Vasili III of Russia
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Vasili III Ivanovich, an engraving by a contemporary European artist. |
Vasili III Ivanovich (
Russian:
Π'Π°ΡΠΈΠ»ΠΈΠΉ III ΠΠ²Π°Π½ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ, also
Basil) (
March 251479 –
December 31533) was the
Grand Prince of
Moscow from
1505 to
1533. He was the son of
Ivan III Vasiliyevich and
Sophia Paleologue and was christened with the name Gavriil (Π"Π°Π²ΡΠΈΠΈΠ»).
Foreign affairs
Vasili III continued the policies of his father Ivan III and spent most of his reign consolidating Ivan's gains. Vasili
annexed the last surviving
autonomous provinces:
Pskov in
1510,
appanage of
Volokolamsk in
1513, principalities of
Ryazan in
1521 and
Novgorod-Seversky in
1522.
Vasili also took advantage of the difficult position of
Sigismund of Poland to capture
Smolensk, the great eastern fortress of
Lithuania (1512), chiefly through the aid of the rebel Lithuanian, Prince
Mikhail Hlinski, who provided him with artillery and engineers. The loss of Smolensk was the first serious injury inflicted by Muscovy on Lithuania and only the exigencies of Sigismund compelled him to acquiesce in its surrender (1522).
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The Church of Ascension |
Equally successful were Vasili's actions against the
Crimean Khanate. Although in
1519 he was obliged to buy off the khan of the Crimea,
Moxammad Giray, under the very walls of Moscow, towards the end of his reign he established Russian influence on the
Volga. In
1531-
32 he placed the pretender
Cangali khan on the throne of
Kazan.
Domestic affairs
In his internal policy, Vasili III enjoyed the support of the
Church in his struggle with the
feudal opposition. In 1521,
metropolitan Varlaam was
banished for refusing to participate in Vasili's fight against an appanage prince Vasili Ivanovich Shemyachich.
Rurikid princes Vasili
Shuisky and Ivan
Vorotynsky were also sent into
exile. The
diplomat and
statesman,
Ivan Bersen-Beklemishev, was executed in
1525 for criticizing Vasili's policies.
Maksim Grek (
publicist),
Vassian Patrikeyev (statesman) and others were
sentenced for the same reason in 1525 and
1531. During the reign of Vasili III, the
gentry's
landownership increased; authorities were actively trying to limit
immunities and
privileges of boyars and
nobility.
Vasili's greatest problem was the lack of heir. In 1526, despite much opposition from the clergy, he divorced his barren wife,
Solomonida Saburova, and married Princess
Elena Glinskaya, the daughter of a Serbian princess and niece of his friend Mikhail Hlinski. To the great joy of Vasili and the populace, the new tsaritsa gave birth to a son, who succeeded him as
Ivan IV. According to a story, Solomonida Saburova also
bore a son in the convent where she had been confined, just several months after the controversial divorce.
