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IVAN III

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 89 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IVAN III . (1440-1505), See also:grand See also:duke of Muscovy, son of Vasily Tatar yoke. In 148o Ivan refused to pay the customary See also:tribute (See also:Basil) Vasilievich the See also:Blind, grand duke of See also:Moscow, and Maria j to the grand See also:Khan Ahmed. When, however, the grand khan Yaroslavovna, was See also:born in 1440. He was co-See also:regent with his See also:father during the latter years of his See also:life and succeeded him in 1462. Ivan tenaciously pursued the unifying policy of his predecessors. Nevertheless, cautious to timidity, like most of the princes of the See also:house of Rurik, he avoided as far as possible any violent collision with his neighbours until all the circumstances were exceptionally favourable, always preferring to attain his ends gradually, circuitously and subterraneously. Muscovy had by this See also:time become a compact and powerful See also:state, whilst her rivals had grown sensibly weaker, a See also:condition of things very favourable to the speculative activity of a statesman of Ivan III.'s See also:peculiar See also:character. His first enterprise was a See also:war with the See also:republic of See also:Novgorod, which, alarmed at the growing dominancy of Muscovy, had placed herself beneath the See also:protection of Casimir IV., See also:king of See also:Poland, an See also:alliance regarded at Moscow as an See also:act of See also:apostasy from orthodoxy. Ivan took the See also:field against Novgorod in 1470, and after his generals had twice defeated the forces of the republic, at Shelona and on the See also:Dvina, during the summer of 1471, the Novgorodians were forced to See also:sue for See also:peace, which they obtained on engaging to abandon for ever the See also:Polish alliance, ceding a considerable portion of their See also:northern colonies, and paying a war See also:indemnity of 15,500 roubles. From henceforth Ivan sought continually a pretext for destroying surrendered (See also:January 14, 1478) all her prerogatives and possessions (the latter including the whole of northern See also:Russia from Lapland_to the Urals) into his hands. Subsequent revolts (1479–1488) were punished by the removal en masse of the richest and most See also:ancient families of Novgorod to Moscow, See also:Vyatka and other central See also:Russian cities.

After this, Novgorod, as an See also:

independent state, ceased to exist. The See also:rival republic of See also:Pskov owed the continuance of its own See also:political existence to the readiness with which it assisted Ivan against its ancient enemy. The other principalities were virtually absorbed, by See also:conquest, See also:purchase or See also:marriage See also:contract—See also:Yaroslavl in 1463, Rostov in 1474, See also:Tver in 1485. and his successor, Theognost, followed suit with three more See also:stone I Ivan's refusal to See also:share his conquests with his See also:brothers, and churches. Simultaneously Ivan substituted stone walls for the his subsequent interference with the See also:internal politics of their ancient wooden ones of the Kreml', or citadel, which made I inherited principalities, involved him in several See also:wars with them, Moscow a still safer See also:place of See also:refuge. , from which, though the princes were assisted by Lithuania, See S. M. Solov'ev, See also:History of Russia (Rus.), vol. iii. (St See also:Petersburg, 1895) ; Polezhaev, The Principality of Moscow in the first See also:half of the 14th See also:Century (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1878). Ivan to appropriate as much of Lithuania as possible at last compelled See also:Alexander in 1499 to take up arms against his father- marched against him, Ivan's courage began to fail, and only the stern exhortations of the high-spirited See also:bishop of Rostov, Vassian, could induce him to take the field. All through the autumn the Russian and Tatar hosts confronted each other on opposite sides of the Ugra, till the 11th of See also:November, when Ahmed retired into the See also:steppe. In the following See also:year the grand khan, while preparing a second expedition against Moscow, was suddenly attacked, routed and slain by Ivak, the khan of the Nogai See also:Tatars, whereupon the See also:Golden See also:Horde suddenly See also:fell to pieces.

In 1487 Ivan reduced the khanate of Kazan (one of the offshoots of the Horde) to the condition of a See also:

vassal-state, though in his later years it See also:broke away from his See also:suzerainty. With the other See also:Mahommedan See also:powers, the khan of the See also:Crimea and the See also:sultan of See also:Turkey, Ivan's relations were pacific and even alhicable. The See also:Crimean khan, Mengli Girai, helped him against Lithuania and facilitated the opening of See also:diplomatic intercourse between Moscow and See also:Constantinople, where the first Russian See also:embassy appeared in 1495. The character of the See also:government of 'Muscovy under Ivan III. changed essentially and took on an autocratic See also:form which it had never had before. This was due not merely to the natural consequence of the See also:hegemony of Moscow over the other Russian lands, but even more to the simultaneous growth of new and See also:exotic principles falling upon a See also:soil already prepared for them. Russia (for whose See also:dilapidation he blamed the See also:boyar regents) After the fall of Constantinople, orthodox canonists were in-- clined to regard the See also:Muscovite grand See also:dukes as the successors by the See also:Byzantine emperors. This See also:movement coincided with a See also:change in the See also:family circumstances of Ivan III. After the See also:death of his first See also:consort, Maria of Tver (1467), at the See also:suggestion of See also:Pope See also:Paul II. (1469), who hoped thereby to bind Russia to the See also:holy see, Ivan III. wedded the See also:Catholic Zoe Palaeologa (better known by her orthodox name of See also:Sophia), daughter of See also:Thomas, See also:despot of the Morea, who claimed the See also:throne of Constantinople as the nearest relative of the last See also:Greek See also:emperor. The princess, however, slave to her family traditions, and awoke imperial ideas in the mind of her consort. It was through her See also:influence that the ceremonious See also:etiquette of Constantinople (along with the imperial See also:double-headed See also:eagle and all that it implied) was adopted by the See also:court of Moscow. The grand duke henceforth held aloof from his boyars.

The old patriarchal systems of government vanished. The boyars were no longer consulted on affairs of state. The See also:

sovereign became sacrosanct, while the boyars were reduced to the level of slaves absolutely deoendent on the will of the sovereign. The boyars naturally resented so insulting a revolution, and struggled against it, at first with some success. But the See also:clever Greek See also:lady prevailed in the end, and it was her son Vasily, not' Maria of Tver's son, See also:Demetrius, who was ultimately crowned co-regent with his father (See also:April 14, 1502). It was in the reign of Ivan III. that the first Russian " See also:Law See also:Book," or See also:code, was compiled by the See also:scribe Gusev. Ivan did his utmost to promote See also:civilization in his See also:realm, and with that See also:object invited many See also:foreign masters and artificers to See also:settle in Muscovy, the most noted of whom was the See also:Italian Ridolfo di Fioravante, nicknamed See also:Aristotle because of his extraordinary knowledge, who built the cathedrals of the See also:Assumption (Uspenski) and of See also:Saint See also:Michael or the Holy See also:Arch-angels in the Kreml. See P. Pierling, Mariage d'un See also:tsar an Vatican, Ivan III et Sophie Paleologue (See also:Paris, 1891) ; E. I. Kashprovsky. The Struggle of Ivan III. with See also:Sigismund I.

(Rus.) (Nizhni, 1899); S. M. Solov'ev, History of Russia (Rus.), vol. v. (St Petersburg, 1895).

End of Article: IVAN III

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