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Vasili III of Russia
Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Vasili III Ivanovich (Russian: Василий III Иванович; Christian name: Gavriil;[a] monastic name: Varlaam;[b][1] 25 March 1479 – 3 December 1533) was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1505 until his death in 1533.[2]
He was the second son of Ivan III by his second wife Sophia Paleologue. Following on the ambitions of his father, Vasili annexed Pskov and Ryazan – the last remaining autonomous Russian territories – and captured the city of Smolensk from Lithuania.[3] He also strengthened Russian influence in Kazan and the Volga region. Several nobles were exiled, sentenced, or executed for criticizing his policies.
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Early life
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Vasili was the second son of Ivan III of Russia. Following the death of Ivan's eldest son, Ivan Molodoy, the young Ivan's son, Dmitry Ivanovich, became heir presumptive in 1490 and was later made grand prince and co-ruler in 1498 after a conspiracy against Dmitry by Vasili's supporters was uncovered and foiled.[4] However, on 21 March 1499, Vasili was forgiven by his father and he was bestowed the title of grand prince of Novgorod and Pskov.[5] In March 1501, Vasili was given the Beloozero principality, and the following year, Dmitry and his supporters fell out of favor with Ivan.[5] On 11 April 1502, Dmitry and his mother Elena of Moldavia were arrested and placed under house arrest.[5] Three days later, Ivan III named Vasili as his successor:[6][5]
In the year 7010 [1502], on April 14, a Thursday, the feast day of our Father among the saints St. Martin, Pope of Rome, Grand Prince Ivan Vasil'evich of All Russia showed favor upon [pozhaloval] his son Vasilii, and blessed him and seated him on the grand princely throne [na velikoe kniazhenie] of Vladimir and Moscow and of all Russia, Autocrat.[5]
According to Sigismund von Herberstein, a diplomat who visited Russia in 1517, some 1,500 noble girls were brought together in the summer of 1505 for a bride-show.[6] Vasili chose Solomonia Saburova and the two were married on 4 September 1505.[6] The custom was introduced by Vasili's mother Sofia Paleologue, who herself was of Byzantine royalty, though she died before the wedding could take place.[6] Vasili himself was a cultured man and proud of his imperial descent; he may have known the Greek language.[7]
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Foreign affairs
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Vasili III maintained the policies initiated by his father Ivan III, focusing much of his reign on consolidating the territorial gains achieved by Ivan. Vasili annexed the last remaining autonomous provinces in Russia: the republic of Pskov in 1510 and the principality of Ryazan in 1521.[8][9]
Vasili also took advantage of the difficult position of Sigismund of Poland to capture Smolensk, the great eastern fortress of Lithuania (siege started 1512, ended in 1514), chiefly through the aid of the rebel Lithuanian, Prince Mikhail Glinski, who provided him with artillery and engineers. The loss of Smolensk was an important injury inflicted by Russia on Lithuania in the course of the Russo-Lithuanian Wars and only the exigencies of Sigismund compelled him to acquiesce in its surrender (1522).[10]
In 1521, Vasili received an emissary of the neighboring Iranian Safavid Empire, sent by Shah Ismail I whose ambitions were to construct an Irano-Russian alliance against the common enemy, the Ottoman Empire.[11]
Vasili saw some success against the Crimean Khanate. Although in 1519 his armies were defeated along the Oka River and he was obliged to buy off the Crimean khan, Mehmed I 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 Khanate of Kazan.[10]
Unlike his son, Ivan IV, Vasili did not officially hold the title of tsar within Russia; however, externally, such as in diplomatic documents produced by and for the Holy Roman Empire, he would alternatively be called tsar, grand prince, or, as by Maximilian I, kayser.[12] In this naming custom, as well as in using the double-headed eagle of the Byzantine Empire, Vasili continued practices begun by his father and predecessor, Ivan III.[13] The seal and the introduction of Byzantine ceremonies and court etiquette seem to have been inspired by Vasili's mother Sophia Paleologue.[14] Like his father, Vasili fought for recognition of the equality of the titles of tsar and emperor by other European monarchs.[15] He achieved some success in 1514, when the Holy Roman Emperor implicitly recognized the Russians' insistence to be treated as an equal, whether this was by accident or by design.[16] The letter by Maximilian I was later used by Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725) when he proclaimed himself as imperator of Russia.[16]
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Family
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 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2025) |
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By 1526 when he was 47 years old, Vasili had been married to Solomonia Saburova for over 20 years with no heir to his throne being produced. Conscious of her husband's disappointment, Solomonia tried to remedy this by consulting sorcerers and going on pilgrimages. When this proved unsuccessful, Vasili consulted the boyars, announcing that he did not trust his two brothers to handle Russia's affairs and forbade them to marry anyone.[citation needed]
The boyars suggested that he take a new wife. A divorce due to wife sterility was unlawful, so he falsely accused her of witchcraft, and despite much opposition from the clergy, he divorced his barren wife, exiled her to a monastery, exiled the opposed clergy and soon married Princess Elena Glinskaya, the daughter of a Serbian princess and niece of his friend Michael Glinski. Not many of the boyars approved of his choice, as Elena was of Catholic upbringing. Vasili was so smitten that he defied Russian social norms and trimmed his beard to appear younger. After three days of matrimonial festivity, the couple consummated their marriage, though initially it appeared that Elena was as sterile as Solomonia. The Russian populace began to suspect this was a sign of God's disapproval of the marriage. However, to the great joy of Vasili and the populace, the new tsaritsa gave birth to a son, who would succeed him as Ivan IV. Three years later, a second son, Yuri, was born.[17] According to a story, Solomonia Saburova also bore a son in the convent where she had been confined, just several months after the controversial divorce.[citation needed]
He had three brothers: Yuri (born in 1480), Simeon (born in 1487) and Andrei (born in 1490), as well as five sisters: Elena (born and died in 1474), Feodosiya (born and died in 1475), another Elena (born 1476), another Feodosiya (born 1485) and Eudoxia (born 1492).[17]
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Death
Whilst out hunting on horseback near Volokolamsk, Vasili felt a great pain in his right hip, the result of an abscess. He was transported to the village of Kolp, where he was visited by two German doctors who were unable to stop the infection with conventional remedies. Believing that his time was short, Vasili requested to be returned to Moscow, where he was kept in the Saint Joseph Cathedral along the way. By 25 November 1533, Vasili reached Moscow and asked to be made a monk before dying. Taking on the name Varlaam, Vasili died at midnight, 3 December 1533.[17]
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Title
After 1514, the full title used by Vasili in his foreign correspondence was: By the Grace of God, the Tsar and Sovereign of All Russia and the Grand Prince of Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Yugorsk, Perm, Vyatka and Bulgar, and others, the Sovereign and Grand Prince of Novgorod of the Lower Land, and Chernigov, and Ryazan, Volotsk, Rzhev, Belyov, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria and Kondia.[2]
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Ancestry
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In popular culture
Vasili was the subject of the opera Neprigozhaya by composer Ella Adayevskaya.
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