
Ivan the Terrible showing his treasure to the English Ambassador. (Alexander Litovchenko 1875) The Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg.
Did Ivan the Terrible propose to Elizabeth the First of England?
I have been researching my Royal Connections talk that I will be giving to several historical societies later this year.
Relations between the Russian and English royal families go back further than you might think. The later Tudors, starting with Mary and Philip, were in regular contact with Russia. Their correspondence related to the privileges enjoyed by the English Muscovy Company, founded in 1555, which enjoyed special trading rights with Russia for 100 years.
In 1556 the first Russian envoys reached the English court and after that time what were called ‘embassies’ travelled with some regularity between the two countries, although no permanent physical building was established in England at that early date.
Relationships between the two countries became very cordial under Elizabeth (1533- 1603) (reigned 1558 – 1603). The Queen’s advisors wrote a letter on 1st May 1570 offering asylum to Ivan lV (better known as Ivan the Terrible) in the case of his needing to flee Russia as a result of the ongoing Livonian War. The letter was signed by Bacon, Leycester and Cecil.
There is no document in the archives relating to the rumoured, and often still asserted, offer of marriage from Ivan to Elizabeth. This was not altogether surprising. It is said that the highly sensitive matter could not be trusted to paper and that the message from the hopeful bridegroom was conveyed orally through the English envoy, Anthony Jenkinson.
A letter in October 1570 refers to ‘secret business of great value’ that was entrusted by Ivan to Jenkinson. Ivan would have been 40 years old at the time. He had been a widower twice, and rumours suggested that he had poisoned two of his previous wives. In the light of this, having already dodged much more attractive suitors, it is not surprising that Elizabeth refused.
Ivan, possibly upset by the brush-off, is known to have written a fairly abusive letter back to Elizabeth, saying that she was not really in control of England, but simply a ‘common girl.’
Communication ceased for some years, but then, still seeking a wife, Ivan turned his attention to Elizabeth’s lady in waiting, Lady Ann Hastings. Ivan dispatched a Russian boyar, Grigory Pisemkoy, to England to make a formal request. He was accompanied back to Russia by an English envoy, Sir James Bowes, who ‘threw every obstacle in the way of the match’ much to Ivan’s irritation.
Ivan died the following year with the matter unresolved. A period of relative inactivity between the two courts then followed as Russia fell into the chaotic period known as the Time of Troubles.