Vorotynsky
Encyclopedia
Vorotynsky was one of the most eminent Rurikid princely houses of Muscovite Russia. Their lands lay principally in the Upper Oka region
and comprised the towns of Peremyshl
and Vorotynsk
as well as parts (дольницы) of Novosil
and Odoyev.
, a tiny Upper Oka principality
, these princes entered the service of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
in the mid-15th century, when Prince Fyodor Romanovich was betrothed to Algirdas
' granddaughter. Their grandson, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, defected to Muscovy and helped Vasily III besiege and take Smolensk
. He was a singularly successful commander, routing the Crimean Tatars
in the Ukraine
in 1508 and again in 1517 near Tula
. Aiming at advantage against his young rival Prince Belsky, Ivan did nothing to help him when the Tatars routed Belsky's army four years later. On this event, Vorotynsky fell into disgrace until 1525, when he solemnly promised to forget his enmity against Belsky and to suspend all the contacts with his Lithuanian relatives. The suspicion as to his plans of defecting to Lithuania still lingered, however. It was the reason given by regent Elena Glinskaya
when she ordered him to be taken into custody and immured in the distant Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery
, where he died on July 21, 1535.
Ivan Mikhailovich had three sons, all of whom played a part in Muscovite politics as boyar
s and Voivodes. The eldest of these, Prince Vladimir Ivanovich Vorotynsky, was solicitous to talk Vladimir of Staritsa
into swearing allegiance to Ivan IV's baby son during the tsar's grave illness in 1553 but died himself on September 27 that year. The youngest, Prince Alexander Ivanovich, was recorded in 1558 as governing the stronghold of Kazan
but later lost the tsar's favor and died as a monk in the Sretensky Monastery
of Moscow
on February 6, 1565.
The most famous of the brothers was Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. He was one of those commanders who led the conquest of Kazan in 1552 and was the first to take the Arsk
Tower. In 1561 the prince was exiled to Beloozero, and his estates were confiscated. Four years later, he was let out on bail and dispatched to govern Kazan. For ten years, Mikhail Vorotynsky was in charge of Russian southern borders, founding new forts and strengthening the Great Abatis Belt. His bold leadership made itself felt at the Battle of Molodi
, where he routed the 120,000-strong Tatar army in the three-day battle (1572). A year later, one of his menials, incriminated in theft, insinuated that Vorotynsky was plotting the tsar's death by magic charms. Ivan the Terrible, who never wanted a pretext to execute a boyar, put Vorotynsky to the torture. Mikhail's body was placed between two bonfires, and the tsar personally "raked the burning coals closer to his holy body with an accursed staff", as Prince Kurbsky says. Following the torture, the badly burnt boyar was taken to Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. He died on the way and was buried in that monastery close to his father.
s. Vorotynsk and other confiscated votchina
s of his father were compensated by new lands near Murom
, Nizhny Novgorod
, and Starodub-Ryapolovsky. During Feodor I's reign, he championed the Shuiskys against Boris Godunov
, thus provoking the latter's ire. This time he was exiled to "very distant places", then served as a voivod in Kazan before finally returning to Moscow in 1598. He remained a loyal adherent of Vasily Shuisky in all of his undertakings and appears as such on the pages of Pushkin's tragedy Boris Godunov. In 1610, however, Vorotynsky was one of the boyars who demanded and secured Shuisky's deposition and imprisonment. In 1611 he supported Patriarch Germogen against the pro-Polish party, which had them both put in chains. After the Poles were expelled from the Kremlin, Vorotynsky was nominated one of the candidates to the Russian throne. When the Zemsky Sobor
named Mikhail Romanov as a new tsar, Vorotynsky led a deputation of boyars to the Ipatiev Monastery
to inform Mikhail about his election. Later, he governed Kazan
and Moscow
during the tsar's absence from the capital. He died as a monk on January 8, 1627.
Thenceforward the Vorotynskys didn't figure prominently in national politics. Ivan's only son, Prince Aleksey Ivanovich (1610-42), died at the age of 32, survived by his wife, a sister of Tsarina Eudoxia Streshneva
. Their son Ivan Alekseyevich Vorotynsky probably profited from his being first cousin of Tsar Alexis, as the 1678 census
shows him as one of the biggest private landowners in Russia. He died the following year, on July 24, leaving no male heirs. Thereupon his lands fell to a daughter, Anastasia, who married Prince Peter Galitzine
. Anastasia died on December 12, 1691 and was buried by the Patriarch in Epiphany Monastery
of Moscow
.
Upper Oka Principalities
The Upper Oka Principalities is a term traditionally applied in Russian historiography to about dozen tiny and ephemeral polities situated along the upper course of the Oka River at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries...
and comprised the towns of Peremyshl
Peremyshl, Russia
Peremyshl is a village in Kaluga Oblast, Russia. Formerly a capital of one of the Upper Principalities, Peremyshl contains the ruins of a mid-16th century cathedral which collapsed in the 1980s from neglect. For descendants of the local rulers, see Vorotynsky and Gorchakov. Population: 3,235...
and Vorotynsk
Vorotynsk
Vorotynsk was one of the Upper Oka towns and seat of the mediaeval Princes Vorotynsky. It was first mentioned in the Hypatian Codex under the year 1155. In 1480, Vorotynsk was the principal base of Russian operations against the Tatars during the Great standing on the Ugra river...
as well as parts (дольницы) of Novosil
Novosil
Novosil is a town and the administrative center of Novosilsky District of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Zusha River east of Oryol. Population:...
and Odoyev.
Between Russia and Lithuania
Originally lords of VorotynskVorotynsk
Vorotynsk was one of the Upper Oka towns and seat of the mediaeval Princes Vorotynsky. It was first mentioned in the Hypatian Codex under the year 1155. In 1480, Vorotynsk was the principal base of Russian operations against the Tatars during the Great standing on the Ugra river...
, a tiny Upper Oka principality
Upper Oka Principalities
The Upper Oka Principalities is a term traditionally applied in Russian historiography to about dozen tiny and ephemeral polities situated along the upper course of the Oka River at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries...
, these princes entered the service of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
in the mid-15th century, when Prince Fyodor Romanovich was betrothed to Algirdas
Algirdas
Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...
' granddaughter. Their grandson, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, defected to Muscovy and helped Vasily III besiege and take Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
. He was a singularly successful commander, routing the Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in 1508 and again in 1517 near Tula
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...
. Aiming at advantage against his young rival Prince Belsky, Ivan did nothing to help him when the Tatars routed Belsky's army four years later. On this event, Vorotynsky fell into disgrace until 1525, when he solemnly promised to forget his enmity against Belsky and to suspend all the contacts with his Lithuanian relatives. The suspicion as to his plans of defecting to Lithuania still lingered, however. It was the reason given by regent Elena Glinskaya
Elena Glinskaya
Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya April 1538, Moscow) was the second wife of Grand Prince Vasili III and regent of Russia for 5 years .- Background :...
when she ordered him to be taken into custody and immured in the distant Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery , loosely translated in English as the St. Cyril-Belozersk Monastery, used to be the largest monastery of Northern Russia. The monastery was dedicated to the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, for which cause it was sometimes referred to as the Dormition Monastery...
, where he died on July 21, 1535.
The Vorotynskys and Ivan the Terrible
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s and Voivodes. The eldest of these, Prince Vladimir Ivanovich Vorotynsky, was solicitous to talk Vladimir of Staritsa
Vladimir of Staritsa
Vladimir Andreyevich was the last appanage Russian prince. His complicated relationship with his cousin, Ivan the Terrible, was dramatized in Sergei Eisenstein's movie Ivan the Terrible....
into swearing allegiance to Ivan IV's baby son during the tsar's grave illness in 1553 but died himself on September 27 that year. The youngest, Prince Alexander Ivanovich, was recorded in 1558 as governing the stronghold of Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
but later lost the tsar's favor and died as a monk in the Sretensky Monastery
Sretensky Monastery
Sretensky Monastery is a monastery in Moscow, founded by Grand Prince Vasili I in 1397. It used to be located close to the present-day Red Square, but in the early 16th century it was moved northeast to what is now Bolshaya Lubyanka Street...
of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
on February 6, 1565.
The most famous of the brothers was Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. He was one of those commanders who led the conquest of Kazan in 1552 and was the first to take the Arsk
Arsk
Arsk is a town and the administrative center of Arsky District of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, located on the banks of the Kazanka River, from Kazan, the republic's capital. Arsk is also a station on the Kazan-Agryz railroad. Population:...
Tower. In 1561 the prince was exiled to Beloozero, and his estates were confiscated. Four years later, he was let out on bail and dispatched to govern Kazan. For ten years, Mikhail Vorotynsky was in charge of Russian southern borders, founding new forts and strengthening the Great Abatis Belt. His bold leadership made itself felt at the Battle of Molodi
Battle of Molodi
The Battle of Molodi was one of the key battles of Ivan the Terrible's reign. It was fought near the village of Molodi, 40 mi south of Moscow, in July-August 1572 between the 120,000-strong horde of Devlet I Giray of Crimea and about 60,000 Russians led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky...
, where he routed the 120,000-strong Tatar army in the three-day battle (1572). A year later, one of his menials, incriminated in theft, insinuated that Vorotynsky was plotting the tsar's death by magic charms. Ivan the Terrible, who never wanted a pretext to execute a boyar, put Vorotynsky to the torture. Mikhail's body was placed between two bonfires, and the tsar personally "raked the burning coals closer to his holy body with an accursed staff", as Prince Kurbsky says. Following the torture, the badly burnt boyar was taken to Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. He died on the way and was buried in that monastery close to his father.
Time of Troubles
Mikhail's son, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, was eventually released from the monastery and sent to subdue minor risings in the land of UdmurtUdmurt
Udmurt may refer to:*Udmurt people, people who speak the Udmurt language*Udmurt language, a Finno-Ugric language*Udmurt Republic, a federal republic of Russia*Udmurt Autonomous Oblast, an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union...
s. Vorotynsk and other confiscated votchina
Votchina
Votchina or otchina was an East Slavic land estate that could be inherited. The term "votchina" was also used to describe the lands of a knyaz.The term originated in the law of Kievan Rus...
s of his father were compensated by new lands near Murom
Murom
Murom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: -History:In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Russian Primary Chronicle...
, Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
, and Starodub-Ryapolovsky. During Feodor I's reign, he championed the Shuiskys against Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...
, thus provoking the latter's ire. This time he was exiled to "very distant places", then served as a voivod in Kazan before finally returning to Moscow in 1598. He remained a loyal adherent of Vasily Shuisky in all of his undertakings and appears as such on the pages of Pushkin's tragedy Boris Godunov. In 1610, however, Vorotynsky was one of the boyars who demanded and secured Shuisky's deposition and imprisonment. In 1611 he supported Patriarch Germogen against the pro-Polish party, which had them both put in chains. After the Poles were expelled from the Kremlin, Vorotynsky was nominated one of the candidates to the Russian throne. When the Zemsky Sobor
Zemsky Sobor
The zemsky sobor was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma...
named Mikhail Romanov as a new tsar, Vorotynsky led a deputation of boyars to the Ipatiev Monastery
Ipatiev Monastery
The Ipatiev Monastery —sometimes translated into English as Hypatian Monastery—is a male monastery, situated on the bank of the Kostroma River just opposite the city of Kostroma...
to inform Mikhail about his election. Later, he governed Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
during the tsar's absence from the capital. He died as a monk on January 8, 1627.
Thenceforward the Vorotynskys didn't figure prominently in national politics. Ivan's only son, Prince Aleksey Ivanovich (1610-42), died at the age of 32, survived by his wife, a sister of Tsarina Eudoxia Streshneva
Eudoxia Streshneva
Eudoxia Streshnyova was the second wife of Tsar Mikhail. She was a daughter of a nobleman Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnyov from Mozhaysk, who died in 1630, and his wife Anna Konstantinovna Volkonskaya.- Biography :...
. Their son Ivan Alekseyevich Vorotynsky probably profited from his being first cousin of Tsar Alexis, as the 1678 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
shows him as one of the biggest private landowners in Russia. He died the following year, on July 24, leaving no male heirs. Thereupon his lands fell to a daughter, Anastasia, who married Prince Peter Galitzine
Galitzine
For Orthodox clergyman and theologian, see Alexander Golitzin.The Galitzines are one of the largest and noblest princely houses of Russia. Since the extinction of the Korecki family in the 17th century, the Golitsyns have claimed dynastic seniority in the House of Gediminas...
. Anastasia died on December 12, 1691 and was buried by the Patriarch in Epiphany Monastery
Epiphany Monastery
The Epiphany Monastery is the oldest male monastery in Moscow, situated in the Kitai gorod, just one block away from the Moscow Kremlin.According to a legend, it was founded by Daniel, the first prince of Moscow, around 1296. It is also believed that a would-be metropolitan Alexis was one of the...
of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.