Shuisky

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Princes Shuisky (Шуйские) were a Rurikid family of boyars descending from Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich of Vladimir-Suzdal. Their name is derived from the town of Shuya, which remained in their possession since 1403. They finally ascended the Russian throne in the person of Vasili IV of Russia (1608-1612).

Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

The Shuiskys represented a senior line among the descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest and therefore treated the ruling princes of Muscovy with arrogance. The foundations for their fortunes in Muscovite service were laid by Prince Vasily Vasilievich Bledny ("the Pale"), who was dispatched by Ivan III to govern Pskov and then Nizhny Novgorod (1478-80). The following year, he devastated Livonia and was sent as a governor to Novgorod. In 1487, he was recorded as leading a Russian contingent against Kazan.

Contents

1 The Regency
2 Military heroes
3 The last of the Shuiskys
4 Trivia

The Regency

Vasily's grand nephew, Prince Vasily Vasilievich Nemoy ("the Mute") was Vasily III's taciturn aide-de-camp who accompanied him on every military campaign and came to become a grey cardinal of Muscovite politics. In 1517, he defeated Konstantin Ostrogski. Six years later, Vasily Nemoy led the Russian vessels along the Volga against Kazan. Upon the death of Vasily's widow, Elena Glinskaya, he challenged the authority of Prince Ivan Belsky, procured his incarceration, married Anastasia of Kazan (Ivan III's granddaughter), and proclaimed himself regent (1538).

Vasily Nemoy died later that year, and the power devolved upon his younger brother, Prince Ivan Vasilievich Shuisky, who started his rule by ousting Metropolitan Daniel from office and contriving the election of Joasaphus Skripitsin as the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He also released from prison his cousin, Prince Andrey Mikhailovich, who had governed Yugoria and Nizhny Novgorod during Vasily III's reign before having been incarcerated on charges of high treason.

Pending Ivan IV's minority, Ivan and Andrey were de-facto rulers of Russia. Their arrogant and unruly doings provoked anger and frustration of the young sovereign, thus sowing seeds for his future wide-scale crackdown on the Russian nobility. In one of his letters to Prince Kurbsky Ivan painfully recalls that Prince Andrey Shuisky had put his dirty boots on his bed. The matter ended with Andrey being thrown into a cell full of hungry dogs and devoured by them (1543).

In 1540, Metropolitan Joasaphus managed to recall Ivan Belsky from exile, helping him clear the court from the Shuiskys. Two years later, Ivan Shuisky instigated a military revolt and regained the highest power. He had Macarius elected the new metropolitan and regent, but the latter gradually ousted him from the Kremlin and persuaded to resign his powers. Ivan Shuisky died in semi-obscurity in 1546.

Military heroes

Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, though a lay person, was represented on this painting as a saint

Andrey's elder brother, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Pleten', was one of the leading Muscovite generals between 1531 and his death in 1559. During the regency of Elena Glinskaya he served as the governor of Moscow and of Kholmogory. In 1540, he was put in charge of the Russian army operating in Livonia. In 1542 he routed the Crimean Tatars. Two years later, he was recorded as operating against Kazan. In the late 1540s, he administrated the royal palaces. In 1553, Ivan Pleten' signed an armistice with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

During the later part of Ivan IV's reign, the Shuiskys wisely stood aloof from macabre politics of the Oprichnina. Probably the most skilful of Ivan's generals was Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky, who advised the Tsar on military reform in the 1550s and presided over the Russian army during the siege and capture of Kazan in 1552. He was executed on rigged charges in February 1565.

Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, also from a cadet line of the family, commanded the glorious defence of Pskov during its prolonged siege by Stefan Báthory. Tsar Feodor, upon nominating Ivan his military advisor, devolved on him enormous revenues supplied by Pskov merchants. Soon enough, however, the Pskovian hero was found guilty of conspiring against Boris Godunov and exiled into Belozersk, where he died on November 16, 1588.

The last of the Shuiskys

The last of the Russian Shuiskys were four brothers - Vasily Shuisky (the Russian tsar as Vasily IV), Dmitry Shuisky (infamous for having poisoned his brilliant cousin, Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky), Alexander Shuisky, and Ivan Shuisky-Pugovka ("the Button"). All four were boyars and grandsons of Andrey Mikhailovich.

Ivan Pugovka outlived his brothers: he was taken with them into Polish captivity but managed to return and marry a sister of Tsarina Maria Dolgorukova. As the tsar's brother-in-law, Ivan Pugovka was put in charge of the courts in Moscow. Upon his death in 1638 the family went extinct, although one branch reportedly survives in Poland.

Trivia

Because of their legendary arrogance, much aired by Russian 19th century history books^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, the word szuja (pronounced as shuya) has become a Polish noun denoting a vague and arrogant person.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}