Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/541

i y A- rights were grante 1 by Adolphus IV. in 1238, and to the old town in 1303. During the Thirty Years War Itzehoe was twice de stroyed by the Swedes, in 1644 and 1657, but was rebuilt on each occasion. It passed to Prussia in 1867, with the duchy of Schleswig- Holstein. IVAN (or JOANN, i.e., JOHN) I., grand-duke of Moscow from 1328 to 1340, was surnamed Kalita in allusion to the " purse " which he always carried at his girdle. Some have imagined that it contained alms for distribution ; others with greater probability look upon it as characteristic of the miserly habits of the prince. The great importance of Ivan in Russian history is that he was the consoliclator of the power of Moscow, the nucleus out of which the empire was to be formed at a future period. By treachery he procured from Uzbek, the Tatar Khan, the ruin of his rival the prince of Tver, and by craft and bribery made many additions to his territory. He also induced the metro politan to reside at Moscow, which brought dignity and influence to the city. IVAN II., grand-duke from 1353 to 1359, son of Ivan I., succeeded on the death of his brother Simon Gordi, or the Proud. He appears to have been a kindly man, but, in so far as his short reign had any effect, it weakened the principality of Moscow. IVAN III., surnamed the Great, grand-duke from 14G2 to 1505, forms one of the most important figures in the annals of Russia, for to him is due the consolidation of the autocracy. His long reign of forty-three years was very beneficial to his country. He was a skilful diplomatist, and often brought about by intrigue what others could only effect by force of arms. Thus he reduced to submission the haughty republic of Novgorod, and united to the prin cipality of Moscow those of Tver, Rostoff, and Yaroslavl ; he also took Kazan in 1487, but it was not definitively incorporated with Moscow till the reign of Ivan IV. He reconquered the territory as far as the river Sozh, which had fallen under the dominion of the Lithuanians. In 1472 he married Sophia, niece of Constantine Palseologus. In consequence of this union Ivan considered himself the heir of the Byzantine emperors, and adopted the two- headed eagle for his arms. Embassies were sent to foreign powers. Italian architects were invited into Russin, and many learned Greek monks found refuge there from the yoke of the Turks. IVAN IV., surnamed the Terrible (Grozni), the first czar of Russia, was a mere child at the time of the death of his father Vasili in 1533. His reign may be divided into three periods: (1) his minority, under the regency of his stepmother Helen Glinska ; (2) from his attaining his majority till the death of his amiable wife Anastasia Romanova, during which time he was a bold and vigorous ruler, and careful of the happiness of his subjects ; and (3) from her death till the conclusion of his reign in 1584, the period signalized by those atrocities which have earned for Ivan such an unenviable reputation. He was the first Russian sovereign who took the title of Czar, a Slavonic form of Caesar. In 1552 he annexed Kazan, and Astrakhan two years later. En many points of his character Ivan resembles Louis XI., especially in his statecraft and superstition ; indeed, just as France owed her aggrandize ment to some of her most cruel sovereigns, so in Russia the greatest tyrants have been the consolidators of the empire. In the time of Ivan a printing press was set up at Moscow, and the first book published (in 15G4) was an Apostol a name given to a collection of the Acts of the Apostles and the apostolic epistles ; but persecution was soon directed against the printers, who, from the jealousy of those who gained their livelihood by copying religious books, were compelled to fly from Russia, and were protected by Sigismund II. of Poland. They afterwards printed the whole Bible at Ostrog in Volhynia in 1581. I V A 511) In the British Museum is a copy of this bouk, which formerly belonged to the terrible Ivan. Sir Jerome Horsey, the English ambassador, has written on the fly-leaf, " this Bibell in the Slavonian tonge had owt of the emperor s librari." Siberia was also annexed in this reign through the enterprise of the Cossack Yermak, and the English first opened up commercial intercourse with the country by means of the expedition of Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor in 1553. The English for a long time enjoyed the monopoly of the Russian trade, and it is to some of them that the Russians arc indebted for interesting accounts of their land, especially to Dr Giles Fletcher, uncle of the dramatist, whose Russe Common-Wealth (London, 1591) is a mine of valuable information. The atrocities committed by Ivan at Novgorod in 1569, and at Pskov soon afterwards, are well known. It is from foreigners, such as Horsey, that we get minute accaunts of his many cruelties. In the British Museum are preserved some of his letters to Queen Elizabeth, of whom he re quested that an English wife should be chosen for him and sent to Russia. A Lady Mary Hastings, daughter of the earl of Huntingdon, was selected and introduced to the Russian ambassador Pisemski, but when the time drew near for her departure she entreated her father with tears not to send her to such a husband. The miserable tyrant expired in 1584, from grief for his son, whom he had killed in a fit of passion three years before. Like Louis XL, he loved to surround himself with quacks and magicians, some of whom, according to Horsey, prophesied the day of his death. The latter has left us the following curious notice of him: " Thus much to conclude with this emperor Ivan Vasiliwich. He was a goodlie man of person and presence, well favoured, high forehead, shrill voice, a right Sithian, full of readie wisdom, cruel], bloudye, merciless ; his own experience mannaged by direction both his state and commonwealth affares ; was sumptuously intomed in Michell Archangel church, where he, though garded daye and night, remaines a fearfull spectacle to the memory of such as pass by or heer his name spoken of, [who] are contented to cross and bless themselves from his resurrection againe." IVAN V., czar from 1682 to 1696, was the son of Alexis by his first wife Maria Miloslavskaia. He was infirm both in rnind and body. The Narishkins, to which family the widow of Alexis (his second wife) belonged, were anxious that Peter, the next brother, should succeed, but Sophia, the ambitious daughter of Alexis by his first wife, wished Ivan to rule, so that she might govern in his name. She was ultimately forced, however, into the Devichi mon astery, and Ivan reigned conjointly with his brother, the government being really in the hands of Peter assisted by his mother, the Narishkins, Dolgoroukis, and Boris Golitzin. IVAN VI., czar in 1740-41, was son of Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick by his marriage with Anne, granddaughter of Ivan V. The reign of this unfortunate young man lasted but a year, under the regencies of his mother and Biren. Owing to the success of the revolution under Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Greit, he was confined as a prisoner in Schlitsselburg, and Anthony and Anne with their other children were banished to Kholmogori in the government of Archangel. By long detention in the fortress Ivan became, it is said, half-witted. In the year 1764 a certain Lieutenant Mirovich attempted to deliver him from captivity and proclaim him emperor. Ivan, however, was slain in the skirmish that ensued, and Mirovich was afterwards publicly executed. According to some, he had been urged to the act by Catherine, who wanted an excuse for putting Ivan to death. For the Ivans see Soloviev, Istoriya Rossii, 29 vols. ; Oustrialov, Rousskaya Istoriya, 2 vols. ; W. R. S. Ralston, Early Russian History ; Rambaud, Histoire dc la Russic.