Ivan III Vasilyevich was the Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505. During the reign of Ivan Vasilievich, a significant part of the Russian lands around Moscow was united and it became the center of the all-Russian state. The final liberation of the country from the rule of the Horde khans was achieved. Ivan Vasilyevich created the state, which became the basis of Russia up to the present.
The first wife of Grand Duke Ivan was Maria Borisovna, daughter of the Prince of Tver. On February 15, 1458, the son Ivan was born in the family of the Grand Duke. The Grand Duchess, who had a meek character, died on April 22, 1467, before reaching the age of thirty. The Grand Duchess was buried in the Kremlin, in the Ascension Convent. Ivan, who was at that time in Kolomna, did not come to his wife's funeral.
Two years after her death, the Grand Duke decided to marry again. After a consultation with his mother, as well as with the boyars and the metropolitan, he decided to agree to the recently received proposal from the Pope to marry the Byzantine princess Sophia (in Byzantium she was called Zoya). She was the daughter of the Morean despot Thomas Palaiologos and was the niece of Emperors Constantine XI and John VIII.
Decisive in the fate of Zoya was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine XI died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople. After 7 years, in 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas fled with his family to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. In order to gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life. Zoya and her brothers - 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuel - moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sophia. The paleologists came under the auspices of Cardinal Bessarion, who retained sympathy for the Greeks.
Zoya has turned over the years into an attractive girl with dark sparkling eyes and pale white skin. She was distinguished by a subtle mind and prudence in behavior. According to the unanimous assessment of contemporaries, Zoya was charming, and her mind, education and manners were impeccable. Bologna chroniclers in 1472 enthusiastically wrote about Zoe: “Truly, she is charming and beautiful ... She was not tall, she seemed about 24 years old; the eastern flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family.
In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basils. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Vissarion tried to renew the union with Russia with the help of marriage. It was then that the Grand Duke was informed about the stay in Rome of a noble bride devoted to Orthodoxy - Sophia Paleolog. Dad promised Ivan his support in case he wants to woo her. The motives for marrying Sophia with Ivan III, of course, were associated with status, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors played a role. Ivan III, who claimed the royal title, considered himself the successor of the Roman and Byzantine emperors.
January 16, 1472 Moscow ambassadors set off on a long journey. In Rome, the Muscovites were honorably received by the new Pope Sixtus IV. As a gift from Ivan III, the ambassadors presented the pontiff with sixty selected sable skins. The case quickly came to an end. Pope Sixtus IV treated the bride with paternal care: he gave Zoe a dowry, in addition to gifts, about 6,000 ducats. Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Cathedral performed a solemn ceremony of Sophia's betrothal in absentia with the Moscow sovereign, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin.
On June 24, 1472, after saying goodbye to the pope in the gardens of the Vatican, Zoya headed to the far north. The future Grand Duchess of Moscow, as soon as she found herself on Russian soil, while still on her way down the aisle to Moscow, treacherously betrayed all the hopes of the pope, immediately forgetting all her Catholic upbringing. Sophia, who apparently met in her childhood with the elders of Athos, who were opposed to the subordination of the Orthodox to the Catholics, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She immediately openly, vividly and defiantly showed her devotion to Orthodoxy, to the delight of the Russians, kissing all the icons in all churches, impeccably behaving in the Orthodox service, being baptized as Orthodox. The plans of the Vatican to make the princess a conductor of Catholicism to Rus' failed, since Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying a Latin cross in front of him.
In the early morning of November 21, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes." And before, Ivan Vasilyevich had a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.
Sophia became a full-fledged Grand Duchess of Moscow. The very fact that she agreed to go to seek her fortune from Rome to distant Moscow suggests that she was a brave, energetic woman.
She brought a generous dowry to Rus'. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the coat of arms of the Byzantine double-headed eagle - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Sophia's dowry was the legendary "liberia" - the library (better known as the "library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria.
According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with ivory and walrus ivory plates with biblical themes carved on them. Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons.
With the arrival in the capital of Russia in 1472 of a Greek princess, the heiress of the former greatness of the Palaiologos, a rather large group of immigrants from Greece and Italy was formed at the Russian court. Many of them eventually occupied significant government positions and more than once carried out important diplomatic missions of Ivan III. All of them returned to Moscow with large groups of specialists, among whom were architects, doctors, jewelers, coiners and gunsmiths.
The great Greek brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court - some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her. Much of what is now preserved in the Kremlin was built during the reign of Grand Duchess Sophia.
In 1474, the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. The Italians were involved in its restoration under the guidance of the architect Aristotle Fioravanti. When she built the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Faceted Chamber, named so on the occasion of its decoration in the Italian style - facets. The Kremlin itself - a fortress that guarded the ancient center of the capital of Rus' - grew and was created before her eyes. Twenty years later, foreign travelers began to call the Moscow Kremlin in a European way “castle”, due to the abundance of stone buildings in it.
So, through the efforts of Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog, the Renaissance flourished on Russian soil.
However, Sophia's arrival in Moscow did not please some of Ivan's courtiers. By nature, Sophia was a reformer, participation in public affairs was the meaning of the life of the Moscow princess, she was a decisive and intelligent person, and the nobility of that time did not like it very much. In Moscow, she was accompanied not only by the honors accorded to the Grand Duchess, but also by the hostility of the local clergy and the heir to the throne. At every step she had to defend her rights.
The best way to assert yourself was, of course, childbearing. The Grand Duke wanted to have sons. Sophia herself wanted this. However, to the delight of ill-wishers, she gave birth to three daughters in a row - Elena (1474), Elena (1475) and Theodosia (1475). Unfortunately, the girls died shortly after birth. Then another girl was born, Elena (1476). Sophia prayed to God and all the saints for the gift of a son. There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia's son Vasily, the future heir to the throne: as if during one of the pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klementyev, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog had a vision of St. gender." On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named after his grandfather Vasily. For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the Archangel Gabriel. Following Vasily, she had two more sons (Yuri and Dmitry), then two daughters (Elena and Feodosia), then three more sons (Semyon, Andrei and Boris) and the last, in 1492, a daughter, Evdokia.
Ivan III loved his wife and took care of the family. Before the invasion of Khan Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with the children, the court, the boyars and the princely treasury, Sophia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero. Vladyka Vissarion warned the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children. In one of the chronicles, it is noted that Ivan panicked: “Horror is found on n, and you want to run away from the shore, and your Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her are ambassadors to Beloozero.”
The main significance of this marriage was that the marriage to Sophia Paleolog contributed to the establishment of Russia as the successor of Byzantium and the proclamation of Moscow as the Third Rome, the stronghold of Orthodox Christianity. After his marriage to Sophia, Ivan III for the first time dared to show the European political world the new title of sovereign of all Rus' and forced him to recognize it. Ivan was called "the sovereign of all Rus'."
Inevitably, the question arose about the future fate of the offspring of Ivan III and Sophia. The heir to the throne remained the son of Ivan III and Maria Borisovna, Ivan Molodoy, whose son Dmitry was born on October 10, 1483, in marriage with Elena Voloshanka. In the event of the death of his father, he would not hesitate in one way or another to get rid of Sophia and her family. The best they could hope for was exile or exile. At the thought of this, the Greek woman was seized with rage and impotent despair.
Throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich's position as the legitimate heir was quite strong. However, by 1490, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with "kamchugo in the legs" (gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leon", who presumptuously promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne. Nevertheless, all the efforts of the doctor were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread around Moscow about the poisoning of the heir. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan the Young as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.
On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich took place in the Assumption Cathedral in an atmosphere of great splendor. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited.
Ivan III continued to painfully seek a way out of the dynastic impasse. How much pain, tears and misunderstanding had to be experienced by his wife, this strong, wise woman who was so eager to help her husband build a new Russia, the Third Rome. But time passes, and the wall of bitterness, which was erected with such zeal around the Grand Duke by his son and daughter-in-law, collapsed. Ivan Vasilyevich wiped away his wife's tears and wept with her himself. As never before, he felt that the white light was not sweet to him without this woman. Now the plan to give the throne to Dmitry did not seem successful to him. Ivan Vasilyevich knew how all-consumingly Sophia loved her son Vasily. He was sometimes even jealous of this motherly love, realizing that the son completely reigns in the heart of the mother. The Grand Duke felt sorry for his young sons Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry Zhilka, Semyon, Andrei ... And he lived together with Princess Sophia for a quarter of a century. Ivan III understood that sooner or later the sons of Sophia would revolt. There were only two ways to prevent the performance: either destroy the second family, or bequeath the throne to Vasily and destroy the family of Ivan the Young.
On April 11, 1502, the dynastic struggle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III "placed disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, Grand Duchess Elena." Three days later, Ivan III "granted his son Vasily, blessed and planted autocrat on the Grand Duchy of Volodimer and Moscow and All Rus'."
On the advice of his wife, Ivan Vasilievich released Elena from prison and sent her to her father in Wallachia (good relations with Moldova were needed), but in 1509 Dmitry died “in need, in prison”.
A year after these events, on April 7, 1503, Sophia Paleolog died. The body of the Grand Duchess was buried in the cathedral of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan Vasilyevich, following her death, lost heart, became seriously ill. Apparently, the great Greek Sophia gave him the necessary energy to build a new power, her mind helped in state affairs, her sensitivity warned of dangers, her all-conquering love gave him strength and courage. Leaving all his affairs, he went on a trip to the monasteries, but failed to atone for sins. He was stricken with paralysis: "... took away his arm and leg and eye." On October 27, 1505, he died, "having been in the great reign for 43 years and 7 months, and all the years of his stomach 65 and 9 months."
During most of the reign of Ivan III, the work of the Moscow government went smoothly, without any sharp contradictions within the ruling group. In the 90s. XV century, the situation changed. Religious differences confused the whole people and aroused a bitter feeling. The massacre in 1491 with Ivan's brother Andrei Bolshoi and his death in prison in 1493 made him a martyr in the eyes of numerous supporters of the rights of appanage princes, especially their former servants. As for foreign policy, the bulk of the nation wholeheartedly supported Ivan III in his struggle against the Tatars, Germans and Swedes, but there was no such unity regarding his conflict with Lithuania. All this created a favorable psychological ground for the growth of the opposition. This opposition would not have united and constituted a serious threat to Ivan III and his government, if this government itself at that moment had not been struck by palace intrigues, as a result of which even Ivan III eventually lost his temper.
As we know, in 1470 Ivan III declared his son (from his first wife) Ivan the Young as his co-ruler, giving him the title of Grand Duke. Twenty years later, Ivan the Young died (there were rumors that he was poisoned by his stepmother, Sophia Paleolog); his death reopened the question of an heir to the throne. The court was divided into two groups: one supported the candidacy of the son of Ivan the Young (grandson of Ivan III) Dmitry, and the other - the eldest son of Ivan III from Sophia Paleolog, Vasily (born in 1479). Behind all this was the personal struggle of two women: Sophia - the mother of Vasily and Elena - the mother of Dmitry.
For several years, Ivan III could not decide which of the two boys to appoint as his successor. Of the main advisers to Ivan III, both Prince Patrikeev and the clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn were inclined towards the candidacy of Dmitry. On the other hand, Sophia naturally intrigued in favor of her son. Some opponents of Ivan III also preferred Vasily to Dmitry. Among them were former servants of the specific princes, as well as some priests who were painfully perceiving the tolerant attitude of Ivan III to the "heresy of the Judaizers." It was known that Sophia's rival, Princess Elena Moldavskaya, shared the views of this trend. Under such circumstances, one might expect that Sophia and Vasily would try to get in touch with Ivan's political and religious opponents.
Sophia's connections with the specific Moscow princes were established long before the conflict of the nineties of the XV century. In 1480, her niece Maria (daughter of Sophia's brother Andrei Paleolog) married Vasily Mikhailovich, son of Prince Mikhail Andreevich Vereisky. This marriage had unexpected consequences four years later, causing a quarrel between Sophia and Ivan III. After the wedding, Ivan allowed Sofya to wear one of his first wife's gems. When Dmitry (the son of Ivan the Young and Elena of Moldavia) was born in 1483, Ivan III asked Sophia to return the jewel in order to present it to Elena. Sophia considered this request an insult and refused to return the stone. She explained that she herself had few jewelry left, because she had to give a lot to her brother Andrei (who, we recall, was always in need of money), and the rest to her niece Maria as a dowry. Ivan III was furious and sent his men to Vereya to confiscate Mary's dowry, which they did. Vasily and Maria fled to Lithuania, asking for protection from Grand Duke Casimir.
This incident, of course, aroused in Sophia hatred for Elena and the boy Dmitry. While Dmitry's father was alive, the boy himself did not pose an immediate threat to Sophia. However, after the death of Ivan the Young, Dmitry became a serious obstacle in the way of Sophia and her son Vasily to the throne.
This obstacle could only be removed by desperate measures. In 1497, a plot was uncovered to kill Dmitry. In all likelihood, it originated after the arrest of Andrei the Great in 1491 or after his death in captivity in 1493. The conspirators decided to act when they learned in 1497 that Ivan III had finally decided to declare Dmitry as his co-ruler and successor.
Evidence of a conspiracy in the annals is scarce and contradictory. For obvious reasons, the compilers of the annalistic codes created during the reign of Vasily III and his son Ivan, apparently, were instructed to remove information about the participation of Sophia and Vasily in it. However, some fragments of original records have been preserved in some manuscripts.
According to the story in one such fragment, Ivan III, having received information about the conspiracy and Vasily's role in it, went berserk and placed Vasily under house arrest. Vasily's supporters were captured. The investigation found the following facts.
Somewhat earlier (probably in September or October), the clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father (Ivan III) had decided to grant Dmitry the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow. On the advice of Afanasy Eropkin, Vasily gathered a meeting of his adherents, who were mostly boyar children; among them was Vladimir Gusev (who until recently was erroneously considered the compiler of the Sudebnik). They, and some others, swore allegiance to Vasily. It was decided that Vasily and his people should break allegiance to his father, go to Northern Rus' and seize the grand ducal treasury stored in Vologda and Beloozero. At this time, Dmitry will be killed.
Then Ivan received a denunciation that Sophia met with several "witches" who supplied her with poison. It is assumed that Sophia - due to her role in the conspiracy - intended to secretly poison Dmitry, and possibly Ivan III himself. Ivan ordered the "witches" to be seized and drowned at night in the Moscow River. Then he put Sophia in disgrace and, as the chronicler says, from that time on he took special precautions. Basil also came under close surveillance.
As for the leaders of the conspiracy, Ivan first of all handed over the matter to Metropolitan Simon and the episcopal council. The Council authorized the Supreme Court to hold a trial. All participants in the conspiracy were found guilty. Dyak Fyodor Stromilov, Afanasy Eropkin, Vladimir Gusev and three other leaders were sentenced to death and beheaded on December 27. This was the first case of application of article 9 of the Code of Laws. Many supporters of Basil were imprisoned.
As L.V. Cherepnin, all the leaders of the conspiracy and their families were associated, at one time or another, with the courts of specific princes, such as Andrei Bolshoi Uglitsky, Boris Volotsky and Mikhail Vereisky and Beloozersky. It should also be noted that the ancestors of Gusev and Stromilov supported Dmitry Shemyaka and Ivan Mozhaisky against the father of Ivan III. Thus, the conspiracy of 1497 appears to be the revival of the federal idea, opposed to the aristocracy.
There is no reason to believe that the son of Ivan III Vasily supported the rights of specific princes. Later, after becoming the ruler of Muscovy, he continued the policy of his father. It is obvious that the reason for his alliance with the Gusev group was the risky undertaking of a desperate person. The conspiracy seemed the only way that gave Vasily the opportunity to seize power. He lost, but subsequent events showed that it was not definitive. Right now, his life was more important.
Once the plot was uncovered, preparations for Dmitri's official coronation were completed. A complex ritual was developed in advance. The ceremony was held in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on February 4, 1498. Metropolitan Simon and the bishops celebrated the service. Three thrones stood in the center of the church: for Ivan III, for Dmitry and for the metropolitan. Ivan III and the Metropolitan sat in their places, Dmitry stood in front of his throne. Ivan III, addressing the metropolitan, announced that, according to ancient custom, each of his ancestors transferred the great reign to his first son. Since the first son of Ivan III died, he now blesses Dmitry (as the first son of his first son) with the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, Moscow and Novgorod. The Metropolitan then laid his hand on Dmitry's head and read the anointing prayer, after which he blessed the regalia - barmas - a crown. Ivan III laid the regalia on the shoulders and head of Dmitry, Dmitry sat on the throne, and a prayer service was performed. Then, in a short speech, Ivan III gave his grandson parting words to be obedient to God, love justice and take good care of the Orthodox people.
With the solemn coronation of Dmitry, the political crisis seemed to have been overcome, the stable position of the government was restored and, moreover, blessed by the metropolitan and the episcopal council. However, the wound did not actually heal. The disclosure of the conspiracy and especially the participation of Sophia and Vasily in it had a painful effect on the physical and mental state of Ivan III. If we decide to believe Herberstein's story about the drunkenness of Ivan III, then most likely he became addicted to it at the time. Herberstein says: “At dinner he used to drink so much that he fell asleep. All the invitees then sat in silence, greatly frightened. Herberstein, during his visits to Moscow, collected a lot of valuable information, but at the same time he repeated just rumors: some of his stories are, of course, fiction. Specifically, this story seems to be psychologically true, but only if we assume that it refers to the last years of Ivan III's life: there is no evidence of Ivan III's excessive drinking in the first half of his reign. The Italian Ambrogio Contarini, invited three times by Ivan III to dinner in 1476-77, found that the dinner "was, of course, served in magnificent style." Contarini liked all the dishes. As for drinks, he says that after he dined with Ivan III for the third time (shortly before his departure), he was presented with "a huge silver vessel full of their drink, made from honey." Contarini was only able to drink a quarter. Ivan insisted that he drink to the bottom, and "ordered to free the vessel and return it to me."
Although Sofya and Vasily were in disgrace and apparently under strict supervision, it was impossible to isolate them completely. Vasily's next oldest brother, Yuri (born in 1480), escaped disgrace (like Sophia's younger children). Yuri even took part in Dmitry's coronation ceremony. Vasily's sister Elena was the Grand Duchess of Lithuania, and any open violence against her mother could lead to a diplomatic incident. Before the disclosure of the conspiracy of 1497, both Ivan and Sophia corresponded with Elena on a regular basis. After the disgrace, Sophia stopped writing to her daughter. Ivan III, however, continued to write to Elena and convey his best wishes to both her and her husband, Grand Duke Alexander. On March 29, 1498, Ivan's ambassador to Lithuania, Prince Vasily Romodanovsky, was instructed to convey greetings to Alexander in the following order: from Ivan III himself, from Dmitry, from Sophia, and from Dmitry's mother, Elena of Moldavia. Greetings to Elena of Lithuania were to be conveyed in the same order.
After the first shock of disgrace had passed, Sophia and Vasily, apparently, began to try to regain the favor of Ivan III through their friends among the courtiers and the clergy. To do this, it was necessary to arouse his suspicions about the boyars who investigated the conspiracy of 1497 and put Dmitry on the throne, and above all about Prince Ivan Patrikeev. The most convincing would be to present Vasily as a victim of slander. It is this plan that the chronicles of the 16th century follow. In the Nikon Chronicle, we read that Ivan III put Vasily and Sophia in disgrace under the influence of "devilish spells and advice from bad people." You can be sure that Prince Ivan Patrikeev was considered one of these people.
The Byzantines were unsurpassed masters of palace intrigues, and, apparently, this art was in Sophia's blood. It can be assumed that at first she did not try to prove anything to Ivan III herself, but sent some third party, most likely not involved in the conflict, to gradually undermine Ivan III's confidence in Prince Patrikeev. It so happened that it was at this time that disagreements arose between Ivan III and Prince Patrikeyev over Russian foreign policy. As we know, after the subjugation of the Kazan Khanate in 1487, Ivan III set as his next goal the annexation of the Western Russian lands. This suggested a conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The marriage of Ivan's daughter Elena to Alexander of Lithuania (in 1495) on the part of Ivan was a diplomatic step aimed solely at strengthening the Russian Orthodox Party in Lithuania. On the contrary, Prince Ivan Patrikeyev and some other noble boyars, such as Prince Semyon Ivanovich Ryapolovsky and Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Romodanovsky, advocated rapprochement with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They hoped that Elena's marriage to Alexander could strengthen the friendship of the two countries, which together would find it easier to fight the Tatars and Turks.
Apparently, Patrikeyev and Ryapolovsky, who were often entrusted with negotiations with Lithuania in order to avoid war, did not always follow the instructions of Ivan III exactly and stuck to their own line. When Ivan III discovered this, he considered their behavior "betrayal" (the expression is used in the Ustyug Chronicle). The denouement came when, in January 1499, Ivan III ordered the arrest of Prince Ivan Patrikeev, his son Vasily and Prince Semyon Ryapolovsky. On February 5, Ryapolovsky was executed. Both Patrikeyevs were tonsured monks. In April, Prince Vasily Romodanovsky was captured.
Ivan III gave all orders in this case personally, without any agreement with the boyar duma (whose head was Prince Patrikeyev). Thus, in contrast to the executions of 1497, the assassination of Prince Ryapolovsky was an act of power that was contrary to the spirit of the Sudebnik. Soon a new head of the Duma was appointed - Prince Vasily Danilovich Kholmsky (from the Tver branch of the Rurikovich). A year later (February 13, 1500), Ivan III gave Kholmsky his daughter Theodosia (born in 1485) as his wife. It should be noted that the father of Vasily Kholmsky, Prince Danila Dmitrievich Kholmsky, glorified himself as a commander in the wars with the Kazan Tatars and Livonians, but despite this, in 1474 he fell into disgrace. Ivan III returned his location to Prince Danila only after he signed a special obligation never to leave the Moscow service. Prince Danila died in 1493. His son Vasily (the new head of the Duma) was also an outstanding military leader.
Shortly after the arrest of Ryapolovsky and the Patrikeyevs, Ivan III returned Sophia and Vasily to court, and on March 21. Vasily was declared the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov.
Some time later, Sophia again began to write to her daughter, Elena of Lithuania. However, the spirit of her letters has changed a lot. Previously, these were intimate letters from a mother to her daughter; now Sophia's messages had a religious and political tone. She encourages Elena to hold fast to her Orthodox faith. “Do not accept the Roman faith, even if they threaten you with pain and death, otherwise your soul will perish” (May 30, 1499). Obviously, in her letters to Elena of that period, Sophia followed the official line of Ivan III's foreign policy.
At his coronation in 1498, Dmitry received the title of Grand Duke of All Rus'. More precisely, Ivan III "blessed his grandson with the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, Moscow and Novgorod." Now, when a little more than a year has passed since the coronation, Ivan III declared Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod (and Pskov), thus violating the unity of "All Rus'" and depriving Dmitry of one of the great principalities. Apparently, this act of Ivan III was approved by the boyar duma, headed by its new chairman. In any case, there is no evidence of opposition. On the other hand, a furious protest against the new title of Basil came from those whom he directly concerned. Novgorod was now a province of Muscovy and had no political voice. However, Pskov still remained a free city, although under the suzerainty of Ivan III. Ivan sent an ambassador to Pskov with the following notice: "I, Grand Duke Ivan, favor my son Vasily and grant him Novgorod and Pskov." The Pskov Veche refused to recognize Vasily and sent a delegation of three city leaders and three boyars to Moscow with a request to the Grand Dukes Ivan and Dmitry not to violate the ancient tradition, according to which the Grand Duke of Moscow is the overlord of Pskov (both Ivan III and Dmitry were Grand Dukes of Moscow, and Basil is not).
When the Pskov delegation handed the petition to Ivan III, he became angry and replied: “Am I not free to take care of my grandson and my sons? I grant princely power to whom I wish; and I wish to grant Novgorod and Pskov to Vasily. He took into custody two members of the Pskov delegation, although he allowed others to return to Pskov. The Pskovites then sent another delegation with a new petition addressed to "Ivan, Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov." Ivan III ordered the delegation to return back and promised to send a special envoy to Pskov with his answer. This ambassador, the boyar Ivan Khobotov, arrived in Pskov and announced at the veche that the Grand Duke would observe the ancient tradition regarding Pskov. The text of the message brought by Khobotov is not given in the Pskov Chronicle. In all likelihood, Ivan explained to the Pskovites that he remained their overlord, and the title of Vasily was only nominal. The next Pskov delegation to Moscow asked the Grand Dukes Ivan and Vasily to release from prison two members of the first delegation (until then held in Moscow). This was done immediately, and the conflict between Pskov and Moscow was thus resolved. Vasily, however, was deeply offended by such a frank unwillingness of the Pskovites to recognize him as their Grand Duke; Vasily's feelings influenced his own policy towards Pskov when he became the sole ruler of Great Rus'.
Sophia (Zoya) Paleolog- a woman from the family of Byzantine emperors, Palaiologos, played an outstanding role in the formation of the ideology of the Moscow kingdom. Sophia's level of education was simply incredibly high by then Moscow standards. Sophia had a very great influence on her husband, Ivan III, which caused discontent among the boyars and churchmen. The double-headed eagle, the family coat of arms of the Palaiologos dynasty, was adopted by the Grand Duke Ivan III as an integral part of the dowry. The double-headed eagle has since become the personal emblem of Russian tsars and emperors (not the state emblem!) Many historians believe that Sophia was the author of the future state concept of Muscovy: "Moscow is the third Rome."
Sofia, skull reconstruction.
Decisive in the fate of Zoya was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople, 7 years later, in 1460, Morea (the medieval name of the Peloponnese peninsula, the possession of Sophia's father) was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas went to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Zoya and her brothers, 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuel, moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name "Sofia". Palaiologos settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (customer of the Sistine Chapel). In order to gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life.
After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died a little earlier in the same year), the well-known Greek scholar, Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, a supporter of the union, took care of his children. His letter has been preserved, in which he gave instructions to the teacher of orphans. It follows from this letter that the pope will continue to release 3600 ecu per year for their maintenance (200 ecu per month - for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus it was necessary to save for a rainy day, and spend 100 ecu on the maintenance of a modest yard ). The court included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, an interpreter and 1-2 priests.
Vissarion of Nicaea.
A few words should be said about the deplorable fate of the brothers Sophia. After the death of Thomas, the crown of Palaiologos was inherited de jure by his son Andrew, who sold it to various European monarchs and died in poverty. During the reign of Bayezid II, the second son, Manuel, returned to Istanbul and surrendered to the mercy of the Sultan. According to some sources, he converted to Islam, started a family and served in the Turkish navy.
In 1466, the Venetian lordship offered the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan her candidacy as a bride, but he refused. According to Fr. Pirlinga, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising the waters of the Mediterranean. Around 1467, Pope Paul II, through Cardinal Vissarion, offered her hand to Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. She was solemnly engaged, but the marriage did not take place.
Ivan III was widowed in 1467 - his first wife Maria Borisovna, Princess of Tverskaya died, leaving him his only son, heir - Ivan the Young.
Sophia's marriage to Ivan III was proposed in 1469 by Pope Paul II, presumably in the hope of strengthening the influence of the Catholic Church on Moscow, or perhaps bringing the Catholic and Orthodox churches closer together - to restore the Florentine connection of churches. Ivan III's motives were probably related to status, and the recently widowed monarch agreed to marry a Greek princess. The idea of marriage may have been born in the mind of Cardinal Vissarion.
The negotiations lasted three years. The Russian chronicle narrates: On February 11, 1469, the Greek Yuri arrived in Moscow from Cardinal Vissarion to the Grand Duke with a sheet in which Sophia, the daughter of the Amorite despot Thomas, an “Orthodox Christian” was offered to the Grand Duke as a bride (she was silent about her conversion to Catholicism). Ivan III consulted with his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, and made a positive decision.
In 1469 Ivan Fryazin (Gian Battista della Volpe) was sent to the Roman court to woo Grand Duke Sophia. The Sofia chronicle testifies that a portrait of the bride was sent back to Rus' with Ivan Fryazin, and such secular painting turned out to be an extreme surprise in Moscow - “... and bring the princess on the icon.” (This portrait has not been preserved, which is very regrettable, since it was probably painted by a painter in the papal service, the generation of Perugino, Melozzo da Forli and Pedro Berruguete). The Pope received the ambassador with great honour. He asked the Grand Duke to send the boyars for the bride. Fryazin went to Rome for the second time on January 16, 1472, and arrived there on May 23.
Viktor Muyzhel. "Ambassador Ivan Frezin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleolog."
On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Ivan Fryazin was the deputy of the Grand Duke. The wife of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Clarice Orsini and the Queen of Bosnia, Katharina, were also guests. The Pope, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6,000 ducats.
When in 1472 Clarice Orsini and the court poet of her husband Luigi Pulci witnessed an absentee marriage that took place in the Vatican, the poisonous wit Pulci, in order to amuse Lorenzo the Magnificent, who remained in Florence, sent him a report on this event and the appearance of the bride:
“We entered a room where a painted doll sat in an armchair on a high platform. She had two huge Turkish pearls on her chest, a double chin, thick cheeks, her whole face shone with fat, her eyes were wide open like bowls, and around her eyes there were such ridges of fat and meat, like high dams on the Po. The legs are also far from thin, and so are all other parts of the body - I have never seen such a funny and disgusting person as this fair cracker. All day long she chatted incessantly through an interpreter - this time it was her brother, the same thick-legged cudgel. Your wife, as if bewitched, saw in this monster in a woman's guise a beauty, and the interpreter's speech clearly gave her pleasure. One of our companions even admired the painted lips of this doll and considered that she spits amazingly gracefully. All day long, until evening, she chatted in Greek, but we were not allowed to eat or drink in Greek, Latin, or Italian. However, she somehow managed to explain to Donna Clarice that she was wearing a narrow and ugly dress, although this dress was of rich silk and cut from at least six pieces of fabric, so that they could cover the dome of Santa Maria Rotunda. Since then, every night I dream of mountains of butter, fat, lard, rags and other similar muck.
According to the review of the Bolognese chroniclers, who described the passage of her procession through the city, she was short in stature, had very beautiful eyes and amazing whiteness of skin. In appearance they gave her 24 years.
On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sophia Palaiologos, together with Fryazin, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, who was supposed to realize the opportunities that were opening up for the Holy See. Legend has it that Sophia's dowry included books that would form the basis of the collection of the famous library of Ivan the Terrible.
Sophia's retinue: Yuri Trakhaniot, Dmitry Trakhaniot, Prince Konstantin, Dmitry (the ambassador of her brothers), St. Cassian the Greek. And also - the papal legate Genoese Anthony Bonumbre, Bishop of Accia (his annals are erroneously called a cardinal). The nephew of diplomat Ivan Fryazin, architect Anton Fryazin, also arrived with her.
Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from the Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sophia Palaiologos (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of the Marche, Urbino.
The itinerary of the journey was as follows: north from Italy through Germany, they arrived at the port of Lübeck on September 1. (We had to go around Poland, through which travelers usually traveled to Muscovy by land - at that moment she was in a state of conflict with Ivan III). The sea voyage across the Baltic took 11 days. The ship landed in Kolyvan (modern Tallinn), from where the motorcade in October 1472 proceeded through Yuryev (modern Tartu), Pskov and Novgorod. November 12, 1472 Sophia entered Moscow.
Even during the journey of the bride, it became obvious that the plans of the Vatican to make her a conductor of Catholicism failed, since Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate Anthony was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying a Latin cross in front of him.
The wedding in Russia took place on November 12 (21), 1472 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. They were married by Metropolitan Philip (according to the Sophia Time Book - Archpriest Hosea from Kolomna).
Sophia's family life, apparently, was successful, as evidenced by numerous offspring.
For her, special mansions and a courtyard were built in Moscow, but they soon burned down in 1493, and the treasury of the Grand Duchess also perished during the fire.
Tatishchev conveys evidence that, thanks to the intervention of Sophia, Ivan III decided to confront Khan Akhmat (Ivan III was already at that time an ally and tributary of the Crimean Khan). When the demand of tribute by Khan Akhmat was discussed at the council of the Grand Duke, and many said that it was better to appease the wicked with gifts than shed blood, it was as if Sophia burst into tears and reproachfully persuaded her husband not to pay tribute to the Great Horde.
Before the invasion of Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with the children, the court, the boyars and the princely treasury, Sofia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero; in the event that Akhmat crosses the Oka and takes Moscow, then she was told to run further north to the sea. This gave rise to Vissarion, lord of Rostov, in his message to warn the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children. In one of the chronicles, it is noted that Ivan panicked: “the horror was found on n, and you want to run away from the shore, and your Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her were sent to Beloozero.”
The family returned to Moscow only in winter.
Over time, the second marriage of the Grand Duke became one of the sources of tension at court. Soon enough, two groups of court nobility formed, one of which supported the heir to the throne - Ivan Ivanovich the Young (son from his first marriage), and the second - the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog. In 1476, the Venetian A. Contarini noted that the heir "is in disfavor with his father, because he behaves badly with Despina" (Sofya), but since 1477 Ivan Ivanovich has been mentioned as his father's co-ruler.
In subsequent years, the grand duke's family increased significantly: Sophia gave birth to a total of nine children to the grand duke - five sons and four daughters.
Meanwhile, in January 1483, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy, also married. His wife was the daughter of the sovereign of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka, who immediately found herself with her mother-in-law “on knives”. On October 10, 1483, their son Dmitry was born. After the capture of Tver in 1485, Ivan Molodoy was appointed prince of Tver as his father; in one of the sources of this period, Ivan III and Ivan Molodoy are called "autocrats". Thus, during all the 1480s, the position of Ivan Ivanovich as the legitimate heir was quite strong.
The position of the supporters of Sophia Palaiologos was much less advantageous. By 1490, however, new circumstances came into play. The son of the Grand Duke, heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with "kamchugo in the legs" (gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leon", who presumptuously promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne; nevertheless, all the efforts of the doctor were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread around Moscow about the poisoning of the heir; a hundred years later, these rumors, already as indisputable facts, were recorded by Andrei Kurbsky. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan the Young as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.
On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry took place in the Assumption Cathedral in an atmosphere of great splendor. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited. However, on April 11, 1502, the dynastic struggle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III “placed disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, the Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day on he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, nor called the Grand Duke, and plant them for bailiffs.” A few days later, Vasily Ivanovich was granted a great reign; soon Dmitry the grandson and his mother Elena Voloshanka were transferred from house arrest to imprisonment. Thus, the struggle within the grand-ducal family ended in the victory of Prince Vasily; he became the co-ruler of his father and the legitimate heir to the Grand Duchy. The fall of Dmitry the grandson and his mother also predetermined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod reform movement in the Orthodox Church: the Church Council of 1503 finally defeated it; many prominent and progressive figures of this movement were executed. As for the fate of those who lost the dynastic struggle, it was sad: on January 18, 1505, Elena Stefanovna died in captivity, and in 1509 Dmitry himself died “in need, in prison”. “Some believe that he died from hunger and cold, others that he suffocated from smoke,” Herberstein reported about his death. But the most terrible country was waiting ahead - the reign of Sophia Paleolog's grandson - Ivan the Terrible.
The Byzantine princess was not popular, she was considered smart, but proud, cunning and treacherous. Hostility towards her was expressed even in the annals: for example, regarding her return from Beloozero, the chronicler notes: “Grand Duchess Sophia ... ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, and no one drove; and in which countries she went, the more so the Tatars - from boyar serfs, from Christian bloodsuckers. Repay them, O Lord, according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their undertakings.
The disgraced duma man of Vasily III, Bersen Beklemishev, in a conversation with Maxim Grek, spoke of her like this: “our land lived in silence and in peace. As the mother of the Grand Duke Sophia came here with your Greeks, so our land got mixed up and great disturbances came to us, just like you had in Tsar-grad under your kings. Maxim objected: “Lord, Grand Duchess Sophia was of a great family on both sides: by her father she was of the royal family, and by her mother she was the Grand Duke of the Italian side.” Bersen replied: “Whatever it is; Yes, it has come to our disorder. This disorganization, according to Bersen, was reflected in the fact that since that time “the great prince changed the old customs”, “now our Sovereign, having locked himself in thirds by the bed, does all sorts of things.”
Prince Andrei Kurbsky is especially strict with Sophia. He is convinced that “The devil instilled evil morals into the good Russian princes, especially by their evil wives and sorcerers, like in Israel the kings, more than whom they were raped from foreigners”; accuses Sophia of poisoning young John, of the death of Elena, of imprisoning Dmitry, Prince Andrei Uglitsky and other persons, contemptuously calls her a Greek woman, a Greek “sorceress”.
In the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, a silk veil is kept, sewn by the hands of Sophia in 1498; her name is embroidered on the veil, and she calls herself not the Grand Duchess of Moscow, but the “Tsarina of Tsaregorodskaya”. Apparently, she highly valued her former title, if she remembers him even after 26 years of marriage.
Shroud from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra embroidered by Sophia Paleolog.
There are various versions regarding the role of Sophia Paleolog in the history of the Russian state:
Artists and architects were called from Western Europe to decorate the palace and the capital. New temples, new palaces were erected. The Italian Alberti (Aristotle) Fioaventi built the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals. Moscow was adorned with the Palace of Facets, the Kremlin towers, the Terem Palace, and, finally, the Archangel Cathedral was built.
For the sake of the marriage of her son Vasily III, she introduced the Byzantine custom - a review of brides.
It is considered the ancestor of the Moscow-Third Rome concept.
Sophia died on April 7, 1503, two years before the death of her husband (he died on October 27, 1505).
She was buried in a massive white stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave of Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III. On the lid of the sarcophagus, “Sophia” was scratched with a sharp instrument.
This cathedral was destroyed in 1929, and the remains of Sophia, as well as other women of the reigning house, were transferred to the underground chamber of the southern extension of the Archangel Cathedral.
Transfer of the remains of the Grand Duchesses and Empresses before the destruction of the Ascension Monastery, 1929.
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At the end of the 15th century, in the Russian lands united around Moscow, the concept began to emerge, according to which the Russian state was the successor of the Byzantine Empire. A few decades later, the thesis "Moscow - the Third Rome" will become a symbol of the state ideology of the Russian state.
A major role in the formation of a new ideology and in the changes that were taking place at that time inside Russia was destined to be played by a woman whose name was heard by almost everyone who had ever come into contact with Russian history. Sophia Paleolog, wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, has contributed to the development of Russian architecture, medicine, culture and many other areas of life.
There is another view of her, according to which she was the "Russian Catherine de Medici", whose intrigues set off the development of Russia along a completely different path and brought confusion to the life of the state.
The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Sophia Paleolog did not choose Russia - Russia chose her, a girl from the last dynasty of Byzantine emperors, as a wife for the Grand Duke of Moscow.
Byzantine orphan at the papal court
Thomas Palaiologos, Sophia's father. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Zoya Paleologina, daughter Despot (this is the title of the position) Morea Thomas Palaiologos, was born at a tragic time. In 1453, the Byzantine Empire, the successor of Ancient Rome, after a thousand years of existence, collapsed under the blows of the Ottomans. The fall of Constantinople was a symbol of the empire's death, in which Emperor Constantine XI, brother of Thomas Palaiologos and uncle of Zoe.
The Despotate of Morea, a province of Byzantium ruled by Thomas Palaiologos, held out until 1460. These years, Zoya lived with her father and brothers in Mystra, the capital of Morea, a city located next to Ancient Sparta. After Sultan Mehmed II captured the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos went to the island of Corfu, and then to Rome, where he died.
Children from the royal family of the lost empire lived at the court of the Pope. Shortly before the death of Thomas Palaiologos, in order to gain support, he converted to Catholicism. His children also became Catholics. Zoya after baptism in the Roman rite was named Sophia.
Vissarion of Nicaea. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
A 10-year-old girl, taken into the care of the papal court, did not have the opportunity to decide anything on her own. She was appointed mentor Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea, one of the authors of the union, which was supposed to unite Catholics and Orthodox under the common authority of the Pope.
Sophia's fate was going to be arranged through marriage. In 1466 she was offered as a bride to a Cypriot King Jacques II de Lusignan but he refused. In 1467 she was offered as a wife Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. The prince agreed, after which a solemn betrothal took place.
Bride on the "icon"
But Sophia was not destined to become the wife of an Italian. In Rome, it became known that the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III had been widowed. The Russian prince was young, at the time of the death of his first wife he was only 27 years old, and it was expected that he would soon be looking for a new wife.
Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea saw this as a chance to promote his idea of Uniatism to Russian lands. From his filing in 1469 Pope Paul II sent a letter to Ivan III, in which he proposed 14-year-old Sophia Paleolog as a bride. The letter referred to her as an "Orthodox Christian" without mentioning her conversion to Catholicism.
Ivan III was not devoid of ambition, which his wife would often play later on. Upon learning that the niece of the Byzantine emperor was proposed as a bride, he agreed.
Viktor Muyzhel. "Ambassador Ivan Fryazin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleolog." Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Negotiations, however, had just begun - it was necessary to discuss all the details. The Russian ambassador sent to Rome returned with a gift that shocked both the groom and his entourage. In the annals, this fact was reflected in the words “bring the princess on the icon.”
The fact is that in Russia at that time secular painting did not exist at all, and the portrait of Sophia sent to Ivan III was perceived in Moscow as an “icon”.
Sofia Paleolog. Reconstruction from the skull of S. Nikitin. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
However, having figured out what was happening, the Moscow prince was pleased with the appearance of the bride. In historical literature, there are various descriptions of Sophia Paleolog - from beauty to ugliness. In the 1990s, studies of the remains of the wife of Ivan III were carried out, during which her appearance was also restored. Sophia was a short woman (about 160 cm), prone to corpulence, with strong-willed features that can be called, if not beautiful, then rather pretty. Be that as it may, Ivan III liked her.
The failure of Vissarion of Nicaea
The formalities were settled by the spring of 1472, when a new Russian embassy arrived in Rome, this time for the bride herself.
On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Russian Deputy Grand Duke Ambassador Ivan Fryazin. The guests were wife of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Clarice Orsini And Queen Katarina of Bosnia. The Pope, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6,000 ducats.
Sophia Paleolog enters Moscow. Miniature of the Front Chronicle. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sophia Paleolog, together with the Russian ambassador, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by a Roman retinue led by Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea.
It was necessary to get to Moscow through Germany along the Baltic Sea, and then through the Baltic States, Pskov and Novgorod. Such a difficult route was due to the fact that Russia once again began to have political problems with Poland during this period.
From time immemorial, the Byzantines were famous for their cunning and deceit. The fact that Sophia Palaiologos inherited these qualities in full, Bessarion of Nicaea found out soon after the bride's convoy crossed the border of Russia. The 17-year-old girl announced that from now on she would no longer perform Catholic rites, but would return to the faith of her ancestors, that is, to Orthodoxy. All the ambitious plans of the cardinal collapsed. Attempts by Catholics to gain a foothold in Moscow and increase their influence failed.
November 12, 1472 Sophia entered Moscow. Here, too, there were many who were wary of her, seeing her as a "Roman agent." According to some information, Metropolitan Philip, dissatisfied with the bride, refused to hold the wedding ceremony, because of which the ceremony was held Kolomna Archpriest Hosea.
But be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog became the wife of Ivan III.
Fedor Bronnikov. "Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog by Pskov posadniks and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi". Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
How Sophia delivered Russia from the yoke
Their marriage lasted 30 years, she gave birth to her husband 12 children, of which five sons and four daughters survived to adulthood. Judging by historical documents, the Grand Duke was attached to his wife and children, for which he even received reproaches from high-ranking ministers of the church, who believed that this was detrimental to state interests.
Sophia never forgot about her origin and behaved as, in her opinion, the emperor's niece was supposed to behave. Under her influence, the receptions of the Grand Duke, especially the receptions of ambassadors, were furnished with a complex and colorful ceremonial, similar to the Byzantine one. Thanks to her, the Byzantine double-headed eagle migrated to Russian heraldry. Thanks to her influence, Grand Duke Ivan III began to call himself the "Russian Tsar". Under the son and grandson of Sophia Paleolog, this naming of the Russian ruler will become official.
Judging by the actions and deeds of Sophia, she, having lost her native Byzantium, seriously set about building it in another Orthodox country. To help her was the ambition of her husband, on whom she successfully played.
When the Horde Khan Akhmat prepared an invasion of Russian lands and in Moscow they discussed the issue of the amount of tribute with which you can pay off misfortune, Sophia intervened in the matter. Bursting into tears, she began to reproach her husband for the fact that the country was still forced to pay tribute and that it was time to end this shameful situation. Ivan III was not a warlike person, but his wife's reproaches touched him to the core. He decided to gather an army and march towards Akhmat.
At the same time, the Grand Duke sent his wife and children first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero, fearing a military failure.
But failure did not happen - on the Ugra River, where the troops of Akhmat and Ivan III met, the battle did not happen. After what is known as “standing on the Ugra”, Akhmat retreated without a fight, and dependence on the Horde ended completely.
15th century rebuilding
Sophia inspired her husband that the sovereign of such a great power as he could not live in the capital with wooden churches and chambers. Under the influence of his wife, Ivan III began the restructuring of the Kremlin. For the construction of the Assumption Cathedral from Italy was invited architect Aristotle Fioravanti. At the construction site, white stone was actively used, which is why the expression “white-stone Moscow”, which has been preserved for centuries, appeared.
The invitation of foreign experts in various fields became a widespread phenomenon under Sophia Paleolog. The Italians and Greeks, who took up the post of ambassadors under Ivan III, will begin to actively invite their countrymen to Russia: architects, jewelers, coiners and gunsmiths. Among the visitors there were a large number of professional doctors.
Sophia arrived in Moscow with a large dowry, part of which was occupied by a library that included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were poems Homer, essays Aristotle And Plato and even books from the Library of Alexandria.
These books formed the basis of the legendary missing library of Ivan the Terrible, which enthusiasts are trying to find to this day. Skeptics, however, believe that such a library did not really exist.
Speaking about the hostile and wary attitude towards Sophia of the Russians, it must be said that they were embarrassed by her independent behavior, active interference in state affairs. Such behavior for Sophia's predecessors as Grand Duchesses, and simply for Russian women, was uncharacteristic.
Battle of the heirs
By the time of the second marriage of Ivan III, he already had a son from his first wife - Ivan Young who was declared heir to the throne. But with the birth of children, Sophia began to grow tension. The Russian nobility split into two groups, one of which supported Ivan the Young, and the second - Sophia.
Relations between the stepmother and stepson did not work out, so much so that Ivan III himself had to exhort his son to behave decently.
Ivan Molodoy was only three years younger than Sophia and did not feel respect for her, apparently considering his father's new marriage a betrayal of his dead mother.
In 1479, Sophia, who had previously given birth only to girls, gave birth to a son named Vasily. As a true representative of the Byzantine imperial family, she was ready to provide her son with the throne at any cost.
By this time, Ivan the Young was already mentioned in Russian documents as a co-ruler of his father. And in 1483 the heir married daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka.
The relationship between Sophia and Elena immediately became hostile. When in 1483 Elena gave birth to a son Dmitry, Vasily's prospects for inheriting his father's throne became completely illusory.
Women's rivalry at the court of Ivan III was fierce. Both Elena and Sophia were eager to get rid of not only their rival, but also her offspring.
In 1484, Ivan III decided to give his daughter-in-law a pearl dowry left over from his first wife. But then it turned out that Sophia had already given it to her relative. The Grand Duke, enraged by the arbitrariness of his wife, forced her to return the gift, and the relative herself, together with her husband, had to flee from the Russian lands out of fear of punishment.
Death and burial of Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The loser loses everything
In 1490, the heir to the throne, Ivan the Young, fell ill with "aching legs." Especially for his treatment from Venice was called doctor Lebi Zhidovin, but he could not help, and on March 7, 1490, the heir died. The doctor was executed by order of Ivan III, and rumors circulated in Moscow that Ivan Young died as a result of poisoning, which was the work of Sophia Paleolog.
There is no evidence for this, however. After the death of Ivan the Young, his son became the new heir, known in Russian historiography as Dmitry Ivanovich Vnuk.
Dmitry Vnuk was not officially proclaimed heir, and therefore Sophia Paleolog continued her attempts to achieve the throne for Vasily.
In 1497, a conspiracy of supporters of Vasily and Sophia was uncovered. Enraged, Ivan III sent its participants to the chopping block, but did not touch his wife and son. However, they were in disgrace, actually under house arrest. On February 4, 1498, Dmitry Vnuk was officially proclaimed heir to the throne.
The fight, however, was not over. Soon, Sophia's party managed to achieve revenge - this time, the supporters of Dmitry and Elena Voloshanka were given into the hands of the executioners. The denouement came on April 11, 1502. New accusations of a conspiracy against Dmitry Vnuk and his mother Ivan III considered convincing, sending them under house arrest. A few days later, Vasily was proclaimed co-ruler of his father and heir to the throne, and Dmitry Vnuk and his mother were placed in prison.
Birth of an empire
Sophia Paleolog, who actually elevated her son to the Russian throne, herself did not live up to this moment. She died on April 7, 1503 and was buried in a massive white stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave. Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III.
The Grand Duke, who was widowed for the second time, outlived his beloved Sophia for two years, passing away in October 1505. Elena Voloshanka died in prison.
Vasily III, having ascended the throne, first of all tightened the conditions of detention for a competitor - Dmitry Vnuk was shackled in iron shackles and placed in a small cell. In 1509, the 25-year-old noble prisoner died.
In 1514, in an agreement with Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I Vasily III for the first time in the history of Rus' is called the emperor of the Rus. This charter is then used Peter I as proof of their rights to be crowned as emperor.
The efforts of Sophia Palaiologos, a proud Byzantine who set about building a new empire to replace the lost one, were not in vain.
Her personality has always worried historians, and opinions about her varied up to the opposite: some considered her a witch, others idolized and called her a saint. A few years ago, director Alexei Andrianov also presented his interpretation of the phenomenon of the Grand Duchess in the serial film "Sofia", which was broadcast on the Russia 1 TV channel. What is true in it, and what - we understand.
The film novel "Sofia", which made itself known on the wide screen, stands out against the background of other historical domestic films. It covers a distant era, which was not even taken to film before: the events in the film are dedicated to the beginning of the formation of Russian statehood, in particular, the marriage of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III with the last heir to the Byzantine throne.
A little digression: Zoya (that's what the girl was named at birth) was offered as a wife to Ivan III at the age of 14. Pope Sixtus IV himself very much hoped for this marriage (he hoped through marriage to strengthen Catholicism in Russian lands). The negotiations lasted a total of 3 years and were eventually crowned with success: at the age of 17, Zoya was betrothed in absentia in the Vatican and sent along with her retinue on a trip to the Russian lands, which only after inspecting the territories ended with her arrival in the capital. The Pope's plan, by the way, finally fell apart when the newly-minted Byzantine princess was baptized in a short time and received the name Sophia.
The film, of course, does not reflect all the historical twists and turns. In 10 hour series, the creators tried to contain, in their opinion, the most important of what happened in Rus' at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. It was during this period, thanks to Ivan III, that Rus' finally freed itself from the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the prince began to unite the territories, which eventually led to the formation of an integral strong state.
The fateful time in many respects became such thanks to Sophia Palaiologos. She, educated, culturally enlightened, did not become a mute addition for the prince, capable only of continuing the family and the princely family, as was established at that distant time. The Grand Duchess had her own opinion on everything and could always voice it, and her husband invariably put it highly. According to historians, it was probably Sofia who put Ivan III in the head with the idea of uniting the lands under a single center. The princess saw in Rus' an unprecedented power, believed in its great goal, and, according to the hypothesis of historians, it is she who owns the famous phrase "Moscow is the third Rome."
The niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, Sophia also "gave" Moscow the coat of arms of her dynasty - that same double-headed eagle. It was inherited by the capital as an integral part of its dowry (along with the book library, which later became part of the legacy of the great library of Ivan the Terrible). Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals - designed and created thanks to the Italian Alberti Fioravanti, whom Sofia personally invited to Moscow. In addition, the princess summoned artists and architects from Western Europe to ennoble the capital: they built palaces, erected new temples. It was then that Moscow was adorned with the Kremlin towers, the Terem Palace and the Archangel Cathedral.
Of course, we cannot know what the marriage of Sophia and Ivan III really was, unfortunately, we can only guess about this (it is only known that, according to various hypotheses, they had 9 or 12 children). A serial film is primarily an artistic perception and understanding of their relationship; it is in its own way the author's interpretation of the fate of the princess. In the film novel, the love line is brought to the fore, and all other historical ups and downs seem to be an accompanying background. Of course, the creators do not promise absolute certainty, it was important for them to make a sensual picture that they would believe, the characters of which would sympathize with, and sincerely worry about their serial fate.
However, everything that concerns the details, the filmmakers have given tremendous importance. In this regard, it is possible and necessary to learn history on a film: historically accurate scenery was created especially for filming (the decoration of the princely palace, the secret offices of the Vatican, even the smallest household items of the era), costumes (of which more than 1000 were made and mostly by hand). For the filming of "Sofia" consultants and experts were involved, so that even the most fastidious and attentive viewer would not have any questions about the picture.
In the film novel, Sofia is a beauty. Actress Maria Andreeva - the star of the popular Duhless - in her incomplete 30s on the screen (on the date of filming) really looks 17. But historians confirmed that in fact Paleologus was not a beauty. However, ideals change not only over centuries, even over decades, and therefore it is difficult for us to rant about this. But the fact that she was overweight (according to her contemporaries, even critically) cannot be omitted. However, the same historians confirm that Sophia was indeed a very smart and educated woman for her time. This was understood by her contemporaries, and some of them, either out of envy or because of their own ignorance, were sure that such a smart Paleolog could only become thanks to connections with dark forces and the devil himself (based on this ambiguous hypothesis, one federal TV channel even directed the film "The Witch of All Rus'").
However, Ivan III was in reality unprepossessing: he was short, hunchbacked and did not differ in beauty. But the filmmakers obviously decided that such a character would not evoke a response in the souls of the spectators, so the actor for this role was selected from among the main heartthrobs of the country, Yevgeny Tsyganov.
Apparently, the director wanted to please the eye of a fastidious viewer in the first place. In addition, for him, a spectator, thirsty for spectacle, they created the atmosphere of a real historical action: large-scale battles, massacres, natural disasters, betrayal and court intrigues, and in the center there is a beautiful love story of Sophia Paleolog and Ivan III. The viewer can only stock up on popcorn and enjoy the beauty of a perfectly filmed romantic story.
Photo: Getty Images, footage from the TV series
