A man of ingenious abilities, an adventurer, a great ambitious man, a brave man, a cunning politician - so often characterize Prince Glinsky. Indeed, he was an outstanding person. The owner of infinite wealth, personally acquainted with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Mikhail Glinsky, ended his life in a Moscow dungeon on the orders of his own niece.
Doctor, military and head of the princely family
It is believed that the family of the Glinsky princes derives their ancestry from the Golden Horde khan Mamaia, one of whose sons converted to Christianity, having received the city of Glinsk as an inheritance from the Lithuanian prince. There is no written evidence for this, so many historians consider this version only as a beautiful legend.
For the first time, the Glinsky, Ivan and Boris, were mentioned in a letter of 1437, but they did not become the most famous representatives of the clan. In 1470, Mikhail Lvovich was born into this princely family, who in the early years of his youth came to the court of Maximilian of Habsburg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, where he received Western European education.
Later, Mikhail Glinsky graduated from the oldest university in Bologna and became a certified doctor. Here, in Italy, he converted to the Catholic faith, after which he served in the armies of Albrecht of Saxony and Maximilian of Habsburg. For military merits, the emperor awarded Glinsky the Knight's Order of the Golden Fleece.
Russian-Lithuanian wars at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries.
The experience gained in those years was useful to Mikhail Glinsky upon his return to Lithuania. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania experienced at the end of the XV century. not the best of times. Poland sought to conclude a union with him, and Muscovy claimed the lands of the Slavs, who were part of Lithuania. Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellonchik preferred to make concessions to Ivan III instead of unifying with the Kingdom of Poland.
Russian-Lithuanian wars were fought over several centuries. The next stage of the centuries-old military conflict began in 1500, after switching to the side of Ivan III of the princes Belsky, Mosalsky, Shemyachich, Mozhaisk, Trubetskoy and Khotetovsky. As a result, Lithuania lost significant territories on the border with Muscovy. Ivan III did not wait until Prince Alexander went on a campaign, and he himself began the offensive.
Princely Advisor
After the capture of the hetman of Ostrog near Dorogobuzh, Lithuania began to hope not so much for military action as for diplomacy. Alexander Yagellonchik raised money to bribe Shikh-Akhmet, the khan of the Great Horde, in the hope that he would attack the Principality of Moscow. In parallel, he was negotiating with the Livonian Order and the Crimean Khan.
At this time, Prince Alexander brings Mikhail Glinsky closer to him. Contemporaries, even those who were not among his friends, noted that he was a proud, physically strong, active, and brave man. But the main thing - he possessed insight and was able to give practical advice. It was such a man that the Grand Duke needed in those circumstances.
A Lithuanian court marshal, that is, the manager of a grand-ducal court, that was the position that Glinsky received in 1500. Moreover, he becomes the closest adviser to Alexander Yagellonchik to the great displeasure of the princely council. Hatred and envy of him only intensified after several victories won by him over the Tatars.
Conflict with Zaberezinsky
In a short time, Mikhail Glinsky became the most influential nobleman at the Lithuanian court, which could not but concern representatives of the old aristocratic clans. Especially hostile was Jan Zaberezinsky. This enmity was based on a personal conflict, which we know about from Notes on Moscow Affairs, compiled by Sigismund Herberstein, the envoy of the German emperor.
He wrote that when Zaberezinsky was the governor of Troki (Trakai), Glinsky sent a servant to him for feed for royal horses. However, the governor not only did not give oats, but also ordered to beat the messenger. Mikhail Glinsky, using his influence on the Grand Duke, ensured that Jan Zaberezinsky lost two posts, including the voivode - a case unprecedented in those days.
Despite the later reconciliation, the former Trok voivode, for the time being, held a grudge. A suitable case for revenge appeared after the death of Alexander Jagiellonchik in August 1506. Sigismund, the younger brother of the late prince, was elected the new ruler of Lithuania. At the same time, Jan Zaberezinsky began to spread rumors about Glinsky’s intentions to seize power in Lithuania, in fact he accused him of high treason.
Rebellious clan
Under the influence of rumors, Sigismund deprived the three Glinsky brothers of all their posts, and the insistent demand of the eldest of them, Prince Mikhail, was not in a hurry to solve the case with his opponents in court. Then the brothers, together with friends and servants, raised a rebellion in February 1508, the beginning of which was the assassination of Jan Zaberezinsky on his own estate.
Grand Duke Vasily III hastened to take advantage of the situation by inviting the Glinsky to his service. The moment was right, since in 1507 the next Russo-Lithuanian war began, until it brought victory to the Moscow army. Thus, the Glinsky rebellion became an integral part of the protracted military conflict.
The brothers accepted the offer of Vasily III and from that time acted together with the Moscow governors. The war ended with the signing of a peace treaty in the autumn of that year, which, in particular, stipulated the right of the Glinsky brothers to leave for Moscow together with property and their supporters.
In the service of Vasily III
Just like Alexander Yagellonchik, the Grand Duke of Moscow often used the advice of Glinsky, who was experienced in European politics. Basil III hoped that with the help of a new subject he would be able to add the lands of Lithuania to his possessions.
In 1512, a new Russo-Lithuanian war began, at the beginning of which the Moscow army unsuccessfully besieged the border Smolensk. In 1514, Prince Glinsky took up the matter, agreeing with Vasily III that the annexed city would subsequently become his hereditary possession. He really took Smolensk, though not so much as a siege, but as a bribe, but the Muscovite did not keep this promise.
The ambitious Lithuanian prince could not forgive such an insult, and from that time he decides to return to the service of Sigismund again. Nevertheless, the escape planned by him was discovered in 1514, and Glinsky was thrown into prison. He cleverly avoided the execution threatening him, turning to the metropolitan with a request to take him back to the Orthodox faith.
New jail time
In 1526, Vasily III married the disgraced Glinsky's niece, Princess Elena, who soon persuaded her husband to release his uncle from imprisonment. The Lithuanian prince again begins to play a prominent role at the Moscow court. In his will, Vasily III even appointed him the guardian of young sons, one of whom was the future Ivan the Terrible.
After the death of her husband in 1533, becoming regent, Elena Glinskaya shocked Moscow with an open relationship with Prince Ivan Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky. Among the boyars, as well as the people, and who had not previously too much favored the second wife of Basil III, a murmur began. Mikhail Lvovich Glinsky convicted his niece of unworthy widow behavior, for which he paid with a new imprisonment.
It is difficult to say what motivated them — infringed on love of power or adherence to moral standards, only this time he did not leave the dungeon. The following year, Prince Glinsky died in custody at the age of 64.