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, ready to do anything to preserve itself.
spare king
Vasily III was on the throne thanks to the successful struggle for power, which was carried out by his mother, Sophia Palaiologos. As early as 1470, Vasily's father, Ivan III, announced his eldest son from Ivan the Young's first marriage as his co-ruler. In 1490, Ivan the Young suddenly died of an illness and two parties began to fight for power: one supported the son of Ivan the Young Dmitry Ivanovich, the other - Vasily Ivanovich. Sophia and Vasily overdid it. Their conspiracy against Dmitry Ivanovich was revealed and they even fell into disgrace, but this did not stop Sophia. She continued to influence the government. There were rumors that she even cast spells against Ivan III. Thanks to the rumors spread by Sophia, 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 did not take as his wife 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. In terms of children and the inheritance of power from Vasily, accustomed to fight for power by all possible ways, there was a "fad". So, fearing that the possible sons of the brothers would become contenders for the throne, Basil forbade his brothers to marry until his son was born. The son was never born. Who is to blame? Wife. Wife - in the monastery. It must be understood that this was a very ambiguous decision. Vassian Patrikeev, Metropolitan Varlaam, and Saint Maximus the Greek, who opposed the dissolution of marriage, were exiled, and the metropolitan was defrocked for the first time in Russian history.
Kudeyar
There is a legend that during the tonsure, Solomonia was pregnant, gave birth to a son, George, whom she handed over “in safe hands,” and announced to everyone that the newborn had died. After that, 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 claim power. This story is most likely 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. In our country, every ataman is a legitimate king. With regard to Kudeyar, a semi-mythical character, there are so many versions of his origin that would be enough for half a dozen atamans.
Lithuanian
By the second marriage, Vasily III married a Lithuanian, young Elena Glinskaya. "All in the 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 birth of a baby, a terrible thunderstorm seemed to break out. Thunder struck from a 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: “Your tsar was born, and he has two teeth: with one he will eat us (Tatars), and with the other you.” This legend is among many composed 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. Elena Glinskaya was similar to the mother of Vasily III, Sophia Palaiologos, she controlled 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 ruler of the Russian state after Grand Duchess Olga (except for Sophia Vitovtovna, whose power in many Russian lands outside the Moscow principality was formal).
Italianomania
Vasily III inherited from his father not only a love for strong-willed overseas women, but also a love for everything Italian. Hired by Vasily the Third, Italian architects built churches and monasteries, kremlins and bell towers in Russia. Vasily Ivanovich's guards also consisted entirely of foreigners, including Italians. They lived in Nalivka, a "German" settlement in the area of present-day Yakimanka.
fighter
Vasily III was the first Russian monarch to be free of chin hair. According to legend, he cut his beard to look younger in the eyes of Elena Glinskaya. In a beardless state, he did not last long, but this almost cost Russia independence. While the Grand Duke was flaunting his smooth-shaven youth, the Crimean Khan Islyam I Gerai came to visit, complete with armed, red-bearded fellow countrymen. The case threatened to turn into a new Tatar yoke. But God saved. Immediately after the victory, Vasily again let go of his beard. In order not to wake up dashing.
The fight against nonpossessors
The reign of Vasily 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-possessors”, but in 1522, instead of Varlaam, who fell into disgrace, Daniel, a disciple of Joseph Volotsky and the head of the Josephites, was appointed to the metropolitan throne, becoming an ardent supporter of strengthening the grand ducal power. Vasily III sought to substantiate the divine origin of the grand duke's power, relying on the authority of Joseph Volotsky, who in his works acted as the ideologist of strong state power and "ancient piety." This was facilitated by the increased authority of the Grand Duke in Western Europe. In an agreement (1514) with the emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" Maximilian, Vasily III was even named king. Vasily III was cruel with his opponents: in 1525 and 1531. twice condemned Maxim the Greek, who was imprisoned in a monastery.
DESCENDANTS OF IVAN III VASILIEVICH
At the beginning of the XVI century. the offspring of Dmitry Donskoy greatly thinned out. After the death of Ivan III, his sons survived: Vasily and his brothers Andrei, Yuri, Simeon, Dmitry Zhilka, as well as the grandson from his eldest son, Dmitry, who would die in prison in 1509. Only Andrei, Prince Staritsky, had son Vladimir, the rest of the brothers of Vasily III were childless. The cousins of Vasily III - Ivan and Dmitry, the sons of Andrei Vasilyevich Bolshoi, were imprisoned.
Vasily's serious rivals were his brothers Andrei Staritsky and Yuri, Prince Dmitrovsky. After the death of Vasily III, both brothers opposed the young heirs - Ivan and Yuri, but Yuri Dmitrovsky soon (in August 1536) died.
Vasily III Ivanovich(1478-1533). The eldest son of Ivan III from Sophia Paleolog. After a short disgrace, in 1499 Ivan returned his position to him, and Vasily was declared heir to the throne. In August 1505, the prince married the boyar daughter of Solomonia Saburova, chosen from ten applicants as a result of grandiose brides, to which 500 brides were brought. The wedding took place on September 4, and in October Ivan III died, and Vasily became the Grand Duke of All Russia. According to his father's will, he got 66 cities, while his brothers - only 30. Yuri received Dmitrov and Ruza, Dmitry - Uglich, Semyon - Kaluga, but all of them were in fact completely dependent on the Grand Duke.
In 1510, the Pskov land lost its last remnants of independence. The reason for the complete subjugation of Pskov was the dissatisfaction of the Pskovites with the Grand Duke's governor - Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Repney-Obolensky. In the autumn of 1509, Vasily III was in Novgorod. The Pskov delegation came to him with a complaint about Repnya, and Repnya himself with his claims against the Pskovites. Sources describe the situation itself and the positions of the warring parties in different ways, but the fact remains that Vasily demanded complete obedience from the Pskovites. This should be confirmed by such a ritual act as the removal of the veche bell - a symbol of Pskov's independence. January 24, 1510 Vasily arrived in Pskov and expressed his will; about 300 families were expelled from Pskov: posadniks, boyars, merchants - all those in whom the Grand Duke saw champions of Pskov liberties.
An important event was the return of Smolensk to the Russian state. This was preceded by a sharp deterioration in relations with Lithuania: it became known in Moscow that the Polish king Sigismund was inciting the Crimean Khan to raid Russia; in the fall of 1512, he imprisoned Elena Ivanovna - the widow of Alexander Kazimirovich (brother of Sigismund), sister of Vasily III. The Smolensk operation was difficult: Vasily sent his regiments to Smolensk three times, and only in the summer of 1514, after a fierce shelling and a decisive assault, the fortress fell. On August 1, the Grand Duke solemnly entered the city.
Vasily was no less worried about the eastern and southern borders. He constantly fought for Russian influence in Kazan, trying to put friendly khans on the Kazan throne, played a complex diplomatic game with the Crimean Khanate, which at that time was perhaps the most main source danger. Russia experienced a severe test in 1521, when the Crimean Khan Mohammed Giray invaded the central regions of the country with a huge army. Russian barriers on the Oka were broken through at Serpukhov and Kashira, the governors were killed or captured. According to some reports, the Tatars reached the village of Vorobyov near Moscow. Vasily left the capital and was forced to give the khan a letter with the promise of "tribute and exit." However, this letter was obtained by cunning and destroyed by the Ryazan governor - Prince I.V. Khabar. The Tatars returned home with a huge crowd. This raid by Muhammad Giray was, fortunately, the only enemy invasion during the reign of Basil.
Vasily was also worried about internal affairs. He sought to prevent the strengthening and even more confrontation of his younger brothers, he was especially afraid of Yuri. Vasily was also worried about the absence of an heir: Solomonia was barren. In 1525, after considerable hesitation, overcoming the resistance of some church hierarchs, Vasily decided on a divorce; Solomonia was forcibly tonsured a nun. Two months later, the Grand Duke married the young beauty Elena Glinskaya. His choice was probably influenced not only by the fact that Elena was distinguished by "the beauty of her face and the goodness of her age", but also by the generosity of the family: the Glinskys descended from the khans of the Great Horde. Elena's uncle - Mikhail Lvovich Glinsky was the most influential magnate and political rival of King Sigismund.
Vasily died in 1533. In September, having prayed at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in the days of the memory of Sergius of Radonezh, he went to Volok Lamsky to hunt. But an unexpected illness forced an interruption in the fun; “If he had a small sore on his left side, on the stem (thigh) ... from a pinhead.” So unpretentiously began the disease, which brought the Grand Duke to the grave, despite the efforts of doctors. The dying prince was most worried about the fate of the throne: he declared his son Ivan, who at that time was only three years old, to be his heir, and appointed boyars D. F. Belsky and M. L. Glinsky as regents. On December 3, Vasily died. Describing him, A. A. Zimin wrote: “He was a cautious and sober politician. A man of the Renaissance, Vasily combined an ardent interest in knowledge with the Machiavellianism of an ambitious ruler ... His foreign policy is distinguished by thoughtfulness and purposefulness, the ability to use the international situation to carry out military actions ”(Zimin A. A. Russia on the threshold of a new time. M., 1972. S. 419-421). After the last Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich was arrested in Moscow in 1520 and the Ryazan principality became part of the Russian state, Vasily could already rightly be considered the Grand Duke of “All Russia” - feudal fragmentation was over. Vasily left a vast and powerful state to his young heir.
Source: The Tale of the Pskov Capture // PLDR: The end of the XV - the first half of the XVI century. pp. 364-375; The Tale of the Illness and Death of Vasily III // PLDR: The Middle of the 16th Century. pp. 18-47.
Lit .: Zimin A. A. Russia on the threshold of a new time. M., 1972.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich(1530-1584). Ivan the Terrible - one of the most prominent statesmen pre-Petrine Russia. The most extensive literature is devoted to his reign, therefore we recall only the main milestones of his life.
When Vasily died, Ivan was three years old; five years later, in 1538, Elena Glinskaya died. There are suggestions that actively intervening in political life Ivan's mother was poisoned. The orphaned youth was a witness to the unattractive and cruel struggle of the groups that claimed the championship - Glinsky, Shuisky, Belsky. They paid no attention to the prince. Subsequently, Ivan recalled the neglect of his guardian (see below). During the next palace “hush”, the conspirators, led by Ivan Shuisky, broke into “the bed mansions at the wrong time, three hours before light”, frightening the thirteen-year-old Ivan a lot. A year later, Ivan's favorite, the boyar Vorontsov, was beaten right there in the palace, his clothes were torn off, kicked, and dragged from the entrance to the square. Only the intercession of Ivan saved his life, Vorontsov was exiled to Kostroma. In 1546, a crowd of disgruntled squeakers (warriors armed with squeakers) tried to break through with a petition to Ivan, who was going hunting; the protection of the Grand Duke detained them, several people died in the battle. Those accused of incitement to rebellion were executed, although, of course, regular temporary workers dealt with their rivals on behalf of Ivan.
In 1547 Ivan was crowned king. This was the official adoption of the new title, although Vasily III was already called the king in the documents. In the same year, Ivan married Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina, the daughter of a boyar. Some princely families regarded this marriage as a dishonor, for Ivan married "his slave."
The year 1547 was ominous: Moscow burned three times, and during the last, June fire, 25,000 households burned down and, according to the chronicler's estimates, 1,700 people died.
Starting from 1549, his like-minded people and assistants were grouped around Ivan, whom Andrei Kurbsky would later call the “Chosen Rada”. It was Alexei Adashev, a deceiver, Duma clerk Ivan Viskovaty, Metropolitan Macarius, priest Sylvester. The time of reforms aimed at strengthening the autocratic power of the tsar began.
In 1552, the Russian army, led by the tsar himself, besieged and took Kazan. The Kazan Khanate was liquidated. Kazan is included in Russia, the threat of Tatar raids from the east has passed forever.
The following year, Ivan fell seriously ill, and at some point his death was expected from hour to hour. The tsar demanded that the boyars swear allegiance to his son Dmitry (in the same year, the baby Dmitry would die). But he had a strong rival - Ivan's cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky. The opinions of the boyars were divided, as the tsar later wrote, many of them “reeled like drunkards, decided that we were already in oblivion, and, forgetting our good deeds, and even more so, our souls and the oath ... decided to put our distant relative on the throne ". Ivan would remember these hesitations at his bedside later and take cruel revenge both on those who really hesitated in recognizing Dmitry as the heir, and on those whom it was beneficial for Ivan to declare his enemy.
In 1558, the war began in the Baltic states: Ivan intended to annex Livonia to Russia and open the country's access to the Baltic Sea. The tsar hoped to rely on the local population, which received various benefits from the Russian state and was freed from the power of the German feudal lords. Although at first the Russians achieved significant success, it continued until the beginning of the 80s. the war brought nothing but huge casualties, depletion of the treasury and loss of authority. According to the agreements concluded with Poland and Sweden, Ivan not only lost Livonia, but even part of the original Russian lands: only a small section of the coast of the Gulf of Finland at the mouth of the Neva remained in the hands of the state.
In the early 1960s, the Chosen Rada disintegrated, and former associates of the tsar were sent to prison. Ivan's beloved wife, Anastasia, died, and the tsar married the Kabardian princess Temryuk, who received the name Maria at baptism.
A sharp turn in the tsar's domestic policy took place in 1565. Ivan unexpectedly leaves Moscow, explaining his departure with anger at his subjects for the fact that they "did many losses to people and emaciated his sovereign's treasuries", while the boyars and governors "called his sovereign's lands for themselves and to their friends and tribe ... handed out. True, the tsar announced in a letter sent to the merchants and all the "christianity of the city of Moscow" that he had "anger ... and no disgrace" against them. When a deputation sent from Moscow beat him with a brow, begging the tsar to return and do as he pleases, and “who will be traitors and villains to him, the sovereign, and his state, and over those in the stomach and in execution his sovereign will”, Ivan did not fail to take advantage obtained "permission". He announced the creation of the "oprichnina" - he allocated significant territories on which the employees of his royal court - the guardsmen, who made up the military corps of the king, received allotments.
At first there were 570 oprichiks, then their number grew to five thousand. Unheard-of terror is unleashed in the country: mass executions, deportation from cities central Russia to distant outskirts. The time of brutal reprisals lasted for several years. In 1565, an experienced voivode, the hero of the capture of Kazan - Prince A. B. Humpbacked with a fifteen-year-old son, devious P. P. Golovin, were executed, D. F. Shevyrev was impaled. In 1568, the boyar I.P. Fedorov-Chelyadnin, a man of impeccable reputation and great authority, was killed. Then 150 of his nobles and servants were executed. The boyars M. I. Kolychev, M. M. Lykov, A. I. Katyrev-Rostovsky were executed. In 1569, Maria Temryukovna died. Grozny accused his rival Vladimir Staritsky of being involved in her death and forced him to drink poison. In 1570, the guardsmen unleashed a bloody massacre in Klin, Torzhok, Tver, Novgorod, whose inhabitants were subjected to especially sophisticated abuse and torment. In Moscow, on July 25, about 120 convicts were executed on the square "near the Poganaya Puddle", and among them - just yesterday the most influential people: Treasurer Nikita Funikov and Chancellor Ivan Viskovaty.
In 1572, the oprichnina was abolished, and many guardsmen were themselves executed. Painfully suspicious, everywhere looking for conspirators, the king negotiated a possible departure to England. In 1575, Grozny unexpectedly transferred the royal title to the baptized Tatar Simeon, and began to call himself the “specific prince of Moscow”, derogatoryly calling himself “Ivashka”. With ostentatious humility, Ivan asks Simeon for this or that “mercy”, which the insignificant and absolutely non-authoritative Simeon, of course, does not dare to refuse him. Ivan re-forms the oprichnina army and unleashes new executions on the tormented country. A year later, Simeon was quietly dethroned and sent to reign in Tver, and Ivan regained his former title.
In 1581 Ivan the Terrible's eldest son died. By. according to contemporaries, the king watched with envy and anxiety the growing authority of his son and often quarreled with him. Once, going into his son's chambers, Grozny found his daughter-in-law - pregnant Elena - in her underwear. The king considered this a gross violation of decency and beat her with a staff; Ivan, who stood up for his wife, was also beaten. Elena the next night gave birth to a dead baby, and Ivan Ivanovich died a few days later: either from a nervous shock, or as a result of a wound in the head. The absurd death, in essence, the murder of his son shocked Grozny: he left the only heir - the feeble-minded Fyodor (Dmitry, the son of the last, seventh wife of Tsar Maria Nagoy, was not yet born).
In recent years, Grozny began to get sick often. He was tormented by bad forebodings, and he called on astrologers and sorceresses to find out his fate. According to the Englishman Jerome Horsey, who personally knew the king, the witches correctly predicted the day of his death. But Ivan, it would seem, did not even think about dying: he washed in the bath, ordered chess table and began to arrange the pieces himself, but suddenly suddenly weakened, fell on his back and soon expired.
Ivan the Terrible undoubtedly strengthened autocratic power, eliminated the very possibility of feudal opposition, and improved the administration of the country. But we must not forget about the other side of his reign: bloody repressions, brutal executions, oprichny terror. Experienced commanders, brilliant diplomats, and wise clerks perished in the bacchanalia of massacres. The sword of the oprichnina cut off, first of all, the heads of the most authoritative, influential, and intelligent. The intellectual potential of the country was immeasurably weakened. In the oprichnina pogroms, not only princes and boyars perished, but also tens of thousands of townspeople, peasants, and soldiers who were far from high politics. The economy of the country was undermined, the central regions of Russia were devastated and devastated, through which a wave of oprichnina terror swept with the greatest fury. Such was the terrible legacy of Ivan the Terrible.
Ivan the Terrible was married seven times: to Anastasia Zakharyina-Romanova (in 1547), to Maria Temryukovna (in 1561), to Martha Sobakina (in 1571), Anna Koltovskaya (in 1572), Anna Vasilchikova and Vasilisa Melentyeva (in 1575) and Maria Nagoya (in 1580). From Anastasia, he had sons Ivan (d. 1581), Dmitry (d. 1553) and Fedor, from Maria Nagoy - Dmitry.
Source: Messages of Ivan the Terrible. M.; L., 1951; Correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and Andrei Kurbsky. M., 1978; Kazan history // PLDR: The middle of the XVI century. pp. 300-565; Correspondence of Andrei Kurbsky with Ivan the Terrible; Messages of Ivan the Terrible // PLDR: The second half of the 16th century. pp. 16-217; Andrei Kurbsky. The story of the Grand Duke of Moscow // Ibid. pp. 218-399; The story of the coming of Stefan Batory to the city of Pskov // Ibid. pp. 400-477.
Lit .: Zimin A. A. 1) Reforms of Ivan the Terrible: Essays on the socio-economic and political history of the middle of the 16th century. M., 1960; 2) Oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible. M., 1964; Skrynnikov R. G. Ivan the Terrible. M., 1975; Zimin A.A., Khoroshkevin A.L. Russia in the time of Ivan the Terrible. M., 1982; Kobrin V. Ivan the Terrible. M., 1989; Grekov I.B., Shakhmagonov F.F. World of history: Russian lands in the 16th century. M., 1990.
Fedor Ivanovich(1557-1589). Ivan the Terrible was succeeded by his son, weak in body and spirit. According to a contemporary, “he is heavy and inactive, but he always smiles, so that he almost laughs ... he is simple and feeble-minded ... he has no inclination for war, is little capable of political affairs and is extremely superstitious. In addition to the fact that he prays at home, he usually goes on a pilgrimage every week to one of the nearby monasteries ”(D. Fletcher. On the Russian State. St. Petersburg, 1906. P. 122). Naturally, Fedor could not rule. State affairs were conducted by his brother-in-law - the brother of Tsarina Irina Boris Godunov, elevated by Fyodor during the coronation to the high rank of equerry.
During the reign of Fedor, the struggle of political groups again intensified. Representatives of the old aristocracy, pushed aside in the last years of Ivan the Terrible's reign by his favorites and temporary workers, again raised their heads. Boris Godunov was especially viciously attacked, but he managed to prevail in a complex political intrigue when the opposition, led by Metropolitan Dionysius and the influential Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, demanded that Fyodor divorce Irina, who was accused of infertility. Fyodor flatly refused, and Godunov removed Dionysius from the metropolitan throne. Accused of treason and exiled to Beloozero, Ivan Shuisky was tonsured a monk and soon died under strange circumstances. Fedor did not leave a will, which became a formal reason for the unrest that began after his death.
Source: Job. The Tale of the Life of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich // PLDR: The end of the XVI-beginning of the XVII century. pp. 74-129.
Lit .: Skrynnikov R. G. Boris Godunov. L., 1978.
Dmitry Ivanovich(1583-1591). The youngest son of Ivan IV from Maria Nagoya would hardly deserve mention if it were not for his unexpected death, which served as the basis for the appearance of impostors and gave rise to the legend of Boris Godunov's involvement in his death. A legend that has taken a firm place in Russian historiography. Searches recent years(in particular, the works of R. G. Skrynnikov) allow one to be skeptical about the version of the murder.
The circumstances of the death of the prince were clarified by a special commission, which included the prince and boyar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, Metropolitan Gelvasy, the devious Kleshnin and the duma clerk Vyluzgin. It is worth noting that Shuisky was an enemy of Godunov and probably would not have justified him if he had found reason to suspect of involvement in the death of the heir to the throne. But the commission established that the death happened by accident: the prince was "amusing" in the palace courtyard (he lived in Uglich with his mother) playing "poke" (in "knives") with his peers. Dmitry had a seizure - the boy was an epileptic - and, having fallen, he ran into a knife with his throat. The version of the murder arose immediately: the prince's mother beat the nanny Vasilisa Volokhova and began to shout that the boy had been killed by Volokhov's son Osip. When the clerk of Uglich, Mikhail Bityagovsky, tried to prevent the massacre of the Volokhovs, the crowd, excited by the calls of the Nagi - Maria and her brother Mikhail - killed Bityagovsky, his son and nephew, and Osip Volokhov. They also tried to deceive the commission - they were presented with a knife smeared with chicken blood, with which Bityagovsky's nephew allegedly stabbed the prince. In reality, the fault lay only with the nannies and nurses, who did not have time to come to the aid of the boy who was struggling in a fit. After an investigation, Maria Naguya was tonsured a nun, and her brothers were imprisoned.
Lit .: Skrynnikov R. G. Boris Godunov. L., 1978. S. 67-84.
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mother's face
Once, when Ivan was 9 years old, his father left for state affairs in Kolomna. In his absence, Maria Borisovna, Ivan's mother, who was only twenty-five years old, suddenly fell ill and died. It happened so unexpectedly that it was rumored that a “death potion” was involved here. But to whom could the humble princess cross the road?
They didn’t go far - they accused the wife of the nobleman Alexei Poluektov, who served the queen and, as they said, “carried her belt to a fortune teller.”
Returning to the Kremlin, John the Third did not believe the rumors. Nevertheless, the Poluektovs got scared and disappeared from the yard for 6 years.
Young Ivan, too, could not immediately believe that his mother had died, because he did not see her lying in a coffin, there was another woman in front of him: blurry, ugly, motionless, with a strange, swollen face.
Kazan campaign
Ros Tsarevich is a help to his father. From a young age, he accompanied him in feats of war. Ivan also participated in the famous Kazan campaign of 1468 as the formal leader of one of the detachments. A great army gathered: they went to take Kazan, to defeat a dangerous enemy. This was the first military campaign of Ivan the Young, which can be called successful.
True, for diplomatic reasons, the happiness of the young prince from military exploits was not long.
One fine morning, Ivan was informed that the Polish ambassador had arrived in Moscow. The king, who was then in Pereyaslavl, ordered the ambassador to come to him and, after negotiations, sent him with an answer to the king, and he himself, together with his son and most of the army, returned to Moscow. But, the warlike life of the prince did not end there, because it was he who would later become one of the heroes that would drive the Tatars from the Russian land.
unwavering
Ivan III was 22 years old when he became the sole ruler of the Moscow lands. His son was at the same age when he turned from a princely son into a hero who drove the Tatars away and removed the three hundred years of captivity of Russia. With the Kazan khans during the reign of Ivan III - the father of John the Young, relations did not develop.
The Tatars did not want to put up with the loss of their power and territories, so they searched in every way weak spots in the "defense" of the king. They found out about Ivan's conflict with the Poles and with the rebellious princes who resisted the strengthening of Muscovy's power. Then Khan Akhmatov decided to seize the moment and attack the “weakened” state.
John, in response, gathered a huge army and led him to the southern borders, to the Ugra River. But, the closer to the battlefield, the stronger he was seized by indecision. In the end, he ordered his son, who was standing with the vanguard, to retreat. But Ivan
The young disobeyed his father: "We are waiting for the Tatars" - he briefly answered his father's envoy. Then the sovereign sovereign sent to his son Prince Kholmsky, one of the largest politicians of that time, but even he could not convince Ivan Ivanovich.
Ivan Molodoy and his uncle, Prince Andrei Menshoi, exchanged fire with the Khan's army for four days and forced him to move two versts from the coast. As it turned out later, this was the only attack of the Tatars, in which the young prince won thanks to his steadfastness. Khan Akhmatov waited until the cold, trying to intimidate Molodoy with threats, and then finally retreated.
Voloshanka
He showed himself on the battlefield, so it's time to get married. In the winter of 1482, Ivan the Young was invited to visit his grandmother in the Ascension Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin. She introduced the prince to his betrothed, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler, Elena.
As in a fairy tale, Elena, who was nicknamed Voloshanka, was both beautiful and wise. She liked not only the young prince, but also his grandmother and father.
For several days, the young met, and on Epiphany they were married. And again, as scheduled, nine months later their son Dmitry was born.
It would seem, and then follows “and they lived happily ever after” - after Ivan III, the rightful heir will rise to the throne - Ivan IV - a sensible, battle-hardened prince, and a new sovereign is growing to replace him. But fate decreed otherwise.
Not that Ivan became the Fourth in Muscovy, but the memory of his son and wife has sunk into oblivion. True, they say, it was from this branch that the Rachmaninoff family descended, in which, 400 years later, the famous Russian composer was born.
pattern scandal
The birth of a grandson became a holiday for John III. To celebrate, he decided to give his daughter-in-law, Elena Stefanovna, a patterned, that is, pearl jewelry, which was a dowry of his first wife, the mother of Ivan the Young - Maria Borisovna.
The pattern was of great value to the tsar - his very act indicated that he recognized this couple as the future rulers of united Russia.
They sent for a pattern, and then the story was very reminiscent of the struggle for a pendant in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - no matter how many servants were looking for pendants, they could not find it.
It turned out that the second wife of Ivan III, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog, originally from Byzantium, presented the jewelry to her niece, Maria Palaeologus, wife of Prince Vasily of Vereisky. John was furious.
The Grand Duke ordered Maria to return "illegally appropriated". In fear of the royal wrath, Vasily Vereisky fled with his wife to Lithuania. John declared Basil a traitor and took away his inheritance. However, Elena did not get the pattern.
snake tail
As you know, at the time of the unification of the Russian lands around Moscow, the grand dukes had by no means unfriendly relations with its main competitors - the princes of Tver. They have not yet abandoned their hope - to seize the initiative of the painfully “overgrown” Muscovy.
Deciding to finally eliminate the threat, Ivan Vasilyevich annexed the Principality of Tver, under the pretext of high treason. In general, there is no smoke without fire - Mikhail, Prince of Tver, actively corresponded with the Polish king, urging him to war with Moscow.
Tver had to endure three days, after the tsar was informed about careless correspondence. The cowardly Michael fled to Lithuania, and Tver opened the gates to the new sovereign.
The territories passed to Ivan Molodoy, Mikhail's nephew and sole heir. Thus, according to the plan of John III, in the person of his eldest son, two strong Russian principalities were united into one strong state. The father was preparing a firm ground for his son ...
On the occasion of the reign of Ivan Ivanovich, a coin was minted in Tver, on which a young prince was depicted chopping the tail of a snake. "Tver tails" are cut off - the Russian lands, after several centuries of fragmentation, finally united.
Venetian doctor
Foreigners, Italians in particular, periodically left traces in medieval Russian history. For example, one Venetian ambassador to the Horde was convicted of deceit: while living in Moscow, he hid the purpose of his trip from the sovereign, for which he was almost executed. Another of his compatriots, a doctor named Leon, did much worse.
At thirty-two, Ivan Molodoy became seriously ill: he was overcome by “kamchyuga”, that is, aching legs, a symptom not uncommon in medicine.
The “caring stepmother” Sofya Paleolog, who, it should be noted, was directly interested in the death of her stepson, ordered the doctor Lebi Zhidovin from Venice, who promised to cure the heir. He put him hot jars, gave him some kind of medicine, but Ivan only got worse. At the end of treatment, he died.
The unsuccessful doctor was executed, although, perhaps for the cause, after all, he was invited by Sophia, whose sons were the next contenders for the throne after the unfortunate "Ivan Tsarevich".
Sophia Palaiologos (? -1503), wife (since 1472) of Grand Duke Ivan III, niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. Arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472; on the same day, her wedding with Ivan III took place in the Assumption Cathedral. Marriage with Sophia Paleolog helped to strengthen the prestige of the Russian state in international relations and the authority of the grand-ducal power within the country. For Sophia Paleolog in Moscow, special mansions and a courtyard were built. Under Sophia Palaiologos, the grand-ducal court was distinguished by its special splendor. Architects were invited from Italy to Moscow to decorate the palace and the capital. The walls and towers of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of the Assumption and the Annunciation, the Palace of Facets, and the Terem Palace were erected. Sophia Paleolog brought a rich library to Moscow. The dynastic marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaiologos owes its appearance to the ceremony of crowning the kingdom. The arrival of Sophia Palaiologos is associated with the appearance of an ivory throne in the dynastic regalia, on the back of which was placed the image of a unicorn, which became one of the most common emblems of Russian state power. Around 1490, an image of a crowned double-headed eagle first appeared on the main portal of the Faceted Chamber. The Byzantine concept of the sacredness of imperial power directly influenced the introduction by Ivan III of "theology" ("God's grace") in the title and in the preamble of state letters.
KURBSKY TO GROZNY ABOUT HIS GRANDMA
But the abundance of your Majesty's malice is such that it destroys not only friends, but, together with your guardsmen, the entire Russian holy land, the robber of houses and the murderer of sons! May God save you from this and may the Lord, the king of the ages, not allow it to be! After all, even then everything is going like a knife-edge, because if not sons, then you have killed your half-blooded and close-born brothers, overflowing the measure of bloodsuckers - your father and your mother and grandfather. After all, your father and mother - everyone knows how many they killed. In the same way, your grandfather, with your Greek grandmother, having renounced and forgotten love and kinship, killed his wonderful son Ivan, courageous and glorified in heroic enterprises, born from his first wife, St. Mary, Princess of Tver, and also his divinely crowned grandson born from him Tsar Demetrius, together with his mother, Saint Helen, - the first with a deadly poison, and the second with years of imprisonment in prison, and then by strangulation. But he was not satisfied with this!
MARRIAGE OF IVAN III AND SOFIA PALEOLOG
May 29, 1453 the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in battle defending Constantinople. His younger brother Thomas Palaiologos, ruler of the small appanage state of Morea on the Peloponnese, fled with his family to Corfu and then to Rome. After all, Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed the Union of Florence in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek refuge from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos was able to take out the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In gratitude for this, he received a house in Rome and a good boarding house from the papacy.
In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - the sons of Andrei and Manuel and the youngest daughter Zoya. The exact date of her birth is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1443 or 1449 in her father's possessions in the Peloponnese, where she received her primary education. The education of the royal orphans was taken over by the Vatican, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. A Greek by birth, a former archbishop of Nicaea, he was an ardent supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He raised Zoya Palaiologos in European Catholic traditions and especially taught that she humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her "the beloved daughter of the Roman Church." Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, fate will give you everything. However, it turned out quite the opposite.
In February 1469, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to legally marry the daughter of the Despot of Morea. In the letter, among other things, it was mentioned that Sophia (the name Zoya was diplomatically replaced with the Orthodox Sophia) had already refused two crowned suitors who were wooing her - French king and the Duke of Milan, not wanting to marry a Catholic ruler.
According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was already considered an elderly woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and delicate matte skin, which in Russia was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.
The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow) to Rome to woo. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seems to have begun the era of Sophia Paleolog in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Russia. At least, they were so amazed by him that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon”, not finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”
However, the matchmaking dragged on, because Metropolitan Philip of Moscow objected for a long time to the marriage of the sovereign with a Uniate woman, moreover, a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Russia. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin. In the same June, Sophia set off with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the vain hopes placed by Rome on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried in front of the procession, which led to great confusion and excitement among the inhabitants of Russia. Upon learning of this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow in blessed Moscow to carry the cross in front of the Latin bishop, then he will enter the single gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent a boyar to meet the procession with an order to remove the cross from the sleigh, and the legate had to obey with great displeasure. The princess herself behaved as befits the future ruler of Russia. Entering the Pskov land, she first of all visited Orthodox church where attached to the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there bow to the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God by order of the despina (from the Greek despot- "ruler"). And then Sophia promised the admiring Pskovites her protection before the Grand Duke.
Ivan III did not intend to fight for the "inheritance" with the Turks, much less to accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia was not at all going to Catholicize Russia. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox. Some historians believe that she did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently raised in her childhood by the elders of Athos, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman "patrons" who did not help her homeland, betraying her to the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion into the great Third Rome.
Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the wedding celebration, timed to coincide with the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of memory of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes": when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible look. And before he was distinguished by a tough character, and now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he has turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.
The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, brought up in Europe, was different from Russian women in many ways. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power, and many Moscow orders were not to her liking. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar Khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortifications and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are wooden, and that Russian women look at the world from the little window of the lighthouse. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.
She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Actually, Sophia's dowry was the legendary "liberia" - a library allegedly brought on 70 carts (better known as the "library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after a fire in 1470, Sophia was afraid for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya - the house church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Evdokia, the widow. And, according to the Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.
According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with ivory and walrus ivory plates with biblical themes carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the tsar is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. In 1896, the throne was installed in the Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered to place it for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources - for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov. And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.
Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons, including, as is supposed, a rare icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Sky”… And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, the ancestor of the Palaiologos dynasty, with which the Moscow ones became related, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. rulers. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was affirmed, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.
After Ivan's death III throne occupied by his son Vasily, but it was far from an obvious choice. The future Grand Duke went through a difficult path to win the trust of his father and the throne. The main contender for the throne was at first the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife Maria Borisovna, daughter of the Prince of Tver. Ivan Young was born in 1458, when the boy was not even 10 years old, his mother died. There were rumors that she was allegedly poisoned, and all those involved in this fell into disgrace. Maria died 25 years old, but her husband did not appear at the funeral, but remained in Kolomna.
The second wife of Ivan III was the Byzantine princess Zoya (Sophia) Paleolog, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. She was offered as a wife to the Grand Duke by the Pope, who hoped through her to influence Ivan III and convince him of the need to recognize the union. In 1469, the Grand Duke, after conferring with his mother, the boyars and the metropolitan, decided to agree to this marriage. Negotiations about the union lasted three years and ended with the arrival of Sophia. In 1472, the prince married a foreign princess.
Relations between the new wife and the eldest son of Ivan III were tense. Very soon, two groups formed at the court - those who supported Ivan Ivanovich the Young, and those who supported Sophia. At the same time, contemporaries noted the inconstancy of the mood of the Grand Duke in relation to his son. If in 1476 Ivan the Young was out of favor with his father because of feuds with his stepmother, then a year later he was already mentioned as co-ruler of Ivan III. The son even took part in the famous "standing on the Ugra", which spoke of the attitude of the Grand Duke towards him.
But soon the situation began to change. In 1479, Sophia gave birth to Ivan III a boy, who was named Vasily. Then they had four more sons and four daughters, the number of heirs grew. Got a family and Ivan Molodoy. At the beginning of 1483, he married the daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Elena Voloshanka. In the autumn they had a son, who was named Dmitry. After the annexation of Tver, the father gave these lands to Ivan the Young to reign, and in the sources Ivan III and his son are referred to as "autocrats".
The positions of Ivan the Young at that time were quite strong, which cannot be said about Sophia. She was unable to secure positions for her relatives, the Pope's plan with the union also failed, and the escape of Sophia's niece and her husband to Lithuania did not affect the Grand Duchess in the best way. But in 1490, the eldest son of the Grand Duke suddenly fell ill with gout. The wife of Ivan III writes a doctor from Venice, who swears to heal the heir, but he does not succeed. In March 1490, Ivan the Young dies. The Grand Duke executes the charlatan doctor, and rumors spread around Moscow that the heir was poisoned. Despite the fact that a hundred years later this version became the main one, there is still no evidence to support it.
The grandson of Ivan III Dmitry remains the heir to the throne. Now he is fighting for the attention of the Grand Duke with his eldest son Vasily Paleolog. By 1497, the confrontation reaches its peak. The Grand Duke wants to resolve the issue of succession to the throne and is going to crown Dmitry. Basil's supporters are preparing a conspiracy, which was revealed in December 1497. The plan provided not only for the “departure” (transfer to the service of another overlord) of Vasily, but also for the murder of Dmitry and the seizure of the grand ducal treasury. Probably, the conspiracy failed, because it did not find support among the higher boyars and people close to the Grand Duke. After that, Sophia fell into disgrace, Vasily was put under house arrest, and the main conspirators from among the boyar children were executed. In addition, it turned out that Sophia turned to various witches and soothsayers, over whom the angry prince also perpetrated reprisals. In February 1498, the coronation of Dmitry Vnuk finally took place. It was attended by all the noble boyars, the metropolitan and the highest hierarchs of the church, only Sophia and her son were not at the ceremony. Ivan III blessed his grandson and granted him a great reign. They put the cap of Monomakh on Dmitry, and rolled a rich feast in honor of the holiday. By the end of the year, Dmitry began to be mentioned in official documents as the Grand Duke.
It would seem that the coronation took place, Dmitry is now the "Grand Duke", but Vasily does not intend to give up. Despite the official title, Dmitry received neither land nor real power. By 1499, the situation inside the country was heating up, Ivan III ordered the execution of a number of his boyars. At the same time, it is not known exactly what caused their disgrace: either by disagreements over foreign policy, or the ongoing dynastic struggle. Be that as it may, at the same time, Basil's position is being strengthened. He manages to regain his father's trust, and Ivan III grants Novgorod and Pskov to his son. The people of Pskov, of course, were indignant, but by the autumn the conflict was settled.
With the beginning of the next Russian-Lithuanian war, Vasily finally pulls the blanket over himself. In 1500, the influence of the son of Palaiologos grows, despite the fact that there were suggestions that the Lithuanians tried to capture Basil and even that he himself was going to go over to the side of the enemy. Be that as it may, but by September Vasily is already referred to as the Grand Duke of "All Russia." From that moment on, Basil's position strengthened, and in 1502 the dynastic struggle ended altogether. Dmitry, together with his mother Elena, fell into disgrace, Ivan III ordered that they no longer be remembered in church services and put them under house arrest. A few days later, Vasily was granted a great reign, and the grandson of Ivan III and his mother went to prison. There they died some time later. The long-term enmity of the two groups ended with the victory of Prince Vasily Ivanovich, who became the co-ruler of his father, and after his death in 1505, the heir to a huge power.