John IV the Terrible is one of the most controversial and frightening figures in the history of the Russian state. The date of birth and death of Ivan the Terrible is 1533 and 1584. He was the son of the great Russian prince Vasily III, who died in the year of John's birth. The first 15 years of the life of the future formidable tsar passed in an atmosphere of intrigue and struggle of noble families that were part of the ruling boyar government. Perhaps this is what contributed to the development of a cruel and suspicious character.
The most significant facts of the reign of John IV
- On January 16, 1547, Ivan IV received the royal title and began to independently rule the state. Two years later, a new party, the Chosen Rada, was created, with which the sovereign began reforms and the creation of a centralized state.
- Zemsky Sobors were also organized, the first of which was held in 1550.
- In 1551, the Stoglavy Church Council was held and a church reform took place: the king forbade churches and monasteries to acquire new land holdings and ordered the return of the lands previously transferred to them.
- In 1553, with the filing of John IV, printing appeared in Russia.
- A streltsy army was created to strengthenpower and royal security
- Foreign policy was marked by the complete defeat of the Tatar yoke in the Volga region.
- The most famous "deed" of Ivan the Terrible was the oprichnina of 1565-1572, in essence, representing government lawlessness. By order of the king, lands were taken from people by force, which were then closed to the people and served the needs of the king. Oprichniki - the royal retinue - staged mass terror and executions.
When did Ivan the Terrible die?
There are many versions, conjectures and legends about the death of the king. According to the official version, the cause of death of Ivan the Terrible is old age and illness. What actually happened on the day that became the date of the death of Ivan the Terrible - March 18, 1584?
It cannot be said that in the year of the death of Ivan the Terrible there were no preconditions for it. It is believed that Ivan the Terrible suffered from syphilis, which is not surprising given his free lifestyle. This disease is characterized by periods of exacerbations and various complications. Already on March 10, 1584, the tsar's he alth was deteriorating, possibly due to an aggravation - he did not receive the Latvian ambassador due to illness. According to historians, John was swollen and covered with boils. The disease progressed, and on March 16 the sovereign even fell into unconsciousness. But on March 17, he felt better.
Briefly about the death of Ivan the Terrible
Not everyone knows that the formidable king was a chess player. There is a picture painted by the artist Pyotr Tsepalin, which is kept in Moscow, in the Chess Museum. It depicts John VIat the time of death - playing chess.
Date of death of Ivan the Terrible - March 18, 1584. The last day of Ivan the Terrible is described in Notes on Russia by Jerome Horsey. In the morning, the sovereign made a will - that is, he was preparing for death. John was quite superstitious and believed the wise men who predicted the day of his death. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the king went to the bathhouse, singing in his usual way. He spent about four hours there and came out around 7 pm, refreshed and feeling fine. He was seated on a bed, and Grozny, intending to take up a game of chess, called his favorite - Rodion Birkin, who belonged to the nobility.
Other favorites were also present - Bogdan Belsky and Boris Godunov, as well as servants and other persons. Suddenly, the king felt a sharp weakness and fell on the bed. While those around him fussed in panic, sent for various drugs and doctors, John VI died.
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The original of the above book, written in English, uses the words "he was strangled", which can be translated as "lost his breath" or "stopped breathing" or "was strangled". Probably, thanks to this source, the version about the death of the king as a result of strangulation is widespread. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to refute or confirm this. Given the eternal intrigues at royal courts, there would be nothing fantastic in the murder.
This version is also supported by the fact that in the last moments of Ivan the Terrible's life, only Boris was with himGodunov and Bogdan Belsky. In those days, murders were far from always hidden, but, nevertheless, if the death of the king was really the work of his favorites, they had no reason to reveal themselves. As Alexander Zimin, a prominent specialist in medieval Russian history, said: “They could tell the truth, or they could hide one of the terrible secrets of palace life.”
Who benefited from John IV's death?
According to some historians, the likelihood of participation in the death of Ivan the Terrible Belsky and Godunov is high because he wanted to divorce his son Fyodor from Boris's sister, Irina Godunova. This could have caused negative consequences for the royal favorites. But on the other hand, only Godunov could have this motive. Belsky, on the contrary, did not make sense to kill Grozny, because his well-being and success depended on the tsar. However, according to the same historian Zimin, "which did not happen at the court of Ivan the Terrible!"
Researcher Vadim Koretsky had a different opinion. His point of view is that a conspiracy was concluded to assassinate the tsar between Godunov, Belsky and the medical doctor Johann Eilof. The doctor, according to the historian, was bribed by Bogdan Belsky. Godunov might not have liked John IV's plans to marry a relative of the Queen of England, since an interdynastic marriage put the Russian throne at risk - as a result of such a marriage, members of the English royal family could receive succession rights to the Russian crown. And this would lead to the fact that the son of the Tsar Fedor could lose his rights to reign, which would beunprofitable for the Godunov family, because, as already mentioned, the wife of Fyodor Ivanovich was Irina Godunova.
Belsky could expect with trepidation the fruits of the fury of the formidable king, because he was the head of the royal doctors, and after the sorcerers predicted the imminent death of John, he was afraid to tell him about it. It was not easy to hide something from the king, and when he heard about the terrible prediction, he wanted to execute both the predictors and Belsky. The threat of death hung over Bogdan, and he had nothing more to lose. If we accept this version, then the violent death of Ivan the Terrible seems quite logical.
It could look like this: leaving the bath, John took up a game of chess, sitting on the bed. At the same time, Belsky, Godunov and other persons from the tsar's entourage were present. Bogdan gave the king a poisoned drink under the guise of a medicine prescribed by a doctor. After drinking it, the king lost consciousness after a short time. In the hustle and bustle, the tsar's associates ran for help, doctors and the tsar's confessor, and Godunov and Belsky, left alone with John IV, strangled him.
Poison version
Another popular hypothesis about the cause of death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible is poisoning. According to the author of the already mentioned book “Notes from Russia”, the English ambassador, the Russian sovereign once picked up turquoise with the words: “Do you see how it changes color, how it turns pale? This means that I was poisoned. It portends death to me.”
Besides the king's suspicions and the fact that poisoning was a very common method of murder in the Middle Ages, other facts speak in favor of this version. In 1963, during the repair of the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin, where John IV and his son Ivan were buried, their tombs were opened. The remains of the monarchs were studied and found a huge content of toxic substances - arsenic is 1.8 times higher than the norm, and mercury - 32 times.
Of course, this discovery has provided food for new conjectures. On the one hand, syphilis, which the sovereign may have had, was treated with mercury preparations. This could be the rationale for so many poisons in the remains. But, firstly, the treatment does not explain the presence of arsenic in them, and secondly, no signs of venereal diseases were found on the bones, so the big question is whether John IV really had syphilis.
By the way, scientists did not find any obvious signs of strangulation - the cartilage of the throat remained intact; however, this cannot serve as a complete refutation of the hypothesis, since the king could have been strangled with a pillow.
According to legend, the death of Ivan the Terrible was accompanied by his tonsure as a monk. There are different versions about this. Some believe that he was tonsured shortly before his death, others that he was already dead. But all those who hold the opinion about the tonsure of the king agree that this happened in the year of the death of Ivan the Terrible.
The end of the Rurik dynasty
After the death of Ivan the Terrible, his son Fyodor became the official ruler. In 1591, his younger brother Dmitry died. According to some versions, it was a violent death on the orders of Boris Godunov. In 1598 Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich also died. Since he had no children, the Rurik dynastyinterrupted.
Boris Godunov's Board
The Zemsky Sobor elected Boris Godunov as the new sovereign, who ruled for 7 years, until 1605. You can not call him a completely bad ruler: foreign policy in his reign was very successful. The development of Siberia and the south continued, Russian troops fortified themselves in the Caucasus. A small war with Sweden ended with the Tyavzinsky Peace in 1595, under the terms of which Russia regained the cities given in the Livonian War. The reign of Godunov was also favorable for the Russian Orthodox Church, since in 1589 a patriarchate was established, electing Job the first patriarch in Russia.
Despite these successes, the country as a whole was not in the best position. Boris Fedorovich gave privileges to the nobles to the detriment of the peasants, thereby taking a step towards the establishment of serfdom. As a result, peasant life became much less prosperous and free. In addition to this, there were several lean, hungry years in a row, and the discontent of the peasants grew stronger. The sovereign distributed bread from his storehouses, trying to somehow rectify the situation, but this did not have the desired effect. In 1603-1604, under the leadership of Khlopko Kosolap, an uprising took place in Moscow. The government managed to extinguish it, and the organizer was executed.
However, soon Godunov had to solve new problems. Talk began that Dmitry Ioannovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible, remained alive, and his double was killed. In fact, these rumors were spread by supporters of the impostor False Dmitry, who was the fugitive monk Grigory (in the world Yuri) Otrepyev. He wasa supporter of Poland and enjoyed the support of its troops, having promised the Polish sovereign to make Russia a Catholic country and share part of the Russian lands with Poland. People, of course, not knowing about this, and dissatisfied with Godunov's policy, followed the self-proclaimed prince.
False Dmitriyev Board
Luck for False Dmitry was the unexpected death of Godunov in 1605, after which the impostor entered Moscow and declared himself the new tsar. For two years he was the ruler. Fortunately for Russia, he did not fulfill his promises to Poland, but instead he married a Polish woman, Maria Mnishek, and raised taxes. Of course, this turned the people against the new sovereign.
Under the leadership of Vasily Shuisky (who, like Ivan the Terrible, belonged to the ancient family of Rurikovich), an uprising began in 1606, and False Dmitry I was killed. The leader of the uprising became the sovereign instead of him. Vasily Shuisky tried to secure the throne of new claims, promising the boyars not to touch their possessions, and also showing the people the remains of the real Dmitry Ioannovich so that people would no longer believe the impostors.
However, this did not help, and in 1606 again there was an uprising of discontented peasants led by Bolotnikov. He was a protege of the organizer of the movement against Shuisky, the new impostor - False Dmitry II.
Capturing several cities, Bolotnikov with his army approached Moscow. But then something unexpected happened for the leader - part of the rebels from the noble families betrayed him. The army was defeated and the retreat began. Afterlong siege of the city of Tula Bolotnikov was killed and the remnants of the rebels suffered a final defeat.
False Dmitry II at that time was going to Tula to help, together with a detachment of Poles, but after the news of the defeat of the uprising, he went to Moscow. He was joined by new people opposed to Shuisky. But they failed to take Moscow and settled in the village of Tushino near Moscow, this happened in 1608. For this, False Dmitry II received the well-known nickname of the Tushinsky thief. In August, the Poles arrived in this opposing camp with the wife of the late False Dmitry I, Marina Mniszek, who was secretly married to False Dmitry II.
In 1609, the Poles launched an active armed offensive against Russia, they no longer needed False Dmitry II, and he had to flee to Kaluga. In the summer of 1610, he tried to approach Moscow again, but the attempt ended in failure, and a second flight to Kaluga followed, where False Dmitry II was killed.
People's militia
Vasily Shuisky turned to the Swedes for support in the war with Poland and an impostor. However, the Swedes were no less interested in the Russian lands than the Poles, so the union was soon terminated. Shuisky was left without support in the face of external and internal enemies. In 1610, the boyars, secretly supporting the Poles, overthrew the sovereign. A government consisting of boyars was formed, the so-called Seven Boyars.
Soon, the boyars finally betrayed Russia and elevated Vladislav, the Polish prince, to the throne. But the people did not tolerate a foreigner in Russianthrone, and in 1611 the first people's militia was formed under the leadership of Lyapunov. It was defeated, but in 1612 Minin and Pozharsky created a new militia, which marched towards Moscow. Together with the survivors of the first militia, the rebels liberated the capital from foreign invaders. Thus ended the Polish intervention.
The End of the Time of Troubles
In 1613, the Troubles that began after the death of Ivan the Terrible finally ended. The Zemsky Sobor elected a new tsar. There were many contenders for the Russian throne - the son of False Dmitry II Ivan, the Swedish prince Vladislav, some boyars. As a result, a representative of the boyar family, the son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, was chosen as the new Russian sovereign, who became the founder of a new ruling dynasty.
