Ivan III
Muscovy's unifying sovereign
Ivan III, called Ivan the Great, was the Grand Prince of Moscow who ruled from 1462 to 1505.
He ended Mongol rule over Russia, consolidated power by absorbing rival principalities including Novgorod, and laid the foundations for the Russian state.
His marriage to a Byzantine princess led him to adopt the double-headed eagle and style himself as heir to the fallen Eastern Roman Empire—the origin of Moscow as the "Third Rome."
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- monarchHereditary supreme ruler
- centralizationUnifying control in one place
- campaignsOrganized efforts toward goals
- diplomacyNegotiation between nations
double-headed eagle · ruler · unifier · Orthodox Christianity · sovereign · succession · governance · tribute · czar · autocrat · bureaucracy · fortresses · alliances · Moscow · expansionism · tsar · patriarch · fortifications
- 1400s EuropeLeonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Spanish Inquisition, printing press, Columbus
- 15th Century FiguresChristopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Gutenberg, Joan of Arc, Isabella I
- Renaissance RulersHenry VIII, Elizabeth I, Suleiman the Magnificent, Philip II, Mary I
- Russian RulersPeter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas II, Elizabeth, Anna
- Muscovite RussiaPeter the Great, Romanov dynasty, tsars, boyars, Kremlin
- Late Medievalfeudal lords, Black Death, knighthood, medieval knights, bubonic plague
stance toward mongol rule
Ivan IIIAlexander Nevsky