Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Vasily Vasilievich Golitsyn (1572 – January 25, 1619) was a Russian commander, nobleman and governor. Golitsyn was a prominent figure during the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (), also known as Smuta (), was a period of political crisis in Tsardom of Russia, Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I of Russia, Feodor I, the last of the Rurikids, House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 wit ...

between 1587 and 1613.

Biography

Prince Vasily Yuryevich Golitsyn was the eldest of the three sons of the nobleman Vasily Golytsin who died in 1584. Golitsyn was married to Varvara Vasilyevna Sitskaya, the widow of the boyar Fedor Basmanov-Pleshcheev. His younger brothers were

princes A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in some ...

Ivan and Andrey Golitsyn. By December 1590, Golitsyn has been appointed governor of the " Polk levoy ruki", the "Regiment of the Left Hand" which was the organizational and tactical unit of the Russian army in the 11th-17th centuries. (In the battle, the regiment of the left hand was part of the main forces and accordingly formed the left flank of the battle formation of the army.) He led this regiment in the Russo-Swedish War. By 1591 he served as the first governor in the fortress of Dedilov. From there he was recalled to Moscow in order to strengthen its defense during the invasion of the Crimean army under the leadership of Khan Gaza Girey. After the retreat of the khan from Moscow, Prince Vasily Golitsyn led the right-hand regiment to Tula. In June 1592, he commanded a vanguard regiment in

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

. Then the

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

, Prince Daniil Nogtev, waged many disputes with him about "

Mestnichestvo In History of Russia, Russian history, ''mestnichestvo'' (, ; from wikt:место#Russian, ме́сто, a position) was a feudal hierarchical system in Russia from the 15th to 17th centuries. ''Mestnichestvo'' was a complicated system of se ...

" - his right to the post on the basis of priority in the nobility. After the return of Russian regiments from

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

, Golitsyn stood with a large regiment in Novgorod in December. In March 1594 he was sent at the head of a large regiment to Tula. Then the second voivode, prince Pyotr Buinosov-Rostovsky, argued with him on the basis of Mestnichestvo but lost the argument, and the tsar "Ordered Prince Peter to be transferred to Prince Vasily Golitsyn, who will be the head". In 1598 – the second governor in

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

.Golitsyns, Russian Generals and Statesmen
//

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' (35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopaedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in the Russian Em ...

: in 86 Volumes (82 Volumes and 4 Additional) – Saint Petersburg, 1890–1907 At the same time, he argued about Mestnichestvo with the boyar and governor, Prince Timofei Trubetskoy, and, despite the persuasion and threats of

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

Lov, "Prince Vasily Golitsyn did not take the Governor's list from him and does not do business with him". In 1599–1602, the first governor in

; "And Prince Vasily was released to Moscow, and in his place in

ordered to be the boyar and governor, Prince Nikita Romanovich Trubetskoy". In 1603, "in Moscow, in stone and wooden, on May 14, there were boyars and roundabouts... for lights and all kinds of care... In the new tsar's city in the stone beyond the Neglinnaya river from Moscow along the Nikitskaya street, there is a boyar Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn". In the summer of that year, he accompanied Tsar

Boris Godunov Boris Feodorovich Godunov (; ; ) was the ''de facto'' regent of Russia from 1585 to 1598 and then tsar from 1598 to 1605 following the death of Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty. After the end of Feodor's reign, Russia descended into t ...

on a pilgrimage in the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius. In 1603–1604 he served as a judge of the Moscow Judicial Order. In 1604,

appointed him to the vanguard regiment directed against Dmitry I. He was a participant in the Battle of Novgorod-Seversky. After the death of Tsar Boris Godunov, together with Peter Basmanov, he betrayed Fyodor Borisovich Godunov near Kromy. He went over to the side of the impostor, ordering himself to be bound in order to present himself as a captive. In early June 1605, Golitsyn was sent by Dmitry to Moscow as governor and led the assassination of Fedor Godunov. In the future, he was invariably on the side of the victors in all conflicts and participated in the overthrow of both

False Dmitry II False Dmitry II (; died ), historically known as Pseudo-Demetrius II and also called ("the thief of Tushino"), was the second of three pretenders to the Russian throne who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, the youngest son of Ivan the T ...

(one of the organizers of the conspiracy in 1606) and

Vasily Shuisky Vasili IV Ivanovich Shuisky (, 12 September 1612) was Tsar of all Russia from 1606 to 1610, after the murder of False Dmitri I. His rule coincided with the Time of Troubles. He was the only member of House of Shuisky to become tsar and ...

(1610). In the spring of 1608, Golitsyn, together with Prince

Dmitry Shuisky Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky (; died 1613) was a Russian boyar from the Shuisky family, a younger brother to Vasily IV of Russia. Life As a playmate of young Tsarevich Feodor Ivanovich, Dmitry was said to accompany him day and night in his ...

(brother of the king), led the Russian army as the second governor of the large regiment, which was twice defeated by Prince Roman Rozhinsky, the main governor of

. After the defeat near Bolkhov, Golitsyn, along with other governors, fled from the battlefield. Golitsyn participated in the embassy to

Sigismund III Sigismund III Vasa (, ; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Relig ...

(1610) and was detained in Poland as a prisoner along with

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

Filaret. Despite this, his name was called among the candidates for kings at the

Zemsky Sobor of 1613 The Zemsky Sobor of 1613 was a meeting of representatives of the Estates of the realm of the Tsardom of Russia, held for the election of Tsar after the expulsion of the Polish-Lithuanian Occupiers at the end of the Time of Troubles. It was op ...

. Golitsyn died in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, as a prisoner of the Polish 1619.According to Evgraf Serchevsky – in May 1620 He had no children.

References

Sources

*Nikolai Golitsyn. Family of Golitsyn Princes – Saint Petersburg, 1892. Volume 1 *{{cite book , author=Evgraf Serchevsky , chapter= , chapter-url= , title=Notes on the Family Golitsyn Princes , orig-year= , url= , agency= , edition= , location=Saint Petersburg , publisher= , year=1853 1572 births 1619 deaths Golitsyn family Russian regicides 16th-century Russian nobility People from the Tsardom of Russia