Vasily II of Moscow

Vasily II Vasilyevich (, also transcribed as Vasili or Vasilii; 10 March 141527 March 1462), also known as Vasily the Blind or Vasily the Dark (Василий Тёмный), was a Grand Prince of Moscow in the 15th century. When his father died in 1425, the 10-year-old Vasily and his uncle Dmitry Shemyaka started fighting over the right to the throne, causing the Muscovite War of Succession (1425–1453). At one point, Vasily was captured and blinded by his opponents. Only after winning a decades-long bloody family struggle, during which Ulugh of Kazan captured Vasily and made him his vassal, was his reign finally generally accepted. Due to his disability, he made his son Ivan III his co-ruler in his late years. First ten years of internecine struggle Vasily II was the youngest son of Vasily I of Moscow by Sophia of Lithuania, the only daughter of Vytautas the Great, and the only son to survive his father (his elder brother Ivan died in 1417 at the age of 22). On his father's death Vasily II was proclaimed Grand Duke at the age of 10. His mother acted as a regent. His uncle, Yuri of Zvenigorod (Prince of Galich-Mersky), and his two sons, Vasily the Cross-Eyed and Dmitry Shemyaka, seized on the opportunity to advance their own claims to the throne. These claims were based on the Testament of Dmitri Donskoi, Yuri's father and Vasily II's grandfather, who had stated that if Vasily I died Yuri would succeed his appanage. However, Dmitri had written the testament when Vasily I had no children of his own, and it might be argued that this provision had been made only for the case of Vasily I's childless death. Vasily II's claim was supported by Vytautas, his maternal grandfather. Upon Vytautas' death in 1430, Yuri went to the Golden Horde, returning with a license to take the Moscow throne. But the Khan did not support him any further, largely due to the devices of the Smolensk princeling and Moscow boyarin Ivan Vsevolzhsky. When Yuri assembled an army and attacked Moscow, Vasily II, betrayed by Vsevolzhsky, was defeated and captured by his enemies (1433). Upon being proclaimed Grand Duke of Moscow, Yuri pardoned his nephew and sent him to reign in the town of Kolomna. That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily II immediately started to plot against his uncle and gather all sort of malcontents. Feeling how insecure his throne was, Yuri resigned and then left Moscow for his northern hometown. When Vasily II returned to Moscow, he had Vsevolzhsky blinded as a traitor.