Humpday History Highlight

On this date in history, January 16, 1547, Ivan IV Vasilyevich, aka "Ivan the Terrible" was crowned Russia's first czar.

. . . Despite calamities triggered by the Great Fire of 1547, the early part of his reign was one of peaceful reforms and modernization. Ivan revised the law code (known as the sudebnik), created a standing army (the streltsy), established the first Russian parliament of the feudal estates (the Zemsky Sobor), the council of the nobles (known as the Chosen Council), and confirmed the position of the Church with the Council of the Hundred Chapters, which unified the rituals and ecclesiastical regulations of the entire country . . .

The latter part of Ivan's reign saw the czar suffer many mental and physical ailments.

. . . In 1581, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, which may have caused a miscarriage. His son, also named Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father, which resulted in Ivan striking his son in the head with his pointed staff, causing his son's (accidental) death. This event is depicted in the famous painting by Ilya Repin, Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on Friday, November 16, 1581 better known as Ivan the Terrible killing his son . . .

And here's an item you may not have known:

Although it is thought by many that Ivan died while setting up a chess board, it is more likely that he died while playing chess with Bogdan Belsky on March 18, 1584. When Ivan's tomb was opened during renovations in the 1960s, his remains were examined and discovered to contain very high amounts of mercury, indicating a high probability that he was poisoned. (H/T - Wikipedia)

Two terrific and interesting sources of information on this week's subject can be found in The History Channel's miniseries, Russia: Land of the Tsars and Ivan the Terrible, which is occasionally seen on Turner Classic Movies. Both are truly excellent.