Vasili IV of Russia

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Vasili IV of Russia (Russian: Василий IV Иванович Шуйский) (1552 – September 12, 1612) was the last Rurikid tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610.

Born Knyaz (Prince) 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.

Tsar Vasili IV of Russia

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, allegedly 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 he was never generally recognized. Even in Moscow itself he had little or no authority, and he 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.

[edit] References

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).

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.