Seven Boyars

The Seven Boyars (Russian: Семибоярщина, the Russian term indicates "Rule of the Seven Boyars" or "the Deeds of the Seven Boyars" or (potentially slightly disparagingly) "the Seven-Boyar affair") were a group of Russian nobles who deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky on 17 July 1610 and later that year, after Russia lost the Battle of Klushino, acquiesced to the Polish entry into Moscow.^[1]

The seven were Princes Fedor Mstislavsky (the leader of the group), Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynskii, Andrei Vasilevich Trubetskoi [ru], Andrei Vasilevich Golitsyn [ru], Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolenskii [ru], and Boyars Ivan Nikitich Romanov and Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev. Due to the Polish advance into Russia, the Bolotnikov rebellion of 1606 to 1607, and other unrest during the Time of Troubles of 1598 to 1613, Shuisky (r. 1606–1610) was never very popular, nor was he able to effectively rule outside of the capital itself. The seven deposed him and he was forcibly tonsured as a monk in the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin. (Stanisław Żółkiewski later carried Shuisky off to Poland, where he died in prison at Gostynin near Warsaw in 1612.)^[2]

On 27 August [O.S. 17 August] 1610, the seven agreed to accept Władysław, the eldest son of the King of Poland, as Tsar of Russia. The Poles entered the city on 21 September. While some consider the rule of the Seven in Moscow to have lasted only from about June 1610 until the arrival of the Poles in September, others regard their rule to have lasted until the Poles were driven from Moscow by the popular movement headed by Kuzma Minin, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, and Prince Dmitry Troubetskoy in 1612. Their power to act after September 1610, however, was rather nominal.

See also

• Polish–Russian War (1609–1618)
• Time of Troubles
• Semibankirschina

References

1. Dunning, C. S. L. (2010). Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty. (pp. 411): Pennsylvania State University Press. - "In the days following the coup against Tsar Vasilii [...] the boyars voted to convene a zemskii sobor for the important task of choosing a new tsar. In the meantime, a council of seven boyars was appointed to rule [...]."
2. Robert O. Crummey, The Formation of Muscovy 1304–1613 (New York and London: Longman, 1987), pp. 224–5.