Elena Glinskaya: biography of the mother of Ivan the Terrible

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This woman was one of the first rulers in Muscovy. She was on the throne for a short time, but legends were made about her.

Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (1508-1538)

The Glinskys counted their ancient family from Mamai himself. Evidence, of course, they could not provide. However, historians too. They probably came up with such a legend for the “weight in society.”

Many principalities of Ancient Russia were under the direct leadership of the Golden Horde for more than one century. Receiving from there permission to reign, kinship with the Tatar khans became prestigious.

Elena’s parents were not quite ordinary nobles. Mother, Anna Yakshich, often wondered, that is, she was engaged in condemning the church. The family had three more sons. Vasily Glinsky was rich, he spent 6 years as a stolnik in the Lithuanian principality.

He was an excellent family man, he loved his wife, and even more his red-haired daughter, who was wayward from childhood.

Elena’s uncle, Mikhail Glinsky, was an influential politician. He was a real knight, he served in the German and Polish lands. Mikhail moved to Moscow, having quarreled with the Polish masters and killing one of them. When he moved, he took his brother Vasily’s family with him. The Glinskys’ house was dominated by European traditions.

Elena grew up tall, slender with reddish hair, a charming girl. The Grand Duke Vasily noticed her at the very first meeting and fell in love. Moreover, at this time his wife was already safely sent to the monastery, since she could not give birth to a son.

Elena Glinskaya and Vasily III

The enamored prince (son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue) began to shave his beard in the Polish manner. This made him look younger. Following the prince, many began to shave, trying to imitate the king. The church was furious: she tried to distract from shaving, proclaimed this fashion sodomite!

Very little time passed and a magnificent wedding took place in the Kremlin. It turned out that Vasily had problems, not his first wife. Glinskaya also could not get pregnant for a long time. The newlyweds visited many monasteries, observing all the fasts. And then the princess gave birth to weather boys: Ivan and Yuri.

When the heirs grew up a little, rumors spread throughout Moscow that they were like their mother, but not like their father. Several centuries later, scientists made a reconstruction of the appearance of Ivan the Terrible, from which it can be seen that he looks like his grandmother from Byzantium, and doubts disappeared.

Vasily did not rejoice at the boys for long: he died from a wound on his thigh. Modern doctors believe that he had cancer, the wound was a metastasis. Before his death, he declared Ivan the heir and appointed 7 regents.

Death of Elena Glinskaya

Princess Glinskaya left this world when her son Ivan was only 8 years old. From childhood, the boy hated the boyars. They openly laughed at the orphan, forgetting to feed them in time, locked them in a dark room so that they would not get underfoot and would not bother with various silly children’s questions …

Having matured a little, Ivan has repeatedly expressed his firm belief that his mother was poisoned. And this confidence never left the king. The boyars only laughed at these assumptions, which made the young ruler even more angry.

In the middle of the last century, the tomb of Elena Glinskaya was opened. In the course of a thorough examination of the remains, convincing evidence was obtained that the young woman was poisoned as a result of the regular intake of small amounts of mercury salts.

Suspicion immediately fell on the Shuisky boyars. They had a serious motive, and an excellent opportunity to carry out their plans to eliminate the regent who was undesirable for many boyars. The situation is common: the elimination of a competitor.

Elena Glinskaya’s politics

The widow was in no hurry to give power to the boyars. Discontent smoldered in the Kremlin, which once threatened to break out. But Glinskaya first held a magnificent ceremony so that Ivan was proclaimed in front of all the people. Members of all noble families and common people were invited.

And here the contenders for the throne appeared. The brother of the deceased, Yuri, spread a rumor that the will was invalid. The princess sent him to prison. From constant malnutrition, the applicant passed into another world after a couple of years.

Mikhail Glinsky began to publicly say that the young widow had become Obolensky’s mistress. Although at this time she was not up to love pleasures.

Boyars from the council of regents, who constantly conspired, were also sent to prison one by one. Two of them managed to escape to Lithuania.

Another brother of the deceased, who demanded new lands, also ended up in prison, since Princess Glinskaya was not going to distribute the lands. At first she sent him rich gifts, but he was still unhappy – spreading dirty rumors about the heir’s mother.

Elena Vasilievna eliminated applicants and intriguers. But at this time the state itself found itself in a difficult foreign policy situation, and it perfectly found a way out of it. She ended the Polish-Lithuanian war with an armistice for 5 years, on her own terms.

Peaceful coexistence between the countries lasted longer. The regent had difficult negotiations with the Swedes. She convinced them to refuse to help the Livonian Order in Lithuania.

When Kazan began to plunder the lands of Kostroma, and it was difficult to send an army there, the Crimean Khan announced that his army would approach Moscow. Elena gave orders to fortify large cities, to enclose Kitay-Gorod in Moscow with a powerful wall.

With the counterfeiters, undermining the economy of Muscovy, the regent fought fiercely. She accepted three hundred families of Russian refugees from Lithuania, distributed them to the cities and appointed an allowance from the state. treasury.

Historians did not call any of these deeds great, but Elena has nothing to reproach in foreign and domestic policy.

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