Vasili IV of Russia
Vasili IV of Russia was the last Rurikid
tsar of
Russia between 1606 and 1610.
Born Knyaz Vasily Vasilievich
Shuisky and descended from sovereign princes of
Nizhny Novgorod, he was one of the leading
boyars of
Muscovy during the reigns of
Feodor I and
Boris Godunov. In all the court intrigues, Vasily and his younger brother Dmitry Shuisky usually acted together and fought as one.
It was he who, in obedience to the secret orders of Tsar Boris, went to
Uglich to inquire into the cause of the death of
Dmitry Ivanovich, the infant son of
Ivan the Terrible, who had perished there in mysterious circumstances, allegedly killed by the agents of Boris.
Encyclopedia
Vasili IV of Russia was the last Rurikid
tsar of
Russia between 1606 and 1610.
Born Knyaz Vasily Vasilievich
Shuisky and descended from sovereign princes of
Nizhny Novgorod, he was one of the leading
boyars of
Muscovy during the reigns of
Feodor I and
Boris Godunov. In all the court intrigues, Vasily and his younger brother Dmitry Shuisky usually acted together and fought as one.
It was he who, in obedience to the secret orders of Tsar Boris, went to
Uglich to inquire into the cause of the death of
Dmitry Ivanovich, the infant son of
Ivan the Terrible, who had perished there in mysterious circumstances, allegedly killed by the agents of Boris. Shuisky reported that it was a case of
suicide; yet, on the death of Boris and the accession of his son
Feodor II, the crafty boyar, in order to gain favour with the first
False Dmitriy I, went back upon his own words and recognized the pretender as the real Dmitriy, thus bringing about the assassination of the young Feodor.
Shuisky then plotted against the false Dmitriy and procured his death , in addition to confessing publicly that the real Dmitriy had been indeed slain and that the reigning tsar was an impostor. Shuisky's adherents thereupon proclaimed him
tsar on . He reigned till July 19, 1610, but was never generally recognized. Even in
Moscow itself he had little or no authority, and only avoided deposition by the dominant boyars because they had no-one to put in his place.
Only the popularity of his heroic cousin, Prince
Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who led his armies and fought his battles for him, and soldiers from
Sweden, whose assistance he purchased by the cession of Russian territory, kept him for a time on his unstable throne. In 1610 he was deposed by his former adherents Princes
Vorotynsky and Mstislavsky, made a monk, and finally transported to
Warsaw by the Polish
hetman,
Stanislaus Zolkiewski . He died a prisoner in the castle of Gostynin, near
Warsaw, in 1612.
References
See D. I. Ilovaisky, The Troubled Period of the Muscovite Realm , ; S. I. Platonov, Sketches of the Great Anarchy in the Realm of Moscow ; D. V. Tsvyeltev, Tsar Vasily Shuisky , .
External links
