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He was a son of Petr-Gurii Ivanovich Shuiskii. He was a military officer
and became distinguished in the capture of Polotsk i n1563. He was successively
a voyevod and namestnik, then boyar from 1572 or 1574. He fought the Crimean
Tatar invasion in 1571. He was a hero of the defense of Pskov from the invading
army of Stephan Bathori in 1581. As a Shuiskii prince he was descended from the
former independent rulers of the Shua appanage near Suzdal. (see chart) He was
the most important boyar in the Duma after the death of Ivan IV and leading enemy of Boris Gudunov. In 1584 he was
a member of the court leadership "regency council" that included Ivan
Fedorovich Mstislavskii and Nikita Romanovich. During 1585-86 he commanded the
army on the western frontier from his seat at Pskov of which he was the long
time governor. As leader of the opposition to Boris Gudunov he urged Tsar
Feodor to divorce Boris's sister and remarry in order to produce an heir. He
was exiled from Moscow by Boris' decree in 1587 or 1588 to the Beloozero
monastery (following in the footsteps of Ivan F. Mstislavskii to whom Boris did
the same thing) were he was killed. Opinions differ on whether he had a son or
not. If he did, the name was Andrei and he also died in prison. In any case he
worked with his cousins, the sons of Ivan
Andreevich. This Ivan had become family leader on the death of Ivan
Petrovich's father. These cousins were also exiled by Boris, but returned to
power in the 1590's. The family is shown on this chart.
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