Ivan III of Russia

Ivan III Vasilevich (???? III ??????????) (January 22, 1440 – October 27, 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a grand duke of Muscovy who first adopted a more pretentious title of the "grand duke of all the Russias". Sometimes referred to as the "gatherer of the Russian lands", he claimed Moscow to be a Third Rome, built the Moscow Kremlin, and laid foundations for the Russian autocracy.

Foreign policies

It was in the reign of Ivan III that Muscovy rejected the Tatar yoke. In 1480 Ivan refused to pay the customary tribute to the grand Khan Ahmed. When, however, the grand khan marched against him, Ivan's courage began to fail, and only the stern exhortations of the high-spirited bishop of Rostov, Vassian, could induce him to take the field. All through the autumn the Russian and Tatar hosts confronted each other on opposite sides of the Ugra, till the 11th of November, when Ahmed retired into the steppe.

Related Topics:
Tatar - Khan Ahmed - Rostov - Vassian - The Ugra - Steppe

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the following year the grand khan, while preparing a second expedition against Moscow, was suddenly attacked, routed and slain by Ivaq, the khan of the Nogay Horde, whereupon the Golden Horde suddenly fell to pieces. In 1487 Ivan reduced the khanate of Kazan (one of the offshoots of the Horde) to the condition of a vassal-state, though in his later years it broke away from his suzerainty. With the other Muslim powers, the khan of the Crimean Khanate and the sultans of Ottoman Empire, Ivan's relations were pacific and even amicable. The Crimean khan, Mengli Ghiray, helped him against Grand Duchy of Lithuania and facilitated the opening of diplomatic intercourse between Moscow and Istanbul, where the first Russian embassy appeared in 1495.

Related Topics:
Nogay Horde - Golden Horde - Khanate of Kazan - Crimean Khanate - Sultan - Ottoman Empire - Mengli Ghiray - Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Istanbul - 1495

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The further extension of the Muscovite dominion was facilitated by the death of Casimir IV in 1492, when Poland and Lithuania once more parted company. The throne of Lithuania was now occupied by Casimir's son Alexander, a weak and lethargic prince so incapable of defending his possessions against the persistent attacks of the Muscovites that he attempted to save them by a matrimonial compact, and wedded Helena, Ivan's daughter. But the clear determination of Ivan to appropriate as much of Lithuania as possible at last compelled Alexander in 1499 to take up arms against his father-in-law. The Lithuanians were routed at Vedrosha (July 14, 1500), and in 1503 Alexander was glad to purchase peace by ceding to Ivan Chernigov, Starodub, Novgorod-Seversky and sixteen other towns.

Related Topics:
Alexander - At Vedrosha - Chernigov - Starodub - Novgorod-Seversky

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~