Hot History - You're (Ivan the) Terrible

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

It's that time again! We get down and dirty with the man who puts the terror in terrible! We look at everything from his 8 wives, fits of rage, and the rise of the Romanov family, plus course his mentions in pop culture.

Hello and welcome back to a brand new episode of Hot History. I am so excited to have you listening along as we talk about all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. Today we are deep diving into the man who took the title of Tsar and made it, well, terrible. So settle in, get comfy and prepare to be wowed by the life of Ivan the Terrible. Class is in session. Some of you may have heard of Ivan the Terrible from the historical grapevine, or like me, watch night. the museum too and became obsessed with his fits. But no matter whether you do or don't know him, we will start at the beginning.

Ivan the Terrible was born August 25th, 1530 as the son of the Grand Prince of Moscow. Despite being the son of a prince, Ivan did not have an easy childhood. On December 4th, 1533, his father dies, leaving the three-year-old Ivan as the new Grand Prince of Moscow. He was not alone, though. He had his mother, Yelanar, who ruled in Ivan's name. at least for the next five years until her mysterious death, which many alleged was poison, a recurring theme throughout Ivan's life which we will get to later. The now eight-year-old Ivan was left completely alone to care for his half-deaf, half-mute brother, Lurie, and the instability

of having such a young child as Prince of Moscow led Ivan and Yuri to be usurped by various factions in the Russian nobility. Amongst this struggle, Ivan and Lurie were treated no better than street urchins, and there were times that they were left clothed in rags and on the verge of starvation. Being neglected and treated as a political football made Ivan mistrust the nobility, a mistrust that would fester into blinding hatred as he grew older. Ivan survived, though, and at age 13 began to bear his teeth. The powerful Shuski family were by this time the de facto rules of Russia, having emerged victorious from the power struggles.

However, they did not spare much thought for the boy they had ignored and abused for so many years. At a feast, Ivan accused them of mismanaging the country and had the current Prince Andrei arrested and put to death. Undermestimating Ivan would lead to their downfall and full power was transferred to Ivan on his 16th birthday. Two weeks later, he married his very first wife, Anastasia Romanovna.

There was nothing particularly terrible about Ivan's early years on the throne. Indeed, it was actually a time of relative peace and progress. He introduced reforms that included an update of the Penal Code, introduced by his grandfather, the establishment of a standing army and the introduction of regional self-governance. Ivan also introduced the first printing presses into Russia and ordered the construction of the magnificence of Basil's Cathedral following his conquest of the Tartar Regions of Kazan. There is actually a story that persists to this day that Ivan was so impressed with the finalised cathedral that he had the architect blinded so he could never produce anything so beautiful again.

Aside from this horror, the early years of Ivan's rule were not so terrible. That was at least until two events, which took place in 1558 and 1560. In 1558, Ivan's closest friend, Prince Kerbsy, defected to the Lithuanians during Ivan's ill-fated attempt to conquer the Baltic territory. Kerski took charge of the Lithuanian army and alongside forces from Poland and Sweden handed Russia a defeat that left Ivan beside himself with fury and more convinced than ever that his country's nobility was out to get him. The second event was the death of his beloved wife Anastasia in 1560. A few weeks after becoming Tsar, Ivan married the beautiful Anastasia out of a selection

of over 1,500 other brides. Anastasia gave birth to sick children by Ivan and it is generally believed that he loved her or at the very least cared for her, which is why when she died of suspected poisoning in 1560, he was sent over the edge. Ivan was certain that his wife had been poisoned by his enemies and began mercilessly killing and torturing members of the boyars or nobility. While no evidence could be found of poison at the time,

a 20th century examination of Zarina's bones uncovered unusually high levels of mercury, indicating that a paranoid young monarch might well. well have been right on this one. Ivan's initial reaction to the death of his wife and the betrayal of his friend was to remove himself from Moscow to Alexandrov, a town located about 120 kilometres northeast of the Russian capital. Here he wrote two letters, signaling his intention to abdicate. His counsel of nobleman and clergymen attempted to rule in his absence, but when this proved impossible, an envoy was sent to beg Ivan to change his mind. He did so.

on the proviso that he be given the right to seize the lands of those who had betrayed him and execute anyone he suspected of treason. The desperate council and clergy agreed to Ivan's demands, and it would prove to be a costly mistake. So Ivan returns to Moscow and sets about separating the country into two separate administrative areas. One would be ruled by the nobility and the other named the operas. would be governed by Ivan himself in any way he saw fit. This, it turned out, involved the torture and execution of the vast majority of his political rivals,

and pretty much anyone who got in his way. The police of his new territory were called the Oprich Nikki. Dressed all in black, they were Ivan's personal bodyguards, enforcing those who roamed the newly created territories to do the Tsars bidding. The Oprich Nikki tortured and murdered any way. one Ivan suspected of betrayal, and as he became slowly more manic, this extended to a great number of people. The Oprychniki rode around with severed dog's heads attached to their saddles to symbolise the sniffing out of traitors, and it soon became a common sight in the towns

and villages off the Oprich Nina to see peasants, the middle classes, and the highborns fleeing for their lives, as words spread that the Oprychniki were in the area. These guys were woeful and had a variety of execution methods, but their favourites included boiling alive, impalement, being roasted over an open fire, or being torn limb from limb by horses. To live in the territory ruled over by Ivan and the Obrechniki was to live in a permanent state of fear,

as was amply demonstrated by the terrible fate that fell on Novgorod, Russia's second largest city and Moscow's most powerful rival, convinced that the city's leaders, clergy and most prominent citizens were conspiring against him. Ivan ordered an assault on the city in 1570. Priests and monks were rounded up and beaten to death while their churches and monasteries were ransacked. The townspeople were rounded up, tied up and thrown in the icy river Volkov. Any unfortunates who tried to escape were punished under the icy waters and drowned by soldiers armed with boat hooks, spears and axes. All in all, the orgy of bloodshed and destruction visited on Novgorod resulted in the deaths of an estimated 12,000 of its citizens. Most of what remained of its population fled the ruins for a better life elsewhere, and it would take centuries for the city to fully recover.

cover from the attack, and it would never again be considered the rival of Moscow. This was just one of the many examples of Ivan's merciless approach to conquest. He was very much a saclicity and kill everyone in it kind of guy throughout the long years of his brutal rule. A year prior to this, Ivan had another wife die. In 1561, after he had moved on from the death of his first wife, he decided it was time to remarry, this time to the daughter of a Muslim prince, Maria. According to folklore, Ivan was warned by his first wife not to marry a pagan, but he was so taken by Maria's beauty that he married her that same year. The love did not last, and Ivan came to regret the decision on account of Maria's illiteracy and spiteful character. She was recorded as being a poor stepmother to Ivan's

sons and many regarded her as a witch. So when she died in 1569 by poisoning, it was not an overly large surprise. Many have debated whether Maria died at Ivan's hands and although he had many nobles executed for the supposed poisoning, it is believed this was a cover for his own actions in killing her. With two wives down, Ivan initiates another exhaustive selection process to find his third wife. Martha, was chosen from 12 finalists to become Zarina of Russia. However, it was not meant to be with tragedy befalling the couple almost immediately. Marfa succumbed to a strange illness which presented once again as poisoning.

Ivan and Martha were only married for a few mere days, so it is unlikely that he had her oft after such an exhaustive search and for so little a time in acquaintance. What is more likely is that her mother unknowingly poisoned her with a fertility elixir that she gave her on her wedding day. Regardless of the poisoning of another wife, this sent Ivan over the edge, and he executed many of his subjects on the suspicion, including the brother of his previous wife, who he had executed by impalement.

It was around this time that Ivan, who was increasingly paranoid, disbanded his Oprychniki after they failed to repel an attack on Moscow. Ivan was convinced that they were not as loyal as they professed. to be and disbanded them in 1572 after which it became an offence punishable by death, even to mention the word, kind of like Voldemort. That same year, you guessed it, Ivan remarried again, this time to Anna. It was, however, seen as illegal and impious for Ivan to marry a fourth time, but he claimed to have not consummated his previous marriage and therefore got around the

slight hiccup in the rules. It's very Catherine of arrogant of him. He married Anna without the church's blessing in 1572 but soon grew impatient with his wife's infatility and two years later decided to send her to live out the remaining days in a convent. And if it wasn't poison with Ivan's wife, it was a convent. Now you may be thinking, give me the convent. A nice, calm, pious life like Maria from the sound of music. This was not the case.

Anna was kept as a captive under strict. order and guard by the convent's disciples and often deprived of food through the cold, hard Russian winter. To her credit, Anna did go on to outlive the Tsar, which is some small consolation, but the convent was more of a prison for those who were sent there than a quiet life away from court. Ivan's paranoia spiraled, and he entered into a state of almost constant warmongering, brutalising his own population, attacking the clergy, nobility, and middle classes, torturing and executing anyone he felt was against him, and raiding the nation's wealth which eventually brought the Russian economy to its knees. All in all, things did not improve as Ivan aged, and his mental

health deteriorated even further. His need to find a new wife, though, did not diminish, and in 1575 he wed another Anna. She became Zarina without the blessing of the church, and you guessed it, two years later was sent off to a convent. She is believed to have met an incredibly violent. death while in captivity, possibly under Ivan's orders, probably by this point. And the wife-to-nun model doesn't stop here. Ivan backed it up by marrying Vasilysa, who was the widow of a prince who had died in war. Ivan found her to be kind and beautiful and married her in 1579. However, within months he found her to be having an affair with another prince and forced her to watch her lover being executed by impalement.

Ivan then sent her to the convent where she died that same year from unknown causes. Ivan is in his reputation era here, so I think it's safe to say he may have had a hand in this one. A year later, Ivan marries wife number seven, Maria, a distant descendant of Prince Yuri of Kiev, one of the founders of Moscow. It is likely that her royal bloodline was the reason that she was chosen. However, Ivan quickly found his arena to have a lover. He had it executed in the same year by drowning. While this is the only one of his wives whose demise is publicly and directly accredited to Ivan,

as we have discussed, she is almost certainly not the only one. In 1581, by this point, Ivan is seriously mentally ill and committed one of his most famously brutal acts. Upon encountering his heavily pregnant daughter-in-law in a state of untrue, he beat her, so severely that she miscarried. On hearing the news that the loss of his unborn child, Ivan's second son confronted his father. Ivan, who always carried a sharpened baton around, which he used to beat anyone who displeased him, hit his son over the head so hard that he collapsed and died several days later.

Nobody, not even his own family, was safe from Ivan the terrible, and the death of Ivan's son and heir is memorialized in the same. the now famous painting Ivan the Terrible and his son by Ilya Reban in 1885. He married his final wife that same year, another Maria who provided him with a child, Dimitri. Maria was the only one of his wives to go on to outlive Ivan as his arena, and Ivan died from a stroke while playing chess with a close friend in 1584 at the age of 53. So to recap here, Ivan had eight wives. Three died from him. poisoning, one was executed by a drowning, three were in prison in confluence and one survived as

Sarina. So we know for certain that he ordered the deaths of one, but almost certainly of at least another three, which means that he killed about half of them. Of all eight, Maria, his final wife, and fourth wife, Anna, outlived him. Of all his eight wives, he's thought to have between eight to ten children. Of his six that survived by Anastasia, four, died very young and he killed one of them, as we discussed, which left only one surviving son, feeder, to his marriage with Anastasia. He had one child with his second wife Maria, which did not survive, and then one child by his final wife Maria, who we know is Dimitri. So who got the keys to the castle after Ivan dies? Following Ivan's death,

the kingdom passed to the middle son, the feeble-minded, fool, Fida, who died childless in 1598. Ivan, killing his other son, as we know, really is a true tragedy, for he was a strong and capable ruler who, as we know, given the fact that his wife miscarried, would have gone on to produce further heirs. Feta's lack of heirs and siblings, at his death, plunged Russia into a period of lawlessness and anarchy that came to be known as the time of troubles. This was a 15-year period following Feta's death in which the Tsardom or rulership of Russia was up in the air. It led to foreign intervention, peasant uprising and the attempts of pretenders to seize the throne. The time of troubles threatened to destroy the state itself and cause major social and economic disruptions,

particularly in the southern and central portions of the state. So who do we have playing for the throne at this time? Following Fida's death, his brother-in-law Boris became Tsar, but was still. faced with problems of famine and opposition from the boyars almost immediately. He also faced challenge against the son of Ivan by his final wife Maria, the young Dimitri, who was by right the legitimate heir to the throne as Feta's half-brother. But this is a tale that is strange in and of itself. Upon Ivan's death, Maria and Dimitri was sent into exile, and he actually died in 1591 under

peculiar circumstances, aka it was oft, but Dimitri resurfaced, supported by the Polish as legitimate heir years later. Now the math ain't mathen. Maria was even released from the convent to proclaim that the fake Dimitri was in fact the real one. Despite all of this, Boris held onto his throne, and when he died in April 1605, a mob favoring the false Dimitri killed Boris's son and made Dmitri, fake Dmitri, Tsar. This did not last long though as the Boyers or Noble soon realized that they could not control the new Tsar and so they assassinated him in May 1606. What follows is a series of usurping and murder, but to cut a long story short, the Grand

National Assembly elected one Michael Romanov, the great nephew of Ivan's first wife, Anastasia Romanovna. The Romanovnav. The Romanovs will go on to rule for nearly 300 years and their dynasty would eventually crumble under the rule of Sir Nicholas II in July 1918 after the Russian Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin. So, we have covered a lot of history in the life of Ivan and his succession, amounting to around 70 years. So let's get in to the juicy bit. Who else is kicking around at this time? Ivan the Terrible is born in 1530, which is nearly 40 years after a man who shared similar views of women and wives, Henry VIII.

He was also born 27 years after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, 18 years after Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, and 38 years after Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas. He died in 1884, 28 years after Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne. nearly ten years before Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, and the same year as Pope Gregory's Gregorian calendar was accepted over that of Julius Caesar's Julian calendar. During his lifetime, he made several deals with Queen Elizabeth I saw the Renaissance flood Europe and the invention of the water thermometer by Galileo. But what impact does Ivan the Terrible have on modern society? As discussed, his death and his subsequent lack of airs led to the Romanoff family ruling for just over 300 years. despite his paranoia and manic behaviour, he also did manage to contribute to some impressive

cultural and political shifts which would go on to shape the Russian bear for centuries, including revising the Russian Law Code, which initiated a standing army known as the Strzreltzzi. This army would help him in future military conquest as well as form the basic structure for the Russian army in the future. He also developed the Zempsky Sobar, a Russian parliament, along with the Council of the Nobles, known as the Chosen Council. He regulated the church, including its traditions and hierarchy. He did something particularly cool in establishing the Moscow print yard in 1553 and becoming the first printing press in Russia. My favourite, though, is that he oversaw the construction of St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, which we discussed,

but that is the incredible dull house-looking structure in the Red Square, which has always been so fascinating to me. It's just so beautiful. In Ivan's threat to abdicate and the subsequent agreement by the boyast to grant him absolute power, he essentially established the devout absolute monarchy that would also eventually bring the Romanov family and the Russian imperial crown to its knees. And he established a powerful trade agreement with, as we discussed, Noah and Elizabeth I. He did also have some decisive military victories, most primarily territorial victories, in Crimea and Siberia.

Now for my fave. How do we remember Ivan in pop culture? Now I have to be truthful to my hot history people and come clean on the fact that the first time I ever heard of Ivan the Terrible was in none other than night of the museum two. If you have not watched,

night at the museum one and night at the museum two, you are missing out. Not sponsored by Ben Stiller, but I fucking love Ben Stiller and I wanted to be a night guard so badly from watching these movies until I realized that actually meant someone could possibly break in that the museum wouldn't come to life so I couldn't get all the tea from all the dead people. But anyway, in the second film, Ivan is a part of the bad guy's squad alongside Napoleon and Al Capone. He also appears in several films, all titled Ivan the Terrible, plus the Ivan IV, the fourth opera.

but he's also featured in and other than the essential, essential bit of historical community. It's basically our communion. Horrible histories. And the incredible painting, as we discussed by Ivan the Terrible and his son, other than a few different mentions in songs and novels, he is relatively unrepresented in pop culture today. And while we remember him, as Ivan the Terrible, the word Terrible itself does directly translate. to the Russian grozny, which means inspire, fear or terror through strength.

But let's be real. The term's modern meaning is still absolutely befitting. Although not without grey areas, as the effects of his very serious mental illnesses do also have to be taken into account. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. If you'd like to support us, then you can follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcast's Hot History. us on TikTok at Hot.Hot History and on Instagram at Hot History Club. As always, it is a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and tune in next time as we discuss the life of Alexander

the Great.