Ivan IV Grozny

Main article: History of Russia

Biography

1584: Death by syphilis

After opening the grave of Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the 20th century, a number of analyzes followed, the results of which were supposed to shed light on the true cause of the tsar's death. Chemical analysis of bone composition indicated an increased content of mercury and arsenic. After such information, everything seemed to become clear - the king was poisoned. But the next, deeper, analysis showed that these substances entered the king's body over the years, and not one-time.

It is possible that the increased mercury content was the result of many years of treatment of the autocrat with mercury ointment, which in the 16th century was actively used for medical purposes.

The king was supposedly sick with syphilis. It was this "French disease," which in the XV-XVI centuries. in Europe caused an epidemic, was treated with mercury, sulema - "liquid silver." The development of medicine at that time was at the level of "one is healing, the other is crippling." "Mercury therapy" inevitably led to chronic poisoning - mercurialism, from which the nervous system suffers, and patients have mental agitation, anxiety, shyness, suspiciousness. These qualities, especially in the last years of his life, were distinguished by John Vasilievich.

As for the likelihood of the king contracting the "overseas disease," Pastor Oderborn argued - "John boasted that he molested a thousand virgins and that thousands of his children were deprived of their lives." With such dubious "achievements," he was just in the "risk group."

Modern researchers decided to stop there. Ivan IV was not poisoned, but died of an illness - chronic syphilis, the treatment of which led to mercury intoxication of the body.

Creativity

• Stikhirs of Ivan the Terrible in honor of the Presentation of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir

Wives and children of Ivan the Terrible

During his long life, Ivan the Terrible had seven wives. Much has been written about the king's wives. However, stories full of dramatic details and love twists and turns have no historical basis and remain only speculation.

If it was customary for grooms in medieval Russia to see their bride at the last moment, after matchmaking and engagement, then when the sovereign married, the situation was different. The Grand Dukes of Moscow usually married representatives of their own or another princely family. Dynastic marriages were also concluded by Russian kings who sought to become related to representatives of other ruling houses. Ivan the Terrible's grandfather, Ivan III, was married to Queen Sophia Palaiologos of Constantinople, the Terrible Tsar himself tried to become related to the Polish and then English royal family. However, with the rise of the Moscow kingdom at the end of the XIV century, a new tradition of royal marriage appeared in Russia. Together with Byzantine symbols, the sovereigns of all Russia adopted the Byzantine tradition of choosing a bride from the best girls of the state. For the first time, the "choice of the bride" was arranged under the father of Ivan the Terrible, Vasily III: by decree from Moscow, all serving people had to bring their daughters to the show. The selection criterion was not only beauty, but also the health of girls. The selected applicants were waiting for new reviews until the sovereign made his final choice.

1547: Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva

In the royal family, marriages were not a matter of a private, but of a political nature, they obeyed dynastic goals. Moscow diplomacy started a big political game in connection with the marriage of Ivan IV before he reached the age of marriage. The boyars hoped to get him a Swedish princess as a bride. But negotiations with the Swedish royal house were unsuccessful, and the Duma was forced to sacrifice the foreign policy benefits that dynastic marriage promised.

Then the 16-year-old Grand Duke was prompted by the strong arguments outlined by him (according to the annals) in a speech to the Duma and the clergy.... "I thought to marry in other kingdoms," Ivan said (and this was the real truth), "the king has or the king has, and the yaz... I postponed that thought, in some states I do not want to marry for the fact that the language of my father... and his mother remained small, to bring my wife for me from the state, and we will have something different, but there will be vain between us; and yaz... has intended and wants to marry in his state... "

Considerations of character dissimilarity were of secondary importance to religious considerations. The surrounding sovereign houses adhered to the heretical, in the eyes of Moscow orthodoxes, faith. Due to such a difficulty, Vasily III could not marry until the age of 25.

In the end, young Ivan decided to follow his father's example in everything. The Boyar Duma approved the verdict on the submission to the court of the best brides in the state. Boyars and roundabouts immediately dispersed to all ends of the country to watch brides. Ahead of the boyars were messengers with formidable orders. All nobles who had daughters 12 years and older were ordered by the axis without delay to take them to the governors to the bride. For the duck of the bride, the nobles were promised great disgrace and execution. With Russian off-road, all-Russian reviews threatened to drag on for many months.

It can be assumed that the king knew the chosen one in advance, in any case, this is indicated by previous events. His father, being at death, appointed a guardian council of seven boyars with a young heir. Of these, only Mikhail Zakharyin-Yuriev did not betray the young sovereign. When he died, the brother of the late Roman took over the baton of faithful service to the monarch. He helped Ivan Vasilievich return the power intercepted by the boyars. The tsar probably visited his house, where he probably met his daughter Anastasia and fell in love hers. The bride's election was appointed for the pro forma, so as not to violate the custom.

The relatives of Tsar Glinsky did not see Zakharyin as dangerous rivals for themselves and did not oppose the election of Anastasia.

It was the king's longest and probably happiest marriage. Anastasia Romanovna from the Zakharyin-Yuryev family brought the sovereign six children, including Ivan, who was later killed by his father in a fit of anger, and Fedor, the future tsar, the last of the ruling Rurikovich family. They say that no one, like Tsarina Anastasia, could soften the violent temper of Ivan Vasilyevich. Sources did not retain indications that Anastasia actively interfered in state affairs.

The queen did not live to be 30 years old. Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva died on August 7 1560, 13 years after marriage and was buried in the Ascension Monastery, in the Kremlin.

In the twentieth century, chemical analysis of her remains revealed an arsenic content 10 times higher than normal, mercury in the bones - four times, in the hair - 100 times. Signs of poisoning were also evident in the 16th century. The investigation on this matter lasted four months, and for the trial the tsar convened the Consecrated (church) Cathedral and the Boyar Duma, which jointly established: the queen was killed by "sorcery" (this concept included the use of poisons). Accused and condemned to death of former Tsarevsky advisers Alexei Adashev and Archpriest Sylvester. But only the performers were executed - "the enchantress and Alekseeva consonant" Polish Maria and her sons. Living in Derpte, under the supervision of Adashev, died suddenly on the eve of his arrest. Sylvester's death sentence was commuted to a reference to Solovki. Ivan the Terrible wrote that for the evil caused he intends to sue him before God "in the future Vets."

The king was tied to his first wife and remembered her all his life with love and regret. At the funeral, Ivan sobbed and "from the great groaning and from the pity of the heart" barely kept on his feet.

A few days after that, it was decided to find a new bride for the widowed sovereign.

After the death of the empress, when Ivan IV was 30 years old, after the dispersal of the Chosen Rada, new times are coming for Russia, years of difficult trials under the rule of a formidable and merciless tsar.

Daughters Anna and Maria died before the year

In marriage with Anastasia, the tsar had six children, but only two survived. His daughters - Princesses Anna and Maria - died before reaching the year.

Dmitry I drowned at 6 months

The third child was Tsarevich Dmitry. When he was six months old, his parents took him on a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Monastery. On the way back, the baby died due to a ridiculous accident. The movements of the heir were associated with a difficult ceremony. The nanny, who carried the child, certainly had to be supported by two noble boyars. During the trip from Kirillov, the tsar's strug stuck to the shore, and the solemn procession entered the road. Skodni turned over, and everyone was in the river. The child who fell out of the hands of the nanny was immediately taken out of the water, but he was dead. So the eldest of the sons of Grozny, Tsarevich Dmitry I, died.

Son Ivan and daughter Evdokia

Anastasia gave birth to her second son, Tsarevich Ivan, on March 28, 1554. Two years later, her daughter Evdokia was born. The son survived, and the daughter died in the third year of life.

Tsarevich Fedor

The third son, Tsarevich Fedor, was born into the royal family on May 31, 1557. Anastasia's health was shattered by that time, she was overcome by diseases. The baby turned out to be frail and feeble-minded.

1560: Unsuccessful attempt to marry Catherine Jagiellonka - sister of the Polish king Sigismund II

The aggravation of the situation in Livonia required quick decisions. The Council of Hierarchs of the Orthodox Church proposed an unexpected solution: to marry one of the "overripe" daughters of the Polish king Sigismund I. The tsar sent ambassadors to Sigismund II - the elder brother of Catherine Jagiellonka.

Catherine (Polish a variant of this name - Katarzyna, Swedish - Katarina) was born in the family of the Polish king Sigismund I in 1526. She was the eighth and youngest child.

For her time, the girl received an excellent education: she read and wrote perfectly, knew 4 languages, played music. She spent her childhood in Krakow.

When the girl turned 22, her father died, and she and her mother and sisters moved to Vilna. Of all the sisters, Katerina was considered the most beautiful, so she did not have a break from the suitors. Both the Duke of Prussia Albert and the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand wooed her. But all negotiations were at a standstill. Her brother Sigismund II could not decide which political union was more beneficial to him.

"Katerina Jagiellonka," thin. Lucas Cranach Jr., 1556

In 1560, Catherine had a chance to become a Russian tsarina. The proposal for marriage was taken to Vilna by the Moscow ambassador, the okolnichy Fedor Ivanovich Sukin, a person very close to the sovereign, equipped with special trust, who served as treasurer to the king. He, apparently, was a great specialist in marriage affairs, participating in the arrangement of 7 court weddings, including the wedding of Ivan the Terrible with his first wife Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva.

The embassy headed by Fyodor Sukin and his fellow palace clerk Grigory Shapkin arrived in Vilna on September 28, 1560, declaring the "great panam," representatives of the Lithuanian side (Bishop Valerian Protasevich of Vilna, Prince Nikolay Radzivill Chyorny, Evstafiy Volovich and Jan Šimković) the essence of his a sensitive case. Before leaving, the Moscow ambassador was given the task: "eat the road to Vilna, find out tightly about the royal sisters, how old they are, how tall they are, how well, what is the custom, and which is better. Which is better, the elder Anna or the younger Catherine, to speak to the king. " Fulfilling the order, Sukin was able to find out that "the younger queen is better" and decided to ask for her hands not from Anna Jagiellonka, the eldest of the unmarried queens, but from her sister, 35-year-old Ekaterina Jagiellonka.

On October 5, the king's matchmaking was announced to the king himself Sigismund II Augustus. Despite the fact that the middle-aged queen was 4 years older than the Moscow sovereign, this marriage promised many benefits for Russia, because, firstly, it led to the normalization of the Russian-Lithuanian relations, secondly, opened the way to the throne of the Jagiellonian, if not the king himself, then his descendants. I must admit: the ambassadors of Ivan Vasilyevich did everything to implement such a promising plan. In political interests, age and ugly the king was ready to neglect the bride's faces. But in the Orthodox she had to cross her faith, which, apparently, eventually became unacceptable to the true Catholic Katarzyna.

The ambassadors were refused their request to introduce themselves to the princess in person, but allowed to look at her near the church, placing in one from the houses overlooking the temple. On October 13, 1560, Russian ambassadors led by the okolnichny Fyodor Sukin, when leaving the cathedral, saw 33-year-old Ekaterina Jagiellonka.

Before sending the embassy back, the royal diplomats were presented with portraits of both sisters - Katarzyna and, just in case, Anna.

King Sigismund-August did not directly refuse the Russian sovereign, but hastened to set him such conditions that, if adopted by Ivan the Terrible, significantly changed the current balance of power between Lithuania and Russia. The future son-in-law was asked to bring his troops from Livonian cities and castles, as well as conclude "eternal peace" with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The terms of this agreement were to be approved at the border congress of the lords of the Rady and Moscow boyars between Smolensk and Orsha. At this congress, it was also planned to discuss the return to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of Novgorod, Pskov, Toropets, Velikiye Luki, Rzhev, Dorogobuzh, Smolensk and cities Seversky land. In addition, Katarzhina herself (Ekaterina) Sigismundovna should have remained in the Catholic faith dear to her heart, and in Moscow a church should have been built for her - a Catholic church.

The outlined marriage had very interesting prospects for Russia, but caused fears among some European rulers. Most likely, under the pressure of the latter, Sigismund Augustus put forward a completely unthinkable condition: to deprive the sons of Ivan the Terrible of Ivan and Fyodor of their rights to the throne.

The Russian side rightly pointed out that marriages between Russian and Lithuanian sovereigns had happened before, but Vilna never set such conditions. At the negotiations, the boyars listed all the previous ones marriage unions ("blood ties"): Seeds of the Proud and Anastasia Gediminovna, Olgerd Gediminovich and Tver Princess Ulyana Alexandrovna, Serpukhov Prince Vladimir Andreevich and Elena Olgerdovna, Vasily I and Sofia Vitovtovna, finally, Alexander Kazimirovich and Elena Ivanovna, daughter of Ivan III and, accordingly, the native aunt of Ivan the Terrible himself. But the royal envoys Jan Šimković and Jan Gaika, who arrived in Moscow to continue negotiations, stood their ground. Of course, Ivan the Terrible could not agree to these excessive demands, and did not want to, realizing their meaninglessness.

In 1561, marriage negotiations were interrupted.

1561: Princess Kuchenay - Maria Temryukovna

For a new marriage, bride elections were no longer held. The second wife of Ivan IV was the daughter of the daughter of the Kabardian prince Temir-Guki, Princess Kucheney.

The marriage was intended to connect Russia more firmly with the North Caucasus, which had recently passed into the citizenship of the king. The local nobility has long been intertwined with family ties, Maria-Kuchenei consisted in one degree or another of kinship with many of the influential families. Now the Caucasian princes were equalized with the Russian aristocracy, they were born with the sovereign himself.

On June 15, 1561, Princess Kuchenya, "a Pyatigorsk girl from Cherkasy," arrived in Moscow with her brother Saltankul (baptized by Mikhail). They were given choirs near the Kremlin. Soon, the king "ordered Princess Cherkasskaya to be in her yard, watched her and fell in love."

On July 6, at the Palace Annunciation Cathedral, the assembled boyars and clergy were announced that Kuchenei was preparing for the baptism ceremony and would be named Mary - in the name of St. Mary Magdalene. On the same day, the tsar called her his bride and, according to an ancient Russian ritual, handed over his narrowed ring and handkerchief, humiliated by pearls.

On August 21, a wedding took place in the Assumption Cathedral. The young people were crowned by Metropolitan Makarii. Apparently, the wedding gift was a dish from the Armory (diameter - 42.3 cm, weight - almost 3 kg), decorated with black, on which, probably, she was presented with a wedding headdress.

Made from a three-kilogram piece of gold, Maria Temryukovna's wedding dish is considered one of the masterpieces made by Russian craftsmen of the gold business

At first, Maria, not knowing a word in Russian, did not understand what her husband was saying to her. But later she learned the language and even gave the king some advice (on the establishment of a guard like the one that the mountain princes had, etc.). The brother of the empress became one of the first leaders of the ominous oprichnina created by the king in 1565.

Before her death, Maria traveled with her husband to Vologda in 1569 and fell ill there. The news of the "conspiracy" in Novgorod forced Ivan to rush to Moscow. He entrusted his sick wife to carry the boyar Basmanova. The path was difficult and long. Sick Maria was brought "by order" to the Alexander settlement, where she soon died.

In 1569, the situation in Russia sharply escalated: a deadly plague swept, the war with Lithuania continued (it united in one power with Poland and doubled its forces), the Turks took advantage of this conflict moved to Astrakhan, and there was a conspiracy within the country. At the most intense moment, Maria suddenly died "in torment, in torment." The consecrated cathedral officially confirmed: the queen "by enemy malice poisoned speed."

The investigation revealed a poisoning cook, and he named the customer of the atrocity, Vladimir Staritsky.

After the death of Mary, the tsar leaves for her the largest memorial contribution to the monastery: 1,500 rubles.

Son Vasily died in infancy

Maria Cherkasskaya gave birth to a son named Vasily to the tsar. But the son died in infancy in May 1563.

1563: Ivan the Terrible's second attempt to marry Ekaterina Jagiellonka

A year and a half after the first matchmaking of Ivan the Terrible, Ekaterina Jagiellonka married the half-brother of the Swedish king Eric XIV - the Finnish Duke Johan (John). He did not even demand the adoption of Lutheranism from his chosen one, agreeing to the preservation of the Catholic religion by the bride. In September 1562, Katarzyna Jagiellonka became his wife. Before the wedding, Johan provided Sigismund-Augustus as a future relative with an extremely necessary cash loan of 80 thousand thalers. Part of securing this debt, and partly in the form of a dowry, the Finnish duke received several Livonian castles from the Polish sovereign:

• Weissenstein (Paide),
• Helmet (Helmet),
• Carcus (Carcsi),
• Ruen (Ruyien),
• Trikaten (Trikata),
• Wurtneck and Ermes (Ergeme).

However, this did not end, and Katarzhina-Katarina could still go to distant Muscovy. The Swedish king Eric XIV demanded that the younger brother transfer the ceded Livonian castles to him, and after a categorical refusal in August 1563, he arrested Johan with his wife, who voluntarily followed her husband imprisoned in Gripsholm Castle.

Upon learning of the infighting in the Swedish royal family, Ivan the Terrible again fulfilled his hopes and asked his ally Eric to give him Katarina as his wife. For this, the king promised to recognize Sweden's rights to Western Estonia. Moreover, he also "granted" the king, "committed him to himself in the brotherhood," i.e. for the first time, deliberately violating the old tradition of conducting all affairs through the Novgorod governors, concluded an agreement with the king as an equal sovereign. Moreover, the Russian tsar took on other serious obligations, including protecting Sweden from enemies, providing assistance to "military people" and the treasury. King Eric XIV was promised help in the war with Poland and facilitating peace with Denmark. But all this is only if the Moscow sovereign is given so desirable to him Katarina.

This time, the Russian tsar almost received such an attraction to him shelf. Swedish ambassador Niels Güldenstern firmly promised it Ivan the Terrible at the conclusion of the union treaty on February 16, 1567 in the Alexander settlement. To take Katarina Jagiellonka (who had already given birth to her son Sigismund) to Moscow, in 1567 boyar Ivan Mikhailovich Vorontsov went to Stockholm, leaving a detailed description of his mission. But this plan is also failed: in 1568, his younger half-brothers Johan and Charles, dissatisfied with the king, overthrew Eric. The former king, reduced from the throne, was imprisoned in a fortress, and then destroyed (his poisoning was confirmed by studying the remains of a prisoner). Johan became king, and Catherine Jagiellonka became queen of Sweden.

1570: Third attempt to marry Catherine Jagiellonka

There was also the third attempt to marry Ivan IV to Catherine Jagiellonka. In June 1570, when the king was a widower, he hoped that marriage to the sister of the childless king Sigismund II would reinforce his claim to the Polish crown. He was informed that Johan, Catherine's husband, had died. Polish ambassadors who were in Moscow officially announced that the Polish Senate was considering the election of the tsar or his son to the Polish throne.

According to the notes of Bishop Pavel Justen, who headed the Russian embassy to Sweden (his memoirs were published in 2000) on January 12, 1572, Ivan the Terrible stated: "We sent our ambassadors to Sweden for the sister of the Polish king, Mrs. Katarina, - the promises and letters that we received from the ambassadors led us to this, and one of them is Matthias Schubert present here. They said that Duke Johan died and he had no children or heirs left. Therefore, we asked to give him to us a widow. Believing false accounts, we sent ambassadors to Sweden who returned from there, having experienced insults and injustice, as if for a grave sin. " At another audience, repeating what was said, Ivan the Terrible added: "What decent person will want to separate the mother from the children and the husband from his wife?"

Died never got it Ivan the Terrible Jagiellonka on September 16, 1583. Six months later, on March 18, 1584, the Russian tsar also died. The only son of Johan III and Katharina Sigismund (1566-1632) will be elected in 1587 by the Polish king, and then, after the death of his father, he will briefly inherit the Swedish throne. Subsequently, during the Time of Troubles of the beginning of the XVII century. Sigismund III will do everything possible to conquer the Moscow state weakened by internal strife. There will be a lot of blood. All these horrors and troubles could be avoided if realized soft amalgam (incorporation) of Russia and Polish-Lithuanian the state to which Ivan the Terrible sought, first offering the hand and heart of the Polish queen, and then nominating himself in the election of the king of the Commonwealth ^[1]

1571: Martha Sobakina

Shortly after the death of Maria Temryukovna (in 1569), Grozny decides to marry for the third time. At the behest of the tsar, the elections of the best girls are again announced, who in 1571 were taken to the views in the Alexander settlement. This is where the sad story happens. Of the two thousand maidens, the sovereign elects Martha Sobakina, a relative of the close and beloved oprichnik Malyuta Skuratov, as a bride. This marriage allowed the unknown Malyuta to sharply rise through the ranks, and subsequently become related to the best people of the Moscow court. The girls were specially examined by an English doctor, but the bride was unwell. Ivan decides to marry, despite Sobakina's illness, hoping for the girl's speedy recovery: "putting trust in God, or healing." The king's hopes were not destined to come true: just two weeks after the wedding, Martha dies, leaving the sovereign a widower.

Immediately appeared rumors about the poisoning of the royal bride serve as the basis for new executions, so frequent in the terrible oprichny years.

The decision of the Consecrated Cathedral in 1572 officially recognized her murder ("evil incitement to her poison"). This time, apparently, the perpetrators were not found, in any case, such facts are not documented anywhere.

However, the story of the mysteriously deceased princess does not end there. After almost four hundred years, the coffin with the body of Martha Sobakina will be opened and a girl lying in the grave will appear before the amazed historians. Just a few minutes after the autopsy, the smolen, which has not touched the relics for centuries, will scatter and disfigure them in front of the eyes of its descendants...

1572: Anna Koltovskaya

After the death of Martha Sobakina, Grozny asked the church hierarchs for permission for a fourth marriage, prohibited, under pain of curse, to any Christian. As a result of a new bride show, Anna Koltovskaya becomes the queen.

The Koltovskys were not noble nobles at all. The father of the royal bride "died in full," so that she was an orphan. She had no powerful patrons, and therefore none of her closest relatives received a boyar title.

Grozny favored his young wife. Proof of this was his will. In the event of the death of her husband, Koltovskaya was supposed to receive a specific principality with its capital in ancient Rostov.

However, life with a new wife will be short. The wedding was celebrated no earlier than April 1572, and in September the queen received tonsure. The marriage lasted less than six months.

The queen was exiled to one of the Novgorod monasteries, where she will live for 50 years, having survived Ivan himself and his family, who ended his reign in 1598.

Anna Vasilchikova

The terrible king does not remain alone after the tonsure of the fourth wife. The last three wives of Grozny are illegal from a church point of view and the tsar does not receive the blessing of the metropolitan, but the church does not dare to curse the sovereign. Anna Vasilchikova, whom the tsar takes as a wife in the mid-1570s, was also soon tonsured and exiled to a monastery.

Vasilisa Melentyevna

The widow of Vasilisa Melentyevna, the tsar's companion in the late 1570s, dies while still young.

Maria Nagaya

The last wife of the sovereign Maria Nagaya.

Tsarevich Dmitry

In marriage with Naga, Grozny had a son, Dmitry. He suffered from severe epilepsy. The child of the seventh marriage, Tsarevich was, according to church ideas, illegitimate. But while his father was alive, no one dared to say it out loud. Dmitry was killed in Uglich in 1591.

Maria Nagaya in 1605 will witness the coming to the country of False Dmitry, first recognizing, and then cutting off his wonderfully "resurrected" son...

Attempted marriage to Queen of England's niece Maria Hastings

The fact of the matchmaking of Tsar Ivan to Elizabeth I is currently doubtful, since it is based only on the message of the Englishman Gorsey, who was distinguished by bad faith (even English merchants from the Moscow company complained about him).

But the fact is that even with a living, albeit illegal wife, the old king is wooed for a relative of the English queen Mary Hastings.

Ivan IV punished his ambassador Fyodor Pisemsky to make detailed inquiries about the dowry of the English bride, and for this he would certainly find out "whose (she) daughter and what kind of prince of the specific... and a sibling or sister is there a sibling? " The king wanted to have an idea of ​ ​ what the Hastings family owns and whether his wife would be the heiress of the specific principality. Obviously, he hoped, in the event of a forced departure to England, to receive, along with the hand of Mary Hastings, her specific principality, which would be the last refuge for him and his weak-minded son.

In the end, the king's marriage project never materialized. The Queen refused Grozny under the pretext of weakness and health disorder of the 30-year-old bride. The English ambassador said that "the royal niece Princess Maria (by kinship with the queen) of all nieces is dale, and the same is sick and mistress is not the most beautiful." The face of the "bride" was spoiled by smallpox.

Failure did not bother Ivan at all. In 1583, the English ambassador Jerome Bowes arrived in Moscow. In an interview with him, the king expressed his firm intention to send a new embassy to London and convince himself of another relative of the queen. According to Bowes, Ivan IV informed him of his innermost plans. If Queen Elizabeth, the autocrat said, "did not send such a relative with the next embassy as he wanted, then he was going, taking his entire treasury, to go to England and marry one of the queen's relatives there."

The fact that the monarch decided to sail to London with all his treasury (more than one ship would be required for such a cargo) suggests that it was not about a simple journey for the purpose of matchmaking, but rather about resettlement to England.

In 1584, Ivan the Terrible dies.

Notes