Vasili IV of Russia

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Tsar Vasili IV
Tsar of all Russia

Reign	19 May 1606 - 19 July 1610
Full name	Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky
Born	22 September 1552
Birthplace	Nizhny Novgorod
Died	12 September 1612
Place of death	Gostynin
Predecessor	False Dmitri I
Successor	Time of Troubles (throne claimed by Władysław IV) proceeded as Tsar by Mikhail I
Royal House	Shuisky

Russian Tsar Vasili IV compelled to kneel before Polish King Sigismund III of Poland in Warsaw 1611

Vasili IV of Russia (Russian: Василий IV Иванович Шуйский) (September 22, 1552 – September 12, 1612) was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of false Dmitrii I. His reign fell during the Time of Troubles.

Born Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky and descended from sovereign princes of Nizhny Novgorod, he was one of the leading boyars of Tsardom of Russia during the reigns of Feodor I and Boris Godunov. In all the court intrigues of the Time of Troubles, 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 the Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, the infant son of Ivan the Terrible, who had perished there in mysterious circumstances. Shuisky reported that it was a case of suicide, though rumors abounded that the Tsarevich had been assassinated on the orders of the regent Boris Godunov. Some suspected that Dmitry escaped the assassination and that another boy was killed in his place, providing impetus for the repeated appearance of impostors (See False Dmitry I, False Dmitry II, and False Dmitry III). On the death of Boris, who had become tsar, and the accession of his son Feodor II, Shuisky went back upon his own words in order to gain favour with the pretender False Dmitriy I, who was attempting to gain the throne by impersonating the dead Tsarevich. Shuisky recognized the pretender as the "real" Dmitry despite having earlier determined the boy had committed suicide, 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 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 as a prisoner in the castle of Gostynin, near Warsaw, in 1612.

[edit] See also

Tsars of Russia family tree

[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 article "Basil IV Shuisky", a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by False Dmitriy I	Tsar of Russia 1606–1610	Succeeded by Succession broken due to Time of Troubles (throne claimed by Władysław IV) proceeded as Tsar by Mikhail I