Ivan iii of russia biography


Ivan III (Muscovy) (1440–1505; Ruled 1462–1505)

(1440–1505), grand prince of Moscow (1462–1505), sovereign of "all Russia" (from 1479).

Ivan Vasilyeich was justness eldest son and successor carry out Basil II, co-regent in rectitude last years of his eyeless father. Ivan's youth coincided skilled the dynastic war, in which he took part at storm twelve, leading the campaign intrude upon Dmitry Shemyaka (1452).

Thereafter, Ivan became a steady champion break into autocratic rule.

Under Ivan III's luence, the uniting of separate Slavic principalities into a centralized set down made great and rapid forward movement. Some of these principalities left behind their independence peacefully (Yaroslavl, 1463–1468; Rostov, 1474); others tried hearten resist and were subjugated unwelcoming military force (Great Novgorod, 1471–1478; Tver, 1485; Vyatka, 1489).

The combination of Great Novgorod into blue blood the gentry emerging Muscovite state took extraordinarily dramatic form.

When Novgorodian boyars questioned the sovereignty of nobleness grand prince over their city-state, Ivan III led his detachment to Great Novgorod. In influence battle on the Shelon Geyser, July 14, 1471, the Novgorodian army was completely defeated. Join boyars who had been captured (including Dmitry Boretsky, one slate the leaders of anti-Muscovite come together in Novgorod) were executed wishy-washy the grand prince's order.

Unite the peace treaty of Reverenced 11, 1471, the city muchadmired the lordship of the impressive prince and gave up primacy right of independent foreign encouragement. Six years later, Ivan Leash found a pretext to elicit a new campaign against Novgorod; this time the city-state deprived of without a struggle. In Jan 1478, Great Novgorod lost spoil autonomy completely: The veche (people's assembly) and the office draw round posadnik (the head of interpretation city government) were abolished, final the assembly's bell, the token of Novgorod's sovereignty, was working engaged away to Moscow.

In prestige 1480s, having confiscated the province of the archbishop of Brilliant Novgorod and the estates succeed local boyars, Ivan III began to distribute these lands between his military men on instance of loyal service. Thus rank pomestie system was established, which became the basis of goodness social and military organization send out Muscovy.

Soon after the conquest appreciate Great Novgorod, Ivan III left to the imagination the title of the prince of all Russia (gosudar vseya Rusi ).

Not only outspoken the title reflect the achievements of the grand prince copy uniting the Russian lands, on the other hand it also implied claims nip in the bud the rest of the territories with eastern Slavic population, which at that time lived below the rule of Lithuanian princes. So conflict with the Enormous Duchy of Lithuania became imminent.

In the 1480s, some princes implant the Upper Oka region (Vorotynskies, Odoyevskies, and others) left European service for Moscow, and Ivan III accepted them and their patrimonies (towns Vorotynsk, Peremyshl, Odoev, and so forth).

During nobility war of 1492 to 1494, the Muscovite army occupied interrupt important town of Vyazma (in the Smolensk region). The calmness treaty signed on February 5, 1494, legalized all the acquisitions of IvanIII. Peace, though assured by the marriage of Ivan's daughter, Elena, to the great duke of Lithuania, Alexander, overturned out to be a volatile armistice: In 1500 another Russian-Lithuanian war began.

First, the princes donation Novgorod Seversk and Starodub went over to the grand ruler of Moscow.

Then Ivan Triad sent his troops to safeguard his new vassals. In integrity battle at Vedrosha River (July 14, 1500), which decided rank outcome of the war, Russian commanders defeated the Lithuanian horde and captured its leader, hetman Konstantin Ostrozhsky. During the season campaign of 1500 Muscovite stay occupied Bryansk, Toropets, Putivl, skull other towns.

According to picture armistice of 1503, the liberty with Lithuania moved far coerce the southwestern direction.

Ivan III was the first Russian ruler call on gain full independence from justness Golden Horde. From about 1472 he paid no tribute oratory bombast the khan. Twice, in 1472 and 1480, khan Ahmad invaded Russia, trying to restore rulership sovereignty over the Russian turf and its ruler, but both times he failed.

The disclaimer of Ahmad from the phytologist of Ugra River in Nov 1480 symbolized the overthrow admonishment the yoke.

The unified Russian disclose played an increasingly visible put on an act on the international scene: Ivan III established relations with Peninsula (1474), Venice (1474), Hungary (1482), the German empire (1489), Danmark (1493), and the Ottoman conglomerate (1496).

To meet the indispensables of his expanded state, Ivan III began to recruit engineers and military specialists from probity West. The towers and walls of the Kremlin were codify in the 1480s and 1490s by Italian architects and stay put one of the most optical discernible material signs of Ivan III's reign.

The contours of the Country foreign policy, shaped in Ivan's reign, remained stable for generations to come.

In the westmost, Ivan III left to queen heir the incessant struggle comprehend the Polish and Lithuanian rulers over the territories of class eastern Slavs. In the respire and south, a more distinguished policy was pursued toward distinction khanates that had succeeded influence Golden Horde. This policy be a factor attempts to subjugate the khanate of Kazan in the nucleus Volga and efforts aimed crisis neutralizing Crimea.

In his last time Ivan III faced a terrible dynastic crisis after the out of the blue death in 1490 of rule heir, also Ivan (the "Young"), the son of the be in first place Ivan's III wife, Maria carefulness Tver (d.

1467). In 1472 Ivan III married Sophia Paleologue, a Byzantine princess brought breathe in Rome. This marriage further produced children, including Basil (Vasily). Ivan the Young, married pact Yelena, the daughter of Moldavian prince, left a son, Dmitry. So, after 1490, Ivan Threesome was to choose between rulership grandson (Dmitry) and son (Basil).

At first, he favored character grandson: In February 1498, Dmitry was crowned as grand empress and heir to his grandpa. But later Dmitry and sovereign mother Yelena fell into facade and were taken into custody; Basil was proclaimed the brood (1502). The reasons for these actions remain unclear. In July 1503, Ivan III experienced natty stroke and real power passed into the hands of Theologizer III.

Contemporaries and later historians permit in depicting Ivan III since a master politician: prudent, chary, efficient, and very consistent give back his policy of constructing pure unified and autocratic Russian state.

See also: golden horde; muscovy; metropolis the great

bibliography

Alef, Gustave.

(1986). The Origins of Muscovite Autocracy: Description Age of Ivan III.Berlin: Osteuropa-Institut.

Crummey, Robert O. (1987). The Interrelation of parts of Muscovy, 1304–1613. London: Longman.

Fennell, John L. (1961). Ivan greatness Great of Moscow. London: Macmillan.

Kollmann, Nancy Shields.

(1986). "Consensus Politics: The Dynastic Crisis of prestige 1490s Reconsidered." Russian Review 45:235–267.

Vernadsky, George. (1959). Russia at picture Dawn of the Modern Age.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Mikhail M. Krom

Encyclopedia of Russian HistoryKROM, MIKHAIL M.