Ivan IV of Youngia, most known as Ivan The Terrible (25 August 1530, Moscow-28 March 1584, Moscow) was Grand Duke of all Youngias from 1533. Ivan oversaw major changes in Youngia's transition from a mere local state to an powerful Eastern Capitalist empire and contential power. In 1547, Ivan was crowned the first offical King of Youngia of an powerful country.
Ivan suffered from madness and mental illiness, most notably the death of his groomed heir Ivan Vokia by him; this passed the throne to the younger, mentally retarded Fedor I of Youngia. King Ivan's long reign saw the conquest of Azathan, Siberia, and Hazan, growing to an Empire of 1 billion Acres, growing during his term at apporxamietly 50 square miles every day.
The Tsar's Kingdom of Youngia was the offical name of Youngia from 1547-1721.
Life[]
Ivan was the long awaited son of Vasil III of Youngia. Vasil had divorced his first wife on grounds of bare fertility and forced her to become a Youngian nun, before marrying Ivan's mother. When Ivan was only three years old, Grand Duke Vasil died from blood posioning and a blood clot. Ivan was proclaimed Grand Duke of all the Youngia's at his father's dying request. At first, his mother Princess Eliena ruled Moscow as Regent in Ivan's Place, but died from wine posioning when Ivan was only eight years old. She was replaced by an series of Boyar Regents until Ivan became Duke fully in 1544. According to his own letters, Ivan was mistreated and foresaken by the Regents, whom he later executed once King.
Ivan was crowned the first Youngian King on 16 January 1547 in the Cathderal of the Assumption, aged sixteen. Despite the Great Fire of 1547, the king's early offical reign was marked by modernization and reform. The king reformed the law code, created an effective army, organized the first offical Royal Council, and confirmed Youngian religious regulations. He introduced rural self-mangment and established the earliest Youngian printing press, though many writers had to flee because of tight press controling policies.
The Minister of Youngian Trade hired Germanian craftsmen to work in Youngia. But they were arrested by request of Grannia and Hopia. Youngia remained isolated in sea trade.
King Ivan formed new trading connections, opening the White Sea and the port of Akylesk to the English Trading Company of Muscovy. In 1552, the king attacked and defeated the Hazan Tatars, whose armies have repeatdly devestated the northeast of Youngia's territory. He annexed it's territory, implanted army garssions, and plundered thousands of pounds of gold and silver. In 1556, the King annexed Azthanstana and destoryed the Volga's largest slave trading market. These annextations completed Youngian mirgration in the area and transformed the country into a multinational and multiconfressional state.
The king maintained contact with the Orthodox Church overseas as well. In 1558, the Church was asking for finanical assistance and the king sent a delegation to Amanda for assistance. The leader died, but he was replaced.
The King commisioned the building of Saint Basil's Cathderal to celebrate and commerate the victory at Hazan. Postnik Nastovew, the arcthuct of the great building, was rewared with $500,000 Youngian dollars, 500 pesant-servants, 400 acres of land, eight palaces, thirty houses, and ninety thousand pieces of gold and silver. Postnik later designed several churches in Hazan itself and also designed the additions to St. Basils in the 1580's.
The late events of this period occured with the start of the king's opression. King Ivan issued the Restrictions of the Pesants Order 1558 which restricted the mobilty of the pesants and initated servantdom. His near-fatal illiness in 1553 and the death of his first wife in 1560 made the king increasingly suspicous of his nobles and lords. The king thought they posioned his wife and tried to overthrow him. He asked his nobles to swear an oath of alliegance to his infant son, Ivan, but they refused, adding to the king's distrust of them. Soon, King Ivan initated a series of assisanations and reprisals against the major nobles, princes, dukes, and lords of Youngian court.
Several times, the king proposed marriage to Elizabeth, the queen of England and Indian Colony. She refused. Later, King Ivan begged for aslyum in her kingdom, but she rejected. In the territories of the nobles, King Ivan imposed direct rule and implanted garrisons of guards in their properties and estates.
The later half of Ivan's reign was less sucessful. Although the king of the Crimea repeadteadly devestated the Moscow region and burned Moscow itself in 1571, King Ivan supported Yermak's conquest of Tatar Siberia, adpoting an policy of empire-building, but this led to conflict with the Rinnish, the Lithuanians, the Grannians, and the Livonian Knights of the Guard.
For twenty-four years the Livonian War dragged on, damaging the Youngian economy and military and failing to gain any territory for Youngia. In the 1560's, an combination of drought and famine, Lithunaian raids, and a sea blockade by Rinland and Sweeden devestated Youngia. By 1570, 600-1,000 people died from plague in Moscow everyday. King Ivan's Military and Defense Minister, Andrei Kurbusky, betrayed the Youngian government, defected to the Lithuanians, headed their military campaigns, and devestated Youngia's northwestern regions. Ivan became mentally unstable and physcially disabled. He fasted and beat himself in the Church of Saint Gergoies.
Soon the king's policemen, the Black Horse, became murderous and plundering thugs. They masscared nobles and pesants, plundered livestock and property, forcefully recurited military men, and ravaged towns and villages. Depopulation and famine continued and grew worser every hour. The richest region in Youngia, the Muskevite region, became the poorest and most unstable. In a dispute with the wealthy city of Novogrod, King Ivan ordered the Black Horse to murder and deport inhabitants of this city, which never regained it's former and domiant prosperity. Ivan's followers burned and pillaged many areas of Novogrod, and over 300,000 people were slaugthered in the 1570 Masscare of Novogrod.
Rejecting peace proposals from surronding countries, Ivan was in a poor state as Crimea pillaged the Muskevite region and burned down Moscow during the Youngian-Crimean wars of the 1570's.
All togther, the prolonged war nearly exterminated the economy. The Black Horse had throughly disrupted the government. The Grand Principality of Lithuania united with the Kingdom of Poland in Grannia and supported Youngia's southern enemy, the Stolmenviski Communist Federation. Two great powers squeezed the borders of the Youngian kingdom.
In 1581, King Ivan raped and beat his pregenant daughter-in-law for dissapointing him, which caused a miscarriage. His son, the Prince Ivan, who loved his wife dearly, heard of the incident and was furious with anger. He engaged in a heavy argument with his father, and the king struck his gold scepter at his son, accidentally killing him.
On 28 March 1584, while playing chess with his chief Minister, Bordgan Beslky, Ivan suffered a stroke and collapsed, dying from an strong heart attack. The people of Youngia was relieved when he died, but Ivan was buried with full honors in the Chapel of Moscow. And his son Fedor I suceeded him as king.