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Apr 12, 2024 · son Ivan the Terrible. Vasily III (born 1479—died December 3, 1533, Moscow) was the grand prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. Expansion of Russia, 1300–1796. Succeeding his father, Ivan III (ruled Moscow 1462–1505), Vasily completed his father’s policy of consolidating the numerous independent Russian principalities into a united ...
Jun 15, 2022 · June 15, 2022. The founders of the Russian Empire were the rulers of Moscow, an initially small principality formed in the last decades of the 13th century. Moscow’s rulers were descendants of Rurik, the semi-mythical Viking chieftain who had ruled the area around Kiev towards the end of the 9th century. At a pinch one might describe these ...
- Overview
- Ivan III
- Vasily III
Ivan III (ruled 1462–1505) consolidated from a secure throne the gains his father, Vasily II, had won. The “gathering of the Russian lands,” as it has traditionally been known, became under Ivan a conscious and irresistible drive by Moscow to annex all East Slavic lands, both the Russian territories, which traditionally had close links with Moscow, and the Belarusian and Ukrainian regions, which had developed under distinctly different historical and cultural circumstances. In 1471 Ivan mounted a simultaneous attack upon Novgorod and its upper Volga colonies, which capitulated and accepted Moscow’s commercial and political demands. The trading republic, however, retained considerable de facto independence and became involved with the Lithuanian princes in an attempt to resist Moscow. Ivan, using these dealings as a pretext, attacked again, and in 1478 Novgorod was absorbed by Moscow. A Muscovite governor was installed, and 70 Novgorodian boyar families were deported and assigned estates elsewhere to hold in service tenure, being replaced by members of the Moscow military-service class.
Tver suffered a similar fate. Ivan had agreed with Prince Michael Borisovich of Tver to conduct foreign relations in concert and by consultation, but, when the Tverite complained that Ivan was not consulting him on important matters, Ivan attacked him and annexed his lands (1485). By the end of Ivan’s reign, there were no Russian princes who dared conduct policies unacceptable to Moscow.
The success of Ivan’s expansion was determined by his skillful dealings with the Polish-Lithuanian state, which had expanded down the Dnieper basin and into Slavic territories on the south flank of Moscow. After 1450 a competition developed for control of the numerous semi-independent principalities of the Dnieper and upper Donets regions. In the early 1490s some minor East Slavic princes defected from Lithuania to Moscow. The first phase of the conflict, confined to border skirmishes, ended in 1494 with a treaty ceding Vyazma to Moscow and with the marriage of Ivan’s daughter Yelena to Alexander, grand duke of Lithuania. In 1500, on the initiative of Lithuanian defectors, Ivan’s armies seized a number of important border towns, thus beginning a war that ended somewhat inconclusively in 1503 with a truce that extended Ivan’s border considerably to the west.
The third major element of Ivan’s foreign policy comprised his relations with the various Tatar confederations. In the 1470s the Crimean khan Mengli Giray came into increasing conflict with Khan Ahmed of the Golden Horde and became interested in an alliance with Moscow against Ahmed and Lithuania. Ivan, eager to dissolve the connection between Lithuania and Crimea but not wanting to alienate Ahmed, stalled for time. In 1481, when Ahmed died, Ivan was able to forge an alliance with the Nogays, Mengli Giray, and Kazan. The security provided by this system became the cornerstone of his later policies.
In addition to problems of war and diplomacy, Ivan was faced with a number of challenges from within his own family and court. In 1472 his eldest brother, Yury, died childless, and Ivan appropriated his entire estate. This action antagonized the two eldest surviving brothers, Andrey and Boris, whose grievances were further increased by Ivan’s refusal to give them a share of conquered Novgorod. In 1480 they rebelled, and only with difficulty were they persuaded to remain loyal. A more serious conflict arose (1497–1502) in the form of an open and murderous struggle among Ivan’s relatives for succession to the throne. Ivan had originally named as his heir his grandson Dmitry, son of his deceased son Ivan and the Moldavian princess Yelena, but a group close to Ivan’s second wife, Sofia (Zoë) Palaeologus, opposed this; her son Vasily threatened and perhaps attempted an insurrection, and Ivan was forced to accept Vasily.
Ivan made the first effort on the part of a Muscovite ruler to become involved in the diplomacy of western Europe. He and his advisers realized the need for a counterpoise to the Polish-Lithuanian power, while the diplomats of Rome and Vienna were interested in the possibility of flanking the growing empire of the Ottomans with a Muscovite-Tatar force. In the 1470s and ’80s there was an unprecedented traffic between these capitals and Moscow. It was through these channels that Ivan arranged his marriage to Sofia Palaeologus, a niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Sofia has been credited with considerable influence over Ivan, in particular with urging him to adopt the Byzantine political style (e.g., autocracy, state domination of the church, etc.), but in fact she probably had little influence over Ivan’s policies. His reign ended on a note of failure, with his overtures to the West and his brief rapprochement with Lithuania both disrupted by the intractable territorial and religious conflicts of the Slavic East and by the opportunism of the local magnates. Moscow’s situation was worsened after Ivan’s death by the collapse of the alliance with the Crimean khan Mengli Giray upon the khan’s death in 1515, opening a new period of chaos and readjustment in the steppe.
Ivan III (ruled 1462–1505) consolidated from a secure throne the gains his father, Vasily II, had won. The “gathering of the Russian lands,” as it has traditionally been known, became under Ivan a conscious and irresistible drive by Moscow to annex all East Slavic lands, both the Russian territories, which traditionally had close links with Moscow, and the Belarusian and Ukrainian regions, which had developed under distinctly different historical and cultural circumstances. In 1471 Ivan mounted a simultaneous attack upon Novgorod and its upper Volga colonies, which capitulated and accepted Moscow’s commercial and political demands. The trading republic, however, retained considerable de facto independence and became involved with the Lithuanian princes in an attempt to resist Moscow. Ivan, using these dealings as a pretext, attacked again, and in 1478 Novgorod was absorbed by Moscow. A Muscovite governor was installed, and 70 Novgorodian boyar families were deported and assigned estates elsewhere to hold in service tenure, being replaced by members of the Moscow military-service class.
Tver suffered a similar fate. Ivan had agreed with Prince Michael Borisovich of Tver to conduct foreign relations in concert and by consultation, but, when the Tverite complained that Ivan was not consulting him on important matters, Ivan attacked him and annexed his lands (1485). By the end of Ivan’s reign, there were no Russian princes who dared conduct policies unacceptable to Moscow.
The success of Ivan’s expansion was determined by his skillful dealings with the Polish-Lithuanian state, which had expanded down the Dnieper basin and into Slavic territories on the south flank of Moscow. After 1450 a competition developed for control of the numerous semi-independent principalities of the Dnieper and upper Donets regions. In the early 1490s some minor East Slavic princes defected from Lithuania to Moscow. The first phase of the conflict, confined to border skirmishes, ended in 1494 with a treaty ceding Vyazma to Moscow and with the marriage of Ivan’s daughter Yelena to Alexander, grand duke of Lithuania. In 1500, on the initiative of Lithuanian defectors, Ivan’s armies seized a number of important border towns, thus beginning a war that ended somewhat inconclusively in 1503 with a truce that extended Ivan’s border considerably to the west.
The third major element of Ivan’s foreign policy comprised his relations with the various Tatar confederations. In the 1470s the Crimean khan Mengli Giray came into increasing conflict with Khan Ahmed of the Golden Horde and became interested in an alliance with Moscow against Ahmed and Lithuania. Ivan, eager to dissolve the connection between Lithuania and Crimea but not wanting to alienate Ahmed, stalled for time. In 1481, when Ahmed died, Ivan was able to forge an alliance with the Nogays, Mengli Giray, and Kazan. The security provided by this system became the cornerstone of his later policies.
In addition to problems of war and diplomacy, Ivan was faced with a number of challenges from within his own family and court. In 1472 his eldest brother, Yury, died childless, and Ivan appropriated his entire estate. This action antagonized the two eldest surviving brothers, Andrey and Boris, whose grievances were further increased by Ivan’s refusal to give them a share of conquered Novgorod. In 1480 they rebelled, and only with difficulty were they persuaded to remain loyal. A more serious conflict arose (1497–1502) in the form of an open and murderous struggle among Ivan’s relatives for succession to the throne. Ivan had originally named as his heir his grandson Dmitry, son of his deceased son Ivan and the Moldavian princess Yelena, but a group close to Ivan’s second wife, Sofia (Zoë) Palaeologus, opposed this; her son Vasily threatened and perhaps attempted an insurrection, and Ivan was forced to accept Vasily.
Ivan made the first effort on the part of a Muscovite ruler to become involved in the diplomacy of western Europe. He and his advisers realized the need for a counterpoise to the Polish-Lithuanian power, while the diplomats of Rome and Vienna were interested in the possibility of flanking the growing empire of the Ottomans with a Muscovite-Tatar force. In the 1470s and ’80s there was an unprecedented traffic between these capitals and Moscow. It was through these channels that Ivan arranged his marriage to Sofia Palaeologus, a niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Sofia has been credited with considerable influence over Ivan, in particular with urging him to adopt the Byzantine political style (e.g., autocracy, state domination of the church, etc.), but in fact she probably had little influence over Ivan’s policies. His reign ended on a note of failure, with his overtures to the West and his brief rapprochement with Lithuania both disrupted by the intractable territorial and religious conflicts of the Slavic East and by the opportunism of the local magnates. Moscow’s situation was worsened after Ivan’s death by the collapse of the alliance with the Crimean khan Mengli Giray upon the khan’s death in 1515, opening a new period of chaos and readjustment in the steppe.
Ivan’s son Vasily, who came to the throne in 1505, greatly strengthened the monarchy. He completed the annexation of Russian territories with the absorption of Pskov (1510) and Ryazan (1521) and began the advance into non-Russian territories (Smolensk, 1514). Faced with a continuing Lithuanian war and with the breakdown of his father’s Tatar policy...
Vasili III Ivanovich ( Russian: Василий III Иванович; 25 March 1479 – 3 December 1533) was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1505 until his death in 1533. [1] [2] He was the son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue and was christened with the name Gavriil ( Гавриил ). Following on the ambitions of his predecessor ...
Jan 30, 2024 · Aleksey Kivshenko (Public Domain) Ivan III of Russia (Ivan the Great) was the Grand Prince of Moscow and Russia from 1462 to 1505. Ivan III was born in 1440 to Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow (r. 1425-1462) and his wife, Maria Borovsk (l. c. 1420-1485). He served as co-ruler for his blind father from 1450 until he became regent in 1462.
To the Westernizers, on the other hand, Peter the Great was a symbol of radical change, not of autocracy. Russia - Russia from 1801 to 1917: When Alexander I came to the throne in March 1801, Russia was in a state of hostility with most of Europe, though its armies were not actually fighting; its only ally was its traditional enemy, Turkey.
He also intended to form a military alliance with the English, ... Vasily Shuisky. ... Meyrick left Russia for good in 1621 and, in 1629, became governor of the Muscovy Company. ...
