Grigory Fyodorovich Chelyadin-Davydov (also Davydov, Davydov-Chelyadnin; year of birth unknown — died after 1521) was a close boyar of Grand Princes Ivan III and Vasily III and one of the most prominent military commanders of the Muscovite state at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. As a sign of the sovereigns' special favor, chronicles and service registers (razryadnye knigi) often recorded him only by his first name and patronymic — "Grigory Fyodorovich" — without a surname, since it was assumed that the reader already knew whom was meant.[1]
He came from an old Moscow boyar family that considered itself descended from Ratsha; he belonged to the senior branch of the Akinfichi. His father was Fyodor Davydovich, a voivode (military commander) and boyar from 1471; his mother was a daughter of Yakov Mikhailovich Koshkin.
Military service
Grigory Fyodorovich's career can be traced from 1495, when, during Ivan III's campaign against Novgorod, he was recorded as a court boyar's son (dvorovy syn boyarsky). In 1496 he took part in two campaigns against the Swedes, both times serving as second voivode — first in the vanguard regiment, then in the right-hand regiment. In 1501 he commanded the right-hand regiment as first voivode and in December of that year took part in the Battle of Mstislavl; for the campaign he was promoted to okolnichy. In 1502 he served as fifth voivode in the army of Semyon Ivanovich of Mozhaysk.[1]
In 1507 he served as second voivode in Nizhny Novgorod, defending against Tatar raids — one of the few direct mentions of his connection with the Nizhny Novgorod area. That same year, 1507, he already headed the main regiment of the Novgorod force in the campaign from Velikiye Luki against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1508 he was senior voivode of the same force.
In 1510 he was appointed first namestnik (governor) in the newly annexed Pskov and personally administered the oath of allegiance to the grand prince to the townspeople. In 1511–1512 he stood as first voivode at Tarusa against the Tatars, then commanded the army in Serpukhov jointly with Prince Yury Ivanovich. In 1512 he oversaw the final annexation of Ryazan to the Muscovite state, acting as voivode of the vanguard regiment in Ryazan and Ostyor. In December of that same year, the service registers already call him a boyar: in the grand prince's campaign against Smolensk he held the post of first voivode of the left-hand regiment under Dmitry Ivanovich.[1]
The Smolensk campaigns and the Battle of Orsha
On June 14, 1513, Grigory Fyodorovich was with the sovereign, after which he was sent to Smolensk to supervise the siege. In August 1514, when the treachery of Mikhail Glinsky came to light, he was dispatched to the army near Orsha. In the Battle of Orsha (1514) he was among the voivodes of the main regiment and managed to avoid capture. Nevertheless, in the view of the chroniclers, he apparently fled the battlefield: after Orsha, Grigory Fyodorovich is no longer mentioned in military appointments and was removed from military affairs.[1] The last datable mention of him comes from the period after 1521.
Sources
- dic.academic.ru — Chelyadin-Davydov, Grigory — What is Chelyadin-Davydov, Grigory? (archive)