Vasily III
Vasily III
(Vasily Ivanovich) (vəsē`lyē ēvä`nəvĭch), 1479–1533, grand duke of Moscow (1505–33). Carrying on the policies of his father, Ivan IIIIvan IIIor Ivan the Great,
1440–1505, grand duke of Moscow (1462–1505), creator of the consolidated Muscovite (Russian) state. He subjugated (1478) Great Novgorod, asserted his sway over Vyatka, Tver, Yaroslavl, Rostov-Suzdal, and other territories, and
..... Click the link for more information. , he rounded out the territorial consolidation of the Russian state, formally annexing Pskov (1510), Ryazan (1517), and Novgorod-Seversk (1523) and gaining Smolensk (1514) in a war with Sigismund I of Poland and Lithuania. In 1525, he forced his childless first wife to become a nun and soon remarried. His older son from the second marriage succeeded him as Ivan IVIvan IV
or Ivan the Terrible,
1530–84, grand duke of Moscow (1533–84), the first Russian ruler to assume formally the title of czar. Early Reign
Ivan succeeded his father Vasily III, who died in 1533, under the regency of his mother.
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