ecame virtually independent of
the patriarchal see of Constantinople by adopting the practice of selecting
its metropolitan from among native priests and prelates exclusively.

See S. M. Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Russ.), (Petersburg, 1895).

BASIL III., IVANOVICH (1479-1533), tsar of Muscovy, son of Ivan III. and
Sophia Palaeologa, succeeded his father in 1505. A crafty prince, with all
the tenacity of his race, Basil succeeded in incorporating with Muscovy the
last remnants of the ancient independent principalities, by accusing the
princes of Ryazan and Syeversk of conspiracy against him, seizing their
persons, and annexing their domains (1517-1523). Seven years earlier (24th
of January 1510) the last free republic of old Russia, Pskov, was deprived
of its charter and assembly-bell, which were sent [v.03 p.0469] to Moscow,
and tsarish governors were appointed to rule it. Basil also took advantage
of the difficult position of Sigismund of Poland to capture Smolensk, the
great eastern fortress of Poland (1512), chiefly through the aid of the
rebel Lithuanian, Prince Michael Glinsky, who provided him with artillery
and engineers from western Europe. The loss of Smolensk was the first
serious injury inflicted by Muscovy on Poland and only the exigencies of
Sigismund compelled him to acquiesce in its surrender (1522). Equally
successful, on the whole, was Basil against the Tatars. Although in 1519 he
was obliged to buy off the khan of the Crimea, Mahommed Girai, under the
very walls of Moscow, towards the end of his reign he established the
Russian influence on the Volga, and in 1530 placed the pretender Elanyei on
the throne of Kazan. Basil was the first grand-duke of Moscow who adopted
the title of tsar and the double-headed eagle of the East Roman empire. By
his second wife, Helena Glinska, whom he married in 1526, Basil had a son
Ivan, who succeeded him as Ivan IV.

See Sigismund Herberstain, _Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii_ (Vienna,
1549); P. A. Byelov, _Russian History Previous to the Reforms of Peter the
Great_ (Russ.), (Petersburg, 1895); E. I. Kashprovsky, _The War of Basil
III. with Sigismund I._ (Russ.), (Nyezhin, 1899).

BASIL IV., SHUISKY (d. 1612), tsar of Muscovy, was during the reigns of
Theodore I. and Boris Godunov, one of the leading boyars of Muscovy. It was
he who, in obedience to the secret orders of Tsar Boris, went to Uglich to
inquire into the cause of the death of Demetrius, the infant son o