Regency and Transfer of Power in Muscovy

Abstract

The article examines the issue of whether there was a regency in the Russian state in the 16th century and the problem of delegation of power. The author comes to the following conclusion: the names of persons who were supposed to assume real power in the country for a certain time in the case of incapacity of the heir under the age were entered into the testaments of the monarchs. Such records were in the testaments of Vasilii III (1533) and Ivan IV (1553, 1554, 1561/1562, 1584). The author of the study believes that although in Russia at the time there was no special legislation on the regency, and there were no terms “regent”, “regency” or “board of guardians”, it is fair to state that regency actually existed in the 16th century. There could not be the legislation on the regency, with those ideas about power that existed. It was believed that the sovereign receives his power directly from God. Regents made all their decisions on behalf of the monarch, despite the fact that the sovereign himself often could not take part in the affairs of government. The acquisition of additional powers by a few “chosen ones” caused discontent among other courtiers. This led to the fact that after the death of the sovereign, the guardians or regents appointed by him often could not retain their special powers of authority and lost not only power, but also their lives. Everything was decided by the balance of forces in the court.