Vasili IV of Russia
Vasili IV of Russia (
Russian:
Π'Π°ΡΠΈΠ»ΠΈΠΉ IV ΠΠ²Π°Π½ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ Π¨ΡΠΉΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ) (
1552 –
September 12,
1612) 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, perchance 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 (May 1606), 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 (
May 19,
1606). 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 (Russ.), (Moscow, 1894) ;
S. I. Platonov, Sketches of the Great Anarchy in the Realm of Moscow (Petersburg, 1899); D. V. Tsvyeltev, Tsar Vasily Shuisky (Russ.), (Warsaw, 1901-1903).
*
The ancestors tsar Vasili IV of Russia (in the Russian languages)
*
Godunov to Nicholas II by Saul Zaklad
[[
{{Category:1552 births}}{{Category:1612 deaths}}{{Category:Russian tsars}}
{{ca:Vassili IV de RΓΊssia}}{{de:Wassili IV.}}{{fr:Vassili IV Chouiski}}{{it:Vassili IV di Russia}}{{pl:Wasyl IV Szujski}}{{ru:Π¨ΡΠΉΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ, Π'Π°ΡΠΈΠ»ΠΈΠΉ ΠΠ²Π°Π½ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ}}{{fi:Vasili Ε uiski}}{{sv:Vasilij IV av Ryssland}}{{zh:η"¦θ₯ΏιεδΈ}}
