I've been reading Women in Russian History from the Tenth Century to the Twentieth, by Natalia Pushkereva out of boredom. Russian history is particularly fascinating at the moment because of a certain fictional show about Catherine the Great.
The book points out that when her husband Vasilii passed away, he didn't give full power to his wife. In fact, he prioritized the Boyars. However, she was able to sidestep them and steal the power for themselves, or more clearly according to the book:
"She arranged matters so that the members of the boyar council had to refer all questions and requests to her."
I guess I want to know this minor detail if possible. How was she able to circumvent the influential Boyars and wrap them around her fingers? What was the make-up of a Boyar council at the time? What positions did they hold?
Is there a handy guide or source that can expand more on this detail?
I'm not sure I can give a very detailed answer to this - what happened is that Elena was backed by some of the boyars, most notably Prince Ivan Feodorovich Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky, whom some claimed to be her lover and the father of her children (because you are sure to find such rumors whenever a man helps a woman hold onto power in history). It's less that she mysteriously or legally forced them to do what she wanted, and more that powerful boyars agreed that she ought to be her son's regent and therefore put her in power.
Now, why would they do that, outside of the "lover" theory?
The main point of this regency council was to protect the throne and its rightful heir from Vasilii's brother, Yurii Ivanovich, who had expected to inherit before Vasilii and Elena finally had a son. And at the end of Vasilii's life and after his death, Yurii started intriguing again to build his own power base to support a coup, requiring the council to take action against him. Well ... most of the council. Those who'd supported Yurii were now out, as were some of the boyars only serving on the Duma and not the regency council, allowing others (like Prince Ivan) to rise and making the situation generally unstable. Then Elena's uncle, Prince Mikhail Glinskii, also on the council, demanded that she get rid of Prince Ivan and come back to his own influence. He was subsequently arrested and accused of having poisoned Vasilii, taking another hostile character off the stage, along with another boyar regent deemed his accomplice. At this point, a new boyar government had to be appointed, and it ruled in the name of Elena Glinskaya as regent.
Interestingly (to me), Ivan IV would grow up to admire his mother and see her as the rightful ruler during this time. It's common for internal unrest to be considered the fault of a queen regent, either for having favorites/a faction or for not controlling the independent factions well enough. I would speculate that this is because she only lived a few years longer, so there was not enough time for e.g. Ivan to grow up and want to take power back from her before she was ready to relinquish it.