Ivan the Terrible is undoubtedly one of the most prominent figures in Russian history. His personality is surrounded by many myths that are closely intertwined with real facts. The death of this ruler was no exception …
The end of Ivan Vasilievich
Tsar Ivan Vasilievich (Ivan IV) was nicknamed the Terrible for a reason. Historian R. G. Skrynnikov reports that from 1533 to 1584, about 4 thousand people were sent to execution. Many were tortured … But other European rulers did the same, and the number of victims is much more impressive …
On March 10, 1584, Ivan the Terrible refused to receive the ambassador from Lithuania "due to illness." The sovereign's body was very swollen, covered with boils, a bad smell emanated from him …
On March 16, the king's condition deteriorated so much that he fell into unconsciousness. However, on March 17, a hot bath brought relief to the emperor. On March 18, in the morning, he again went to the bathhouse and after the water procedures he felt so good that he sat down to play chess with the deceased Bogdan Belsky. While playing, he suddenly felt ill, fell backwards - and died.
Testament and monasticism
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Later they remembered that the date March 18 was called to the king by the Karelian Magi, whom he called for predictions. The angry sovereign promised to burn them if the prophecy did not come true. But he didn't have time …
It is interesting that Ivan IV, apparently, had a presentiment of an imminent death, since he had made a will in advance. He named his son Theodore, whom many considered feeble-minded, to be his successor, and appointed a council of boyars to help him. Uglich departed for the youngest son Dmitry.
A number of sources also claim that before his death, Ivan the Terrible repented of his sins and cruelty towards people. On the day of his death, he even allegedly took monastic vows and received a new spiritual name - Jonah. The fact of taking monastic vows is confirmed: the king was buried in full monastic vestments.
"Poisoners" and "Stranglers"
Immediately after the funeral, which took place on the third day at the Cathedral of the Archangel, rumors began to circulate that the death of the king might have been violent. Even the chronicle of the 17th century claims that Ivan the Terrible was poisoned by "fellow people". The names of the boyars Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky were named. Here is the testimony of Hetman Zolkevsky about Godunov: “He took the life of Tsar Ivan by bribing the doctor who treated Ivan, because the matter was such that if he had not warned him (did not get ahead of him), then he himself would have been executed with many other noble nobles ". There is information that in the last edition of the will Godunov was excluded from the future board of trustees under Fedor … And according to the Dutch diplomat Isaac Massa, Belsky, a relative of Godunov, put poison in the medicine for the king. Historian V. I. Koretsky even thinksthat the king, for loyalty, after taking poison, was also strangled …
Facts vs. Legends
The version of the poisoning of Ivan IV lived on until 1963, when the tsar's tomb was opened and the remains were examined. And what? The arsenic content in them was quite consistent with the norm. But there was an increased content of mercury, which was added to many drugs, including syphilis, which Ivan the Terrible allegedly suffered. The hypothesis of the tsar's strangulation was also unfounded: the throat cartilage was intact.
However, many years later, the chief archaeologist of the Moscow Kremlin Museum, Tatyana Panova, and her colleague Elena Aleksandrova, who was also involved in the study of the remains, said that in fact the permissible norm of arsenic there was more than doubled. And that, most likely, someone regularly “regaled” Grozny with a “cocktail” of arsenic and mercury, which ultimately led to his premature death.
The famous Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov discovered that in the last years of his life, the tsar began to develop osteophytes - salt build-ups on the surface of the bones, so that it was difficult for him to move. According to Gerasimov, he did not meet such deposits even among the very old. By the way, there is evidence that at the age of 50, Ivan the Terrible already looked like a decrepit old man … Apparently, the scientist believed, a combination of factors such as an unhealthy lifestyle, constant nervous stress (military campaigns and other political upheavals), and forced immobility and led to early wear and tear of the body. And the story with the poisoning remained at the level of a hypothesis.