History of the Russian State, Vol. 9

A.D. 1560 — 1561.

"me to travel to holy abodes, not allowing me to punish the Germans... To these lawless acts is added treason: when I suffered in a grave illness, they, forgetting fidelity and oath, in the intoxication of autocracy, wished to take for themselves another Tsar, bypassing my son. And not touched, not corrected by our magnanimity, how did they repay us in their cruelty of heart for that? With new insults: they hated and slandered Tsaritsa Anastasia and in everything showed goodwill toward Prince Vladimir Andreyevich. And so, is it surprising that I finally decided not to be an infant in the years of my manhood and threw off the yoke placed upon the Kingdom by the wily priest and the ungrateful servant Alexei?" and so on.

Let us note that Ivan does not accuse them of the death of Anastasia, and thereby testifies to the ridiculous lie of this denunciation. All other reproaches are partly doubtful, partly reckless in the mouth of a thirty-year-old Autocrat, who, by admitting his former captivity, reveals the secret of his own pitiful weakness. Adashev and Sylvester, as men, could have been blinded by ambition; but the Sovereign, by this indiscreet accusation, conceded to them the glory of the most beautiful reign in history. We shall see how he ruled without them; and if it was not Ivan, but his favorites, who governed Russia from 1547 to 1560, then for the happiness of his subjects—