Death of Basil III in what year. Brief biography of Vasily III

Vasily III Ivanovich (1479 - 1533) - Grand Duke 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 arrest. House arrest. Sophia managed to restore with great difficulty a good relationship with husband. The father and his son were forgiven.

Soon the positions of Sophia and her son became so strong that Dmitry himself and his mother Elena Voloshanka fell into disgrace. Vasily was proclaimed heir to the throne. Before the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily Ivanovich was considered the Grand Duke of Novgorod, and in 1502 he also received the great reign of Vladimir from his father.

Marriage Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova

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

Saburova, Solomonia Yurievna

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

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

Then such actions of the queen were assessed not only as a sin, but also as harm to her husband, who turned out to be a victim of damage. One of the fortune tellers confidently told the queen that they would never have children. Vasily III began to think about the inevitability of their divorce, and to resolve this issue he assembled a council of clergy and boyars. Moscow Metropolitan Daniel expressed his readiness to take the sin of the prince’s divorce upon his soul. Some boyars and clergy openly opposed divorce (Prince Patrikeev - monk Vassian Kosoy, monk Makrsim the Greek, Prince Semyon Kurbsky), all of them were severely punished and imprisoned for this. Most people were against the divorce, condemned the intention of Vasily III, but were afraid of his anger and remained silent.

Vasily III was guided by state interests in 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, Solomonia in the world, 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, they built a gate church small room for a separate throne, 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 a thorough stone construction in him.

Marriage of Ivan III with Elena Glinskaya

The tsar's second wife was Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya (1509-1538), in whose veins Lithuanian blood flowed. Her uncle Alexander fled from Lithuania to Russia. This meant that the tsar’s chosen one came from a family of fugitives and traitors who had disgraced themselves in their homeland, Lithuania.

Elena Glinskaya Grand Duchess of Moscow

The fact is very unpleasant: the great princes usually chose their wives from glorious boyar families or from respected families - royal, royal - outside Russia. Contemporaries wrote that Tsar Vasily III fell passionately in love with the young Elena Glinskaya, in order to please her, he decided to do an unprecedented thing: he began to look younger and even shaved his beard and used cosmetics.

Two months after the divorce and tonsure of Solomonia Saburova, Tsar Vasily III married Elena Glinskaya (he was 48 years old, she was 18). The tsar, in love with his young wife, did not notice in her retinue her former lover, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Telepnev-Obolensky-Saburov-Ovchina (he was soon elevated to noble ranks of the state and, perhaps, is the father of the next tsar - Ivan IV, born in 1530) .

Vasily III Ivanovich

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

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

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

PRINCE VASILY III IVANOVICH

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

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

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

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

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

Vasily III Ivanovich.

Later, joint raids of Kazan and Crimean Tatars on Moscow began. The Prince of Moscow in 1521 decided to build fortified cities in the area of ​​the “wild field” (in particular, Vasilsursk) and the Great Zasechnaya Line (1521-1523) in order to strengthen the borders. He also invited Tatar princes to Moscow service, giving them vast lands.

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

Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich

POLITICS IN THE REIGN OF VASILY III IVANOVICH

In his domestic policy 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.

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

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

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

The Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' Vasily Ivanovich died on December 4, 1533 from blood poisoning, which was caused by an abscess on his left thigh. In agony, he managed to become a monk under the name of Varlaam. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. 3-year-old Ivan IV (the future Tsar the Terrible), the son of Vasily Ivanovich, was declared heir to the throne, and Elena Glinskaya was appointed regent.

Vasily was married twice.
His wives:
Saburova Solomonia 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).

In 1934, a young researcher of Suzdal and director of the Suzdal Museum A.D. Varganov carried out archaeological excavations in the basement of the Intercession Cathedral of the Intercession Monastery in Suzdal. During the excavations, a small unnamed tomb was discovered, located between the tombs of a certain “Elder Alexandra,” who died in 1525, and “Elder Sophia,” who died in 1542. It is known that Sofia is the first wife of the Grand Moscow Prince and Emperor Vasily III, Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova, accused of infertility and tonsured into a monastery in 1525. However, there were rumors that the accusation was unfair, that Solomonia was expecting a child and gave birth to a son in the monastery, who soon died. Varganov was very interested in the unnamed tomb: what if this is the tomb of the son of Solomonia Saburova? He decides to open the burial. Imagine his surprise when he found no traces of burial in the tomb. Instead of a skeleton, there lay a wooden doll, half decayed from time to time, dressed in a silk boy's shirt, like those in the 16th century. worn by children of the royal family. Restored, this shirt is in the historical exhibition of the Suzdal museum, next to it is the lid from that tomb.

So, a false burial from the 16th century? Who needed this? Historians tried to unravel the mystery of this burial throughout the 20th century.
Grand Duke Vasily III was the son of Ivan III and his second wife, Byzantine princess Sophia Paleolog. He reigned from 1505 to 1533. Under him, the unification of Russian lands around Moscow was completed. In relations with the Tatar khanates, he already called himself “the king of all Rus'.” The German ambassador Sigismund Herberstein wrote about him: “This is a sovereign like no other monarch in Europe. He alone rules.”
At the age of 26, he decided to get married. It was then that the famous “girlish commotion” occurred, which today has become the plot for an operetta by Yu. Milyutin. The Grand Duke ordered to collect the most beautiful girls, regardless of their nobility. Out of one and a half thousand, 500 were selected and brought to Moscow, of which 300 were chosen, out of three hundred 200, after 100, finally only 10, carefully examined by midwives; From these ten, Vasily chose a bride for himself and then married her. Why not a 16th century beauty contest?
Vasily's choice fell on Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova, who came from an old, but "seedy"Moscow boyar family.
They lived, according to the chronicles, in complete harmony. However, years passed, and Solomonia remained childless. Vasily did not want to leave the throne to his brothers. He did not even allow them to marry until he himself had an heir, but time passed, neither doctors, nor priests, nor trips to monasteries and fervent prayers helped - there were no children. Then Vasily decided to divorce Solomonia and exile her to a monastery. He already had another bride in mind, the young beauty Elena Glinskaya.
For Rus' at that time, this case was unprecedented. Firstly, the Orthodox Church allowed one of the spouses to enter a monastery only with their mutual consent. But Solomonia didn’t want to hear about divorce. Secondly, there could be no talk of any new marriage while the first wife was alive.
With a request for permission to divorce, Vasily III turned to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the head of all Orthodox churches peace, but received a categorical refusal. Moscow Metropolitan Daniel came to the aid of the Grand Duke, who found the prince an excuse for the divorce, saying: “They cut down a barren fig tree and remove it from the grapes.” A search began for Solomonia’s “barrenness.” During the course of it, it turned out that the Grand Duchess resorted to the help of fortune-tellers and healers, to witchcraft and “conspiracies” - this sharply worsened her situation, since a suspicion arose whether that witchcraft had caused damage to the Grand Duke?! Solomonia's fate was decided. On November 29, 1525, she was tonsured in the Moscow Nativity Monastery.

There is evidence that the tonsure was forced, that Solomonia opposed him. About itwrites Prince Andrei Kurbsky. German Ambassador
Herberstein writes that Solomonia tore off the monastic doll and trampled it with her feet, for which the boyar Shigonya-Podzhogin hit her with a whip! However, many boyars and clergy sympathized with Solomonia, and the boyar Bersen-Beklemishev even tried to come to her defense, but Vasily furiously exclaimed: “Go away, you smerd, I don’t need you!” Since many in Moscow supported Solomonia, Vasily III sent her away from Moscow - to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Less than two months later, Vasily III married Elena Glinskaya, who had just turned 16 years old. The prince was already 42 years old, in order to please his young wife and look younger himself, Vasily, deviating from the customs of antiquity, even shaved off his beard!
Several months passed... And suddenly rumors spread throughout Moscow thatKudeyar

Solomonia in the monastery gave birth to Vasily III, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich George. The Glinskys were furious, and Vasily also did not like these rumors. The rumor mongers were identified and punished, and clerks were hastily sent to Suzdal to clarify this scandalous matter. Solomonia met the clerks with hostility and refused to show them the child, declaring that they “are not worthy for their eyes to see the prince, and when he puts on his greatness, he will avenge his mother’s insult.” Then boyars and clergy were sent, but no documents have been preserved about the results of this investigation. It is only known that Solomonia announced the death of her son. The Grand Duke's ambassadors were shown the tomb.

However, did Solomonia have a son? This remains unknown. Some historians are convinced that there was. Archaeologist and historian Count S.D. Sheremetyev believed that Solomonia hid her son with reliable people, because she understood that he would not be left alive. This version is confirmed by Varganov’s discovery of an empty tomb in 1934. Moreover, in his second marriage, Vasily III also did not have children for a long time. Only in 1530 did the Grand Duke have a son, Ivan, the future Ivan the Terrible. Now any talk about the canonicity of Vasily III’s second marriage meant a denial of the legality of the rights of the heir to the throne. For this they cut off their heads, starved them in prison, and exiled them to the north. Soon, Elena Glinskaya had a second son, Yuri (who turned out to be deaf and dumb), and only now Vasily III allowed his brothers to marry. By this time there were only two of them left.

Vasily III died in 1533. Power under the young Ivan passed to his mother, who ruled together with her favorite, Prince Ivan Obolensky. It was rumored that he was the father of Elena's children (Ivan suffered from epilepsy, like Prince Obolensky). For Helen, Solomonia and her son, if he existed, were very dangerous. Therefore, Solomonia was exiled to Kargopol, where she was kept in prison until the death of Elena Glinskaya. After the death of Elena Glinskaya, the Shuisky princes came to power, treating the young Ivan IV with disdain. It would seem that this is an opportune opportunity for Tsarevich George to appear on the political arena. However, nothing of the kind happened. And yet there is still a lot of mystery in this story.

If George was not there, then why did Ivan IV, who had already firmly established himself on the throne, demand all the archival documents of the investigation about the “infertility” of Solomonia? And where did these documents then disappear? Some historians believe that Ivan the Terrible spent his entire life looking for Solomonia’s son George. It is known that Ivan IV made devastating campaigns against Tver and Novgorod the Great. On his orders, mass exterminations of men were carried out there. There are suggestions that Ivan the Terrible received reports that Georgy was hiding in these cities and tried to destroy him.
The name of George is popularly associated with the legendary robber Kudeyar, the hero of many songs and legends, the Russian Robin Hood. According to one legend, Kudeyar robbed in the forests between Suzdal and Shuya. Here, in the estates of the Shuisky princes, Kudeyar could hide from the wrath of the Glinskys in his youth. But these are just assumptions, not supported by any documents.

In 1542 Solomonia died. After 8 years, Patriarch Joseph recognized her as a saint. The relics of Elder Sophia were and remain revered by many people. Ivan the Terrible himself allegedly placed a shroud woven by his wife Anastasia on her tomb. They came to the relics of St. Sophia and both of his sons with their wives, and the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, and many others.
Well, what about Georgy? Did he really exist, or is it just fiction? No one knows about this and is unlikely to find out. Nowadays, in the basement of the monastery's Intercession Cathedral, among numerous ancient tombs, services are held - there is a temple here again, as in ancient times. Relics of St. Sophia was moved to the main temple, and the nameless small tomb is no longer disturbed.

Based on materials from the newspaper "Evening Bell"

Relations with the boyars

Under Vasily III, simple appanage relations between subjects and the sovereign disappeared.

Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, the German ambassador, who was in Moscow at that time, notes that Vasily III had power that no other monarch had, and then adds that when Muscovites are asked about a matter unknown to them, they say, equaling the prince with God :" We don’t know this, God and the Emperor know".

On the front side of the Grand Duke's seal there was an inscription: “ Great Sovereign Vasily, by the grace of God, Tsar and Lord of All Rus'" On the back it read: “ Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and many lands Sovereign».

Confidence in his own exclusivity was instilled in Vasily both by his far-sighted father and by the cunning Byzantine princess, his mother. Byzantine diplomacy can indeed be felt in all of Vasily's policies, especially in international affairs. In suppressing resistance to his authority, he used hard power, or cunning, or both. It should be noted that he rarely resorted to the death penalty to deal with his opponents, although many of them were imprisoned or exiled on his orders. This contrasts sharply with the wave of terror that swept Rus' during the reign of his son, Tsar Ivan IV.

Vasily III ruled through clerks and people who were not distinguished by their nobility and antiquity. According to the boyars, Ivan III still consulted with them and allowed himself to contradict, but Vasily did not allow contradictions and decided matters without the boyars with his entourage - the butler Shigona Podzhogin, and five clerks.

The spokesman for boyar relations at that time was I.N. Bersen-Beklemishev is a very smart and well-read person. When Bersen allowed himself to contradict the Grand Duke, the latter drove him away, saying: " Go away, you stinker, I don't need you"Later, Bersen-Beklemishev's tongue was cut out for speeches against the Grand Duke.

Intra-church relations

Thus, the so-called “destinations” were abolished and only simple servicemen and princes remained in the Moscow state.

War with Lithuania

On March 14, Sigismund wrote to Rome and asked to organize a crusade against the Russians by the forces of the Christian world.

The campaign began on June 14. The army under the command of Vasily III moved towards Smolensk through Borovsk. The siege lasted four weeks, accompanied by intense artillery shelling of the city (several Italian specialists in the siege of fortresses were brought in). However, Smolensk survived again: the siege was lifted on November 1.

In February of the year, Vasily III gave the order to prepare for the third campaign. The siege began in July. The city was literally shot down by hurricane artillery fire. Fires started in the city. The townspeople crowded into churches, praying to the Lord for salvation from the Moscow barbarians. A special service was written to the patron saint of the city, Mercury of Smolensk. The city was surrendered on July 30 or 31.

The triumph of the capture of Smolensk was overshadowed by a strong defeat at Orsha. However, all attempts by the Lithuanians to recapture Smolensk ended in failure.

In the year a truce was concluded with the cession of Smolensk to Moscow until the “eternal peace” or “consummation”. In the year, according to the vow he made 9 years ago, the Grand Duke founded the Novodevichy Convent near Moscow in gratitude for the capture of Smolensk.

Wars with Crimea and Kazan

During the Lithuanian War, Basil III was in alliance with Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg and Grand Master Teutonic Order, whom he helped with money for the war with Poland; Prince Sigismund, for his part, spared no money to raise the Crimean Tatars against Moscow.

Since the Crimean Tatars were now forced to refrain from raiding the Ukrainian lands belonging to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, they directed their greedy gaze towards the Seversk land and the border regions of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This was the beginning of a protracted war between Russia and the Crimean Tatars, in which the Ottoman Turks later took part on the side of the latter.

Vasily III tried to restrain the Crimeans, trying to conclude an alliance with the Turkish Sultan, who, as the supreme ruler, could prohibit the Crimean Khan from invading Rus'. But Rus' and Turkey did not have any common benefits and the Sultan rejected the offer of an alliance and responded with a direct demand that the Grand Duke not touch Kazan. Of course, the Grand Duke could not fulfill this requirement.

In the summer, the son and heir of Mengli-Girey, Khan Muhammad-Girey managed to reach the outskirts of Moscow itself. The governor of Cherkassy, ​​Evstafiy Dashkevich, at the head of an army of Ukrainian Cossacks who were in his service, raided the Seversk land. When Vasily III received news of the Tatar invasion, he, in order to gather more troops, retreated to Volok, leaving Moscow to the Orthodox Tatar prince Peter, the husband of Vasily's sister Evdokia (+ 1513). Muhamed-Girey missed a convenient time and did not occupy Moscow, only devastating the surrounding area. Rumors about the hostile plans of the Astrakhan people and the movement of the Moscow army forced the khan to retire to the south, taking with him a huge captivity.

Kazan Khan Muhammad-Emin opposed Moscow soon after the death of Ivan III. In the spring, Vasily III sent Russian troops to Kazan, but the campaign was unsuccessful - the Russians suffered two serious defeats. However, two years later, Muhammad-Emin returned the captives to Moscow and signed a friendly treaty with Vasily. After the death of Muhammad-Emin, Vasily III sent the Kasimov prince Shah-Ali to Kazan. The Kazan people first accepted him as their khan, but soon, under the influence of Crimean agents, they rebelled and invited Sahib-Girey, the brother of the Crimean khan (city), to the Kazan throne. Shah Ali was allowed to return to Moscow with all his wives and property. As soon as Sahib Giray sat in Kazan, he ordered some of the Russians living in Kazan to be destroyed and others to be enslaved.

Construction

The reign of Vasily III was marked in Moscow by the scale of stone construction.

• The walls and towers of the Kremlin were built on the river side. Neglinnaya.
• In the year the Archangel Cathedral and the Church of John the Baptist at the Borovitsky Gate were consecrated.
• In the spring of the year, the stone churches of the Annunciation in Vorontsovo, the Annunciation on Stary Khlynov, Vladimir in Sadekh (Starosadsky Lane), the Beheading of John the Baptist near Bor, Barbarians against the Master's Court, etc. were founded in Moscow.

By decree of the tsar, churches were also built in other parts of the Russian land. In Tikhvin in the year for the miraculous

Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' (1505-1533).

Vasily III Ivanovich was born on March 25, 1479. He was the son of the Grand Duke (1440-1505) and. The father sought to transfer full power to his son from his first marriage, Ivan Ivanovich the Young, and back in 1470 he declared him his co-ruler, but he died in 1490.

The ensuing struggle to determine the future heir to the throne ended in the victory of Vasily Ivanovich. First, he was declared the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov, and in 1502 - the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir and All Rus', autocrat, that is, he became his father’s co-ruler.

After his death in October 1505, Vasily III Ivanovich unhinderedly ascended the throne, receiving, according to his father’s will, the Great Reign of Moscow, the right to manage the capital and all its income, the right to mint coins, 66 cities and the title of “Sovereign of All Rus'.”

Having become the head of state, Vasily III Ivanovich continued his father’s policy - “gathering lands,” strengthening the grand-ducal power and defending the interests of Orthodoxy in Western Rus'. From the very beginning, he energetically fought for the centralization of the state, under him the last semi-independent Russian lands were annexed - (1510), Volotsky inheritance (1513), (1514), Ryazan (1521), Starodub and Novgorod-Seversky (1522) principalities.

In foreign policy Vasily III Ivanovich, in addition to the fight for Russian lands, also waged periodic wars with the Tatars of the Crimean and Kazan Khanates, who raided. The Grand Duke's diplomatic method to protect himself from attacks was to invite Tatar princes to Moscow service, who received vast lands.

In relation to more distant countries, he pursued as friendly a policy as possible. Vasily III Ivanovich negotiated with Prussia, inviting it to an alliance against Lithuania and Livonia; received the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, and the Hindu Sultan Babur. He discussed with the Pope the possibility of union and war against Turkey. Trade relations were connected with Italy, France and Austria.

In his domestic policy, Vasily III Ivanovich, in order to strengthen the autocracy, fought against the noble boyars and feudal opposition. For speaking out against the policies of the Grand Duke in different years Many boyars and princes fell into disgrace, and even Metropolitan Varlaam. Vasily III Ivanovich took measures to remove the remnants of appanage rule to new places. The result of this policy was the rapid growth of local noble land ownership, the limitation of the immunity and privileges of the princely-boyar aristocracy.

Also, Vasily III Ivanovich pushed the boyars away from participating in solving state issues. “Councils” with the boyar duma during his reign were mainly of a formal nature: all matters were decided personally by the Grand Duke or in contact with a few trusted people. However, the strength of tradition was such that the tsar had to appoint representatives of the boyars to significant positions in the army and administration.

The reign of Vasily III Ivanovich was also marked by the rise of Russian culture, the spread of the Moscow style of literary writing, which took a leading place among other regional literatures. At the same time, the architectural appearance of the Moscow Kremlin took shape, which turned into a well-fortified fortress.

Vasily III Ivanovich was married twice. His first marriage took place back in 1505. His wife then became the boyar's daughter Solomonia Saburova. Since this marriage was fruitless, Vasily III Ivanovich, despite the protests of the church, obtained a divorce in 1525. His second wife was the princess, whom he married in 1526. In this marriage were born the sons Ivan (future) and the feeble-minded Yuri.

Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich died on December 3, 1533. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The dying prince declared the three-year-old to be his heir under the regency of Elena Glinskaya.

The ultimate success of the unification of Russian lands into single state was the achievement of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich (1505-1533). It is no coincidence that the Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Russia twice in the first third of the 16th century and left the famous “Notes on Muscovy,” wrote that Vasily III was superior in power to “almost all the monarchs of the whole world.” However, the sovereign was unlucky - the bizarre historical memory, having given due credit to his father and no less rightly cementing the cruel image of his son Ivan the Terrible, did not leave enough free space for Vasily III himself. As if “hovering” between two sovereign Ivans, Vasily III always remained in their shadow. Neither his personality, nor his methods of government, nor the forms of succession in power between Ivan III and Ivan the Terrible have yet been studied sufficiently fully.

Childhood, youth

Vasily III was born on March 25, 1479 and was named in honor of the confessor Vasily of Paria, inheriting one of the traditional names for the Moscow princely family of the Danilovichs. He became the first son from the second marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus, who came from the Morean line of the dynasty that ruled in Byzantium until 1453. Before Vasily, only girls were born to the grand ducal couple. In later chronicles, a wonderful legend was even recorded about how Sophia, who suffered from the absence of her son, received a sign from the very St. Sergius about the birth of the future heir to the throne. However, the long-awaited firstborn was not the main contender for the throne. From his first marriage, Ivan III had an eldest son, Ivan the Young, who was declared co-ruler of Ivan III at least eight years before the birth of Vasily. But in March 1490, Ivan the Young died, and Vasily had a chance. Researchers traditionally talk about the struggle between two court factions, which especially intensified in the second half of the 1490s. One of them relied on the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry Vnuk, the other promoted Vasily. The balance of power and passion of this struggle is unknown to us, but we know its outcome. Ivan III, who initially declared Dmitry Vnuk as heir and even for some time imprisoned Vasily “for bailiffs in his own court,” changed his anger to mercy in March 1499: Vasily was proclaimed “Sovereign Grand Duke.”

Reign (1505-1533)

Vasily's co-government lasted more than six years. On October 27, 1505, Ivan III passed away, and Vasily became an independent sovereign.

Domestic policy

Fight against destinies

Most of the possessions of the deceased Grand Duke passed to Vasily: 66 cities against 30 that went to the other four sons, and Moscow, which had always been split up between sons, now passed entirely to the eldest heir. The new principles of transfer of power established by Ivan III reflected one of the main trends political life country - the desire for autocracy: the appanage system was not only the main source of strife, but also a serious obstacle to the economic and political unity of the country. Vasily III continued the centralizing policy of his father. Around 1506, the Grand Duke's governor established himself in Perm the Great. In 1510, the formal independence of the Pskov land was abolished. The reason for this was a major clash between the Pskovites and the Grand Duke's governor, Prince Repnin-Obolensky. The Pskov residents’ complaint against the governor’s arbitrariness was not satisfied, but a stunning demand followed: “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had a veche, and naturally they would have removed the veche bell.” Pskov no longer had the strength to reject it. By order of Vasily III, many boyar families and “guests” were evicted from Pskov. In 1521, the Ryazan Principality, which followed Moscow policy for more than half a century, also joined the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Pskov land and the Ryazan principality were strategically important outskirts in the northwest and southeast, respectively. A sharp strengthening of Moscow’s position here would extremely complicate its relations with its neighbors. Vasily III believed that the existence of buffer vassal lands located on strategically important outskirts was more expedient than their direct inclusion in the state until the state did not have sufficient forces to reliably secure new territories. The Grand Duke fought against the appanages using various methods. Sometimes the appanages were destroyed purposefully (for example, the abolition of the Novgorod-Seversky appanage in 1522, where the grandson of Dmitry Shemyaka, Prince Vasily Ivanovich, ruled), usually Vasily simply forbade his brothers to marry and, therefore, have legitimate heirs. After the death of Vasily III himself in 1533, the inheritance of his second son Yuri, as well as his brother Andrei Staritsky, remained. There also remained several minor fiefs of the Verkhovsky princes, located in the upper reaches of the Oka. But the specific system was essentially overcome.

Local system

Under Vasily III, the local system was strengthened - a mechanism that made it possible to solve two pressing problems facing the state: at that time, the needs of ensuring a combat-ready army were closely intertwined with the need to limit the political and economic independence of the large aristocracy. The essence of the mechanism of local land ownership was the distribution of lands to the “landowners”-nobles for temporary conditional possession for the period of the “princes’ service.” The “landowner” had to perform his service regularly, could lose his land for violating his duties, and had no right to dispose of the lands given to him, which remained the supreme property of the grand dukes. At the same time, social guarantees were introduced: if a “landowner”-noble died in service, the state took care of his family.

Localism

The principle of localism began to play a most important role in the work of the state machine under Vasily III - a system of hierarchy, according to which the highest positions in the army or in the civil service could be filled exclusively in accordance with the birth of the prince or boyar. Although this principle prevented talented managers from gaining access to the administration, it largely made it possible to avoid struggle at the top political elite a country that was rapidly flooded with heterogeneous immigrants from different Russian lands during the formation of a unified Russian state.

" " and "non-possessors"

In the era of Vasily III, the problem of monastic property, primarily the ownership of lands, was actively discussed. Numerous donations to monasteries led to the fact that by the end of the 15th century Substantial part the monasteries became rich landowners. One solution to the problem was proposed: to use funds to help the suffering, and to make stricter regulations in the monasteries themselves. Another decision came from the Monk Nilus of Sorsky: the monasteries should completely abandon their property, and the monks should live “by their handicrafts.” The grand ducal power, interested in land fund, necessary for distribution to estates, also advocated limiting monastic property. On church cathedral In 1503, Ivan III made an attempt to carry out secularization, but was refused. However, time passed, and the position of the authorities changed. The “Josephite” environment put a lot of effort into developing the concept of a strong state, and Vasily III turned away from the “non-acquisitive”. The final victory of the “Josephites” took place at the council of 1531.

New political theories

Success in state building, the strengthening Moscow self-awareness, political and ideological necessity gave impetus to the emergence in the era of Vasily III of new political theories designed to explain and justify the special political rights of the Grand Dukes of Moscow. The most famous are “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” and the messages of Elder Philotheus to Vasily III about the Third Rome.

Foreign policy

Russo-Lithuanian wars (1507-1508; 1512-22)

During the Russian-Lithuanian wars, Vasily III managed to conquer Smolensk in 1514, one of the largest centers of the Russian-speaking lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Smolensk campaigns were led personally by Vasily III, and in the official chronicle the triumph of Russian weapons will be expressed by the phrase about the liberation of Smolensk from “evil Latin charms and violence.” The crushing defeat of Russian troops in the Battle of Orsha in the fall of 1514 that followed the liberation of Smolensk stopped Moscow’s advance to the West. However, during the military campaigns of 1517 and 1518, Russian commanders managed to defeat the Lithuanian forces near Opochka and Krevo.

Relations with Orthodox peoples

The reign of Vasily III was marked by the deepening of Russia's contacts with Orthodox peoples and lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire, including Mount Athos. The severity gradually softens church schism between the Metropolis of All Rus' and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which began in the middle of the 15th century after the election of the Russian Metropolitan Jonah without the sanction of Constantinople. A clear confirmation of this is the message of Patriarch Theoliptus I to Metropolitan Varlaam, compiled in July 1516, in which the patriarch, long before the official adoption of the royal title by the Russian sovereigns, awarded Vasily III with royal dignity - “the highest and shortest king and the great king of all Orthodox lands, Great Rus' "

Russian-Crimean relations

Russian-Crimean relations were not easy. They reached their peak when, in July 1521, Khan Muhammad-Girey made a devastating campaign against Rus' with the goal of “putting an end to the outrageous rebellions of idolaters fierce against Islam.” The southern and central volosts of the Moscow principality (the advanced forces of the Krymchaks reached the outskirts of Moscow) suffered enormous damage. Muhammad-Girey captured a huge full. Since then, the defense of the Coast - the southern border, which ran along the Oka River - has become the most important task of ensuring the security of the state.

Relations with the West

Attempts that began during the time of Ivan III to achieve an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Moscow against Ottoman Empire continued under Vasily III. The sovereigns invariably emphasized hatred of the infidel “terror” and “enemies of Christ,” but did not enter into an agreement. They equally refused to become subordinate to the “Latins” and did not want to spoil the still quite friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire.

Personal life

In 1505, Vasily III married Solomonia Saburova. For the first time, a representative of a boyar, and not a princely family, became the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow. The couple, who had been married for twenty years, had no children, and Vasily III, who needed an heir, decided to marry a second time. Solomonia was sent to a monastery, and Elena Glinskaya, who came from a family of Lithuanian boyars who went to serve in Moscow, became the new wife of the sovereign. From this marriage the future Tsar of All Rus' Ivan the Terrible was born.

On December 3, 1533, Vasily III died due to a progressive illness that appeared during a hunt. Before his death, he accepted monasticism with the name Varlaam. Soon after the death of the Grand Duke, the most interesting “Tale of the Illness and Death of Vasily III” was created - a chronicle last weeks life of the sovereign.