Was the robber Kudeyar really the elder brother of Ivan the Terrible?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible, nominally ascended the throne when he was only 3 years old. John was born to Vasily III first, and there was no other contender for the Russian throne at that time. But some historians put forward a serious version that Ivan the Terrible had an older brother. According to one of the legends, the first wife of Vasily III Solomonia had a son, whose existence she hid even from her husband by faking the death of the child. The grown-up offspring allegedly became a robber nicknamed Kudeyar, whose personality is included in the plot of Nekrasov's "Song of the Twelve Thieves".

Barren Solomonia and imprisonment in a monastery

In September 1505, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich took Solomonia Yurievna Saburova as his legal wife. The girl was selected at the show from 500 brides brought to court from all over the country. This custom was organized in Russia in the image and likeness of the show among the Byzantine emperors. For the first time in the history of the Moscow state, the ruling monarch married not a Russian princess or a foreign princess, but a girl from the family of a capital boyar.

Basil and Solomonia lived in marriage for about 20 years, while they never made any heirs. Vasily was very worried about this, because he did not want to allow close relatives or their sons to the state throne. He even forbade brothers to marry until he had a son himself. Due to the infertility of the wife, it was decided to replace her with a new one. The Boyar Duma readily supported the monarch's decision to divorce. However, church hierarchs opposed such a precedent, not wanting to support the voluntary separation of married spouses.

Metropolitan Varlaam, the monk Vassian Patrikeev and the Monk Maxim the Greek, who disagreed with the will of the sovereign, went into exile. At the same time, for the first time in Russian history, a metropolitan was defrocked. In 1525, the divorce nevertheless took place, and yesterday's companion in the life of Vasily III went to the monastery. A few months later, the Grand Duke remarried, opting for the young daughter of the Lithuanian prince Elena Glinskaya. Soon, the new wife gave birth to the monarch's son John - the future legendary Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Disappeared documents and an empty grave

In 1566, Tsar Ivan IV demanded from the state archive papers related to the divorce of his father Vasily III and his first wife Solomonia. In the "Inventory of the Tsar's Archive" on this occasion, a short note was made: "The Tsar took him to him." After that, the box with documents never returned to the archive, disappearing without a trace. Fearing encroachment on his own throne, Ivan the Terrible at some point became seriously interested in rumors about the probable existence of another son of Vasily III - his older brother and, in fact, the legitimate heir to the royal crown. Therefore, the monarch made a thorough investigation. No reliable data on its results has survived, apparently because the work was carried out in secret.

As historians later established, according to the monastery documents, Princess Anastasia, daughter of Vasily Shuisky, was buried near the grave of Solomonia (in the tonsure of the elder Sophia). However, according to the researchers, the processing technology of the tombstone and the characteristic ornament on it do not correspond to the specified installation time. Anastasia died at the beginning of the 17th century, and the material under study, by all indications, belongs to the early to mid-16th century. But the peak of amazement of archaeologists came after the direct opening of the children's grave. There were no remains under the tombstone. A rag doll was found, dressed in a shirt tied with an infant swaddle. According to the conclusion of the restorers, the fabrics belonged to the same 16th century, to which the tombstone was dated. And the clothes could well belong to a boy 3-4 years old.

Alien gossip and a mysterious child

According to the testimonies of foreigners (notes by Heidensthal, Herberschein), Solomonia, who was exiled to the monastery, was already pregnant. At the time of her tonsure as a nun, she bore her son Vasily III under her heart. The boy was born a healthy child in the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery. According to oral versions recorded in the Intercession Monastery already in the 19th century, the mother gave the child named by George to a reliable family. At the same time, Solomonia announced that her son had died. Of course, this state of affairs seriously worried Ivan the Terrible, who feared the existence of an older brother and automatically a more legitimate heir. By the way, in the "Notes on Muscovy" the author argued that Solomonia did not give consent to tonsure and even resisted this process with all her might. According to other sources (according to the testimony of those close to Metropolitan Daniel), the woman desperate for her own sterility asked her husband to allow her to go to the monastery. At the same time, the Grand Duke resisted for a long time, but after Solomon's appeal to Daniel, he was forced to reconcile.

Versions "for": grave, church in the name of George and Ivan the Terrible repentance

Of course, the first thing that prompts thoughts about the real existence of George is an empty children's grave. Why was it necessary to stage a funeral, if not to hide the existence of the child? Secondly, there was another fact. Shortly after Solomon's tonsure, Vasily unexpectedly subscribes land and villages to his ex-wife and monastery, and ordered to lay a church in the name of the great martyr George near the Moscow Kremlin.

Historians suggest that Vasily thus tried to please his wife, having learned about the birth of his first child. In addition, according to the German historian Oderborn, Ivan the Terrible subsequently searched for his brother for a long time - presumably the leader of the band of robbers Kudeyar, found him and killed him. In defense of such assumptions, the fact is cited that in 1572 the sovereign repented in his Spiritual Charter before his own children. He admitted that he had committed a terrible sin, worse than that of Cain, who, as you know, killed his own brother.

And the Siberian Khan Kuchum paid dearly for the fact that He defied Ivan the Terrible and ruined his possessions.