Ivan the Terrible's Younger Brother: Prince Yury Vasil'evich (1533–63)

Abstract

Most historians consider Prince Yury Vasil'evich, younger brother of Ivan the Terrible, to have been a deaf-mute and/or an imbecile, and conclude that he played no role in Muscovite politics. However, the evidence that Prince Yury was physically or mentally handicapped is either suspect or ambiguous. An examination of all the surviving sources relating Prince Yury's actions convincingly demonstrates that he was indeed different from the usual collateral royal, although the cause of his unusual behaviour remains mysterious. Nevertheless, the significance of Prince Yury's ceremonial presence at Ivan's court should not be dismissed.¹

Notes

1 I wish to thank the anonymous reader and the editor of The Court Historian for their comments. I am solely responsible for all remaining errors. For the convenience of the general reader I have sacrificed consistency and transliterated the names of people, but not places or institutions, or quotations from the sources, in the forms most accessible to those who do not know the Russian language.

2 Also known as Ivan Groznyi, Ivan IV or Ivan Vasil'evich; his father was Grand Prince Vasily III.

3 J. L. I. Fennell (ed.), Prince A. M. Kurbsky's History of Ivan IV (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 202-03: ‘a drugyi byl bez uma i bez pamiati i bezslovesen, tako zhe aki div iakoi rodilsia’.

4 Kazanskaia istoriia (Moscow-Leningrad, 1954), p. 72; Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei [hereafter PSRL], vol. 19 (St. Petersburg, 1903), pp. 19, 42.

5 Brian J. Boeck, ‘Eyewitness or False Witness? Two Lives of Metropolitan Filipp of Moscow’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 55 (2007), pp. 161-77; idem, ‘Miscellanea Attributed to Kurbskii. The 17^th Century in Russia Was More Creative Than We Like to Admit’, Kritika 13 (2012), pp. 955-63; idem, ‘The Don Interpolation: An Imagined Turning Point in Russian Relations with the Tatar World’, in Brian J. Boeck, Russell E. Martin and Daniel B. Rowland (eds), Dubitando. Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski (Bloomington, 2012), pp. 129-38; idem, ‘The Improbable Case of the Seventeenth-Century Super Editor: Re-Considering Andrei Lyzlov's History of the Scythians’, Canadian-American Slavic Studies 49 (2015), pp. 234-52; Edward L. Keenan, Jr., ‘Coming to Grips with the Kazanskaya istoriya’, Annals of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in the United States 31-32 (1967), pp. 143-83.

6 A. A. Zimin, ‘On the Political Preconditions for the Emergence of Russian Absolutism’, Susan Zayer Rupp, trans., in Nancy Shields Kollmann (ed.), Major Problems in Early Modern Russian History (New York, 1992), p. 95, n. 95.

7 Ruslan Skrynnikov, Reign of Terror, Paul Williams, trans. (Leiden, 2015), pp. 81, 110.

8 Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey (eds), Rude & Barbarous Kingdom. Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyages (Madison, 1968), p. 53.

9 Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie, Ivan the Terrible (London, 2003), p. 28.

10 Isabel de Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible. First Tsar of Russia (New Haven, 2005), p. 41.

11 Edward L. Keenan, ‘The Privy Domain of Ivan Vasil'evich’, in Chester S. L. Dunning, Russell E. Martin, and Daniel Rowland (eds), Rude & Barbarous Kingdom Revisited. Essays in Russian History and Culture in Honor of Robert O. Crummey (Bloomington, 2008), p. 82.

12 Edward L. Keenan, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Women’, Russian History 37 (2010), p. 338.

13 Pierre Gonneau, Ivan le Terrible. Ou le métier de tyran (Paris, 2014), p. 126.

14 Russell E. Martin, A Bride for the Tsar: Bride-Shows and Marriage Politics in Early Modern Russia (DeKalb, 2012), pp. 67, 118.

15 Charles J. Halperin, ‘What is an “Official” Muscovite Source from the Reign of Ivan IV?’, in Ann M. Kleimola and Gail Lenhoff (eds), ‘The Book of Royal Degrees’ and the Genesis of Russian Historical Consciousness / ‘Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia’ i genezis russkogo istoricheskogo soznaniia (Bloomington, 2011), pp. 81-93.

16 D. A. Carpenter, The Reign of Henry III (London, 1996), pp. 417, 433; John Paul Davis, The Gothic King: A Biography of Henry III (London, 2012), pp. 190, 260; E. W. M. Balfour-Melville, James I, King of Scots 1406–1437 (London, 1936), p. 250.

17 Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke (eds), Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, c. 1450–1650 (Oxford, 1991).

18 John Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe. Ritual, Politics and Culture Under the Ancien Régime, 1500–1750 (London, 1999).

19 Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Charles S. Singleton, trans. (Garden City, 1959).

20 Charles J. Halperin, ‘Ivan IV's Insanity’, Russian History 34 (2007), pp. 207-18.

21 PSRL, vol. 13 (Moscow, 1965), p. 66; Russkie letopisi [hereafter RL], vol. 3: Voskresenskaia letopis’. Opis’ russkikh gorodov (Riazan’, 1998), p. 369; Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia po drevneishim spiskam. Teksty i kommentarii, vol. II Stepeni XI-XVII, Prilozheniia. Ukazateli (Moscow, 2008), pp. 320, 335.

22 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 76, 412, 416; PSRL, vol. 29 (Moscow, 1965), pp. 9, 121, 122, 124; RL, vol. 3, p. 375; RL, vol. 5: L'vovskaia letopis’. Gerby Rossiiskoi imperii (Riazan’, 1999), p. 8; Stepennaia kniga, vol. 2, p. 325.

23 PSRL, vol. 29, p. 122.

24 Charles J. Halperin, ‘The Minority of Ivan IV’, in Dunning, Martin and Rowland (eds.), Rude & Barbarous Kingdom Revisited, pp. 41-52.

25 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 140-1.

26 Martin, A Bride for the Tsar, p. 64.

27 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 154, 457; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 153; RL, vol. 5, p. 76; Drevniaia Rossiiskaia Vivliofika [hereafter DRV], vol. 13 (2^nd edn, Moscow, 1790), pp. 36-46; V. D. Nazarov, ‘Svadebnye dela XVI veka’, Voprosy istorii no. 10 (1976), p. 123; Martin A Bride for the Tsar, pp. 55, 91, 92.

28 Nazarov, ‘Svadebnye dela XVI veka’, p. 114; Martin, A Bride for the Tsar, p. 67.

29 Martin, A Bride for the Tsar, p. 118.

30 Keenan, ‘The Privy Domain of Ivan Vasil'evich’, p. 82.

31 Martin, A Bride for the Tsar, p. 118.

32 Skrynnikov, Reign of Terror, p. 110.

33 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 317; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 278; RL, vol. 5, p. 257.

34 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 325; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 285.

35 Vkladnaia kniga Troitse-Sergieva Monastyria (Moscow, 1987), pp. 160, 161.

36 Ludwig Steindorff kindly informed me that his database of donations to monasteries does not contain any record for Prince Yury (personal communication, 28 June 2016).

37 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 329; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 288.

38 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 331.

39 Charles J. Halperin, ‘Stepennaia kniga on the Reign of Ivan IV: Omissions from Degree 17’, Slavonic and East European Review 89 (2011), pp. 67-8.

40 Skrynnikov, Reign of Terror, pp. 110-11.

41 Razriadnaia kniga 1475–1598 gg. (Moscow, 1966), p. 115.

42 A. V. Antonov, ‘Klinskie akty XV-XVI veka’, Russkii diplomatarii 4 (1998), no 23, p. 94.

43 Ibid., pp. 91, 95, 96, 99, 116, 119, 150, 159 (tsar's boyar), 182 (tsar's boyar), 206, 213. He was also known as Kurukin-Bulgakov.

44 Umnyi Kolychev: Ibid., pp. 116, 118, 122, 129, 134, 137, 138, 142 (with Prince Yury); Zhluebin: pp. 98, 102, 105.

45 S. B. Veselovskii, D'iaki i pod'iachie XV-XVII vv. (Moscow, 1975), p. 442.

46 Razriadnaia kniga 1475–1598, pp. 121, 134, 141, 157, 163, 182.

47 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 222.

48 Nancy Shields Kollmann, ‘The Seclusion of Elite Muscovite Women’, Russian History 10 (1983), pp. 170-87.

49 A. A. Zimin (ed.), Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossii XVI stoletiia. Opyt rekonstruktsii (Moscow, 1978), vol. 1, pp. 90-91; vol. 3, p. 487.

50 A. V. Antonov and K. V. Baranov, ‘Akty XV-XVI veka iz arkhivov russkikh monastyrei i tserkvei’, Russkii diplomatarii 3 (1998), no 17, pp. 26-7, confirmation on 26 January 1562 by Prince Yury of a grant of immunities to the Pokrovskii Monastery for estates in Uglich district; A. V. Antonov, ‘Votchinnye arkhivy Moskovskikh monastyrei i soborov XIV-nachala XVII veka’, Russkii diplomatarii 2 (1997), no 196, p. 106, a reference to an inextant judicial immunity charter for estates of the Chudov Monastery in Uglich district issued by Prince Yury.

51 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 372; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 325.

52 Das Speisungsbuch von Volokolamsk. Kormovaia kniga Iosifo-Volokolamskogo monastyria. Eine Quelle zur Sozialgeschichte russicher Klöster im 16. Jahrhundert, Ludwig Steindorf (ed.), with assistance from Rüdiger Koke et al. (Cologne, 1998), p. 55, 100 rubles; Vkladnaia kniga Troitse-Sergieva Monastyria, p. 27, 1,000 rubles; A. I. Alexeev (ed.), ‘Vkladnaia i kormovaia kniga Moskovskogo Simonova monastyria’, Vestnik tserkovnoi istorii no 3 (2006), p. 80, no ruble amount.

53 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 382, 407-08; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 334, 335.

54 Akty Rossiiskogo gosudarstva. Arkhivy moskovskikh monastyrei i soborov XV-nachalo XVII vv. (Moscow, 1998), no 121, p. 321; no 135, pp. 326-9.

55 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 113, 119, 120-22, 126, 130, 132, 134, 140, 142-7, 152, 156, 231, 273-4, 320, 339, 439, 440-41, 442, 444-6, 453, 458; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 27, 30, 33-5, 37-8, 41, 43-7, 51, 56, 140, 142-6, 151-2, 155, 297; RL, vol. 5, pp. 33, 41, 45, 48, 51, 60, 63-7, 72, 76, 78, 166, 210, 261.

56 Keenan, ‘Privy Domain of Ivan Vasil'evich’, p. 82.

57 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 154, 455.

58 Charles J. Halperin, ‘Royal Recreation: Ivan the Terrible Goes Hunting’, Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010), pp. 293-316.

59 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 341; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 298.

60 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 328.

61 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 92; RL, vol. 5, p. 19.

62 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 99, 131, 254, 273, 305, 432-3; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 31, 36, 237, 249, 269; RL, vol. 3, p. 388; RL, vol. 5, pp. 189, 210, 241-2.

63 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 252, 255, 276, 320; PSRL, vol. 29, pp, 235, 281; RL, vol. 5, pp, 187, 190.

64 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 250; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 234, RL, vol. 5, p. 185.

65 PSRL, vol. 29, p. 303.

66 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 230, 527; RL, vol. 5, p. 164.

67 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 333; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 292.

68 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 522; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 115; RL, vol. 5, p. 162.

69 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 103, 434; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 136; RL, vol. 3, p. 390.

70 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 151; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 50; RL, vol. 5, p. 72; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 150; cf. PSRL, vol. 13, p. 451.

71 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 346; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 300-01.

72 George P. Majeska, ‘The Moscow Coronation of 1498 Reconsidered’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 26 (1978), pp. 353-61; David B. Miller, ‘The Coronation of Ivan IV in 1547’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 15 (1967), pp. 559-74.

73 DRV, vol. 13, pp. 29-35. I wish to express my sincerest appreciation to Russell Martin for consultation on the subject of the role of Prince Yury at Ivan's first wedding.

74 DRV, vol. 13, pp. 57-79.

75 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 328; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 288.

76 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 158, 162, 177, 345, 460, 464, 477, 482, 483; Razriadnaia kniga 1475-1598 gg. (Moscow, 1966), p. 125; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 57, 60, 73, 156, 172, 176, 302; RL, vol. 5, pp. 80, 84-5, 103, 118.

77 Razriadnaia kniga, p. 109.

78 Razriadnaia kniga, pp. 112, 115, 121, 124, 141, 151, 159, 163, 182; PSRL. vol. 13, pp. 159, 160, 462; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 59, 156, 157; RL, vol. 5, p. 80.

79 Berry and Crummey (eds), Rude & Barbarous Kingdom, p. 53, n. 30.

80 Sobranie gosudarstvennykh gramot i dogovorov, khraniashchikhsia v Gosudarstvennoi Kollegii inostrannykh del [hereafter SGGD], vol. 2 (Moscow, 1819), pp. 46-7. See PSRL, vol. 13, p. 158. Precedence, based upon family standing and previous service, governed who could not serve in a position lower than someone else with lesser ‘honour’.

81 Under the ‘feeding’ system, locals remunerated provincial administrators in kind in lieu of receiving a salary from the central government.

82 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 267.

83 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 190, 221, 488, 515; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 84, 205, 206.

84 PSRL, vol.13, p. 362; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 314, 316.

85 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 222.

86 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 344, 365.

87 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 192, 227, 352, 353, 360, 361, 490, 521; PSRL, vol. 29, pp. 86, 111, 181, 182, 210, 307; RL, vol. 5, pp. 121, 154. 161.

88 Posol'skie knigi po sviaziam Rossii s Nogaiskoi Ordoi 1489–1549 (Makhachkala, 1995), pp. 233, 242-3, 273.

89 PSRL, vol. 13, pp. 223, 517-18; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 112; RL, vol. 5, p. 156.

90 DRV, vol.13, pp. 46-57; quote p. 57.

91 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 523; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 211.

92 Skrynnikov, Reign of Terror, p. 110.

93 SGGD, vol. 1 (Moscow, 1813), pp. 465-8.

94 PSRL, vol. 13, p. 331; PSRL, vol. 29, p. 290.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles J. Halperin

Charles Halperin is an independent scholar residing in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the author of Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History (1985); The Tatar Yoke: The Image of the Mongols in Medieval Russia (2^nd edition, 2009); and over one hundred scholarly articles. He is currently preparing a monograph on Ivan the Terrible.