Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilyevich left his mark in history not only as a cruel conqueror, suspicious ruler and reformer of the judicial system, but also as an educated person, while having a mystical character.
Birth of the accursed prince
The mother of the future monarch Elena Glinskaya on her father's side came from the family of Mamai, an ardent pagan, more than once cursed in Russia, and on her mother was of "Balkan blood". Popular rumor attributed to this "thin" princess the ability to sorcery, that is, to witchcraft, and even indirectly accused of the terrible Moscow fires, and also that it was she who taught her daughter Elena how to bewitch the Grand Duke and become a queen. Well, how else to explain the fact that Basil III, sending his first barren wife Solomonia from the rich boyar dynasty of the Saburovs to the monastery, did not look for high-born beauties, brides with diplomatic privileges in the dowry or relatives of former Byzantine emperors, but was content with a beggar, not the most beautiful and unborn daughter of random settlers? They saycurses sounded more than once against the new queen in the royal chambers, and on the night of the birth of Ivan's heir, a hurricane with a thunderstorm burst over Moscow, so strong that icons fell in houses, and crosses fell from cathedrals.
Fulfilled prophecies
Young Prince Ivan grew up in an atmosphere of terror and intrigue. Before his eyes, people were dying every day, and mother Elena was eventually poisoned too. In our time, scientists have found that the queen died not from arsenic or poisonous mushrooms, which at that time usually tormented the rulers in Europe and Russia, but from mercury poisoning, as if the killers considered her the embodiment of devilish power.
The young monarch did not want to have any dealings with the mystics and did not listen to anyone's advice. His first wife Anastasia from the Romanov family, according to the recollections of contemporaries, was to the heart of the Grand Duke, was reputed to be a real beauty and gave birth to a wonderful son. And only the king decided to go on a pilgrimage to thank God for such a gift from heaven, when he immediately received a prediction about the inevitable death of his family. Monk Maxim the Greek predicted that his heir would become the victim of the first pilgrimage of the Grand Duke. However, the king did not listen to the soothsayer, recovered from monasteries and churches and returned to the capital without a son - the one-year-old baby died on the road. 7 years later, his beloved wife also died. But no one could dissuade the monarch that his wife had been poisoned. And, apparently, then he decided to deal with his enemies in the same ways that they did with him.
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Personal sorcerer
At a certain point in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Russia established diplomatic relations with England, and soon the tsar had a personal alchemist and astrologer from England, whom the Moscow courtiers called Elisha Bomeley, and behind his back called "the fierce sorcerer". He made horoscopes for the monarch, taught him alchemy and, of course, prepared poisons, with which the king very skillfully dealt with his enemies. But even the slightest offense immediately cost this scientist his life. Once embroiled in intrigues, the king ordered the Englishman to be roasted on a huge spit and since then, on every occasion, with fierce hatred, cursed all sorts of magicians and soothsayers.
Death to all magicians
Shortly before his death, the great sovereign, as documents testify, "in anger" ordered to bring to the palace all the wizards, sorcerers and sorcerers that could only be found in Russia. And they brought him more than sixty wizards, who all, as one, predicted a quick death to the king on the same day. But only the monarch laughed at them, declared that they were all cursed, and ordered the installation of a gallows on Red Square, so that at the hour when death was predicted to him, he could enjoy the execution of his captives. Obviously, even then Tsar Ivan considered himself the best alchemist and sorcerer, able to neutralize any poisons and curses. On that fateful day, he dined, washed in the bathhouse and sat down to play chess, but failed to make a single move, as he fell on his side and froze. And almost all the captive wizards by some miracle escaped the gallows and left the capital before they decided to execute them, without a royal decree.