House of Shuysky

House of Shuysky
Country	Russia
Estates	Principality of Suzdal—Nizhny Novgorod
Parent house	Rurikids
Titles	Tsar of Russia
Founded	1606
Founder	Vasili IV
Final ruler	Russia: Vasili IV (1606-1610)
Current head	? (possibly extinct)
Deposition	Russia: 1610 (abdicated the throne, line extinct afterwards)
Cadet branches	senior junior

The Princes Shuysky (Шуйские) is a Rurikid Princely family of former boyars descending from Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich of Vladimir-Suzdal and Prince Andrey Yaroslavich, brother to Alexander Nevsky. Their name is derived from the town of Shuya, of which they gained ownership in 1403. The family briefly reached the Russian throne in the person of Vasili IV (1606-1610).

The foundations for their fortunes in Muscovite service were laid by Prince Vasily Vasilievich "Bledny" ("the Pale"), who was dispatched by Ivan III to govern Pskov and then Nizhny Novgorod (1478–80). The following year, he devastated Livonia and was sent as a governor to Novgorod. In 1487, he was recorded as leading a Russian contingent against Kazan. The Shuyskys represented a senior line among the descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest and therefore treated the ruling princes of Muscovy, who were descended from a junior line, with arrogance.

Vasily Bledny's grand nephew, Prince Vasily Vasilievich "Nemoy" ("the Mute") was Grand Prince Vasily III's taciturn aide-de-camp who accompanied him on every military campaign and became an éminence grise of Muscovite politics. In 1517, he defeated forces of Poland and Lithuania under Konstantin Ostrogski as part of the 4th Muscovite-Lithuanian War. Six years later, Vasily Nemoy led a Russian expedition along the Volga against Kazan. Upon the death of Vasily III's widow, Elena Glinskaya, he challenged the authority of Prince Ivan Belsky, procured his incarceration, married Anastasia of Kazan (Ivan III's granddaughter), and proclaimed himself regent for Vasily III's heir, the young Ivan IV, in 1538.

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