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And You Thought You Were Bad...

Ivan the Terrible is known as one of the cruelest monarchs in all of history. As a young man, he was a relatively stable ruler, improving and reforming what is today Russia. Then, something terrible happened. Ivan’s beloved wife, Anastasia, died at age 25 or 26. He strongly believed she was poisoned (as he believed his mother was poisoned), and from that point seemed to become increasingly cruel and unstable. When he found someone guilty of a crime, for example, he would at times not only kill the man himself, but also the man’s family and his servants. He would schedule torture sessions while he attended mass, and would have people boiled in oil (others would have their tongues cut out, or would be impaled or sent into exile, and it’s said he would toss live animals and people from his tower).

Possibly the worst of his acts, however, came when he inadvertently killed his own son by striking him with his staff on the head. Ivan had been displeased with his daughter-in-law’s choice of clothes. When she refused to change, Ivan beat her and caused her to miscarry her pregnancy. When his son challenged his father for doing this to his wife, Ivan went into a rage and struck his son, sending him into a coma in which he would later die.

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