Cities annexed by Vasily 3. The secret of Solomonia Saburova, the first wife of Emperor Vasily III

Was Ivan the Terrible the son of Vasily III, or Fictitious alcove secrets of the 16th century

What is also confusing about this whole story is its continuation. Namely - Vasily III got married. Secondary. And there were no children again for a long time.

The sovereign approached the choice of a bride with all the sophistication of a man who had twenty years of marriage experience behind him. Marry one of your own - princely and boyar daughters- it is forbidden. A squabble will begin, a struggle for the right to become the king's son-in-law... Official matchmaking with foreign princesses did not suit the red tape of the process: just sending matchmakers and negotiating between diplomats would take several years. And we need to give birth to a son now. This means that there must be a foreigner, but one who does not take a long time to woo - that is, a representative of some disgraced or impoverished, but noble family. The clan must be worthy, but its representatives should not be able to interfere with Vasily III or dictate their will to him - simply put, the fewer relatives, the better. And, of course, the wife must be young, healthy, beautiful - in order to fulfill her destiny as quickly as possible...

Such an ideal candidate was found - a foreigner by birth, smart, beautiful, relatives in decline, the head of the family is generally sitting in a Russian prison. It couldn't be better. This was Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, a representative of the Glinsky family who emigrated to Russia in 1508. Based on studies of bone remains and teeth, scientists believe that the princess was born around 1510–1512, that is, she got married at the age of 13–15. The groom, Vasily III, turned out to be almost three times older - he was 47 years old at the time of marriage.

Glinsky, despite all the difficulty of the situation in which the family found itself in early XVI century, were of significant interest from the point of view of genealogy. According to legend, after the death of the temnik Mamai, defeated in 1380 on the Kulikovo field, his sons fled to Lithuania, converted to Orthodoxy there and received the city of Glinsk as their inheritance, from where the Glinsky family came. It turned out beautifully: the son of Vasily III would become a descendant of both Mamai and Dmitry Donskoy. According to legends circulating in Lithuania itself, the Glinskys descended from Akhmat, Khan of the Great Horde. Since he was a Genghisid, this could provide certain prospects in the struggle for power in Kazan or in negotiations with Crimea: a descendant of Vasily III could appeal to his Genghisid origin and demand his share of power...

The head of the family, the famous Mikhail Glinsky, had been in prison since 1514. Emperor Maximilian asked for him. Having released Prince Mikhail from captivity, Vasily III killed several birds with one stone: he made a gesture good will addressed to the emperor, he committed an act of humanism in relation to the Glinskys (thus Mikhail found himself obliged to die, because for the charge of treason brought against him, he could easily rot in prison). Well, in the person of those close to the Glinsky court, Vasily III acquired a clan of personally devoted aristocrats who did not have close ties with the Russian boyars and serving the sovereign “directly.” One could rely on them (since their position depended solely on the will of Vasily III), but is it possible to loyal people isn't every ruler's dream?

Herberstein described the motives of Vasily III as follows: “As I learned, when taking as his wife the daughter of Vasily Glinsky, who fled from Lithuania, the sovereign, in addition to the hope of having children from her, was guided by two considerations: firstly, his father-in-law was descended from the Petrovich family, which once enjoyed great fame in Hungary and professed the Greek faith (this is the ambassador’s invention. - A.F.); secondly, the sovereign’s children in this case would have as uncles Mikhail Glinsky, an exceptionally successful husband with rare experience. After all, the sovereign had two more siblings, George and Andrei, and therefore he believed that if he had children from some other wife, then during the lifetime of his brothers they would not be able to safely rule the state (according to another publication: they would not admitted to rule by their uncles, who (may) consider them illegitimate. - A.F.). At the same time, he had no doubt that if he returned his favor to Mikhail and granted him freedom, then his children born from Elena, under the protection of their uncle, would live much more peacefully. Negotiations for the release of Mikhail were conducted in our (Herberstein. - A.F.) presence; Moreover, we happened to see how the shackles were removed from him and placed with honor under House arrest (liberae custodiae), and then they were granted complete freedom.” (In another publication: “he was released, and many servants were assigned to him, more to look after him and guard him than to serve him.”) In fact, Glinsky was not released immediately. He gained complete freedom only in February 1527.

The wedding of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya took place on January 21, 1526. Apparently, the sovereign was very worried about what was happening. In any case, it is clear that he did not treat Elena as a machine for child production, but tried to please her as a man. Being young and trying to look like the Lithuanian style, for the first time in his life he shaved his beard and walked only with a “mustache.” This caused a real shock at court; the boyars did not faint at the sight of the shaved sovereign. According to the canons of that time, it is impossible to violate the image and likeness of the Lord: a shaved person cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. First the divorce, then the shaving of the beard - really, Vasily III played dangerously with the canons!

Apparently, Vasily III really had some feelings for Elena that went beyond the scope of a “marriage of convenience.” He wrote her personal letters (several of them have survived). Contemporaries noted that the sovereign fell in love with Elena for the sake of her beauty and purity - for an almost fifty-year-old man a completely understandable reaction to young girl, glowing with girlish beauty, freshness and purity. This was apparently mixed with a feeling of gratitude - although not without incident, Elena nevertheless gave birth to Vasily III two sons and thus solved the problem of inheritance.

Thanks to the efforts of sculptor-anthropologists, in particular S.A. Nikitin, her appearance was reconstructed from the skull of Elena Glinskaya, and today we can imagine what this woman looked like, for whose sake the sovereign of all Rus' risked the contempt of his contemporaries by shaving off his beard. She had a narrow, elongated face with a narrow, sharply protruding straight nose and a high bridge of the nose. The chin is prominent and strong-willed. She was a tall woman for those times (162–165 centimeters). Elena's fingernail was preserved in the burial, from which one can recognize how the grand duchesses cut their nails in the 16th century: on both sides in a semicircle with a point in the center. Glinskaya had long legs, narrow hips, narrow shoulders, graceful hands - in a word, fragile, thin, young. Vasily III had something to fall into touching delight from.

The only thing that slightly spoiled the bride’s appearance was the condition of her front teeth. The incisors overlapped one another, the teeth grew crookedly and with gaps between them. That is, Elena was categorically not recommended to smile with her mouth open in public. At the same time, in combination with the appearance of a teenage girl, such teeth could add additional charm, touchingness and defenselessness... This has a great effect on fifty-year-old men.

The teeth, by the way, gave an important touch to psychological portrait Elena Glinskaya. Her second premolar teeth were ground down to the roots lower jaw at both sides. According to the reasonable assumption of T. D. Panova, these are traces of Elena’s passion for needlework - threads were pulled through her teeth when sewing and embroidering. Not every woman will have such perseverance and determination to sharpen her teeth with gold thread while embroidering artistic fabrics. This speaks of Elena’s strength of character, her willingness to go to great lengths for the sake of her goal.

But in this regard, the question arises about the secret of the birth of Ivan the Terrible. The fact is that the freshness of the young girl did not help Vasily III much: neither a year, nor two, nor three after the first wedding night there were no children. At least look for women with sunken noses and wet nightgowns again...

Vasily III's first-born was born only on August 25, 1530. Such a long period of time for conception from attempts at it (in 25 years with two women - one conception?!) Already among contemporaries gave rise to the suspicion that the father of Ivan the Terrible was not the barren Vasily III, Elena carried him from another. Evil tongues called the lover of the Grand Duchess, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina Telepnev Obolensky. He was undoubtedly the princess's lover - after the death of Vasily III, Elena, who came to power in 1535, openly made him her partner and co-ruler, her favorite. Herberstein directly attributed the cause of the death of Mikhail Glinsky to his attempts to shame his niece, who had fallen into prodigal sin: “...seeing that immediately after the death of the sovereign, his widow began to disgrace the royal bed with a certain [boyar] nicknamed Sheepskin ( Owczina), imprisoned her husband's brothers, treats them harshly and generally rules too cruelly, Mikhail, solely out of his straightforwardness and duty of honor, repeatedly instructed her to live honestly and chastely; She reacted to his instructions with such indignation and intolerance that she soon began to think about how to destroy him. A pretext was found: as they say, after some time Mikhail was accused of treason (another edition: the intention to betray children (heirs) and the country to the Polish king. - A.F.), again thrown into prison and died a miserable death; [according to rumors, the widow was killed by poison a little later, and her seducer] Sheepskin was cut into pieces.”

The fact of a love affair with Ovchina is reliably established in relation to the years 1535–1538. But did this connection exist earlier, during her husband’s life? There is no evidence of this. Most scientists categorically deny this possibility, considering the father of Ivan the Terrible to be Vasily III, in whom, after 25 years of fruitless attempts, the ability to conceive children suddenly awakened. As the main argument, anthropologists cite the external similarity (the famous “Palaeologian” nose with a hump) of the images of Sophia Paleolog and Ivan the Terrible, reconstructed from the skulls. And these “Palaeologian” signs could only be transmitted if the father of Ivan the Terrible was Vasily III himself. True, no portraits of Ovchina have survived, and no one knows what kind of nose he had.

Hypotheses were also expressed in favor of Ovchina’s paternity, although they were not found in scientific world absolutely no support. A.L. Nikitin drew attention to the following circumstance: we do not know of cases of sharp deviations in the psyche caused by hereditary psychiatric diseases, neither in the Kalitich family, nor in the Glinsky family. Right down to Ivan the Terrible himself, whom psychiatrists diagnose with paranoia. His brother Yuri is feeble-minded (Down's disease), his son Fedor is feeble-minded (imbecile or oligophrenic), and his other son Dmitry is epileptic. About the third son, Ivan, who was killed by his father in 1581, we know that he was distinguished by manic cruelty. Nothing like this had ever happened to the Kalitiches before. We do not have a map of the diseases of representatives of the Ovchina genus, but the nicknames of some representatives of the genus are typical: Mute, Shovel, Stupid, Bear, Telepen, Withered Arms. Is it not from here, asks A.L. Nikitin, that the “corruption” of the Kalitich family began?

It can probably be assumed that three years after the barren marriage, Elena began to understand that every day the repetition of Solomonia’s fate was becoming more and more real for her. She saw with her own eyes what happens in Rus' to grand duchesses who stubbornly refuse to give birth. She did not want such a fate for herself. For a woman who could grind her own teeth on gold thread for the sake of beautiful embroidery, the decision to find a way to conceive a child other than Basil III should not have been so difficult. There was no shortage of young, disagreeable noblemen at court, and in secluded corners in the palace (especially with the frequent absences of Vasily III). And this adultery would solve all problems. Who knew that Sheepskin would give birth to paranoids and downs...

Of course, all this is nothing more than fantasies on a given topic. There is no evidence. The only certainty is the fact of existence in Russia XVI centuries of rumors that Ivan the Terrible is a “bastard.” Herberstein wrote about Elena’s love affair with Ovchina. Mentions of the “blasphemy” against the tsar, which is leveled against him “without knowing his royal birth,” are contained in the work of the 16th-century publicist Ivan Peresvetov. Kurbsky makes some vague hints about the “bastard” next to the tsar: by this “bastard” one can understand the tsar himself, who cannot, as an illegitimate child, be allowed into the church. Typically, Ivan the Terrible became terribly excited when reading this phrase and wrote in response a heated rebuke, full of biblical quotes, from which it is difficult to understand what, in fact, the tsar is refuting...

There can be only one proof here: if history comes to the aid Forensic-medical examination. Genetic analysis of the remains of Vasily III, Elena Glinskaya, Ivan the Terrible will irrefutably put everything in its place. It may be possible to attract genetic material Princes Obolensky, to whose family Ovchina belonged. This will be reliable, accurate knowledge. But for some reason no one is trying to get it, but everyone brushes it off, considering the very fact of conducting such a study indecent, “shameless slander against the grand ducal family.” Scientists are afraid of something. The truth?

Meanwhile exact sciences capable of producing absolutely unambiguous results that resolve historical mysteries. Thus, for many years it was believed that the rumors about the poisoning of Elena Glinskaya in 1538 were nothing more than another horror story about evil boyars, slander, etc. However, a forensic examination of Elena’s remains gave an unexpected result: she was really poisoned. The background level for copper was exceeded 2 times, for zinc - 3 times, lead - 28 times (!), arsenic - 8 times, selenium - 9 times. But the main thing is mercury salts. Their normal background is from 2 to 7 micrograms per gram. Elena had 55 micrograms in her hair - comments, as they say, are unnecessary. Lithuanian princess, by the will of fate, elevated to the throne of the ruler of the largest power of Eastern Europe, may have managed to deceive her husband - but she could not deceive fate. They never liked upstarts, and the bowl of boyar hell put an end to the fate of the second wife of Vasily III four years after his death.

Vasily Ivanovich
(at baptism the name Gabriel was given)
Years of life: March 25, 1479 - December 4, 1533
Reign: 1505-1533

From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes.

Russian Tsar. Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' in 1505-1533.
Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir.

The eldest son of Sophia Paleolog, the latter’s niece Byzantine emperor.

Vasily III Ivanovich - short biography

According to existing marriage agreements, the children of the Grand Duke of Moscow and 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. Until the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily Ivanovich was considered the Grand Duke of Novgorod, and in 1502 he also received from his father the great reign of Vladimir.

Prince Vasily III Ivanovich

In 1505, the dying father asked his sons to make peace, but as soon as Vasily Ivanovich became the Grand Duke, he immediately ordered Dmitry to be put in a dungeon, where he died in 1508. Introduction by Vasily III Ivanovich to the grand-ducal throne caused discontent among many boyars.

Like his father, he continued the policy of “gathering lands”, strengthening
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 agreement between Moscow and Lithuania and Poland in 1508, according to which Moscow retained his father’s acquisitions in western lands outside Moscow.

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

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.

Politics during the reign of Vasily III Ivanovich

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

Years of reign of Vasily III Ivanovich was marked by the rise of Russian culture, widespread Moscow style 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 was declared heir to the throne ( future king Grozny), son of Vasily Ivanovich, and Elena Glinskaya was appointed regent.

Vasily was married twice.
His wives:
Saburova Solomonia Yuryevna (from September 4, 1506 to November 1525).
Glinskaya Elena Vasilievna (from January 21, 1526).

Under Vasily III, the last semi-independent fiefs and principalities were annexed to Moscow. The Grand Duke limited the privileges of the princely-boyar aristocracy. He became famous for his victorious war against Lithuania.

Childhood and youth

The future emperor of the Rus was born in the spring of 1479. They named the grand-ducal son in honor of Vasily the Confessor, and at baptism they gave him the Christian name Gabriel. Vasily III is the first son born to her husband Sophia Paleologus, and the second eldest. At the time of his birth, his half-brother was 21 years old. Later, Sophia gave birth to her wife four more sons.

Vasily III's path to the throne was thorny: Ivan the Young was considered the main heir and legal successor of the sovereign. The second competitor for the throne turned out to be the son of Ivan the Young, Dmitry, who was favored by his august grandfather.

In 1490, the eldest son of Ivan III died, but the boyars did not want to see Vasily on the throne and sided with Dmitry and his mother Elena Voloshanka. Ivan's second wife III Sophia Paleologue and her son were supported by the clerks and boyar children who led the orders. Vasily's supporters pushed him into a conspiracy, advising the prince to kill Dmitry Vnuk and, having seized the treasury, flee from Moscow.

The sovereign's people uncovered the plot, those involved were executed, and Ivan III put his rebellious son in custody. Suspecting his wife Sophia Paleologue of bad intentions, the Grand Duke of Moscow began to beware of her. Having learned that sorcerers were coming to see his wife, the sovereign ordered the “dashing women” to be seized and drowned in the Moscow River under cover of darkness.

In February 1498, Dmitry was crowned prince, but a year later the pendulum swung to the opposite side: the sovereign’s favor left the grandson. Vasily, at the behest of his father, accepted Novgorod and Pskov into the reign. In the spring of 1502, Ivan III put his daughter-in-law Elena Voloshanka and grandson Dmitry into custody, and blessed Vasily for the great reign and declared autocrat of all Rus'.

Governing body

In domestic politics, Vasily III was a supporter of strict rule and believed that power should not be limited by anything. He dealt with dissatisfied boyars without delay and relied on the church in his confrontation with the opposition. But in 1521, under hot hand The Grand Duke of Moscow was captured by Metropolitan Varlaam: the priest was exiled for his unwillingness to side with the autocrat in the fight against the appanage prince Vasily Shemyakin.

Vasily III considered criticism unacceptable. In 1525 he executed diplomat Ivan Bersen-Beklemishev: statesman did not accept the Greek innovations introduced into the life of Rus' by the sovereign’s mother Sophia.

Over the years, the despotism of Vasily III intensified: the sovereign, increasing the number of landed nobility, limited the privileges of the boyars. The son and grandson continued the centralization of Rus' begun by his father Ivan III and grandfather Vasily the Dark.

In church politics, the new sovereign sided with the Josephites, who defended the right of monasteries to own land and property. Their non-covetous opponents were executed or imprisoned in monastery cells. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible's father, a new Code of Law appeared, which has not survived to this day.

The era of Vasily III Ivanovich saw a construction boom, which was started by his father. Appeared in the Moscow Kremlin Cathedral of the Archangel, and in Kolomenskoye - the Church of the Ascension of the Lord.

The tsar’s two-story travel palace has also survived to this day - one of the oldest monuments of civil architecture in the Russian capital. There were many such small palaces (“putinkas”) in which Vasily III and the retinue accompanying the tsar rested before entering the Kremlin, but only the palace on Staraya Basmannaya has survived.

Opposite the “putinka” there is another architectural monument - the Church of St. Nikita the Martyr. It appeared in 1518 by order of Vasily III and was originally made of wood. In 1685, a stone church was built in its place. Under the arches ancient temple prayed, Fedor Rokotov, .

In foreign policy Vasily III was noted as the collector of Russian lands. At the beginning of his reign, the Pskovites asked to annex them to the Moscow Principality. The Tsar did with them as Ivan III had done with the Novgorodians earlier: he resettled 3 hundred noble families from Pskov to Moscow, giving their estates to service people.

After the third siege in 1514, Smolensk was taken, and Vasily III used artillery to conquer it. The annexation of Smolensk became the sovereign's greatest military success.

In 1517, the tsar put into custody the last prince of Ryazan, Ivan Ivanovich, who had conspired with the Crimean Khan. Soon he was tonsured a monk, and his inheritance was extended to the Principality of Moscow. Then the Starodub and Novgorod-Seversky principalities surrendered.

At the beginning of his reign, Vasily III made peace with Kazan, and after breaking the agreement, he went on a campaign against the Khanate. The war with Lithuania was a success. The results of the reign of the Sovereign of All Rus' Vasily Ivanovich was the strengthening of the country, and people learned about it beyond distant borders. Relations began with France and India.

Personal life

Ivan III married his son a year before his death. It was not possible to find a noble wife: Solomonia Saburova, a girl of a non-boyar family, was chosen as Vasily’s wife.

At the age of 46, Vasily III was seriously concerned that his wife had not given him an heir. The boyars advised the king to divorce the barren Solomonia. Metropolitan Daniel approved the divorce. In November 1525 Grand Duke broke up with his wife, who was tonsured as a nun at the Nativity Convent.

After the tonsure, rumors arose that the ex-wife imprisoned in the monastery gave birth to a son, Georgy Vasilyevich, but there is no convincing evidence of this. According to popular rumor, the grown son of Saburova and Vasily Ivanovich became the robber Kudeyar, sung in Nekrasov’s “Song of the Twelve Thieves.”

A year after the divorce, the nobleman chose the daughter of the late Prince Glinsky. The girl conquered the king with her education and beauty. For the sake of it, the prince even shaved off his beard, which went against Orthodox traditions.

4 years passed, and the second wife still did not give the king the long-awaited heir. The Emperor and his wife went to Russian monasteries. It is generally accepted that the prayers of Vasily Ivanovich and his wife were heard by the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky. In August 1530, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan, the future Ivan the Terrible. A year later, a second boy appeared - Yuri Vasilyevich.

Death

The Tsar did not enjoy fatherhood for long: when his first-born was 3 years old, the Tsar fell ill. On the way from the Trinity Monastery to Volokolamsk, Vasily III discovered an abscess on his thigh.

After treatment, there was short-term relief, but after a couple of months the doctor pronounced a verdict that only a miracle could save Vasily: the patient had developed blood poisoning.

Tomb of Vasily III (right)

In December, the king died, blessing his first-born son to the throne. The remains were buried in the Moscow Archangel Cathedral.

Researchers suggest that Vasily III died of terminal cancer, but in the 16th century doctors did not know about such a disease.

Memory

During the reign of Vasily III, a new Code of Law was created, the Archangel Cathedral and the Church of the Ascension of the Lord were built.
In 2007, Alexey Shishov published the study “Vasily III: The Last Gatherer of the Russian Land.”
In 2009, the premiere of the series “Ivan the Terrible” by the director took place, in which the actor played the role of Vasily III.
In 2013, Alexander Melnik’s book “Moscow Grand Duke Vasily III and the Cults of Russian Saints” was published.

Vasily 3 (reigned 1505-1533) was marked by the final gathering of Russian lands around Moscow. It was under Vasily III that the process of unifying the lands around Moscow was completed and the process of creating the Russian state continued to take shape.

Most historians agree that Vasily 3, as a ruler and personality, was greatly inferior to his father, Ivan 3. It is difficult to say for sure whether this is true or not. The fact is that Vasily continued the business (and successfully) started by his father, but did not have time to start his own important business.

The end of the appanage system

Ivan 3 transferred all power to Vasily 3, and ordered his younger sons to obey their elder brother in everything. Vasily 3 inherited 66 cities (30 to his other sons), as well as the right to determine and conduct the country's foreign policy and mint coins. Specific system remained, but the power of the Grand Duke over others became increasingly stronger. The system of Rus' of that period was very accurately described by Joseph Volotsky (church leader), who called the reign of Vasily 3 the reign of the “Sovereign Sovereign of All Russian Lands.” Sovereign, Sovereign- that’s how it really was. There were sovereigns who owned appanages, but over them there was a single sovereign.

In the fight against the estates, Vasily 3 showed cunning - he forbade his brothers, the owners of the estates, to marry. Accordingly, they had no children and their power died away, and the lands became subordinate to Moscow. By 1533, only 2 estates were settled: Yuri Dmitrovsky and Andrei Staritsky.

Domestic policy

Land unification

The domestic policy of Vasily 3 continued the path of his father, Ivan 3: the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. The main initiatives in this regard were as follows:

Subjugation of independent principalities.
Strengthening the borders of the state.

In 1510, Vasily 3 subjugated Pskov. The Pskov prince Ivan Repnya-Obolensky, who was a cruel and unprincipled man, contributed greatly to this. The people of Pskov did not like him and staged riots. As a result, the prince was forced to turn to the main Sovereign, asking him to pacify the citizens. After this there are no exact sources. It is only known that Vasily 3 arrested the ambassadors who were sent to him from the townspeople, and offered them the only solution to the problem - submission to Moscow. That's what they decided on. To gain a foothold in this region, the Grand Duke sends 300 of the most influential families of Pskov to the central regions of the country.

In 1521, the Ryazan principality submitted to the authorities of Moscow, in 1523 the last southern principalities. Thus, the main task of the internal politics of the reign of Vasily 3 was solved - the country was united.

Map of the Russian state under Vasily 3

A map showing the last stages of the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. Most of These changes took place during the reign of Prince Vasily Ivanovich.

Foreign policy

Extension Russian state under Vasily 3 it also turned out to be quite extensive. The country managed to strengthen its influence, despite its fairly strong neighbors.

Western direction

War of 1507-1508

In 1507-1508 there was a war with Lithuania. The reason was that border Lithuanian principalities began to swear allegiance to Rus'. The last to do this was Prince Mikhail Glinsky (before that the Odoevskys, Belskys, Vyazemskys and Vorotynskys). The reason for the reluctance of the princes to be part of Lithuania lies in religion. Lithuania banned Orthodoxy and forcibly introduced Catholicism to the local population.

In 1508, Russian troops besieged Minsk. The siege was successful and Sigismund 1 asked for peace. As a result, all the lands that Ivan 3 annexed were assigned to Russia. This was a big breakthrough and important step in foreign policy and in strengthening the Russian state.

War of 1513-1522

In 1513, Vasily 3 learned that Lithuania had reached an agreement with the Crimean Khanate and was preparing for a military campaign. The prince decided to take the lead and besieged Smolensk. The assault on the city was difficult and the city repelled two attacks, but ultimately, in 1514, Russian troops took the city. But in the same year, the Grand Duke lost the battle of Orsha, which allowed the Lithuanian-Polish troops to approach Smolensk. It was not possible to take the city.

Minor battles continued until 1525, when peace was signed for 5 years. As a result of the peace, Russia retained Smolensk, and the border with Lithuania now ran along the Dnieper River.

Southern and eastern directions

Eastern and south direction The foreign policy of Prince Vasily Ivanovich should be considered in its entirety, since the Crimean Khan and the Kazan Khan acted together. Back in 1505, the Kazan Khan invaded Russian lands with plunder. In response, Vasily 3 sends an army to Kazan, forcing the enemy to again swear allegiance to Moscow, as was the case under Ivan 3.

1515-1516 - the Crimean army reaches Tula, devastating the lands along the way.

1521 - the Crimean and Kazan khans simultaneously began a military campaign against Moscow. Having reached Moscow, the Crimean Khan demanded that Moscow pay tribute, as it was before, and Vasily 3 agreed, since the enemy was numerous and strong. After this, the Khan's army went to Ryazan, but the city did not surrender, and they returned to their lands.

1524 – Crimean Khanate captures Astrakhan. All Russian merchants and the governor were killed in the city. Vasily 3 concludes a truce and sends an army to Kazan. Kazan ambassadors arrive in Moscow for negotiations. They dragged on for several years.

1527 - the Russian army defeated the army on the Oka River Crimean Khan, thereby stopping the constant raids from the south.

1530 - the Russian army is sent to Kazan and takes the city by storm. A ruler is installed in the city - a Moscow protege.

Key dates

1505-1533 – reign of Vasily 3
1510 – annexation of Pskov
1514 – annexation of Smolensk

The king's wives

In 1505, Vasily 3 decided to get married. A real show was organized for the prince - 500 noble girls from all over the country came to Moscow. The prince's choice settled on Solomnia Saburova. They lived together for 20 years, but the princess could not give birth to an heir. As a result, by the decision of the prince, Solomnia was tonsured as a nun and sent to the Suzdal convent of the Intercession.

In fact, Vasily 3 divorced Solomonia, violating all the laws of that time. Moreover, for this it was even necessary to remove Metropolitan Varlaam, who refused to arrange a divorce. Ultimately, after the change of metropolitan, Solomonia was accused of witchcraft, after which she was tonsured a nun.

In January 1526, Vasily 3 married Elena Glinskaya. The Glinsky family was not the most noble, but Elena was beautiful and young. In 1530, she gave birth to her first son, who was named Ivan (the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible). Soon another son was born - Yuri.

Maintain power at any cost

The reign of Vasily 3 seemed impossible for a long time, since his father wanted to pass the throne to his grandson from his first marriage, Dmitry. Moreover, in 1498, Ivan 3 crowned Dmitry as king, declaring him heir to the throne. The second wife of Ivan 3, Sophia (Zoya) Paleologus, together with Vasily, organize a conspiracy against Dmitry in order to get rid of a competitor for the inheritance of the throne. The plot was discovered and Vasily was arrested.

In 1499, Ivan 3 pardoned his son Vasily and released him from prison.
In 1502, Dmitry himself was accused and imprisoned, and Vasily was blessed to reign.

In light of the events of the struggle for the rule of Russia, Vasily 3 clearly understood that power at any cost is important, and anyone who interferes with this is an enemy. Here, for example, are the words in the chronicle:

I am king and lord by right of blood. I didn’t ask anyone for titles or buy them. There are no laws that require me to obey anyone. Believing in Christ, I reject any rights begged from others.
Prince Vasily 3 Ivanovich

Vasily 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. With great difficulty, Sophia managed to restore a good relationship with her 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 transition 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 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 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.

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 relatively humble Bersen Beklemishev, was subjected to death penalty, and there was little opal. But attention Big Vasily III did not render any assistance 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 the butler Ivan Shigona occupied the most prominent place, 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 Yuryevna (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).