12/13/2022
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The title "tsar" or "czar" is derived from the Roman "caesar," meaning "emperor."
Ivan the Terribles’s brother, Iurii, was deaf and mute, so an unviable heir, and died of natural causes in 1563.
As children, they were locked up, often starved and poorly clothed, only brought out to be paraded by the some family in a show of power.
Ivan was known to kill animals as a child, possibly due to the powerlessness he felt because of the abuse from the boyars.
His wife, Anastasia, was the great-aunt of the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty mentioned in my last post.
His early reign is generally viewed as decent, and the betrayal of his friend and the loss of Anastasia put him over the edge.
His creation of the service gentry was intended to create a class of landed gentry loyal to him alone.
Novgorod, at the time of the attack, was Russia’s second-largest city and Moscow’s rival. After, it never again rivaled Moscow.
Ivan infamously sent memorials of more than 3000 of his victims to various monasteries.
Of Ivan the Terrible’s two surviving sons from Anastasia, Ivan and Fyodor, Ivan was considered the only viable heir because Fyodor was noted as both physically and mentally weak.
After the death of his father and brother, Fyodor did take the throne but left most of the ruling to a relative.
And when he died in 1598 without an heir, the Rurik dynasty ended, and the Time of Troubles began.
A monster by nurture rather than nature, I think.
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