Ivan IV. Terrible - Murderer and Christian on the Throne
The great boyar and princely families were both supporters and opponents of the Muscovite dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries. The power of the Grand Prince of Moscow protected them from the ravages of local wars and nomadic raids, but they also sought to share in this power. In this ambiguous relationship of the boyars to the monarch, respect for the authority of the throne clearly prevailed after the death of Vasily III (1533). They stood up for his then three-year-old son Ivan and did not abandon him even after the death of his mother Yelena Glinskaya (she was poisoned in 1538). They ruled in his name, enriched themselves, but did not allow the right of the underage monarch to be questioned. Both uncles of little Ivan - Yuri and Andrei, brothers of Vasily III - ended up in the famine. This loyalty of the boyars to little Ivan was primarily the work of their egotism, which commanded to support a ruler who could not rule himself. This opened the way for the powerful families to have unlimited oligarchic rule.