Belsky

Belsky ( _ru. Бельский , pl. Бельские), also spelled Bielski, was the name of two long-extinct princely families of Muscovite Russia. One of them was a Rurikid family from the House of Yaroslavl; another (and by far the more celebrated) was of Gediminid stock. What follows below is an account of the latter. After the extinction of Princes Belsky, there appeared a third family, of lowly origin, represented by Malyuta Skuratov and Bogdan Belsky.

First princes

The first Prince of Biely about whom anything certain is known was Olgierd's nanny, Prince Ivan Vladimirovich, who married a certain Princess Holszanska in 1422 and was invited by the Novgorodians to govern their city in 1445. He had three sons - Ivan (married to Princess Worotynska), Simeon (married to Princess Patrikeyeva), Feodor - and three daughters, married to Prince Bolesław II of Cieszyn, to Prince Ivan Ostrogski, and to the Kievan Voivode Ivan Chodkiewicz, respectively. Of all three sons, only Feodor Ivanovich Belski, who was married with Ryazan princess (a daughter of Prince Vasily Tretnoy and Anna of Ryazan), is known to have left issue.

In 1482, this prince and several other Lithuanian nobles decided to break into insurrection against Casimir IV and defect to Muscovy. Their plans were divulged, however, and the most quarrelsome lords were apprehended. Nevertheless, Ivan succeeded in escaping from Casimir's ire to Moscow, leaving at home a young wife, Princess Kobrynska, who he had married but several months before that. Feodor Belski lived at the Muscovite court until 1493, when he was implicated in the Lukomsky Conspiracy and banished to Galich. A year later, he asked and obtained the forgiveness of Ivan III, who promptly demanded from Alexander of Lithuania to hand over Belski's wife to him. Seeing no prospect of success, the Russian sovereign consulted the metropolitan and they declared Feodor's previous marriage null and void. Belski was at once proposed to marry Ivan's own niece, Princess Anna of Ryazan, in order to preclude the Belski family from becoming extinct. At the wedding, Feodor was rewarded with extensive votchinas along the Volga River, which would remain with his family until the Oprichnina. In 1499, he was involved in the politics of the Khanate of Kazan, hoping to install a khan backed up by Moscow. He was last mentioned in the Russian chronicles in 1506, and it seems likely that he died shortly thereafter.

Feodor's elder brother, Prince Simeon Ivanovich Belski, left Lithuania for Moscow in his brother's wake in 1500, citing the persecution of Orthodox dissenters as his reason. His defection sparkled Russia's new conflict with Lithuania, which ended in the latter power renouncing its claims not only to Biely but also to adjacent areas, including Chernigov, Starodub, and Homel.

Kazan campaigns

Feodor's three sons by Princess of Riazan, being Vasily III's cousins, took a key part in the events of his reign and the following regency.

Prince Dmitry Feodorovich Belsky (1499-1551) was first recorded in 1519, when he enthroned Shahgali as the khan of Kazan. Two years later, the Crimean khan had Shahgali replaced with his own brother, defeated Belsky's army on the banks of the Oka River and devastated the area between Moscow and Kolomna. While Belsky retreated to the stronghold of Serpukhov, his absence from the capital left the field free for mutual jealousies and accusations. Although the majority of boyars vociferated about Belsky's pusillanimity, the monarch spared both Belsky and his own brother and put the blame for defeat on Prince Vorotynsky.

Dmitry's younger brother, Prince Ivan Feodorovich Belsky, while still in his early 20s, led the 150,000-strong Russian army against Kazan in 1524. This campaign is described in detail by a foreign witness, Herberstein. Belsky's huge army spent 20 days encamped at the island opposite Kazan, awaiting the arrival of Russian cavalry. Then the news came that part of cavalry had been defeated, and the vessels loaded with provisions had been captured by the Tatars. Although the army suffered from hunger, Belsky at once laid siege to the city and soon the Tatars sent their envoys proposing terms. Belsky accepted them and speedily returned to Moscow. Herberstein and many boyars proceeded to accuse him of treason, but modern historians agree there was little he could achieve without provisions, being pressed to repel continuous attacks by Tatar and Udmurt cavalry.

Matters then remained quiet until 1530, when Ivan Belsky, still eager to revenge himself, returned with the Russian army to the walls of Kazan. On July 10, the fortress was taken and the Tatars sued for peace, promising to accept any khan appointed from Moscow.

Heyday and regency

During Vasily III's fatal illness, Dmitry Belsky remained at his deathbed until the final hour. He was present when Vasily signed a testament proclaiming Mikhail Glinsky and himself tutors to young Ivan IV. In the events that followed he played a less conspicuous role than his younger brothers, however.

In 1534, Ivan III's son Yury of Dmitrov, with whom the Belskys were on friendly terms, was executed on charges of treason, while Ivan Belsky was thrown into prison. Anticipating further repressions, the youngest of brothers, Prince Simeon Feodorovich Belsky, escaped to Lithuania. He was warmly welcomed by Sigismund the Old, at once joining the king's hostilities against Russia. When the war turned unsuccessful, the Lithuanian generals put the blame on Belsky and other Russian defectors. On this event, Simeon Belsky fled to Constantinople. In 1537, he appeared in the Crimea, with the purpose of escalating military tensions with Russia. Not only he failed in his designs, but was kidnapped by a ruler of the Nogai Horde, from whom he was later ransomed by the khan.

In 1538, the regent Elena Glinskaya died, probably poisoned by the Shuiskys. They at once liberated Ivan Belsky from his prison, restituting him in the Boyar Duma. Thenceforward the history of Russia becomes a story of sordid intrigues between Belsky and the Shuiskys. In 1540, Ivan Belsky was again thrown into prison, only to be released several months later, on petition from Metropolitan Joasaphus.

Belsky's power reached its peak in 1541, when he was installed as Ivan IV's "prime advisor" (первосоветник). Among his first enterprises was a letter to the Crimean khan asking him to bring Simeon Belsky to Moscow. The khan, persuaded by Simeon that Moscow stood completely unfortified and desiring to profit from the attendant disorder, advanced with his guards towards the Russian capital. His hope of putting Moscow to the sword proved ill-founded, however, and he retreated on espying the first contingent of the Russian soldiers and taking Simeon Belsky back with him. Simeon's subsequent fate remains a mystery.

In the meantime, Prince Ivan Shuisky and his adherents plotted Belsky's downfall. Shuisky boycotted the royal palace and the Boyar Duma until January 3, 1542, when his soldiers broke into Belsky's house at night and took Ivan Belsky into custody. This time Belsky was immured in the distant Kirillov Monastery, where the Shuiskys had him strangled in May 1542. Writing several decades later, Prince Kurbsky described Ivan Belsky as the boldest commander and the cleverest politician of Muscovy.

The last Belskys

As Ivan left no children by his wife, Daniil Shchenya's granddaughter, the Belsky family was to be continued by his brother Dmitry. Not only did the latter manage to eschew repressions that befell his brothers, but he even increased his influence in the Boyar Duma. After the regency was abolished, Ivan IV at once resumed military operations against the Khanate of Kazan. In 1547, Dmitry Belsky was commanded to reinstate Shahgali as the khan. Two years later, the tsar and Belsky led the Russian armies to take Kazan. After some wearisome maneuvres and half-hearted warfare, they were forced to retreat, suffering heavy casualties. Belsky was again accused by fellow boyars of poor leadership but his unexpected death (January 13, 1551) saved the old general from disgrace.

By his wife, Ivan Chelyadnin's daughter, Dmitry had two daughters, Eudoxia and Anastasia. They were married to the boyars Mikhail Morozov and Vasily Zakharyin-Yuriev, respectively. Eudoxia, although renowned for her pious ways, was executed with her husband and children during the Oprichnina purges. Dmitry also had one son, Prince Ivan Dmitrievich Belsky. When the Oprichnina was instututed, the tsar had his two noblest boyars, Ivan Belsky and Fyodor Mstislavsky, appointed to run the lands of the state, or "zemshchina". In 1571, when khan Devlet I Giray of Crimea assaulted Moscow and set the city on fire, Prince Belsky was suffocated to death by smoke in his own mansion. With his death, the Belsky princely family became extinct.

On November 8, 1555 the last Prince Belsky married Marfa, a posthumous daughter of Prince Vasily Shuisky-Nemoy by Anastasia of Kazan, herself a granddaughter of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue. Ivan Belsky and Marfa Shuiskaya had five children but they all died in minority and were interred in the family sepulchre, Tikhon's Hermitage near Kaluga.