On January 13, they removed the veche bell and sent it to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily arrived in Pskov and arranged everything here at his own discretion. 300 of the most noble families, abandoning all their property, had to move to Moscow. The villages of the withdrawn Pskov boyars were given to the Moscow ones.

From Pskov affairs Vasily returned to Lithuanian affairs. In 1512, war began. Its main goal was Smolensk. On December 19, Vasily set out on a campaign with his brothers Yuri and Dmitry. He besieged Smolensk for six weeks, but without success, 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 the governor sent him to Smolensk. They defeated the governor Yuri Sologub and besieged the city. Having learned about this, Vasily 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 surrounding area, Vasily ordered a 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. On July 29, the siege began. Gunner Stefan led the artillery. The fire of Russian cannons inflicted terrible damage on the Smolensk people. On the same day, Sologub and the clergy went to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the Smolensk people swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and on August 1, Vasily solemnly entered the city. While he was organizing affairs here, the governors took Mstislavl, Krichev and Dubrovny. The joy at the Moscow court was extraordinary, since the annexation of Smolensk remained the cherished dream of Ivan III. Only Glinsky was dissatisfied, to whose cunning the Polish chronicles mainly attribute the success of the third campaign. He hoped that Vasily would give him Smolensk as his 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. Some time later, the 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 collection of Russian lands went on as usual. In 1517, Vasily summoned the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich to Moscow and ordered to seize him. After this, 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 the Ryazan prince, was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned.

Although the war with Lithuania was not actually fought, peace was not 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, left for Volokolamsk to collect shelves. Magmet-Girey, however, was not in the mood to take the city. Having devastated the land and captured several hundred thousand captives, he went back to the steppe. In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected, and Vasily himself stood guard on the Oka with a large army. 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, a truce 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. Vasily was already 46 years old, but he did not yet have heirs: Grand Duchess Solomonia was barren. In vain she used all the remedies that were attributed to her by the healers and healers of that time - there were no children, and her husband’s love disappeared. Vasily said with tears to the boyars: “Who should I reign on the Russian land and in all my cities and borders? Should I hand it over to my brothers? But they don’t even know how to arrange their own inheritances.” To this question, an answer was heard among the boyars: “Sovereign, great prince! They cut down a barren fig tree and sweep it out of its grapes.” The boyars thought so, but the first vote belonged to Metropolitan Daniel, who approved the divorce. Vasily met unexpected resistance from the monk Vassian Kosy, the former prince of Patrikeev, and the famous Maxim the Greek. Despite, however, this resistance, in November 1525, the Grand Duke’s divorce from Solomonia was announced, who was tonsured under the name of Sophia at the Nativity nunnery, and then sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Since this matter was looked at from different points of view, it is not surprising that conflicting news about it has reached us: some say that 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 act; They even spread rumors that soon after the tonsure Solomonia had a son, George. In January of the following 1526, Vasily married Elena, the daughter of the deceased Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, the niece of the famous Prince Mikhail. Vasily’s new wife differed in many ways from Russian women of that time. Elena learned foreign concepts and customs from her father and uncle 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 concepts of that time, was incompatible not only with folk customs, but also with Orthodoxy. The Grand Duchess became more and more possessed of her husband; but time passed, and Vasily’s desired goal - to have an heir - was not achieved. There was a fear that Elena would remain as barren as Solomonia. The Grand Duke and his wife traveled to various Russian monasteries. In all Russian churches they prayed for Vasily’s childbirth - nothing helped. Four and a half years passed until the royal couple finally resorted in prayer to the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky. Then only Elena became pregnant. The Grand Duke's joy knew no bounds. Finally, on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan, and a year and a few months later, another son, Yuri.

But the eldest, Ivan, was barely three years old when Vasily fell seriously ill. When he was driving from the Trinity Monastery to Volok Damsky, on his left thigh, on the bend, a purple sore the size of a pinhead appeared. After this, the Grand Duke began to quickly become exhausted and arrived in Volokolamsk already exhausted. The doctors began to treat Vasily, but nothing helped. More pus flowed out of the sore than the pelvis, the rod also came out, after which the Grand Duke felt better. From Volok he went to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. But the relief was short-lived. At the end of November, Vasily, completely exhausted, arrived in the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow. Glinsky’s doctor Nikolai, having examined the patient, said that all that remained was to trust only in God. Vasily realized that death was near, wrote a will, blessed his son Ivan for the great reign and died on December 3. He was buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral.

The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich III (1505 - 1533, born in 1479) is most famous for the fact that during his reign the gathering of the fragmented appanages of North-Eastern Rus' into a single state was completed. Under Vasily III, the veche city of Pskov (1510) and the last appanage principalities - Ryazan (1517) and Chernigov-Seversky (1517-1523) were annexed to Moscow. Vasily continued the internal and foreign policy his father, Ivan III, whom he resembled in his stern, autocratic character. Of the two main church parties of the time, in the first years of his reign, the predominance belonged to non-covetous people, but then it passed to the Josephites, whom Basil III supported until his death.

Vasily III. Miniature from the Tsar's title book

The former, purely service composition of the Moscow boyars, as the Russian North-East was unified, was replenished with recent appanage princes, people much more influential and demanding. In this regard, Vasily treated the boyars with suspicion and distrust, consulting with him only for show, and even then rarely. He conducted the most important affairs not with the help of the boyars, but with the help of humble clerks and nobles (like his close butler Shigona Podzhogin). Vasily treated such rootless nominees rudely and unceremoniously (deacon Dolmatov paid with imprisonment for refusing to go to the embassy, ​​and Bersen-Beklemishev was executed for contradicting the Grand Duke). During the reign of Vasily III, the conflict between the grand-ducal power and the boyars, which during the reign of his son, Ivan the Terrible, led to the horrors of the oprichnina, began to gradually intensify. But Vasily behaved with the boyars still very restrained. Neither of noble representatives of the boyar class were not executed under him. Vasily, for the most part, limited himself to taking oaths from the boyars (Shuisky, Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky) that they would not leave for Lithuania. Only Prince Vasily Kholmsky fell into disgrace under him (for what, it is unknown).

Unification of Muscovite Rus' under Ivan III and Vasily III

But Vasily treated close relatives who, due to dynastic kinship, could challenge his power with the usual severity of his predecessors. Vasily's rival, his nephew Dmitry Ivanovich (grandson of Ivan III from his eldest son, Ivan), died in prison. Vasily III established strict supervision over his brothers, Yuri and Andrei. Andrei was allowed to marry only when Vasily III himself became the father of two children. Vasily's brothers hated his favorites and the new order.

Not wanting to transfer the throne to either Yuri or Andrei, Vasily, after a long childless marriage, divorced his first wife, the barren Solomonia Saburova, and married (1526) Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya, the niece of the famous Western Russian nobleman Mikhail Glinsky. From her he had sons Ivan (in 1530, the future Ivan the Terrible) and Yuri (1533). Solomonia Saburova was imprisoned in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, and opponents of the divorce (Metropolitan Varlaam, as well as the leaders of non-covetous people Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev and the famous Byzantine scientist Maxim the Greek) also suffered.

Solomonia Saburova. Painting by P. Mineeva

Foreign policy of Vasily III

After the death of his son-in-law, Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania (1506), Vasily decided to take advantage of the turmoil that arose among the noble lords of Lithuania. Between them was distinguished by education, military glory, wealth and land holdings Mikhail Glinsky, who was insulted by Alexander's brother and successor, Sigismund. Mikhail Glinsky in response went into the service of Vasily III. This circumstance, as well as the poor treatment in Lithuania of Vasily’s sister (Alexander’s wife) Elena, who died in 1513, as was suspected of poison, caused a war between Lithuania and Moscow. During it, Glinsky lost all his former Lithuanian possessions, in return for which he received Medyn and Maloyaroslavets from Vasily. Sigismund's alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey caused the second war between Vasily III and Lithuania in 1512. On August 1, 1514, Vasily, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk from the Lithuanians, but on September 8 of the same year, Sigismund’s commander, Prince Ostrozhsky, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Moscow army at Orsha. However, according to the truce of 1522, concluded through the ambassador of the German Emperor Maximilian I, Herberstein, Smolensk remained with Moscow.

Crimean Tatar archer

Besides Lithuania, the main concern of the reign of Vasily III was Tatar relations, especially Crimean ones. Having submitted to powerful Turkey at the end of the 15th century, Crimea began to receive strong support from it. The raids of the Crimean Tatars alarmed the Moscow state more and more (raid on the Oka in 1507, on the Ryazan Ukraine in 1516, on the Tula in 1518, the siege of Moscow in 1521). Russia and Lithuania alternately gave gifts to the Crimean robbers and embroiled them in their mutual squabbles. The strengthened Crimean khans tried to subjugate Kazan and Astrakhan in order to restore the former Golden Horde– from the Upper Volga region and the Urals to the Black and Caspian seas. Vasily III did his best to oppose the annexation of Kazan to Crimea, which in 1521 led to the most dangerous Tatar raid on Rus' from the south and east. However, Kazan, torn apart by internal strife, became more and more subordinate to Moscow (the siege of Kazan in 1506, peace with its khan, Muhammad-Amen in 1507, the appointment from Moscow of the Kazan king Shah-Ali (Shigaleya) in 1519. and Jan-Ali in 1524, the construction by Vasily on the border with the Kazan possessions of the powerful fortress of Vasilsursk in 1524, etc.). With this constant pressure on Kazan, Vasily also anticipated the achievements of Ivan the Terrible. In 1523, the Crimean Khan Muhammad-Girey captured Astrakhan, but was soon killed there by the Nogais.

Although his son, Ivan the Terrible, is remembered more often, it was Vasily III who largely determined both the vectors of state policy and the psychology of the Russian government, which was ready to do anything to preserve itself.

Spare king

Vasily III came to the throne thanks to the successful struggle for power carried out by his mother, Sophia Paleologus. Vasily's father, Ivan III, declared his eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young, as his co-ruler. In 1490, Ivan the Young suddenly died of illness and two parties began to fight for power: one supported Ivan the Young’s son Dmitry Ivanovich, the other supported Vasily Ivanovich. Sofia and Vasily overdid it. Their plot against Dmitry Ivanovich was discovered and they even fell into disgrace, but this did not stop Sofia. She continued to influence the authorities. There were rumors that she even cast a spell against Ivan III. Thanks to the rumors spread by Sofia, Dmitry Ivanovich's closest associates fell out of favor with Ivan III. Dmitry began to lose power and also fell into disgrace, and after the death of his grandfather he was shackled and died 4 years later. So Vasily III, the son of a Greek princess, became the Russian Tsar.

Solomonia

Vasily III chose his first wife as a result of a review (1500 brides) during his father’s lifetime. She became Solomonia Saburova, the daughter of a scribe-boyar. For the first time in Russian history the ruling monarch took as his wife not a representative of the princely aristocracy or a foreign princess, but a woman from the highest stratum of “service people.” The marriage was fruitless for 20 years and Vasily III took extreme, unprecedented measures: he was the first of the Russian tsars to exile his wife to a monastery. Regarding children and inheriting power, Vasily, accustomed to fight for power in all possible ways, had a “fad.” So, fearing that the possible sons of the brothers would become contenders for the throne, Vasily forbade his brothers to marry until he had a son. The son was never born. Who is to blame? Wife. Wife - to the monastery. We must understand that this was a very controversial decision. Those who opposed the dissolution of the marriage, Vassian Patrikeev, Metropolitan Varlaam and the Monk Maxim the Greek, were exiled, and for the first time in Russian history, a metropolitan was defrocked.

Kudeyar

There is a legend that during her tonsure, Solomonia was pregnant, gave birth to a son, George, whom she handed over “to safe hands,” and announced to everyone that the newborn had died. Afterwards this child became the famous robber Kudeyar, who with his gang robbed rich convoys. Ivan the Terrible was very interested in this legend. The hypothetical Kudeyar was his older half-brother, which means he could lay claim to power. This story is most likely a folk fiction. The desire to “ennoble the robber”, as well as to allow oneself to believe in the illegitimacy of power (and therefore the possibility of its overthrow) is characteristic of the Russian tradition. With us, no matter what the ataman is, he is the legitimate king. Regarding Kudeyar, a semi-mythical character, there are so many versions of his origin that there would be enough for half a dozen atamans.

Lithuanian

For his second marriage, Vasily III married a Lithuanian, young Elena Glinskaya. “Just like his father,” he married a foreigner. Only four years later, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan Vasilyevich. According to legend, at the hour of the baby's birth, a terrible thunderstorm allegedly broke out. Thunder struck from the clear sky and shook the earth to its foundations. The Kazan Khansha, having learned about the birth of the tsar, announced to the Moscow messengers: “A tsar was born to you, and he has two teeth: with one he can eat us (Tatars), and with the other you.” This legend stands among many written about the birth of Ivan IV. There were rumors that Ivan was an illegitimate son, but this is unlikely: an examination of the remains of Elena Glinskaya showed that she had red hair. As you know, Ivan was also red-haired. Elena Glinskaya was similar to the mother of Vasily III, Sofia Paleologus, and she handled power no less confidently and passionately. After the death of her husband in December 1533, she became the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (for this she removed the regents appointed by her husband). Thus, she became the first after Grand Duchess Olga (if you don’t count Sofia Vitovtovna, whose power in many Russian lands outside the Moscow principality was formal) ruler of the Russian state.

Italian mania

Vasily III inherited from his father not only a love for strong-willed overseas women, but also a love for everything Italian. Italian architects hired by Vasily the Third built churches and monasteries, kremlins and bell towers in Russia. Vasily Ivanovich’s security also consisted entirely of foreigners, including Italians. They lived in Nalivka, a “German” settlement in the area of ​​modern Yakimanka.

Barberbearer

Vasily III was the first Russian monarch to get rid of chin hair. According to legend, he trimmed his beard to look younger in the eyes of Elena Glinskaya. He did not last long in a beardless state, but it almost cost Rus' independence. While the Grand Duke was flaunting his clean-shaven youth, the Crimean Khan Islyam I Giray, complete with armed, sparsely bearded fellow countrymen, came to visit. The matter threatened to turn into a new Tatar yoke. But God saved. Immediately after the victory, Vasily grew his beard again. So as not to wake up the dashing.

The fight against non-covetous people

The reign of Basil III was marked by the struggle of the “non-possessors” with the “Josephites.” For a very short time, Vasily III was close to the “non-covetous”, but in 1522, instead of Varlaam, who had fallen into disgrace, the disciple of Joseph of Volotsky and the head of the Josephites, Daniel, was appointed to the metropolitan throne, who became an ardent supporter of strengthening the grand-ducal power. Vasily III sought to substantiate the divine origin of the grand ducal power, relying on the authority of Joseph Volotsky, who in his works acted as an ideologist of strong state power and “ancient piety.” This was facilitated by the increased authority of the Grand Duke in Western Europe. In the treaty (1514) with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian III, Vasily III was even named king. Vasily III was cruel to his opponents: in 1525 and 1531. Maxim the Greek was twice condemned and imprisoned in a monastery.