Daniil Shchenya

Prince Daniil Vasiliyevich Shchenya (Даниил Васильевич Щеня in Russian) (? – no later than 1519) was a Russian military leader during the reigns of Ivan III and Vasili III.

In 1489, Shchenya and his army of 64,000 men sieged and captured the city of Khlynov, the inhabitants of which had often pillaged the northern lands of Russia. All citizens of Khlynov were taken to different Muscovite towns; the fittest of them were moved to Moscow. Shchenya took an active part in the war against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and border disputes and skirmishes, which had preceded the war. In 1493, Shchenya and Prince Vasili Ivanovich Patrikeyev (also known as Vassian Kosoy) captured the city of Vyazma and transferred its princes to Moscow. In 1499, under the leadership of Daniil Kholmsky, Shchenya defeated the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Konstantin Ostrozhsky at the Vedrosha River (see Battle of Vedrosha) and took him prisoner. In 1501, however, Shchenya's army was crushed near Izborsk by Wolter von Plettenberg, magister of the Livonian Order and ally of the Lithuanian ruler Aleksandras II. After the fall of Ivan Yuriyevich Patrikeyev and his son-in-law Semeon Ivanovich Ryapolovsky, Shchenya took the post of the second voyevoda of Moscow. In 1508, he and Dmitriy Shemyachich unsuccessfully sieged Orsha. That same year Shchenya became the first voyevoda of Moscow after the fall of Daniil Kholmsky. In 1514, Shchenya captured Smolensk.

According to different accounts, Shchenya died either in 1515 or 1519.