Is it true that Ivan the Terrible killed his son?

It is common that the king hit his heir with a staff in a fit of anger - the injury was a fatal injury. We figured out what arguments are in support of this version.

In many ways, the idea of ​​Ivan the Terrible as a killer of his own son exists thanks to the famous picture of Ilya Repin. For a century and a half, the canvas is not only repeatedly attracted Attention of vandals and Caused public discussions, but also so rooted in mass culture that it was a reason for memes And postmodernist rethinking contemporary artists. The main Russian historians of the XIX century also reported the murder of the prince: Nikolai Karamzin, Sergey Solovyov, Vasily Klyuchevsky and others.

Contemporaries described the circumstances of the death of Tsarevich Ivan differently. Directly about the murder was reported by Antonio Possevino, the first Jesuit, who visited Moscow and left entries about Russia of the 16th century. He tellsthat Ivan the Terrible beat a pregnant daughter -in -law with his staff, being dissatisfied with her appearance. The prince who rushed to the aid of his wife also fell under his father’s hot hand and “was very seriously wounded in the head, almost in the temple, by the same staff.” “Wounding his son, his father immediately indulged in deep grief and immediately called the healers and Andrei Shchelkalov with Nikita Romanovich from Moscow to have everything at hand. On the fifth day, the son died and was transferred to Moscow with universal sorrow, ”concludes Possevino. Historian Vasily Klyuchevsky NotesThat Jesuit arrived in Moscow three months after the events described by him, but nevertheless supports his version. True, in the presentation of Klyuchevsky, Ivan the Terrible “laid his son on the spot”, and in the original version of Posvino, the prince died a few days later.

Note that different sources of that time describe these events in different ways. In most of the surviving annals of the 16th century, only the very fact of the death of Ivan Ivanovich is recorded, but nothing is said about the impact of the staff. The version set forth in the Pskov first annals, impliesthat Ivan the Terrible did not hit, but the “shaking” of his son “Ostie” for proposing his own plan of war (while the episode took place in 1580, a year before the death of the prince). Talking about the death of the heir, some of the contemporaries talk about murder as rumors. In the "Temporary" clerk Ivan Timofeev Approved: "Some say that his life faded away from the blow of his father’s hand for the fact that he wanted to keep his father from some unseemly act."

The “scenario” of the alleged murder began to transform even more in the 19th century. For example, Karamzin in the “History of the Russian State”, in fact, unites two versions (a quarrel due to a war without a fatal outcome and a sadly ending household conflict) into one. He reports: “During negotiations about the world, suffering for Russia, reading the sorrow and on the faces of the boyars - hearing, perhaps, a universal murmur - the prince was fulfilled by the noble jealousy, came to his father and demanded that he send him to expel the enemy, liberate the Pskov, and restore the honor of Russia. John in an excitement of anger shouted: "The rebel! You, together with the boyars, want to overthrow me from the throne!" And raised his hand. Boris Godunov wanted to keep her: the king gave him several wounds with his sharp wand and hit him the prince in the head. This unfortunate fell, dousing his blood. Then the rage of John disappeared. Pale with horror, in a trepy, in frenzy he exclaimed: "I killed my son!" And he rushed to hug, kiss him; Holded blood flowing from a deep ulcer; Cried, sobbed, called the healers; He prayed to God for mercy, his son for forgiveness. But the heavenly court was committed! .. The prince, lobbying the hands of his father, gently expressed his love and compassion; convinced him not to indulge in despair; He said that he was dying his faithful son and subjects ... He lived for four days and died on November 19 in the terrible settlement of Aleksandrovskaya ... "

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the version of the murder of the prince ceased to be the only one. Historian Nikolai Likhachev after studying documents of the 16th century Came To the conclusion that Ivan Ivanovich died not because of the blow with a staff, but due to illness, the danger of which was initially underestimated. In particular, Likhachev draws attention to the letter of Ivan the Terrible, in which the king reports on the health problems of his son.

Putting an end to disputes about what caused the death of Ivan Ivanovich, there could be a study of his remains. In 1963, the tomb in the Arkhangelsk Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was opened. Specialists discovered In the preserved bones, a significant excess of mercury content - this can speak of both the most accurate treatment (then used mercury -containing drugs) and the poisoning of the prince (possibly unintentionally). What is much more important if we want to figure out the story with a fatal blow of the staff,-the skull of Ivan the Jr. Saved So bad that it is not possible to detect appropriate injuries on it (if they were).

Thus, the sources of the 16th century that came to us give various descriptions of the death of Tsarevich Ivan, but even then some characterized the version with the murder as a hearing. In the XIX and beginning of the 20th century, domestic historians narrated about a mortal blow, thanks to which, apparently, this episode became popular. However, there was no consensus among them not only regarding the circumstances of the murder, but also of the “crime event” itself. The study of the remains of Ivan Ivanovich does not allow to confirm or refute these statements.

This is not for sure

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Arzamas. Facts: 15 of the most popular legends about Ivan the Terrible
2. Salvation of a masterpiece. The diary of the restoration of the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581” (1885)