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1、 Ivan the Terrible IVANTHE TERRIBLE Robert Payneand Nikita Romanoff All pictures except where otherwise credited were obtained in the Soviet Union. First Cooper Square Press edition 2002 This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of Ivan the Terrible is an unabridged republication of the edition fir

2、st published in New York in 1975. It is reprinted by arrangement with the Estate of Robert Payne and with coauthor Nikita Romanoff. Copyright 1975 by Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff Designed by Ingrid Beckman All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electroni

3、c or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permissions from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. Published by Cooper Square PressA Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1109N

4、ew York, New York 10003-1503 Distributed by National Book Network A previous edition of this book was catalogued as follows by the Library of Congress: Payne, Pierre Stephen Robert, 1911 Ivan the Terrible. Bibliography: p. 1. Ivan IV, the Terrible, Czar of Russia, 15301584. 2. RussiaHistoryIvan IV,

5、15331584. I. Romanoff, Nikita, joint author. DK106.P39 947.040924 74-13374 ISBN: 978-0-8154-1229-8 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.Manufactu

6、red in the United States of America. For Janet and Patricia Contents The Grand Prince Vasily III A Child on the Throne Facing the Tatars The Coronation of the Tsar The Youthful Warrior The March on Kazan Conquest The Tsars Sickness The Coming of the English The Glory and the Splendor The Rages of th

7、e Tsar The Separate Kingdom Alexandrova Sloboda The Blood Flows Massacre A Blood Bath in the Red Square Moscow in Flames Foul Stinking Dog A Tatar Khan on the Throne Good News from England Murder of the Tsarevich Portrait of a Lady Triumph and Defeat Genealogical Tables Glossary Chronology Bibliogra

8、phy Notes Index Ivans signature. Some historians believe he never signed documents, but ordered his chief secretary to sign for him. It reads: “Tsar and Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich of all Russia.” The Grand Prince Vasily III OF ALL THE PEOPLE in Russia the Grand Prince Vasily III regarded himself

9、as the most miserable. He could trace his descent back to Rurik, the legendary founder of the Russian state, and through his mother, Sophia Palaeologina, to a long line of Byzantine emperors, but he had neither sons nor daughters to continue the line. One day, walking in the countryside around Mosco

10、w, he saw a birds nest and gazed at the chicks with a feeling of shame. “Whom do I resemble?” he asked. “Not the birds of the air, for they are fertile. Not the beasts of the earth, for they produce young ones.” A few days later, talking to his boyars, he again bewailed his fate. “Who will rule afte

11、r me in the Russian land, in all my cities, within my frontiers?” he exclaimed. “Shall I give them up to my brothers? But they do not know how to order affairs in their principalities!” The boyars replied: “Lord, Grand Prince, the barren fig tree must be cut down and cast out of the orchard!” The Gr

12、and Prince Vasily III was a mild-mannered prince, well-liked by the people. Unlike his more famous father, Ivan III, known to history as Ivan the Great, who conquered large territories and fought the Tatars, Vasily III possessed none of the gifts of a conqueror. He had fought desultory wars against

13、Lithuania, drawn Pskov, Smolensk, and Ryazan into his kingdom, and shown himself to be a cautious and sensible man who rarely permitted himself the luxury of showing his full strength. A portrait of him on the walls of the Cathedral of Michael the Archangel, which he built at the beginning of his re

14、ign, depicts him as a tall, heavy-set man, sad-eyed and vulnerable, with pursed lips and a huge beard which flows heavily across his chest. He wears an air of settled melancholy and looks more somber than any of the other somber figures who crowd the cathedral walls. His wife, the Grand Princess Sal

15、omonia, the daughter of a rich boyar, was regarded at the time of her marriage as the most beautiful woman in Russia. She was devout, gentle, and loving, and no one had found any fault in her. Now at the age of forty-seven, having reigned for nearly a quarter of a century, the Grand Prince found a f

16、ault in her that was beyond curing. She was barren and must be cast out of the orchard. She protested that she had committed no crime, it was Gods will that she was barren, the Church categorically forbade divorce on the grounds of barrenness alone. She had powerful allies. They included the Metropo

17、litan Varlaam, the great theologian known as Maxim the Greek, and Prince Simeon Kurbsky. The Metropolitan was banished to a monastery in the far north, Maxim the Greek was put on trial on the charge of heresy and banished to Tver, and Prince Simeon Kurbsky was banished from court. The Grand Princess

18、 Salomonia was divorced and sent to a nunnery in Suzdal. It was said that she raged against the injustice of her divorce to the very end and cursed the husband who had cast her out. It was said, too, that an even more terrible curse was laid on him. Mark, Patriarch of Jerusalem, heard about the comi

19、ng divorce and thundered: “If you should do this evil thing, you shall have an evil son. Your nation shall become prey to terrors and tears. Rivers of blood will flow, the heads of the mighty will fall, your cities will be devoured by flames.” And all this came about. Vasily III entered upon his new

20、 marriage joyfully and light-heartedly. His bride was Princess Elena Glinskaya, by origin Lithuanian, now living as a refugee in the Russian court. She was the ward of her uncle, Prince Mikhail Glinsky, whose adventurous career had led him to fight in the armies of the Emperor Maximilian and Albert

21、of Saxony. His ward was about twenty, strong-willed, exuberant, beautiful. To please her the Grand Prince shaved off his beard, even though the Orthodox Church regarded it as a sin for a man to shave off his beard. But though he doted on her, he was not especially enamored of her family. Prince Mikh

22、ail Glinsky was at that time spending his days in a Russian prison; he had been arrested for treason, he was in chains, and his lands were confiscated. He was not finally released until February 1527. Vasily III with his coat of arms in the foreground. (From Herbersteins Rerum Moscoviticarum Comenta

23、rii) The boyars viewed the coming wedding with mixed feelings. They resented Elena as a foreigner and suspected that she might have more love for Lithuania than for Russia. Almost inevitably she would outlive her husband, and unless she quickly produced a son and unless the Grand Prince survived lon

24、g enough to superintend the education of his son, there was no certainty that the succession could be maintained. They observed that she had a will of her own and might prove intractable. Her ancestors were Lithuanian princes who had fought against Russia, but she also claimed descent from Mamay, th

25、e Tatar prince who had laid waste Muscovy until he was defeated by the Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy at the battle of Kulikovo. Yet there were many who saw advantages in the marriage. She was young, eager, well-educated. She was not so devout as Salomonia, and she had a fund of gaiety which kept Vasil

26、y amused and happy. The court would be rejuvenated by her presence. She brought excitement and pleasure to a court that had become monotonous and stuffy. The marriage took place on January 21, 1526. The day appears to have been carefully chosen, for it was the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin.

27、The marriage ceremony began the moment she walked into one of the painted halls of the Golden Palace in the Kremlin, with two noblemen bearing candles leading the way and accompanied by her matrons of honor. She wore a sumptuous robe inlaid with jewels and sat on a chair upholstered with forty black

28、 sable skins. Prince Yury of Dmitrov, one of Vasilys two brothers, called out, “Lord, come to the place where God summons you,” and then Vasily, dressed in equally sumptuous garments, entered, prayed before the icons, and then took his place beside Elena on another chair upholstered with forty black

29、 sable skins. The nuptial candles were lit, prayers were read, the matrons of honor combed the hair of the bride and groom, and over Elenas head there was placed the headdress appropriate to a married woman and a kerchief of the finest silk. Hops were sprinkled on the couple to assure fertility. Bre

30、ad and cheese were offered to the wedding guests. It was a long ceremony and they needed refreshment. The second part of the ceremony took place in the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the smallest and most beautiful of the cathedrals in the Kremlin. Vasily walked to the cathedral; Elena drove in a ho

31、rse-drawn sleigh. A carpet of red damask bordered with sables was spread out for them in the cathedral. The Metropolitan Daniel offered them a glass of Italian wine, and when they had both drunk from it Vasily tossed the glass on the floor and ground it to pieces under his heels. There were many hym

32、ns, many blessings, many prayers. The boyars and the court nobility passed in procession, offering their congratulations, while the choir sang a hymn invoking Gods blessing on them and the hope that they would enjoy a long life. There followed the wedding feast, where a roast cock was served to the

33、wedded couple, and later they were escorted to the bedroom and the nuptial candles were stuck into tubs of wheat. On the bed were laid twenty-seven sheaves of rye. In each corner of the room sable furs and wheat loaves were laid, and arrows were shot into the corners. The arrows signified that the e

34、nemies of the marriage would be laid low, while the wheat loaves signified the hope of fertility. Unfortunately, as the months passed, Elena appeared to be no more fruitful than her predecessor. Vasily, who had gone to so much trouble to procure a new wife, remained childless. An absolute monarch, p

35、ossessing more personal power than any European king, he was unable to produce what peasants produced with the greatest ease. Baron Sigmund von Herberstein, the ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian to the Kremlin, was a remarkably observant man who came to know the workings of Vasilys mind and the d

36、azzling complexities of the Russian court. He knew a good deal about Elena and her brothers Yury and Mikhail, and he had a certain fondness for Vasily. What struck him most of all was that Vasily was more absolutely supreme over his subjects than any other monarch in the world. “The will of the Lord

37、 is the will of God,” said the Muscovites, and in their eyes Vasily was “Gods steward and gentleman of the bedchamber.” Yet the autocracy was not absolute; Vasily and his Boyar Council decided upon all important issues; the Metropolitan had the right to intercede for anyone who had fallen into disfa

38、vor; the concept of the Third Rome, with Muscovy taking the place of fallen Byzantium, was still being debated. When Herberstein turned his attention to the machinery of government, he realized that it was often very erratic indeed. Decisions were made by the sovereign in consultation with the Boyar

39、 Council, a carefully selected group of noblemen, but the carrying out of these decisions depended upon an army of clerks. He estimated that half the people he met in the government offices inside the Kremlin were clerks. Whenever he went to see a boyar about some matter connected with his diplomati

40、c mission he would find two or three clerks present; if he asked a question, the clerks would whisper the answer into the boyars ear. Since they were usually more competent than the boyars, they could do very nearly whatever they pleased; and if a boyar annoyed them, they would threaten to haul him

41、off to the Grand Prince. Herberstein relates that he once saw an important noble, the head of a department, dragged away by force to the Grand Prince by an army of enraged clerks. These clerks were a law unto themselves. They were the bureaucracy, the permanent civil service. They took bribes, made

42、promises that they promptly forgot, and worked continually to their own advantage. We understand Vasily better when we realize that he was all-powerful but at the same time he was dependent upon them, often submitted to them, and found them indispensable. The boyars called the clerks “nettle seeds,”

43、 as we might call them “hillbillies,” for they usually came from priestly or poor families. Sometimes the real power was in the hands of half a dozen trusted clerks. These clerks ran the country when Vasily and his young bride absented themselves from Moscow and visited the holy shrines in the hope

44、that the saints would intercede and grant them a son. Vasily enjoyed hunting and traveling, and on these expeditions he was usually accompanied by his brothers, Prince Yury of Dmitrov and Prince Andrey of Staritsa. Dmitrov and Staritsa were the appanage principalities bestowed on them by their fathe

45、r. The Muscovites saw very little of their Grand Prince except on ceremonial occasions. The new Grand Princess was presented to them, and they rejoiced and went about their business. The city had a seething life of its own; the vital center of this life was a vast field stretching from the Moskva Ri

46、ver to the Neglinnaya River outside the Kremlin wall. In those days it was called simply “the Square”; today it is called “the Red Square.” The field served many purposes. It was the main marketplace with painted booths set up in orderly rows, where men could buy anything from silks and damasks to i

47、ron stirrups and leather saddles, from wooden vats to wooden sleighs. When the booths were cleared away, the Square became a parade ground or a fairground with clowns and jugglers and performing bears. Here executions were held, and here a man might pray for mercy in one of eight or nine wooden chur

48、ches, or get a letter written by a scribe, or watch a religious procession with great painted banners waving in the wind, or listen to the herald proclaiming a decree signed by the Grand Prince himself with his royal seal. The Grand Prince Vasily III, from a contemporary French engraving. On any ordinary day the most remarkable thing about the Square was the noise. Merchants were shouting their wares, horses we