Dmitry Shemyaka

Dmitriy Yurievich Shemyaka (Russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Шемяка) (died 1453) was the second son of Yury of Zvenigorod by Anastasia of Smolensk and grandson of Dmitri Donskoi.

No small part, however, was played by Dmitri Donskoi's will, which ran contrary to Rurikid dynastic custom whereby the throne would pass from an elder brother to a younger one (agnatic seniority), rather than from father to son (primogeniture).

After Yury's death, Shemyaka continued to press his branch's claim to the grand princely throne, and was seldom at peace with Vasily II.

The following year Shemyaka came to Moscow in order to invite Vasily II to his impending wedding with a princess of Yaroslavl, but was accused of siding with Kosoy and taken prisoner.

When Ulugh Muhammad in his turn besieged Moscow in 1439, Dmitry didn't send his troops to Vasily and only the mediation of a Trinity hegumen could forestall a new civil war between the cousins.

[citation needed]) Shemyaka's lack of support among the Muscovite boyars forced him, however, to leave the city for Lake Chukhloma, but he continued to press his claim to the grand princely throne.

There, on July 17, 1453, he was poisoned while eating a dinner of chicken in the Gorodishche, the princely compound south of the Market side of the city,[1] his cook having been bribed by Muscovite agents.