An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe

Chapter XI

407 u chapte r xi u Of Moscovy.§1. The first origin of this Empire, and the atchievements of their antient Princes [Regenten] are very uncertain and obscure, since what is to be found of this nature among an ignorant people, is all very {meager and} confused: So much is certain, that this great Empire was formerly divided into a great many petty Lordships, which afterwards were united in one body. We will only relate in a few words, that the Russians in the year 989. first embraced the Christian Religion, at which time their Prince, Wolodomir married Anne, the Sister of the Grecian Emperour Basilius Porphyrogenitus. In the year 1237. their Prince George, was slain by Battus the King of the Tartars; whereby the Russians being brought under the subjection of the Tartars, their Princes were dependent on them. After a long time they at last freed themselves from this slavery under their Prince John, Son of Basilius the Blind, who began his Reign in the year 1450. Under his Reign Russia was first united into one considerable Body, he having subdued most of these petty Princes, which had divided Russia among them; especially the Dukes of Tiver [Tver] and of Great Novogrod [Novgorod], in which City ’tis said he got a booty of three hundred Cart loads of Gold and Silver. This Prince built Juanogrod [Ivangorod], a Castle near Narva.§2. Him succeeded his Son Basilius who {A. 1509} took Pleskeu [Pskov], which was formerly a free City. From the Poles he also took Smolensko, but was soundly beaten by the Astracan [Casan] Tartars, who at the same time ransack’d the City of Moscovy. Him succeeded \A. 1533\ his The antient State of Russia. John. Basilius. 408 chapter xi Son John Basilowitz, a cruel Tyrant, who conquer’d the two Kingdoms of the Tartars of Casan and Astracan, and united them to Muscovy . He used the Livonians very barbarously, having killed one Furstenbergh the Master of the Order of [Teutonic] Knighthood there, which was the occasion that the City of Reval and whole Tethland [Estland] surrender’d themselves to Swedeland, and all the rest of Livonia to Poland . He was at first victorious against the Poles, but afterwards Stephen Batori took from him Plotzko and several other places. He died in the Year 1584. and unto him succeeded his Son Theodore {or Faedor} Ivanowitz, a very simple Prince, against whom the Swedes waged War about Ingermanland.§3. This Theodore dying without Issue, his Brother in Law Boris Guidenow [Gudenov] did by his Intrigues obtain the Empire, but with very indifferent Success, especially after the supposed [false] Demetrius began to contend with him for it; during which Troubles he {suddenly} died \A. 1605\. His Son Theodore {or Faedor} Borissowitz was proclaimed Great Duke of Muscovy, but the Muscovites having afterwards for the most part sided with the supposed [false] Demetrius, he was taken Prisoner and murthered, after he had but Six Months enjoyed the Title of Grand Duke. What became of the supposed Demetrius, and how Basilius Zuski took upon him the Imperial Dignity \A. 1606\, we have related before. To this Zuski, Charles IX. King of Swedeland offered his Assistance against the second supposed Demetrius, which he at first refused to accept of. But afterwards, when the other began to be too strong for him, he earnestly desired the same, promising to surrender to Charles as an acknowledgement, Kexholm. The King sent to his Assistance Pontus de la Gardie with some Thousand Men, who were very serviceable to the Muscovites; nevertheless they [the latter] made a great many Evasions, refusing to deliver up these places which they 1. Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530–84), also known as Ivan the Terrible. 2. The interregnum of 1598–1613, between the death of Theodore (Feodor) Ivanovich , the last Rurik ruler of Russia, and the ascendancy of Mikhail I Feodorovich, the first Romanov, was known as the “time of troubles.” 3. See X.10, pp. 388–89, above. John Basilowitz. Theodore Ivanowitz. Boris Guidenow. of muscovy 409 had promised before; wherefore the Swedes took them by Force, and thereby united Carelia and the rest of Ingermanland with the Kingdom of Sweden. How this Basilius Zuski was delivered up to the Poles, how the supposed [false] Demetrius was slain, and Vladislaus Prince of Poland made Duke of Muscovy, has been related before. §4. At last \A. 1613\ Michael Fadorowitz...