Battle of the Klyazma River (1433)

The battle on the Klyazma (for the belt of Don). chist4282504On April 25, 1433, Prince Yuri Galitsky defeated Vasili II in the Battle of Klyazma, after which he took the Grand Prince's throne in Moscow.

After the death of Grand Duke Basil in 1425, Prince Vladimir and Moscow became his ten-year-old son Vasily. However, he found a rival - the throne began to challenge his own uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, Prince of Galich. According to the spiritual literacy of Dmitry Donskoy, he should have reigned after his elder brother, Basil I. However, at the time when the spiritual was written, Vasily I still had no children. Thus, both the uncle and the nephew had the right to the Grand Duke's throne.

"This uncle, relying on his seniority and referring to the spiritual of his father, Dimitri Donskoi, did not want to recognize the eldest ten-year nephew and in 1431 went to the Horde to compete with him. Success of St. George's claim would have transferred the Grand Duchy to another line of the Moscow princely house, would have upset the order that Moscow had instituted for a whole century, and threatened an endless quarrel. Han cut the knot: of cloudy flattering, mocking speech nimble Moscow boyar Vsevolozhsk, proves that the source of law - it Khan's mercy, rather than the old chroniclers and not dead letters (.. Ie, spiritual Don), Khan decided the case in favor of Basil " Quoted from : Klyuchevsky V.O. Course of Russian History. Lecture 22

"Khansky's court did not extinguish enmity between his uncle and nephew. Fearing Basil, Yuri left Dmitrov, where the Grand Duke immediately sent his Vicegerents, expelling the Yurievs. Soon theobvious war for the following two reasons. The Moscow Grandee John, having rendered such an important service to the Emperor, as a reward for that he wished to give his daughter for him. Or the bride did not like the groom, or the Grand Duke, along with matter, found this marriage indecent: John was refused, and Vasily married Maria, daughter of Yaroslav, the grandson of Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. The haughty Boyar was offended. "The ungrateful young man owes me the Grand Duchy and was not ashamed to dishonor me," he said angrily and left Moscow, first to Uglich to uncle Vasilyev, Konstantin Dimitrievich, then to Tver and finally to Galich to Yuri. Mutual hatred for the Tsar of Moscow served as an alliance for them: they forgot the past and invented a way of revenge. [1433] Boyar Ivan did not doubt the success of the war: they started to start this as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the sons of Iurieva, Vasily Kosoy and Demetrii Shemyaka, having a friendly feast in Moscow at the wedding of the Grand Duke, became his enemies from a strange event that for a long time remained memorable for the Muscovites. Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich Suzdal once gave his beloved son-in-law, Donskoi, a gold belt with chains, sprinkled with precious stones; Thousand Basil, in 1367 during the wedding of Donskoi, secretly exchanged it for another, much lower price, and gave his son Nikolai, married to Mary, the eldest daughter of Prince Suzdal. Passing from hand to hand, this belt went to Vasily Yuryevich Kosoy and was on it at the time of the wedding Grand Princely feast. The governor of Rostov, Pyotr Konstantinovich, recognized this and said of the mother of Basil, Sophia, who was delighted with the precious find and, forgetting the decency, solemnly took off the belt from Yurievich. There was a quarrel:

klyazma

First they wanted, it seems, to be peacekeepers between Yuri and the Grand Prince: at the same time, together with Boyar Ivan, they tried to confirm the parent in anger at the Tsar of Moscow. Without wasting time, they issued numerous regiments; and the young Vasily Basilievich knew nothing until the time when the Governor of Rostov rode up to him with the news that Yuri was in Pereslavl. Already the Grand Duke Council did not resemble the Council of Don or his son: carelessness and cowardice prevailed in it. Instead of the troops, the Embassy was sent to meet the Galician Prince with affectionate words. Yuri stood under the walls of the Trinity Monastery; he did not want to hear about the world: Grandee John and the other Boyars cursed him and defamed him with dishonor. Then the Grand Duke collected several drunken warriors and merchants; twenty versts from the capital; on the Klyazma, met with the enemy [April 25, 1433] and, seeing the strength of it, ran back; took the mother, the wife; went to Tver, and from Tver to Kostroma to surrender to the victor: for Yuri, having entered Moscow and publicly declaring himself Grand Prince, went there and captivated Vasily, who sought protection in tears. Boyar Ivan, thinking in accordance with the sons of the Prince of Halych, considered every indulgence an imprudence. Yuri was also not famous for his soft heart; but had a weakness for one of his nobles, Simeon Morozov, and, having accepted his advice, gave Kolomna his nephew. They embraced each other in a friendly manner. Uncle celebrated this world with a merry feast and with gifts sent Vasili to his Specific City " having entered Moscow and publicly declaring himself Grand Prince, went there and captivated Vasily, who sought protection in tears. Boyar Ivan, thinking in accordance with the sons of the Prince of Halych, considered every indulgence an imprudence. Yuri was also not famous for his soft heart; but had a weakness for one of his nobles, Simeon Morozov, and, having accepted his advice, gave Kolomna his nephew. They embraced each other in a friendly manner. Uncle celebrated this world with a merry feast and with gifts sent Vasili to his Specific City " having entered Moscow and publicly declaring himself Grand Prince, went there and captivated Vasily, who sought protection in tears. Boyar Ivan, thinking in accordance with the sons of the Prince of Halych, considered every indulgence an imprudence. Yuri was also not famous for his soft heart; but had a weakness for one of his nobles, Simeon Morozov, and, having accepted his advice, gave Kolomna his nephew. They embraced each other in a friendly manner. Uncle celebrated this world with a merry feast and with gifts sent Vasili to his Specific City " Quoted from: Karamzin N.M. History of Russian Goverment. Chapter 3

"The belt around which the quarrel was played out had not so much a value, as a symbolic value - about the same as the hat of Monomakh at a later time. Owning a belt, as a legacy of Dmitry Donskoy, meant continuity of power from this glorious winner on the Kulikovo field. The possession of Nizhny Novgorod was also associated with the belt (the belt once belonged to Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich). Scandal because of him had another aspect.

In the boyar milieu, discontent with Vsevolozhsky's all-powerfulness had long been growing. Obviously, opponents of the powerful boyar were long before 1433 Dobrynsky. He had personal reasons to hate Ivan Dmitrievich and Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin: after all, the daughter of Vsevolozhsky had recently become a little bride of the Grand Duke, and her lucky rival Maria Yaroslavna was the daughter of a cousin of Koshkin. The legend of the abduction of the belt was born among the boyar opponents ID. Vsevolozhsky in conditions when Prince Yuri Dmitrievich continued to think about the seizure of the Grand Duke's throne, and Ivan Dmitrievich fled to him. Grand Duchess Sofya Vytovtovna saw in the history with the belt the desire to substantiate the rights of Prince Yuri Dmitrievich to the Grand Duke's throne and therefore assumed the role of the punishing hand of "justice."

Speaking from Moscow, Basil II met with Prince Yuri in a decisive battle on the Klyazma River (20 versts from Moscow) on April 25, 1433. Either because Prince Yuri collected a large army, whether because the Muscovites in the smoke drank, the Grand Duke's help was nowhere to be found, and Vasili II lost the battle. Vasily Vasilyevich himself along with his mother and wife fled to Tver. However, Prince Boris Alexandrovich did not want, apparently, to enter into conflict with the new Grand Duke, and the fugitives had to go further. Their way led to Kostroma, where Basil II hoped to find support in circles hostile to Yuri Dmitrievich.

Having defeated the Klyazma River, Yury Dmitrievich entered Moscow. For the Pskov chronicler, Prince Yuri was the legitimate heir to the Grand Duke's throne. According to him, he is "a gray man at the great reign in the city of Moscow in his fatherland." The Pskovites reacted sensitively to the change of authorities in Moscow. For them, the "legitimate" was the prince who really had power in the capital. "