Prince of Moscow Vasily 2 Dark ruled in an era when his principality gradually became the core of a single Russian state. During the rule of this Rurikovich, there was also a major internecine war between him and his relatives - applicants for power in the Kremlin. This feudal conflict was the last in the history of Russia.
A family
The future prince Vasily 2 Dark was the fifth son of Vasily I and Sophia 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, asking him to protect the young nephew.
The first four sons of the Grand Duke died in childhood or youth from a then frequent illness, which is known in the annals as “pestilence”. Thus, Vasily 2 the Dark remained the heir to Basil I. From the state point of view, the presence of a single offspring was only a plus, because it allowed the ruler not to share his power between numerous children. Due to this specific custom, Kievan Rus has already died and the Vladimir-Suzdal land suffered for many years.
Political situation
The Moscow principality doubly needed to remain united because of foreign policy threats. Despite the fact that the grandfather of Vasily II Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Tatar-Mongol army in the Kulikovo field in 1380, Russia 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 with the help of compromise diplomacy.
From the west, East Slavic principalities were threatened by Lithuania. Until 1430, Vitovt, the grandfather of Vasily II, ruled in it. Over the decades of fragmentation of Russia, the Lithuanian rulers were able to annex the western Russian principalities (Polotsk, Galitsky, Volynsky, Kievsky) to their possessions. Under Vasily I, Smolensk lost its independence. Lithuania itself increasingly focused on Catholic Poland, which led to the inevitable conflict with the Orthodox majority and Moscow. Basil II needed to balance between dangerous neighbors and maintain peace within his state. Time has shown that he was not always successful in this.
Conflict with uncle
In 1425, Prince Vasily Dmitrievich died, leaving his ten-year-old son on the throne. Russian princes recognized him as the main ruler in Russia. Nevertheless, despite the expressed support, the position of little Vasily was extremely precarious. The only reason no one dared to touch him was his grandfather - the powerful Lithuanian sovereign Vitovt. But he was a very old man and died in 1430.
This was followed by a chain of events that led to a major internecine war. The main culprit of the conflict was Uncle Vasily II Yuri Dmitrievich - the son of the legendary Dmitry Donskoy. Before his death, the winner of Mamaia traditionally bequeathed to his younger offspring inheritance. Understanding the danger of this tradition, Dmitry Donskoy limited himself to giving Yuri small towns: 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 for power. According to his father’s will, he was to inherit the whole Moscow principality 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 Zvenigorod prince. Moscow rulers managed to preserve their state and increase it due to the fact that the succession order was legalized, according to which the throne passed from father to eldest son, bypassing younger brothers. In the XV century, this order was a relative innovation. Prior to this, in Russia, power was inherited according to logistical law, or the law of seniority (that is, uncles had priority over nephews).
Of course, Yuri was a supporter of the old order, since it was they that allowed him to become a legitimate ruler in Moscow. In addition, his rights were reinforced by a clause in his father's will. If you remove the particulars and personalities, then in the Moscow Principality under Basil II, two inheritance systems collided, one of which was supposed to sweep the other. Yuri was just waiting for the right moment to declare his claims. With the death of Vytautas, this opportunity presented itself to him.
Court in the Horde
During the years of Tatar-Mongol rule, the khans issued labels for reign, which gave the Rurikovich 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 dared to nomads. The henchmen of the khan's decisions were punished by the fact that a bloodthirsty horde attacked them.
The descendants of Dmitry Donskoy still received shortcuts to reign and paid tribute, even though the Mongols also began to suffer from their own feuds. In 1431, the grown-up Vasily 2 the Dark went to the Golden Horde to get his permission to rule. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich went to the steppe. He wanted to prove to the khan that he had more rights to the Moscow throne than his nephew.
The Lord of the Golden Horde Ulu-Muhammad resolved the dispute in favor of Vasily Vasilievich. Yuri suffered his first defeat, but was not going to concede. In words, he recognized his nephew as his "elder brother" and returned to his native inheritance in order to wait for a new opportunity for an attack. Our history knows many examples of oath-crime, and in this sense, Yuri Dmitrievich was not very different from many of his contemporaries and predecessors. At the same time, Vasily broke his promise. At the khan's court, he promised his uncle to compensate the city of Dmitrov, but he did not do so.
The beginning of feuds
In 1433, an eighteen-year-old Moscow prince played a wedding. The wife of Vasily II was Maria - the daughter of the specific 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 did not appear, but remained in his Galich). Dmitry Shemyaka and Vasily Kosoy will still play their serious role in the internecine war. In the meantime, they were guests of the Grand Duke. At the height of the wedding, a scandal erupted. Mother Vasily II Sofya Vitovtovna saw a belt on Vasily Kos, which supposedly belonged to Dmitry Donskoy and was stolen by a servant. She tore off a piece of clothing from the lad, which caused a serious quarrel between relatives. The insulted sons of Yuri Dmitrievich immediately retreated and left for his father, having made a pogrom in Yaroslavl on the way. The episode with a stolen belt became the property of folklore and a popular plot in legends.
A household quarrel became the very occasion that the prince of Zvenigorod was looking for to start a serious war against his nephew. Learning about what happened at the feast, he gathered a loyal army and went to Moscow. The Russian princes again prepared to pour 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, uncle took the capital. Basil received compensation Kolomna, where, in fact, was 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 went into conflict with the capital's boyars, whose influence in the city was extremely great. The support of this estate and their money were then very important attributes of power.
When the Moscow aristocracy realized that its new ruler had begun to oust old people from their posts and replace them with their candidacy, dozens of key supporters fled to Kolomna. Yuri was isolated and cut off from the capital's army. Then he decided to go to the world with his nephew and agreed to return to his throne after several months of reign.
But Basil was not much wiser than his uncle. Returning to the capital, he began outright 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. Then Vasily declared war on the sons of Yuri. The Grand Duke was repeatedly defeated near Rostov. His uncle again became the ruler of Moscow. However, a few months later, after another castling, Yuri died (June 5, 1434). Persistent rumors circulated around the capital that he had been poisoned by one of his close associates. According to the will of Yuri, his eldest son Vasily Kosoy became a prince.
Vasily Kosoy in Moscow
Throughout the reign of Yuri in Moscow, Vasily Vasilievich 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 Shemyak coalition was successful, Uglich and Rzhev would receive it. Now the two princes, who were formerly adversaries, joined their armies to expel the eldest son of Yuri Zvenigorod from Moscow.
Having learned about the approach of the enemy army, Vasily Kosoy fled from the capital to Novgorod, having previously taken his father's treasury with him. He conceived in Moscow only one summer month of 1434. On the run, the exile, with the money taken, gathered an army and went with her towards Kostroma. First, it was defeated at the Kotorosli River near Yaroslavl, and then again in the battle on the Cherekha River in May 1436. Basil was taken prisoner by his namesake and barbarously blinded. It was because of his mutilation that he received the nickname Scythe. The former prince died in captivity in 1448.
The war with the Kazan Khanate
For a while, peace was established in Russia. The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II tried to prevent a war with his neighbors, but he did not succeed. The reason for the new bloodshed was the Kazan Khanate. By this time, a single Golden Horde was divided into several independent uluses. The largest and most powerful was the Kazan Khanate. Tatars killed Russian merchants and periodically organized campaigns in 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 2 the Dark were taken prisoner. The years of the reign of this prince (1425-1462) were full of episodes when he completely lost power. And now, being in the khan's captivity, he was briefly divorced from the events in his homeland.
Tatar hostage
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 Vasilievich persuaded the Kazan Khan to let him go free. However, he had to sign an enslaving agreement, according to which he had to pay a huge indemnity and, even worse, give the Tatars several of their cities for feeding.
This caused a wave of indignation in Russia. Despite the grumbling of many residents of the country, Vasily 2 the Dark began to reign in Moscow again. 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 surely return the throne.
Dmitry Shemyaka, after the opponent returned, retired to his Uglich. Very soon Moscow supporters began to flock to him, among them 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 certain princes, who had previously refrained from conflict. Among them was the Mozhaisk ruler Ivan Andreevich and Boris Tverskoy. These two princes helped Shemyaka treacherously capture Vasily Vasilyevich in 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 to blind his enemy. Thus Shemyaka avenged the fate of his older brother Vasily Kosy.
After blinding
After this episode, Vasily 2 the Dark was sent to the link for the last time. In short, his tragic fate has added to his supporters in the midst of an oscillating aristocracy. Blinding also enlightened the majority of princes outside the Moscow state, who became ardent opponents of Shemyaki. This took advantage of Vasily 2 the Dark. Why the Dark One got his nickname is known from the annals that explain this epithet as blindness. Despite the mutilation, the prince remained active. His son Ivan (future Ivan III) became his eyes and ears, helping in all public affairs.
By order of Shemyaki, Vasily and his wife were detained in Uglich. Maria Yaroslavna, like her husband, did not lose heart. When supporters began to return to the exiled prince, a plan to seize Moscow matured. In December 1446, Vasily together with the army occupied the capital, this happened at the moment when Dmitry Shemyaka was away. Now the prince has finally and until his death established himself in the Kremlin.
Our story knew a lot of strife. Most often, they did not end with a compromise, but with the complete victory of one of the parties. The same thing happened in the middle of the 15th century. Shemyaka gathered the army and prepared to continue the struggle with the Grand Duke. A few years after Vasily returned to Moscow, on January 27, 1450, a battle took place near Galich, which historians consider the last internecine battle in Russia. Shemyaka suffered an unconditional defeat and soon fled to Novgorod. This city often became a haven for exiles from the Rurik dynasty. Residents did not give Shemyak, and he died in 1453. However, it is possible that he was secretly poisoned by agents of Vasily. So ended the last feud in Russia. Since then, the specific princes had neither the means nor the ambition to oppose the central government.
Peace with Poland and Lithuania
At a young age, Prince Vasily 2 Dark did not differ foresight. He did not spare his subjects in the event of war and often made strategic mistakes that caused bloodshed. Blinding greatly changed his character. He became humble, calm, and maybe even wise. Having finally established himself in Moscow, Vasily took up peace with his neighbors.
The main danger was the Polish king and the Lithuanian prince Casimir IV. In 1449, an agreement was concluded between the rulers, according to which they recognized the established borders and promised not to support the competitors of the neighbor inside 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.
Agreement with the Novgorod Republic
Subsequently, the reign of Vasily 2 of the Dark continued in the same vein. Due to the fact that Novgorod sheltered Shemyak, the republic was isolated, 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 cancel the trade embargo and other decisions of the prince, because of which the life of the townspeople was greatly complicated.
In 1456, between the parties was concluded the Yazhelbitsky peace. 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 Russia. Later, the contract was used by the son of Vasily Ivan III to join the wealthy city and the entire northern region to Moscow.
Board Results
The last years of his life, Vasily the Dark spent in relative peace and silence. He died in 1462 from tuberculosis and improper treatment for this scourge. He was 47 years old, 37 of which he (intermittently) was the Prince of Moscow.
Vasily was able to eliminate small fortunes within his power. He increased the dependence on Moscow of other Russian lands. 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 Moscow Church’s dependence on Constantinople. In 1453, the capital of Byzantium was taken by the Turks, after which the actual center of Orthodoxy moved to Moscow.