Ivan the terrible : first tsar of Russia / Isabel de Madariaga.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Madariaga, Isabel de, 1919-2014, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ivan IV, Czar of Russia, 1530-1584.

Ivan.

Russia--History--Ivan IV, 1533-1584.

Russia.

Russia--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 484 p., [16] p. of plates ) ill., maps ;

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2005]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ivan IV, "the Terrible" (1533-1584), is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror-and for killing his own son-he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, and his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole.Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan's reign.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Maps

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Chapter I: The Historical Background

Chapter II: The Reign of Vasily III

Chapter III: Ivan's Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, Coronation and Marriage

Chapter IV: The Era of Aleksei Adashev

Chapter V: The 'Government of Compromise'

Chapter VI: The Conquest of Kazan'

Chapter VII: The Dynastic Crisis of 1553: Domestic and Military Policy, and the Arrival of the English

Chapter VIII: The War in Livonia and the End of the 'Chosen Council'

Chapter IX: The Death of Anastasia, and Ivan's Second Marriage

Chapter X: Tsar Ivan and Prince Andrei Kurbsky

Chapter XI: The Setting Up of the Oprichnina

Chapter XII: War in Livonia and the Zemskii Sobor of 1566

Chapter XIII: The Boyar Plot: 1) the Letters to King Sigismund

Chapter XIV: The Boyar Plot: 2) the Executions of Ivan Fedorov, Metropolitan Filipp and Vladimir of Staritsa

Chapter XV: Armageddon

Chapter XVI: Foreign Policy and the Tatar Invasions

Chapter XVII: The End of the Oprichnina, and the Succession to the Polish-Lithuanian Crown

Chapter XVIII: Grand Prince Simeon Bekbulatovich

Chapter XIX: Peace Negotiations

Chapter XX: The Truce of Yam Zapol'sky

Chapter XXI: The Death of Ivan

Chapter XXII: Ivan's Legacy to Russia

Abbreviations

Notes

Brief Glossary

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 385-484) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780300143768

0300143761

OCLC:

1024033168