Based on the biography of Vasily II the Dark, the Grand Duke of Moscow, it was possible to film a Russian version of Game of Thrones. He went down in history as a weak monarch who lost his eyes during civil strife, but it was his policies that paved the way for the unification of Rus'.
"God's Chosen One"
In 1425, Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich dies. His 10-year-old son, Vasily, became the direct heir. But Zvenigorod Prince Yuri, brother of Vasily I, relying on the will of Dmitry Donskoy, declared his right to the throne. After all, it was to him that his father bequeathed the reins of government in the event of his brother’s death. Metropolitan Photius opposed the usurper. He tried to reassure Yuri, convince him to renounce his claims to the throne and reconcile with his nephew. One day it happened that Photius, trying to persuade the Zvenigorod prince to renounce the throne, came to Uglich, where Yuri’s residence was located. The latter invited all his subjects to the Metropolitan’s arrival: boyars, governors, servants, mob - trying to show what his strength was in the struggle for the grand ducal throne. Photius just grinned: “peasants are not wars, and homespuns are not armor,” and left without giving a blessing to either Yuri or the people. Immediately after the Metropolitan’s departure, a terrible epidemic began in Uglich. The believing people decided that this was God's punishment for seditious thoughts against the heir and rebelled against Yuri. The prince had to go to Photius and ask for forgiveness. “Through the lord’s prayer, the pestilence stopped,” and Yuri agreed to give up the throne to his nephew. So Vasily II received his throne with the support of the church and chance.
Fortune telling
In order to legitimize his reign, Vasily needed to receive a label from the hands of the Golden Horde Khan. His fear of the trip was great; he remembered the fate of many unlucky princes: Alexander Nevsky died of exhaustion on the way back, Mikhail Tverskoy was brutally murdered in Sarai. Before setting off, he turns to the famous Moscow seer Photinia for a prediction. Vasily Vasilyevich received the following prophecy: all his enemies will be overthrown, and he will return to Moscow “on a white horse... But beware, however. Yes, you will return to Moscow on a white horse, but the time will come when the white light will fade for you.” Time will pass, and Prince Vasily II will be blinded - so Photinia’s prophecy will be fulfilled, and for Vasily the white light will darken forever.
Great mercy and the sin of Judas
In 1446, being in a state of struggle for the grand-ducal throne, Vasily II went to pray at the Trinity Lavra, where he was captured and captured by old enemies - Ivan Mozhaisky, Dmitry Shemyaka and Boris Tverskoy. On their orders, Vasily is blinded, after which he receives his nickname “Dark”. One of the performers was the Moscow boyar Nikita Konstantinovich. Blind Vasily and his wife were sent to Uglich. But after half a year, Vasily managed to regain the throne. In 1448, people loyal to Vasily found the criminal Nikita. Finding himself in front of the prince, who had been blinded by him, boyar Nikita trembled and threw himself at his feet, begging for an easy death. And he was forgiven. He then turned to the prince with the following words: “Most merciful sir, I want to be in a sorrowful insult until the end of my days - even a mocker and a buffoon, even a stinking dog, just to atone for a terrible sin.” The prince believed him and made him his guide. Boyar Nikita also performed clerical duties: he compiled letters and orders at the prince’s request. As a result of communication between Vasily and Nikita, they discovered one common love - for wildflowers. They often came to the meadow and wandered for hours among the thickets of flowers, the autocrat and his executioner. Time passed, and Vasily learned that his wife Marya Yaroslavna gave him a son. The prince was delighted, but immediately dropped, turning his face towards Nikita: “A son was born, but I will never see him.” Nikita threw himself at the prince’s feet, but he pushed him away. Soon Nikita, tormented by his conscience, committed suicide.
Incident at a wedding
The only wife of Vasily II was Marya Yaroslavna. Many famous guests came to their wedding. One of them - Vasily Kosoy - arrived in a rich gold belt, set with expensive stones. The old boyar Pyotr Konstantinovich told the story of this belt to the Grand Duke's mother, Sophia: they say, this belt was given by the Suzdal prince Dmitry Konstantinovich as a dowry for his daughter Evdokia, who was going to marry Dmitry Donskoy. Tysyatsky Vasily Velyaminov replaced this belt with another, lower in price, and gave the real one to his son Nikolai, behind whom was another daughter of Prince Dmitry of Suzdal, Marya. So the belt came from hand to hand to Vasily Kosoy as a gift from his father-in-law, and he wore it to the Grand Duke’s wedding. Sofya Vitovtovna, having learned that Kosoy was wearing the belt, took it off the prince in front of everyone as the property of her family. The Yuryevichs, offended by such disgrace, immediately left Moscow. The wedding incident became the reason for the war.
In the fight for the purity of faith
The Russian Orthodox Church, the richest metropolitanate within the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was a strong ally in the struggle of Vasily II for the grand-ducal throne. The Greek clergy themselves turned to her for alms. Under these conditions, the Russian Church found the opportunity to separate from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The ambitious Ryazan bishop Jonah, supported by Prince Vasily, especially strived for this. All that was needed was the right opportunity. In 1439, Patriarch Isidore gave his consent to the creation of the Union of Florence, uniting the Eastern and Western churches. This was at odds with the interests of the Russian Church and became the basis for the deposition of Isidore. By order of Vasily II, in 1448, the Russian bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan, which became a sign of the declaration of independence of the Russian church from the Patriarch of Constantinople and strengthened the international position of Rus'.
Co-ruler
Vasily II was personally involved in raising his son, in the future Ivan III, who would become the famous unifier of Russian lands. In order to accustom him to government activities, he appointed him as his co-ruler. Subsequently, Ivan himself, recognizing this practice as successful, would repeat it on his son, Ivan the Young. In 1460, young Ivan successfully opposed the troops of Khan Akhmat. By appointing his son as co-ruler, Vasily prepared the way for the future rise of the power of the Russian state under his successor.
Painful care
Towards the end of his life, Vasily II fell ill with tabes (the last stage of neurosyphilis). Purulent abscesses appeared all over his back, which he tried to treat with mercury-based ointment, cauterizing the wounds. He also resorted to the usual method at that time - lighting tinder several times on different parts of the body. Naturally, this did not help, it only developed gangrene. He wanted to go to the monastery, but his relatives prevented this. In March 1462, the Grand Duke's blind man died in great agony.
Moscow Prince Vasily II the Dark ruled in an era when his principality gradually became the core of a unified Russian state. The period of this Rurikovich's reign also saw a major internecine war between him and his relatives - contenders for power in the Kremlin. This feudal conflict was the last in the history of Rus'.
Family
The future Prince Vasily 2 the Dark was the fifth son of Vasily I and Sofia Vitovtovna. On the maternal side, the child was a representative of the Lithuanian ruling dynasty. On the eve of his death, Vasily I sent a letter to his father-in-law Vitovt, in which he asked him to protect his young nephew.
The first four sons of the Grand Duke died in childhood or youth from a disease that was common at that time, which is known in the chronicles as “pestilence.” Thus, Vasily 2 the Dark remained the heir of Vasily I. From a state point of view, having a single offspring was only a plus, because it allowed the ruler not to divide his power among numerous children. Because of this appanage custom, Kievan Rus had already perished and the Vladimir-Suzdal land had suffered for many years.
Political situation
The Principality of Moscow had a doubly need to remain united due to foreign policy threats. Despite the fact that Vasily II's grandfather Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Tatar-Mongol army in 1380, Rus' remained dependent on the Golden Horde. Moscow remained the main Slavic Orthodox political center. Its rulers were the only ones who could resist the khans, if not on the battlefield, then through compromise diplomacy.
From the west, the East Slavic principalities were threatened by Lithuania. Until 1430, it was ruled by Vytautas, the grandfather of Vasily II. During the decades of fragmentation of Rus', Lithuanian rulers were able to annex the Western Russian principalities (Polotsk, Galicia, Volyn, Kiev) to their possessions. Under Vasily I, Smolensk lost its independence. Lithuania itself was increasingly oriented towards Catholic Poland, which led to an inevitable conflict with the Orthodox majority and Moscow. Vasily II needed to balance between dangerous neighbors and maintain peace within his state. Time has shown that he did not always succeed in this.
Conflict with uncle
In 1425, Prince Vasily Dmitrievich died, leaving a ten-year-old son on the throne. The Russian princes recognized him as the main ruler of Rus'. However, despite the expressed support, little Vasily’s position was extremely precarious. The only reason why no one dared to touch him was his grandfather - the powerful Lithuanian sovereign Vytautas. But he was quite an old man and died in 1430.
What followed was a whole chain of events that led to a major internecine war. The main culprit of the conflict was Vasily II's uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, the son of the legendary Dmitry Donskoy. Before his death, the winner Mamai, according to tradition, bequeathed inheritance to his youngest offspring. Understanding the danger of this tradition, Dmitry Donskoy limited himself to giving Yuri small cities: Zvenigorod, Galich, Vyatka and Ruza.
The children of the deceased prince lived in peace and helped each other. However, Yuri was known for his ambition and love of power. According to his father's will, he was supposed to inherit everything in the event of the premature death of his elder brother Vasily I. But he had five sons, the youngest of whom became the ruler of the Kremlin in 1425.
All this time, Yuri Dmitrievich remained an insignificant prince of Zvenigorod. The Moscow rulers managed to preserve their state and expand it due to the fact that the order of succession was legalized, according to which the throne passed from father to eldest son, bypassing younger brothers. In the 15th century, this order was a relative innovation. Before this, in Rus', power was inherited according to the right of ladder, or the right of seniority (that is, uncles had priority over nephews).
Of course, Yuri was a supporter of the old order, since it was they who allowed him to become a legitimate ruler in Moscow. In addition, his rights were supported by a clause in his father's will. If we remove particulars and personalities, then in the Moscow principality under Vasily II two systems of inheritance collided, one of which was supposed to sweep away the other. Yuri was just waiting for the right moment to declare his claims. With the death of Vitovt, this opportunity presented itself to him.
Court in Orda
During the years of Tatar-Mongol rule, the khans issued grants that gave the Rurikovichs the right to occupy one or another throne. As a rule, this tradition did not interfere with the usual succession to the throne, unless the applicant was insolent to the nomads. Those who disobeyed the khan's decisions were punished by having their lot attacked by a bloodthirsty horde.
The descendants of Dmitry Donskoy still received labels for reign and paid tribute, even though the Mongols also began to suffer from their own civil strife. In 1431, the grown-up Vasily II the Dark went to the Golden Horde to receive his permission to rule. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich went to the steppe with him. He wanted to prove to the khan that he had more rights to the Moscow throne than his nephew.
The ruler of the Golden Horde, Ulu-Muhammad, resolved the dispute in favor of Vasily Vasilyevich. Yuri suffered his first defeat, but was not going to give in. In words, he recognized his nephew as his “elder brother” and returned to his native land to wait for a new opportunity to strike. Our history knows many examples of perjury, and in this sense, Yuri Dmitrievich was not much different from many of his contemporaries and predecessors. At the same time, Vasily also broke his promise. At the khan's trial, he promised his uncle to give the city of Dmitrov as compensation, but he never did.
The beginning of civil strife
In 1433, the eighteen-year-old Moscow prince got married. The wife of Vasily II was Maria, the daughter of the appanage ruler Yaroslav Borovsky (also from the Moscow dynasty). Numerous relatives of the prince were invited to the celebrations, including the children of Yuri Dmitrievich (he himself did not appear, but remained in his Galich). Dmitry Shemyaka and Vasily Kosoy will still play their serious role in the internecine war. For now they were guests of the Grand Duke. In the midst of the wedding, a scandal broke out. The mother of Vasily II, Sofya Vitovtovna, saw on Vasily Kosoy a belt that supposedly belonged to Dmitry Donskoy and was stolen by the servants. She tore off an item of clothing from the boy, which caused a serious quarrel between relatives. The insulted sons of Yuri Dmitrievich urgently retreated and went to their father, causing a pogrom in Yaroslavl along the way. The episode with the stolen belt became the property of folklore and a popular plot in legends.
A domestic quarrel became the very reason that the Zvenigorod prince was looking for to start a serious war against his nephew. Having learned about what happened at the feast, he gathered a loyal army and went to Moscow. The Russian princes again prepared to shed the blood of their subjects for the sake of personal interests.
The army of the Grand Duke of Moscow was defeated by Yuri on the banks of the Klyazma. Soon my uncle occupied the capital. Vasily received Kolomna as compensation, where, in fact, he ended up in exile. Finally, Yuri fulfilled his old dream of his father's throne. However, having achieved what he wanted, he made several fatal mistakes. The new prince came into conflict with the capital's boyars, whose influence in the city was extremely great. The support of this class and their money were then very important attributes of power.
When the Moscow aristocracy realized that its new ruler had begun to force old people out of office and replace them with his own candidates, dozens of key supporters fled to Kolomna. Yuri found himself isolated and cut off from the capital's army. Then he decided to make peace with his nephew and agreed to return the throne to him after several months of reign.
But Vasily was not much more intelligent than his uncle. Returning to the capital, he began open repressions against those boyars who supported Yuri in his claims to power. Opponents made the same mistakes, not taking into account the sad experience of their opponents. At the same time, the sons of Yuri declared war on Vasily. The Grand Duke was again defeated near Rostov. His uncle again became the ruler of Moscow. However, a few months after the next castling, Yuri died (June 5, 1434). There were persistent rumors throughout the capital that he was poisoned by one of his close associates. According to Yuri's will, his eldest son Vasily Kosoy became prince.
Vasily Kosoy in Moscow
Throughout Yuri's reign in Moscow, Vasily Vasilyevich 2 was on the run, unsuccessfully fighting against his sons. When Kosoy informed his brother Shemyaka that he now rules in Moscow, Dmitry did not accept this change. He made peace with Vasily, according to which, if the coalition was successful, Shemyak received Uglich and Rzhev. Now the two princes, who had previously been opponents, united their armies to expel the eldest son of Yuri of Zvenigorod from Moscow.
Having learned about the approach of the enemy army, he fled from the capital to Novgorod, having previously taken his father’s treasury with him. He reigned in Moscow for only one summer month in 1434. While on the run, the exile gathered an army with the money he took and went with it towards Kostroma. First, it was defeated near Yaroslavl, and then again in the Battle of the Cherekha River in May 1436. Vasily was captured by his namesake and barbarously blinded. It was because of his injury that he received the nickname Scythe. The former prince died in captivity in 1448.
War with the Kazan Khanate
For some time, peace was established in Rus'. The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II tried to prevent war with his neighbors, but he failed. The cause of the new bloodshed was the Kazan Khanate. By this time, the united Golden Horde was divided into several independent uluses. The Kazan Khanate became the largest and most powerful. The Tatars killed Russian merchants and periodically organized campaigns against the border areas.
In 1445, an open war broke out between the Slavic princes and the Kazan Khan Mahmud. On July 7, a battle took place near Suzdal, in which the Russian squad suffered a crushing defeat. Mikhail Vereisky and his cousin Vasily II the Dark were taken prisoner. The years of this prince's reign (1425-1462) were full of episodes when he was completely deprived of power. And now, finding himself in the khan’s captivity, he was briefly cut off from events in his homeland.
Hostage of the Tatars
While Vasily remained a hostage to the Tatars, the ruler of Moscow was Dmitry Shemyaka, the second son of the late Yuri Zvenigorodsky. During this time, he acquired numerous supporters in the capital. Meanwhile, Vasily Vasilyevich persuaded the Kazan Khan to release him. However, he had to sign an enslaving agreement, according to which he had to pay a huge indemnity and, even worse, give several of his cities to the Tatars for feeding.
This caused a wave of indignation in Rus'. Despite the grumbling of many residents of the country, Vasily II the Dark began to rule again in Moscow. The policy of concessions to the Horde could not but lead to disastrous consequences. In addition, the prince came to the Kremlin at the head of the khan’s army, which was given to him by the Tatars, in order to be sure to return the throne.
After the return of his opponent, he retired to his Uglich. Very soon, Moscow supporters began to flock to him, among whom were boyars and merchants, dissatisfied with Vasily’s behavior. With their help, the Uglich prince organized a coup, after which he again began to rule in the Kremlin.
In addition, he enlisted the support of some appanage princes who had previously refrained from conflict. Among them were the Mozhaisk ruler Ivan Andreevich and Boris Tverskoy. These two princes helped Shemyaka treacherously capture Vasily Vasilyevich within the sacred walls of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On February 16, 1446, he was blinded. The reprisal was justified by the fact that Vasily conspired with the hated Horde. In addition, he himself once ordered the blinding of his enemy. Thus, Shemyaka took revenge for the fate of his older brother Vasily Kosoy.
After being blinded
After this episode, Vasily 2 the Dark was sent into exile for the last time. In short, his tragic fate gained him more supporters among the wavering aristocracy. The blinding also brought to reason the majority of the princes outside the Moscow state, who became ardent opponents of Shemyaka. Vasily 2 the Dark took advantage of this. Why the Dark One got his nickname is known from the chronicles, which explain this epithet by blindness. Despite the injury, the prince remained active. His son Ivan (the future Ivan III) became his eyes and ears, helping in all state affairs.
By order of Shemyaka, Vasily and his wife were kept in Uglich. Maria Yaroslavna, like her husband, did not lose heart. When supporters began to return to the exiled prince, a plan to capture Moscow matured. In December 1446, Vasily and his army occupied the capital; this happened at a time when Dmitry Shemyaka was away. Now the prince finally established himself in the Kremlin until his death.
Our history has seen many civil strifes. More often than not, they ended not in compromise, but in the complete victory of one of the parties. In the middle of the 15th century the same thing happened. Shemyaka gathered an army and prepared to continue the fight with the Grand Duke. A few years after Vasily returned to Moscow, on January 27, 1450, the Battle of Galich took place, which historians consider the last internecine battle in Rus'. Shemyaka suffered an unconditional defeat and soon fled to Novgorod. This city often became a shelter for exiles. Residents did not extradite Shemyaka, and he died of natural causes in 1453. However, it is possible that he was secretly poisoned by Vasily’s agents. Thus ended the last civil strife in Rus'. Since then, the appanage princes had neither the means nor the ambitions to resist the central government.
Peace with Poland and Lithuania
At a young age, Prince Vasily II the Dark was not distinguished by his foresight. He did not spare his subjects in the event of war and often made strategic mistakes that became the cause of bloodshed. The blinding changed his character greatly. He became humble, calm and maybe even wise. Having finally established himself in Moscow, Vasily set about building peace with his neighbors.
The main danger was the Polish king and Lithuanian prince Casimir IV. In 1449, an agreement was concluded between the rulers, according to which they recognized established borders and promised not to support their neighbor’s competitors within the country. Casimir, like Vasily, faced the threat of internecine war. His main opponent was Mikhail Sigismundovich, who relied on the Orthodox part of Lithuanian society.
Treaty with the Novgorod Republic
Subsequently, the reign of Vasily 2 the Dark continued in the same vein. Due to the fact that Novgorod sheltered Shemyaka, the republic found itself in isolation, which, according to the agreement, was supported by the Polish king. With the death of the rebellious prince, ambassadors arrived in Moscow with a request to lift the trade embargo and other decisions of the prince, because of which the life of the townspeople was greatly complicated.
In 1456, the Yazhelbitsky Peace Treaty was concluded between the parties. He secured the vassal position of the Novgorod Republic from Moscow. The document again de jure confirmed the leading position of the Grand Duke in Rus'. Later, the treaty was used by Vasily's son Ivan III to annex the rich city and the entire northern region to Moscow.
Results of the board
Vasily the Dark spent the last years of his life in relative peace and quiet. He died in 1462 from tuberculosis and improper treatment for this scourge. He was 47 years old, 37 of which he (with interruptions) was a Moscow prince.
Vasily managed to eliminate small fiefs within his state. He increased the dependence of other Russian lands on Moscow. An important church event took place under him. By order of the prince, Bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan. This event marked the beginning of the end of the dependence of the Moscow Church on Constantinople. In 1453, the capital of Byzantium was taken by the Turks, after which the actual center of Orthodoxy moved to Moscow.
Vasily II the Dark is the grandson of two rulers. One grandfather is the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir, who went down in history primarily as a commander who won the Battle of Kulikovo. The second, on the mother’s side, is the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt. Vasily himself became famous for the fact that the last internecine war in Rus' took place during his reign.
Childhood and youth
The future ruler, born on March 10, 1415, is the youngest child in the family of Prince Vasily I of Vladimir and Moscow. Sophia, nee Princess of Lithuania, bore her husband five sons, four of whom became victims of pestilence before reaching adulthood. Literally on the eve of the boy’s decade, his father died, and before his death he managed to ask his father-in-law for help for his only heir.
So, in less than 10 years, Vasily became the Grand Duke of Moscow in 1425. Of course, in fact, the Dowager Princess Sophia ruled in company with Metropolitan Photius and the boyar Vsevolozhsky.
The uncles of the young ruler, the sons of Donskoy Yuri, Andrey, Peter and Konstantin, had ambitions for the princely throne. Yuri, Prince of Zvenigorod, was convinced that he would become a ruler after his brother Vasily I - this is what their father bequeathed.
Nevertheless, with the support of his grandfather Vytautas, young Vasily Vasilyevich managed to sit on the throne. The uncle recognized his relative as his superior, but, ambitious and power-hungry, he harbored a grudge. And he tried to take over, barely waiting for the right opportunity.
An opportunity presented itself in 1430: grandfather Vytautas died, and Vasily found himself defenseless against the machinations of his older relative. Not wanting to be an appanage prince, Yuri threatened that he would go to war with Moscow.
Governing body
In those days, the Rurikovichs, in order to rule, required the permission of the Tatar-Mongol khans - a label for reign. And so in 1431, Vasily II and Yuri Zvenigorodsky went to the Horde for permission. Yuri pressed on the ancient right of succession to the throne, according to which power passed from brother to brother, and on his father’s will. But the experienced courtiers who accompanied the young prince managed to find an approach to the heart and mind of the then Khan Makhmet, and he confirmed that the Prince of Moscow was rightfully Vasily.
In 1433, numerous princely relatives attended the wedding of Vasily II and Maria Yaroslavna. Yuri Dmitrievich, who harbored a grudge, did not show up for the celebration and sent his children - and Vasily Kosoy.
What wedding is complete without a fight, in this case - without a loud scandal. The Dowager Princess noticed that Vasily Kosoy was wearing a gold belt, which supposedly belonged to her father-in-law Donskoy, but was stolen. Ripping off the guy’s belt, the princess announced that this piece of clothing rightfully belonged to Vasily’s family. Indignant, the groom's cousins immediately left the holiday.
The story with the belt was the last straw: after a few weeks, Yuri moved to war against the Principality of Moscow. Having defeated his nephew in the Battle of Klyazma, the power-hungry exiled him to Kolomna. There, the boyars began to gather around the exiled prince, whom Yuri had short-sightedly removed from their grain positions and kicked out from warm places at court. In 1434, with the support of the boyars, and also thanks to the death of his uncle, Vasily II returned to the throne.
Being in power, Yuri Zvenigorodsky bequeathed the place of ruler to his own son Vasily Kosoy. He even managed to reign for one month, but then he was forced to flee, not forgetting, however, to take the treasury with him. Then Vasily Yuryevich staged another civil strife, but in 1436 Vasily II took his cousin prisoner and blinded him.
After this, Rus' lived in peace for several years, and suddenly there was a new misfortune - the Tatars. The Golden Horde then disintegrated, and the Kazan Khanate became its largest part. In July 1445, the sons of Khan Makhmet, Mahmud and Yakub, checked in near Suzdal. The Russian army, which was small at that time, lost. Vasily II was captured by the Tatars. To regain freedom, Vasily the Dark paid a ransom and gave several Russian cities to the Kazan people.
While the prince was in captivity, Dmitry Shemyaka took over the rule of Moscow. Not wanting to lose power with the return of his cousin, this grandson of Donskoy organized a coup. In the winter of 1446, with the help of traitors, Vasily Vasilyevich was captured in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Soon he was blinded, and from then on Vasily II began to bear the nickname Dark.
The prince’s injury did not stop him. The war continued. From Uglich, the place of his last exile, in 1447 Vasily, with the blessing of the abbot of the Ferapontov Monastery, moved to Moscow. This time, having returned the throne, Vasily II the Dark ruled until his death.
Dmitry Shemyaka died in 1453, and it was rumored that he was poisoned by the prince’s people. This ended the history of internecine wars in Rus'.
During his reign - from 1432 to 1462 - Vasily the Dark made many mistakes. Nevertheless, by the end of his life the prince’s biography was decorated with significant results. He subjugated almost all the small fiefs, and the rest became more dependent on the Principality of Moscow. In church affairs, the prince did everything to ensure that the Russian Orthodox Church became independent from Byzantium.
Personal life
Having married at the age of 18, Vasily II lived his entire life with his only woman - the daughter of Yaroslav, appanage prince Borovsky. Maria Yaroslavna bore her husband eight children. Two of them - Yuri Bolshoi and Simeon - died in childhood.
Sons Yuri Molodoy, Andrey Bolshoy, Boris and Andrey Menshoy reigned in small fiefs. The second-eldest son Ivan, due to the early death of the princely first-born, inherited the grand-ducal throne from his father, becoming. And the penultimate one in the Rurikovich family was born the only daughter Anna.
If you believe the historian Evgeny Pchelov, Vasily the Dark had not eight, but ten children. The last two - Dmitry and Maria - died as children.
Death
Vasily Vasilyevich died in 1462. At the end of his life, he fell ill with tabes, the same tuberculosis, and was treated with cauterizations. Incorrect treatment led to gangrene.
Tuberculosis with gangrene brought the prince to the grave when he was 47 years old. But for 37 of them, albeit with interruptions due to exile, captivity and other consequences of civil strife, he was the Grand Duke of Moscow.
July 7, 1445 Perhaps one of the most curious events of the Russian Middle Ages happened. In a small battle near Suzdal, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II Vasilyevich, who later received the nickname Dark, was captured by the Tatars. According to data included in chronicle sources, on July 6, 1445, Russian troops, heading to help Nizhny Novgorod besieged by the Tatars, reached the Kamenka River and stopped at the Spaso-Evfimev Monastery, in close proximity to Suzdal. This army numbered “not a thousand” people. The “flare” arose on the same day. The troops “put on their armor and, raising their banners, marched out into the field.” The alarm, however, turned out to be false. The governors and the Grand Duke returned “to their camps,” and Vasily II “had dinner with all his brethren and bolyars and wrote long into the night.”
Early in the morning of July 7, when the Grand Duke wanted to “put himself to rest” with a drinking binge, news came that the Tatars were crossing the Nerl River. Putting on his armor, Vasily II ordered to march. The battle took place in a field, on the left side of the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery. At first, victory tilted in favor of the Russians. The Tatars retreated, Russian soldiers rushed in pursuit of them, but among them there were those who “began to rob the beaten Tatars.” Soon the Tatars stopped and went on the offensive. Many appanage princes - participants in the battle - managed to escape, and Grand Duke Vasily, obviously, was so carried away by the pursuit and went deep into the ranks of the Tatars that he himself did not notice how he was captured.
His return from the Horde took place only after paying a ransom of two hundred thousand rubles. To imagine the enormity of this sum on the scale of that time, let us remember that the same Vasily the Dark, having defeated Novgorod, imposed a tribute of ten (!) thousand rubles on it, and after the Time of Troubles (one and a half hundred years later), Moscow, according to the Stolbovo Treaty, paid Sweden an indemnity of the entire only twenty thousand. Two hundred thousand was a completely unheard of amount. However, Muscovites collected it and paid for it. It would seem, why? We got rid of the “despot” prince, and also the drunkards - and glory to You, Lord. Moreover, Moscow did not experience a shortage of contenders for the grand-ducal throne at that time. What is the reason for such love of subjects for their sovereign?
Let's try to figure it out.
History knows of cases when kings and rulers of powerful powers in Europe and Asia were captured, and then returned safely and continued their activities at the head of the state. Thus, King Richard the Lionheart languished in the dungeon of the Austrian Duke Leopold for two years, and Charles V of Habsburg captured the French King Francis I at Pavia. But in Russia it so happened that the removal of the first person from power necessarily entails irreversible consequences that over the centuries have influenced its historical development. Let us recall the dynastic crisis of the early 17th century, which led to the Great Troubles; the situation after the death of Peter I, which marked an entire era of so-called “palace coups”. This statement also applies to the situation at the beginning of the 20th century, when “the lower classes did not want to, but the upper classes could not”...
As the famous Soviet historian A.A. rightly noted. Zimin in his book “The Knight at the Crossroads”, the 15th century in the history of the Russian state was precisely the time when the fate of not just the Grand Duchy of Moscow was being decided, but “when the Russian Knight, standing at the crossroads, had to choose his Fate. He was still forced to bow his helmeted head before the Horde khan, but he already remembered the ringing of swords on the Kulikovo field. He had not yet met ambassadors or merchants from the West, but he had already seen the huge Latin cross that was carried in Moscow in front of Metropolitan Isidore, returning from the Council of Florence. He was not burdened with the burden of science, but he vaguely understood that a stellar moment had come, when the fate of his descendants depended on the choice of path...”
Then, in the first third of the 15th century, no one could have foreseen or foreseen that within a century Moscow was destined to become the “third Rome”, that a powerful state would arise in the vast expanses of land-poor principalities plowed by internecine borders. Today we can say with confidence that an alternative to this course of events was quite real. At that very “stellar moment”, the chances of Rus' to be under the influence of the West or to choose its own path, calling for help from the East, are estimated by modern historians as “fifty-fifty”. And such a seemingly insignificant event as the curious captivity of the Grand Duke by the Tatars on July 7, 1445, in the situation of Russia choosing its historical path, could well have played a decisive role...
Vasily II
The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark (1415 - 1462) is one of the most tragic figures in Russian history. The son of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich and Princess Sofia Vitovtovna, he was simultaneously the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy and Grand Duke Vitovt of Lithuania. Vasily I Dmitrievich died when Vasily II Vasilyevich was only ten years old. The young prince remained under the tutelage of his grandfather Vytautas, who at first turned out to be the only guarantor of the security of the Moscow throne. Already on the day of his father’s death, serious rivals immediately appeared for the prince: his uncles Yuri and Konstantin, as well as the heirs of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky (cousin of Dmitry Donskoy). Vasily I's brother Yuri Dmitrievich Galitsky did not come to Moscow for his funeral, but began to gather an army in his Galich. Vitovt and the boyars of the Grand Duke hastened to take retaliatory measures: they moved their regiments to Kostroma. Yuri fled to Nizhny Novgorod, from where he later returned to Galich and offered peace to the Grand Duke. Metropolitan Photius went to Galich for negotiations. Yuri promised not to seek the Grand Duke's throne by force, but to rely on the Khan's decision.
In 1430, Vitovt died, but a year later the dispute over the label for the great reign in the Horde was won by the young Prince Vasily, who arrived to negotiate with his boyar Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky. The diplomatic art of Vsevolozhsky and his flattering speech touched Khan Ulug-Muhammad. The khan probably did not forget that it was Vytautas who put him on the throne, overthrowing Khan Sarai together with his grandfather Timur in 1411. Therefore, he not only handed the label to the grandson of the Lithuanian prince, but even ordered Yuri, as a sign of submission, to lead the horse on which Vasily was sitting. However, the seventeen-year-old prince did not want to dishonor his almost sixty-year-old uncle and abandoned this humiliating ritual.
It would seem that the issue was resolved, but the main strife was still ahead.
Feudal War (1433-1445)
In February 1433, at the wedding of Vasily Vasilyevich with Maria Yaroslavna, the granddaughter of Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, an episode occurred that was later called by historians the beginning of the era of “feudal wars” in Rus' in the 15th century. At the wedding feast, Vasily's mother Sofya Vitovtovna tore off the precious belt from Prince Vasily, the son of Yuri Dmitrievich (he would later become known under the nickname Kosoy). This belt once belonged to Dmitry Donskoy - he received it as a dowry for Princess Evdokia - then it was stolen or replaced and ended up in Yuri’s family. The insulted Vasily Yuryevich and his brother Dmitry Shemyaka hastily left Moscow. Of course, this quarrel was only a pretext that fueled the old enmity: the speed with which Yuri Dmitrievich gathered an army and moved it to Moscow suggests that he was preparing for war. In April 1433, a battle took place on the banks of the Klyazma. Vasily’s squad was small, “and from the Muscovites,” as the chronicler claims, “there was no help, there were so many pianos from them, and I would take honey from myself, what else to drink.” Vasily was defeated, fled, but was captured in Kostroma. Yuri sent him to Kolomna, which he granted as an appanage to the deposed Grand Duke, and he himself entered Moscow. But many Moscow service princes, boyars and nobles flocked from Moscow to Kolomna, to Vasily. Kolomna gradually acquired the status of a capital: with a sovereign court, a squad, and government institutions. Feeling the precariousness of his position, Yuri was forced to reconcile with his nephew and leave the deserted Moscow.
The next year, Yuri again defeated Vasily. The Grand Duke fled to Nizhny Novgorod, and the troops of the Galician prince entered Moscow. This time Vasily’s mother and wife were captured. The position of the Grand Duke became critical. However, Yuri suddenly dies. Vasily returned to Moscow and reconciled with the sons of Yuri Dmitrievich.
One of them - Vasily Yuryevich - soon broke his oath, opposed the Grand Duke and was defeated and captured. He was sent to Moscow, where Vasily was blinded, from then on receiving the nickname Scythe.
According to A.A. Zimin, the Galicia-Zvenigorod princes (Yuri, Vasily, Dmitry) relied in their policy exclusively on the northern and northwestern Russian lands, which traditionally gravitated towards Lithuania. Being opponents of the rapprochement between Moscow and the Horde, they sought, first of all, to contrast Western influence on Rus' with the influence of the Tatars on the development of the eastern lands, i.e. to reorient the “Russian Knight”, which is at a crossroads, from East to West. The Moscow princes, in particular Vasily II, following the long-standing tradition of “Kalita’s nest”, found allies in the Tatar khans. The Tatars have long been considered “one of our own” in Rus'. It turned out to be easier to come to an agreement with them than to continue the endless princely strife. The grandson of Vytautas did not immediately decide to resort to the effective help of the Horde in a related conflict.
On July 7, 1445, Vasily Vasilyevich, as you know, was captured by the Tatars. The Tatar governors sent the pectoral cross taken from Vasily to Moscow to convince his mother and wife of the prince’s captivity. And on July 14, all of Moscow was “burnt out” in a terrible fire, so that, according to the chronicler, not only were there no wooden buildings left in the city, “but also the stone churches fell apart, and the walls of the hailstones fell in many places.” The city found itself defenseless against a possible attack by the Tatars. The Grand Duchesses hastened to leave for Rostov. Dmitry Shemyaka, who after the capture of the Grand Duke automatically received the Grand Duke's throne, sent clerk Fyodor Dubensky to the Horde, ordering him to convince the Tatars not to release Vasily from captivity under any circumstances. But the Grand Duke managed to gain freedom at the cost of a huge ransom - 200 thousand silver rubles.
According to some sources, Vasily did not pay the ransom, according to others, he paid only part of it (25 or 50 thousand). But the prince did not return from captivity alone. Vasily was accompanied, and then five hundred Tatar people sent by the khan began to rule in Moscow - “Tatar princes with many people” (see M. Khudyakov, “Essays on the history of the Kazan Khanate,” p. 27). Ulu-Muhammad, who in the best years of his career handed out labels for ruling on behalf of the highest power, continued to consider Muscovy “his” land. However, Vasily did not think so, because he knew that Ulu-Muhammad had already been removed from his position of power, and he obeyed only under pressure from force, i.e. those same “Tatar princes”. The Horde experienced a period of feudal fragmentation. Rus', on the contrary, sought to concentrate its lands around the large principalities - Moscow, Tver, Galicia-Zvenigorod. According to A.A. Zimin, the Galician princes could well have created their own, much more powerful state formation from the northern and northwestern lands. But the sons of Yuri Dmitrievich, like Chekhov’s sisters, for some reason were eager to “go to Moscow, to Moscow!” Vasily, for his part, sought to retain the throne of the Grand Duke of Moscow at any cost. And he made his choice.
The Tatars, who came to Russia with Grand Duke Vasily, began to arrange themselves as they desired. They began to build mosques in Russian cities, where they settled, took the best lands and entire cities “to feed”, and opened trade. Due to the “exit” of part of the capital from Muscovy to Kazan, this city began to rapidly develop, quickly turning into a first-class center of international trade. Meanwhile, the people in Muscovy were grumbling: just as before there was the dominance of the Lithuanians, so now there is the dominance of the Tatars...
Simultaneously with the appearance of the Kazan people in Moscow, the Kasimov kingdom was founded in the Meshchera land on the Oka River. The youngest son of Ulu-Muhammad, Kasim, has ruled in Meshchera since 1446. The tribute of the Russian government in favor of the Kasimov khans is mentioned in the will of John III, as well as in the agreement between his sons dated June 16, 1504. It was paid even under John IV. After the conquest of Kazan, “exit to the Tsarevich town” (Kasimov) was mentioned among Moscow’s obligations, along with “exits” (payments) to Crimea and Astrakhan. Russian historians, not without surprise, noted this fact of the Russian sovereigns paying tribute to the Kasimov khans, who are usually presented as pitiful henchmen of Moscow and weak-willed executors of its orders. What is this if not the gratitude of the princes of Moscow for a service once rendered?
Simultaneously with Vasily's return from captivity, the role of the Grand Duke's Court increased significantly. In Pereslavl he was met by “all the princes and his boyars, and the boyars’ children, and the multitude of his court from all the cities.” The essence of the restructuring of the old Court as a military-economic organization during the events of 1446 boiled down to the separation of the Palace from it - an economic and administrative organization - and the formation of a new Court - a military-administrative corporation of service people. Church hierarchs sided with Vasily, who preferred to be friends with the more tolerant Tatars than with their eternal enemies - the “Westernizers” Latins and Lithuania. The majority of the population, oppressed by the oppression of appanage rulers, Lithuanian and Tatar princes, also had high hopes for a strong grand-ducal power.
Second stage of feudal wars (1446-1453)
But the “Westerners”, led by Dmitry Shemyaka, did not give up.
Already in the winter of 1446, Shemyaka, taking advantage of the departure of the Grand Duke with a small retinue on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, captured Moscow, captured both princesses and the Grand Duke's children. Then Dmitry's soldiers found Vasily II in the monastery, brought him to Moscow and blinded him. Hence his nickname - Vasily the Dark.
According to N.M. Karamzin, the main accusation brought against Vasily by supporters of Dmitry Shemyaka was accusing him of sympathizing with the Tatars: “Why do you love the Tatars and give them Russian cities to feed? Why do you shower the infidels with Christian silver and gold? Why do you exhaust the people with taxes? Why did you blind our brother, Vasily Kosoy?”
In those days, causing any significant injury to a ruler or a contender for the throne meant the actual elimination of his figure from the political arena. The crippled prince could not command the army during the battle, and, therefore, was not perceived as a leader even by his squad - the main driving force of the medieval “palace coups”. In addition, a person with a physical disability was considered unworthy of the “divine” princely power. But the story of Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark shattered all these outdated ideas.
In the spring and summer of 1446, a number of appanage princes openly opposed Dmitry Shemyaka. With the support of the Tatars from the “sovereign court,” they intended to free Vasily from his imprisonment in Uglich, removing Shemyaka, who was disliked by them, from the grand prince’s throne. The conspiracy, among others, included the princes Ryapolovsky, Ivan Vasilyevich Striga Obolensky, representatives of the influential Moscow boyar family of the Morozovs “and many other children of the boyars of the Grand Duke’s court.” Near the Mologa River there was a clash between the squad of the Ryapolov princes and one of the detachments loyal to Shemyaka. The conspirators won. Under the current conditions, Dmitry Yuryevich decided to convene a church meeting, which insisted on “reconciliation” with Vasily the Dark. The official "reconciliation" ceremony took place in September 1446. Vasily “kissed the cross” in loyalty to Dmitry, and was soon released by him and his family to Vologda. Only Vasily did not go there. He went to the Kirillov Monastery, where the abbot of the monastery Tryphon “released” Vasily the Dark from the kiss of the cross to Grand Duke Dmitry, declaring: “that sin is on me and on my brothers heads, that you kissed Prince Dmitry and gave the fortress” (“would that sin be on you kissed us unwillingly").
From the monastery, Vasily headed to Tver, where an agreement was reached between him and the Tver prince Boris Alexandrovich on a joint fight against Dmitry. Supporters of Vasily the Dark continued to arrive in Tver from among the Moscow service people from the grand ducal court, “princes and boyars.” From Lithuania the forces of Prince Vasily Yaroslavich, Ivan Vasilyevich Striga Obolensky, the princes Ryapolovsky, Fyodor Vasilyevich Basenko set out for Rus', uniting in Yelnya with the detachments of the Tatar princes Yakub and Kasym.
Shemyaka, with the northern princes loyal to him, tried for some time to gather an opposition to fight the Moscow prince, but did not receive either the support of the church or the majority of the appanage principalities. We will not dwell in detail on the methods of fighting it, which included both the carrot and the stick. Ultimately, the barbaric methods of Dmitry’s opponents were not much different from the methods of the overthrown but not defeated ruler. Both sides used generous promises, incitement to hostility, repression and robberies of entire cities, taking close relatives hostage, and dirty intrigues.
Ultimately, in 1451, Dmitry Shemyaka was recognized as Grand Duke only by Veliky Novgorod. At the same time, the Novgorod authorities did not object to the great reign of Vasily II the Dark. It seems that the Novgorodians did not care at all who would be considered the Grand Duke in distant Moscow. They cared little about the fate of Shemyaka himself, who by that time no longer had any real military force behind him. In July 1453, by order of Vasily the Dark, Dmitry Yuryevich was poisoned in Novgorod. The feudal war is over.
Results
As A.A. Zimin wrote, “During the years of the Shemyakin Troubles, the unfortunate men, crushed by poverty, and the predatory robbers from the Sovereign’s court won. Welded together by the unity of selfish goals, these princes, boyars and boyar children were not much different from their eastern neighbors (“Scythians... we, with slanted and greedy eyes”), and from the warlike Lithuanians who enslaved the rich cities of Ukraine and Belarus. Like a pack of hungry dogs with strong teeth, they tormented the flourishing lands of Rus'. Unless the groans for the dead were drowned out by the mournful sounds of the funeral bells...”
The further reign of Vasily II proceeded without new shocks. On the contrary, he sought to strengthen his power in every possible way. In 1456, Prince Vasily Yaroslavich of Serpukhov-Borovsk was arrested, and his inheritance was liquidated. Mikhail Andreevich Vereisky (son of Andrei Dmitrievich, grandson of Dmitry Donskoy) was completely dependent on the Grand Duke. After his death (in 1486), the Vereysky inheritance became the property of the Grand Duke (at that time already Ivan III).
In 1456, after Vasily’s victorious campaign against Novgorod, the rights of the Novgorod land were significantly curtailed. Novgorod undertook to pay the Grand Duke black forest in its volosts and court penalties; In addition, Novgorod abolished eternal (veche) charters and undertook to write letters on behalf of the Grand Duke of Moscow.
Ivan Fedorovich, Grand Duke of Ryazan, first sought help from the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and then, dying, gave his son, Vasily, into the hands of the Grand Duke of Moscow. Vasily II took the young Ryazan prince to Moscow, and sent his governors to the Ryazan cities.
The reign of Vasily the Dark put an end to the dependence of the Russian Church on the Patriarch of Constantinople: the metropolitan, the Greek Isidore, who signed the Florentine Union, had to flee from Moscow, as a result of which the council of Russian bishops, without the consent of the patriarch, named the Ryazan Archbishop Jonah as Moscow metropolitan in 1448.
Thus, the freedom-loving North, which found support in Western civilization untouched by the Mongol-Tatar invasion, was ultimately crushed by the pro-Tatar Center. Feudal, peasant and monastic Moscow was opposed by the northern freemen of commercial people (salt workers, hunters, fishermen) and free peasants. The death of Galich's freedom led to the fall of Tver and Novgorod, and then the bloody glow of the oprichnina.
So, the blind, not the wisest and most talented ruler regained his throne. His opponents were thrown into dust. The unity of the lands around Moscow was restored. But at what cost? "Kalita's Nest" was liquidated. Only the brother-in-law of the Grand Duke Mikhail Andreevich retained his inheritance on Beloozero. The rest either died (Prince Yuri Dmitrievich and Vasily Kosoy), or died (Dmitry Shemyaka), or were in the “nation” (Vasily Yaroslavich), or ended up abroad (Ivan Andreevich, Ivan Dmitrievich Shemyachich and Vasily Yaroslavich’s son Ivan). The “nest of Kalita” was replaced by the family of the Grand Duke, and there was already only one step to one autocrat like Ivan IV Vasilyevich. A means of combating disobedience, so rare in previous times, also appeared - mass executions. They became the final chord of the reign of Vasily II...
Elena Shirokova
Based on materials:
Zimin A.A. Knight at the crossroads: feudal war in Russia in the 15th century. - M.: Mysl, 1991
Years of life: 1415-1462
Reign: 1432-1446, 1447-1462
From the Rurik dynasty. From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich and Princess of Lithuania Sofia Vitovtovna. Grandson of Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy.
Vasily II became a Moscow prince at the age of 9, after the death of his father Vasily I Dmitrievich in 1425. The real power was with the widow princess Sofia Vitovtovna, the boyar I.D. Vsevolozhsk and Metropolitan Photius. However, Vasily’s uncles, Yuri, Andrey, Peter and Konstantin Dmitrievich, applied for the leadership. At the same time, Yuri Zvenigorodsky, according to the will of his father Dmitry Donskoy, was to receive a great reign after the death of his brother, Vasily I Dmitrievich.
Both sides began preparing for an internecine war, but agreed on a temporary truce and in 1428 entered into an agreement according to which 54-year-old uncle Yuri Zvenigorodsky recognized himself as the “younger brother” of his 13-year-old nephew Vasily Vasilievich. Sofya Vitovtovna took advantage of the influence of her father Vitovt, after which it was difficult for Yuri to persist in his desire to take the throne.
Start reign of Vasily Vasilyevich was marked by a plague epidemic and terrible drought in 1430, 1442 and 1448. The reign of Vasily II Vasilyevich all his life took place in the conditions of a long internecine struggle for power with the Prince of Zvenigorod Yuri Dmitrievich, and then with his son Dmitry Shemyaka.
In 1430, Yuri dissolved the peace, taking advantage of the death of the actual head of Metropolitan Photius, as well as Vasily Vasilyevich’s grandfather, Vitovt. Yuri Dmitrievich went to the Horde to sue Vasily. Vasily Vasilievich He also hurriedly went to the horde with his boyars.
In the spring of 1432, the rivals appeared before the Tatar princes. Yuri Yuryevich defended his rights according to the right of ancient tribal custom, referring to the chronicles and the will of his father Donskoy. From Vasily’s side, Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky spoke about rights; with skillful flattery he was able to persuade the khan to give a label to Vasily.
Vsevolozhsky hoped that the Grand Duke would marry his daughter. But upon arrival in Moscow, things took a different turn. Sofia Vitovna, mother Vasily Vasilievich, insisted that her son get engaged to Princess Marya Yaroslavna, considering this marriage more profitable from different points of view. Vsevolzhsky harbored a grudge and left Moscow, and soon went over to Yuri’s side and became his adviser.
After Vasily received the label, the struggle for power did not stop. In 1433, a battle took place between uncle and nephew on the banks of the river. Klyazma near Moscow, and Yuri won.
Yuri expelled Vasily from Moscow in 1433. Vasily II received the title of Prince of Kolomna. The city of Kolomna became the center of united forces that sympathized with the prince in his policy of “gathering Rus'.” Many Muscovites refused to serve Prince Yuri and came to Kolomna, which for some time became an administrative, economic and political state. Having received support, Vasily Vasilyevich was able to regain the throne in 1434 after the death of Yuri, but during the war he was deprived of it several more times.
In 1436 against Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark Yuri's son Vasily Kosoy spoke out, but was defeated, captured and blinded.
Vasily II's refusal in 1439 to accept the Florentine union with the Roman Catholic Church was of great importance for the preservation of his own culture and statehood.
July 7, 1445 in the battle near Suzdal Vasily II Vasilievich with united Russian troops, was defeated by Kazan troops under the command of the Kazan princes - Mahmud and Yakub (sons of Khan Ulu-Muhammad). After which Vasily II and his cousin Mikhail Vereisky were taken prisoner, but on October 1, 1445 they were released. A large sum was given for them, and a number of cities were given to the Kazan princes. Under the terms of this enslaving agreement, the Kasimov Khanate was created within Russia, in Meshchera, the 1st khan of which was Tsarevich Kasim, the son of Ulu-Muhammad.
In 1446 Vasily II was captured in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and on February 16 at night on behalf of Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka, Ivan Mozhaisky and Boris Tverskoy and was blinded, after which he received the nickname “Dark”. Then after with my wife Vasily Vasilievich was sent to Uglich, and his mother Sofya Vitovtovna was exiled to Chukhloma.
But Vasily II continued the war anyway. In 1447, Vasily received Martinian's blessing for a campaign against Dmitry Shemyaka, who had captured Moscow, by visiting the Ferapontov Monastery. Hardly Vasily Dark regained the Moscow throne, winning in the early 50s. XV century victory.
By order Vasily II in 1448, the Russian bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan, which became a sign of the declaration of independence of the Russian church from the Patriarch of Constantinople and strengthened the international position of Rus'.
After the death of Shemyaka in 1453, thanks to successful campaigns against Novgorod, Pskov and Vyatka, Vasily was able to restore the unity of the lands around Moscow, eliminating almost all the small fiefs within the Moscow principality.
Vasily II Vasilievich Dark died of dry disease - tuberculosis in 1462 on March 27. Before his death, he wanted to become a monk, but the boyars dissuaded him. He was buried in Moscow in the Archangel Cathedral.
To reign Vasily Dark the city of Kazan was restored, the Kingdom of Kazan was founded and the Crimean Khanate arose.
The only wife Vasily II from 1433 there was Maria Yaroslavna, daughter of the appanage prince Yaroslav Borovsky.
Vasily and Maria had 8 children:
Yuri the Great (1437 – 1441)
Ivan III (January 22, 1440 - October 27, 1505) - Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505.
Yuri Molodoy (1441 – 1472) - Prince of Dmitrov, Mozhaisk, Serpukhov.
Andrei Bolshoi (1444-1494) - Prince of Uglitsky, Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk.
Simeon (1447-1449).
Boris (1449-1494) - Prince of Volotsk and Ruza.
Anna (1451-1501).
Andrei Menshoi (1452-1481) - Prince of Vologda.
