ring resentment" of the boyar class (p. 111). At age 13 he summoned boyar leaders to the Kremlin where he harangued them on their failings and disloyalty to the throne and then had their leading figure, Prince Andrei Shuisky, executed. His coronation (at his insistence as Tsar) took place in 1547. Shortly thereafter, his mother's family, the Glinskys, were blamed by a mob for having caused a great fire in Moscow. Ivan used this mob violence as a pretext for exiling the Glinskys, thus removing a principal aristocratic obstacle to his absolute rule.
Ivan's Relatively Enlightened First Decade of Rule
Ivan had six or eight wives, depending on whether his two special mistresses counted. He had lasting affection for only his first, Anastasia, whom he personally selected and married in 1547. Most historians agree with Vernadsky (1969) who said that she "had a sound and soothing influence on her [vitriolic and unpredictable] husband" (p. 99). His biographer, Troyat (2001), commented that "for thirteen years, th
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