Elena Glinskaya
second wife of Grand Prince Vasili III
Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya (c. 1510 – 4 April 1538) was the grand princess consort of Moscow as the second wife of Vasili III of Russia, and de facto regent of Russia from 1533 until her death in 1538. She was the mother of the first crowned tsar Ivan IV.
Biography
Early life and marriage
Elena was born in 1510 as the daughter of Prince Vasili Lvovich Glinsky, a member of the Glinsky family, and Serbian Princess Ana Jakšić from the Jakšić noble family. She had a younger sister, Anastasia, and two brothers, Yuri(d. 1547) and Mikhail (d. 1559).
The Glinsky family originally claimed descent from Mamai; by the 1520s, they claimed that they were blood relations of Genghis Khan himself. Originally, the family lived on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, Glinskaya's uncle, Prince Mikhail Lvovich Glinsky, betrayed the commonwealth and joined the side of the Principality of Moscow in the Third Lithuanian-Muscovite War in 1508, in what would come to be known as the Glinski rebellion. As a result, the Glinsky family was exiled and their lands confiscated. The ruler of Moscow, Grand Duke Vasili III, bestowed on them the cities of Maloyaroslavets and Borovsk.
The public source identifies “Elena Glinskaya” as second wife of Grand Prince Vasili III. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Elena, Glinskaya and second.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Elena Glinskaya”, the useful work is to connect “second wife of Grand Prince Vasili III” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q240150. VIAF identifies the subject as 6135155226764184490000. The Library of Congress control number is no2019039688. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1510, 1538, 1533 and 1547.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Elena Glinskaya”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Elena Glinskaya primary sources, Elena Glinskaya archive and Elena research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elena Glinskaya”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Elena Glinskaya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.