View source for Shuysky

{{Short description|Russian noble family of Boyars}}
{{other uses}}
{{unreferenced|date=July 2024}}
{{Royal house|surname=House of Shuysky|estates=[[Principality of Suzdal–Nizhny Novgorod]]|coat of arms=[[Image:RU COA Shujski.png|135px]]|country=[[Russia]]|parent house=[[Rurikids]]|titles=[[List of Tsars of Russia|Tsar of Russia]]|founder=Vasili IV|final ruler=<div style="font-size:90%">Russia:</div> [[Vasili IV of Russia|Vasili IV]] (1606–1610)|founding year=1606|current head=? <small>(possibly extinct)</small>|deposition=<div style="font-size:90%">Russia:</div> 1610 (abdicated the throne, line extinct afterwards)|cadet branches=senior<br>junior}}
The '''House of Shuysky''' ('''Shuisky'''; {{langx|ru|Шуйские|Shuyskiye}}) was a [[Rurikid]] family of [[Boyar]]s descending from [[Grand Duke]] [[Dmitry of Suzdal|Dimitri Konstantinovich]] of [[Vladimir-Suzdal]] and Prince [[Andrei II of Russia|Andrey Yaroslavich]], brother to [[Alexander Nevsky]]. The surname is derived from the town of [[Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast|Shuya]], of which the Shuiskys gained ownership in 1403. From 1606 to 1610, [[Vasili IV of Russia|Vasili Shuisky]] ruled as tsar over Russia during the [[Time of Troubles]]. [[Image:Basil IV.jpg|thumb|Tsar [[Vasily IV|Vasili IV]].]]
==Early service in Muscovy==
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]]. The Shuyskys represented a senior line among the descendants of [[Vsevolod the Big Nest]] and therefore treated the ruling princes of Muscovy, who were descended from a junior line, with arrogance.
==The Regency==
Vasily Bledny's grand nephew, Prince '''Vasily Vasilievich "Nemoy"''' ("the Mute") was Grand Prince [[Vasily III]]'s taciturn aide-de-camp who accompanied him on every military campaign and became an [[éminence grise]] of Muscovite politics. In 1517, he defeated forces of Poland and Lithuania under [[Konstantin Ostrogski]] as part of the [[Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars|4th Muscovite-Lithuanian War]]. Six years later, Vasily Nemoy led a Russian expedition along the [[Volga]] against [[Khanate of Kazan|Kazan]]. Upon the death of Vasily III's widow, [[Elena Glinskaya]], he challenged the authority of Prince Ivan [[Gediminid Belsky family#Kazan campaigns|Belsky]], procured his incarceration, married Anastasia of Kazan ([[Ivan III]]'s granddaughter), and proclaimed himself [[regent]] for Vasily III's heir, the young [[Ivan the Terrible|Ivan IV]], in 1538.
Vasily Nemoy died later that year, and the power of the regency devolved upon his younger brother, Prince '''Ivan Vasilievich Shuysky''', who began his rule by ousting [[Metropolitan Daniel]] from office and contriving the election of [[Joasaphus, Metropolitan of Moscow|Joasaphus Skripitsin]] as the new head of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. He also released from prison his cousin, Prince '''Andrey Mikhailovich''', who had governed [[Yugra|Yugoria]] and Nizhny Novgorod during Vasily III's reign before having been incarcerated on charges of high treason.
Pending [[Ivan IV]]'s majority, Ivan and Andrey were de facto rulers of Russia. Their arrogant and unruly behavior provoked the anger and frustration of the young sovereign, thus sowing seeds for his future [[Oprichnina|wide-scale crackdown on the Russian nobility]]. In one of his letters to [[Prince Kurbsky]], Ivan painfully recalls that Prince Andrey Shuysky 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 of the Shuyskys. Two years later, Ivan Shuysky instigated a military revolt and again gained power. He had [[Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow|Macarius]] elected the new metropolitan and regent, but Macarius gradually ousted him from the [[Kremlin]] and persuaded him to resign his powers. Ivan Vasilevich Shuysky died in semi-obscurity in 1546.
==Military heroes==
[[File:M.V. Skopin-Shuyskiy (17th c., Tretyakov gallery).jpg|thumb|left|A 17th-century parsuna of [[Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky]]]]
Andrey Mikhailovich'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, Arkhangelsk Oblast|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 administered 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 Shuyskys stood aloof from the macabre politics of the [[Oprichnina]]. Probably the most skillful of Ivan's generals was Prince '''[[Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky|Alexander Borisovich Gorbaty-Shuysky]]''', 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 fabricated charges in February 1565.
Prince '''Ivan Petrovich Shuysky''', also from a [[cadet branch|cadet line]] of the family, commanded the defence of [[Pskov]] during [[Siege of Pskov|its prolonged siege]] by [[Stephen Bathory, King of Poland|Stefan Báthory]]. [[Feodor I of Russia|Tsar Feodor]], upon making Ivan Petrovich his military advisor, devolved on him enormous revenues supplied by [[Pskov]]'s 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 Shuyskys were four brothers - '''[[Vasily IV|Vasily Ivanovich Shuysky]]''' (briefly Russian Tsar as Vasily IV), '''[[Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky]]''' (infamous for having poisoned his brilliant cousin, Prince '''[[Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky|Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuysky]]'''), '''Alexander Ivanovich Shuysky''', and '''Ivan Ivanovich Shuysky "Pugovka"''' ("the Button"). All four were boyars and grandsons of Andrey Mikhailovich.
The last scion of the family, Ivan Pugovka, was put in charge of the courts in Moscow during the reign of his brother-in-law Vasily IV. Pugovka outlived his brothers after he was taken with them into captivity in Poland as a result of [[Vasily IV]]'s fall in 1610, and managed to return and marry a sister of Tsarina [[Maria Dolgorukova]]. It is unknown if the family is extinct, with the remaining records being in 1638, and if so they would still have the same name but spelled it a different way.
Ivan Dmitrievich "Gubka" (the Sponge) Szujski's descendants received an Jasnahorodka estate (near [[Makariv]]), and one branch reportedly survives in [[Poland]], who do not use their title.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{ВТ-ЭСБЕ|Шуйские, княжеский род}}
* {{cite book| author = Абрамович Г. В.| author-link = Абрамович, Глеб Владимирович| title = Князья Шуйские и Российский трон | agency = Г. В. Абрамович; Рецензенты: канд. ист. наук В. М. Воробьёв, д-р ист. наук [[Панеях, Виктор Моисеевич|В. М. Панеях]], д-р ист. наук [[Скрынников, Руслан Григорьевич|Р. Г. Скрынников]]; [[Ленинградский государственный университет]] | edition =  {{nowrap|50&nbsp;000 экз}} |location= Л. |date = 1991 |publisher= Изд-во ЛГУ | isbn = 5-288-00605-9}} (обл.)
{{Royal houses of Russia}}
[[Category:Shuysky family| ]]
[[Category:Russian noble families]]
[[Category:People from the Tsardom of Russia]]
[[Category:Russian military leaders]]