On the night of September 21, the government of the "Seven Boyars" secretly let Polish troops into Moscow. The "Seven Boyars," or the "seven-numbered boyars," was a government in Russia that formed after the overthrow in July 1610 of Tsar Vasily IV (Shuisky).
The "Seven Boyars" included members of the Boyar Duma who by that time were in Moscow: Princes F. Mstislavsky, I. Vorotynsky, A. Trubetskoy, A. Golitsyn, B. Lykov, I. Romanov, and F. Sheremetev. One of the first decisions of the "Seven Boyars" was a decree not to elect as tsar representatives of Russian noble families.
In this connection, on August 27, 1610, the boyars concluded a treaty with the Poles camped near Moscow, under which the son of the Polish king Sigismund III, Wladyslaw, was recognized as the Russian tsar. Protecting its privileges, the aristocratic government secured the inclusion of articles limiting Wladyslaw's rights: the need for him to adopt Orthodoxy in Smolensk, an obligation to marry only a Russian woman, a limit on the number of close associates from Poland, and the like. Fearing unrest among Muscovites and distrusting Russian troops, the government of the "Seven Boyars" committed an act of national betrayal: on the night of September 21, 1610, it secretly let Polish troops into Moscow.
From October 1610, all real power was concentrated in the hands of the military leaders of the Polish garrison (S. Zholkiewski and A. Gonsevsky), but nominally the "Seven Boyars" continued to function until Moscow was liberated by the People's Militia led by Minin and Pozharsky.