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BASIL III

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 469 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BASIL III ., IvANOVICH (1479-1533), See also:tsar of Muscovy, son of See also:Ivan III. and See also:Sophia Palaeologa, succeeded his See also:father in 1505. A crafty See also:prince, with all the tenacity of his See also:race, Basil succeeded in incorporating with Muscovy the last remnants of the See also:ancient See also:independent principalities, by accusing the princes of See also:Ryazan and Syeversk of See also:conspiracy against him, seizing their persons, and annexing their domains (1517-1523). Seven years earlier (24th of See also:January 1510) the last See also:free See also:republic of old See also:Russia, See also:Pskov, was deprived of its See also:charter and See also:assembly-See also:bell, which were sent to See also:Moscow, and tsarish See also:governors were appointed to See also:rule it. Basil also took See also:advantage of the difficult position of See also:Sigismund of See also:Poland to See also:capture See also:Smolensk, the See also:great eastern fortress of Poland (1512), chiefly through the aid of the See also:rebel Lithuanian, Prince See also:Michael Glinsky, who provided him with See also:artillery and See also:engineers from western See also:Europe. The loss of Smolensk was the first serious injury inflicted by Muscovy on Poland and only the exigencies of Sigismund compelled him to acquiesce in its surrender (1522). Equally successful, on the whole, was Basil against the See also:Tatars. Although in 1519 he was obliged to buy off the See also:khan of the See also:Crimea, Mahommed Girai, under the very walls of Moscow, towards the end of his reign he established the See also:Russian See also:influence on the See also:Volga, and in 1530 placed the pre-See also:tender Elanyei on the See also:throne of Kazan. Basil was the first See also:grand-See also:duke of Moscow who adopted the See also:title of tsar and the See also:double-headed See also:eagle of the See also:East See also:Roman See also:empire. By his second wife, See also:Helena Glinska, whom he married in 1526, Basil had a son Ivan, who succeeded him as Ivan IV. See Sigismund Herberstain, Rerum Moscoviticarum See also:Commentarii (See also:Vienna, 1549) ; P. A. Byelov, Russian See also:History Previous to the Reforms of See also:Peter the Great (Russ.), (See also:Petersburg, 1895) ; E.

I. Kashprovsky, The See also:

War of Basil III. with Sigismund I. (Russ.), (See also:Nyezhin, 1899). See also:Basin IV., SHUISKY (d. 1612), tsar of Muscovy, was during the reigns of See also:Theodore I. and Boris Godunov, one of the leading boyars of Muscovy. It was he who, in obedience to the See also:secret orders of Tsar Boris, went to See also:Uglich to inquire into the cause of the See also:death of See also:Demetrius, the See also:infant son of Ivan the Terrible, who had been murdered there by the agents of Boris. Shuisky obsequiously reported that it was a See also:case of See also:suicide; yet, on the death of Boris and the See also:accession of his son Theodore II., the false See also:boyar, in See also:order to gain favour with the first false Demetrius, went back upon his own words and recognized the pretender as the real Demetrius, thus bringing about the assassination of the See also:young Theodore. Shuisky then plotted against the false Demetrius and procured his death (May 16o6) also by publicly confessing that the real Demetrius had been indeed slain and that the reigning tsar was an impostor. This was the viler in him as the pseudo-Demetrius had already forgiven him one conspiracy. Shuisky's adherents thereupon proclaimed him tsar (19th of May 16o6). He reigned till the 19th of See also:July 161o, but was never generally recognized. Even in Moscow itself he had little or no authority, and was only not deposed by the dominant boyars because they had none to put in his See also:place.

Only the popularity of his heroic See also:

cousin, Prince Michael Skopin-Shuisky, who led his armies and fought his battles for him, and soldiers from See also:Sweden, whose assistance he See also:purchased by a disgraceful cession of Russian territory, kept him for a See also:time on his unstable throne. In 1610 he was deposed, made a See also:monk, and finally carried off as a See also:trophy by the See also:Polish grand See also:hetman, See also:Stanislaus See also:Zolkiewski. He died at See also:Warsaw in 1612. See D. I. Ilovaisky, The Troubled See also:Period of the See also:Muscovite See also: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—190) ; R. Nisbet See also:Bain, See also:Slavonic Europe, ch. viii. (See also:Cambridge, 1907).

(R. N.

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