Muscovy Sentence Examples

During the next ten years (1560-1J70) terrible and horrible things happened in the realm of Muscovy.

The Baltic seaboard was lost to Muscovy for another century and a half.

Nor was the trade to Muscovy and Turkey neglected; while latterly a resolute and successful attempt was made to establish direct commercial relations with India.

The use of the name in its most comprehensive sense dates only from the expansion of the empire in the 19th century; to the historian who writes of the earlier growth of the empire, Russia means, at most, Russia in Europe, or Muscovy, as it was usually called until the 18th century, from Moscow, its ancient capital.

The complete suppression of these small moribund states and the creation of the autocratic tsardom of Muscovy were the work of Ivan III., surnamed the Great, his son Basil and his grandson Ivan IV., commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, whose united reigns cover a period of 122 years (1462-1584).

The tsars of Muscovy meant to be autocratic rulers alike in their old and in their new territories.

Now the tsar of Muscovy and of all Russia adopted the airs and methods of a Tatar khan and surrounded himself with the pomp and splendours of a Byzantine emperor.

According to Siegmund von Herberstein (1486-1566), an Austrian envoy who visited Moscow at that period, no sovereign in Europe was obeyed like the grand-prince of Muscovy, and his court was remarkable for barbaric luxury.

Those of the Volga and the Don professed allegiance to the tsar of Muscovy, whilst those of the Dnieper recognized at first as their suzerain the king of Poland.

Here lay the principality of Lithuania and beyond it the kingdom of Poland, two loosely conglomerated states which had been created by the Piast and Gedymin dynasties in pretty much the same way as the tsardom of Muscovy had been created by the descendants of Rurik.

Though severely tried by disappointments and defeats he never lost hope, and when he died in 1584 he was preparing to renew the struggle and endeavouring to form for that purpose an alliance with England; his great idea, however, was not to be realized till more than a century later, and meanwhile the tsardom of Muscovy had to pass through a severe internal crisis in which its existence was seriously endangered.

Smolensk and Chernigov were definitely incorporated in the tsardom of Muscovy, and great progress was made towards the absorption of Little Russia.

The importance of these incidents, which are very characteristic of political life in the tsardom of Muscovy, will appear in the sequel.

He strengthened his position by giving his daughter Sophia in marriage to Vasily, grand-duke of Muscovy; but he never felt secure beneath the wing of the Teutonic Order, and when Jagiello removed Skirgiello from the government of Lithuania and offered it to Witowt, the compact of Ostrow (5th of August 1392) settled all differences between them.

He was the only Russian statesman of the day with sufficient foresight to grasp the fact that the Baltic seaboard, or even a part of it, was worth more to Muscovy than ten times the same amount of territory in Lithuania, and, despite ignorant jealousy of his colleagues, succeeded (Dec. 1658) in concluding a three-years' truce whereby the Muscovites were left in possession of all their conquests in Livonia.

He also set on foot a postal system between Muscovy, Courland and Poland, and introduced gazettes and bills of exchange into Russia.

At one time it was used for window panes of houses and the port-holes of Russian men-of-war, being commonly known as "Muscovy glass."

Poland was restrained by his alliances with the Teutonic Knights and the tsardom of Muscovy, and his envoys appeared in Persia and in Egypt to combat the diplomacy of the Porte.

What is not quite so generally known is the fact that Leopold slackened at once and would have been quite content with the results of these earlier victories had not the pope stiffened his resistance by forming a Holy League between the Emperor, Poland, Venice, Muscovy and the papacy, with the avowed object of dealing the Turk the coup de grace (March 5, 1684).

From1610-1618he was a prisoner in the hands of the Polish king, Sigismund III., whom he refused to acknowledge as tsar of Muscovy on being sent on an embassy to the Polish camp in 1610.

Henceforth, till his death, the established government of Muscovy was a diarchy.

The Teutonic knights in the north and the Tatar hordes in the south were equally bent on the subjection of Lithuania, while Olgierd's eastern and western neighbours, Muscovy and Poland, were far more frequently hostile competitors than serviceable allies.

Nevertheless, Olgierd not only succeeded in holding his own, but acquired influence and territory at the expense of both Muscovy and the Tatars, and extended the borders of Lithuania to the shores of the Black Sea.

His relations with the grand-dukes of Muscovy were friendly on the whole, and twice he married orthodox Russian princesses; but this did not prevent him from besieging Moscow in 1368 and again in 1372, both times unsuccessfully.

Indeed, but for the unceasing simultaneous struggle with the Teutonic knights, the burden of which was heroically borne by Kiejstut, Russian historians frankly admit that Lithuania, not Muscovy, must have become the dominant power of eastern Europe.

On the conclusion of the Peace of Oliva, which adjusted the long outstanding differences between Poland and Sweden, Czarniecki was transferred to the eastern frontier where the war with Muscovy was still raging.

Five years after the death of Gedymin, Olgierd, the most capable of his seven sons, had been placed upon the throne of Lithuania by his devoted brother Kiejstut, and for the next two-and-thirty years (1345-1377) the two princes still further extended the sway of Lithuania, principally at the expense of Muscovy and the Tatars.

Many Russian historians even maintain that, but for the fact that Witowt had simultaneously to cope with the Teutonic Order and the Tatars, that energetic prince would certainly have extinguished struggling Muscovy altogether.

This was owing partly to the evils of an oligarchic government; partly to the weakness resulting from the natural attraction of the Orthodox-Greek element in Lithu ania towards Muscovy, especially after the fall of Constantinople, but chiefly to the administrative superiority of the highly centralized Muscovite government.

All the Baltic powers were more or less interested in the apportionment of this vast tract of land, whose geographical position made it not only the chief commercial link between east and west, but also the emporium whence the English, Dutch, Swedes, Danes and Germans obtained their corn, timber and most of the raw products of Lithuania and Muscovy.

Poland and Muscovy as the nearest neighbours of this moribund state, which had so long excluded them from the sea, were vitally concerned in its fate.

For instance, he was never misled by the successes of the false Demetrius in Muscovy, and wisely insisted on recovering the great eastern fortress of Smolensk rather than attempting the conquest of Moscow.

Hunters and fishermen frequented its innumerable rivers, returning home laden with rich store of fish and pelts, while runaway serfs occasionally settled in small communities beneath the shelter of the fortresses built, from time to time, to guard the 'southern frontiers of Poland and Muscovy.

Obliged, for fear of the Tatars, to go about with arms in their hands, these settlers gradually grew strong enough to raid their raiders, selling the booty thus acquired to the merchants of Muscovy and Poland.

All hope of an independent Cossackdom was now at an end; yet it was not Poland but Muscovy which reaped the fruits of Czarniecki's victory.

Chmielnicki, by suddenly laying bare the nakedness of the Polish republic, had opened the eyes of Muscovy to the fact that her secular enemy was no longer formidable.

The war with Muscovy was then prosecuted with renewed energy and extraordinary success.

Kiev, the religious metropolis of western Russia, was to remain in the hands of Muscovy for two years.

Muscovy had done with Poland as an adversary, and had no longer any reason to fear her ancient enemy.

Razin proclaimed that his object was to root out the boyars and all officials, to level all ranks and dignities, and establish Cossackdom, with its corollary of absolute equality, throughout Muscovy.

Meanwhile the war with Muscovy broke out, and Chodkiewicz was sent against Moscow with an army of 2000 men - though if there had been a spark of true patriotism in Poland he could easily have marshalled Ioo,000.

Moreover, the diet neglected to pay for the maintenance even of this paltry 2000, with the result that they mutinied and compelled their leader to retreat through the heart of Muscovy to Smolensk.

He civilized the north-eastern and southeastern borders of Muscovy by building numerous towns and fortresses to keep the Tatar and Finnic tribes in order.

He also re-colonized Siberia, which had been slipping from the grasp of Muscovy, and formed scores of new settlements, including Tobolsk and other large centres.

The Baltic was a closed door to Muscovy, and the key to it was held by Sweden.

The Swedish government was in the hands of an untried lad of sixteen; and the fine fleets of Denmark, and the veteran soldiers of Saxony, were on the same side as the myriads of Muscovy.

Brand-new institutions on Western models were gradually growing up among the cumbrous, antiquated, wornout machinery of old Muscovy; and new men, like Menshikov, Goloykin, Apraksin, Osterman, Kurakin, Tolstoy, Shafirov, Prokopovich, Yaguszhinsky, Yavorsky, all capable, audacious, and brimful of new ideas, were being trained under the eye of the great regenerator to help him to carry on his herculean task.

The whole system of Peter was deliberately directed against the chief evils from which old Muscovy had always suffered, such as dissipation of energy, dislike of co-operation, absence of responsibility, lack of initiative, the tyranny of the family, the insignificance of the individual.

The simultaneous collapse of Muscovy had given Poland an unexampled opportunity of rendering the tsardom for ever harmless.

His principal difficulties were due to the aggressiveness of Muscovy and the disloyalty of Prussia.

In his reign the grand-duchy of Muscovy became practically hereditary, and asserted its supremacy over all the surrounding principalities.

The most important ecclesiastical event of the reign was the elevation of the Bulgarian, Gregory Tsamblak, to the metropolitan see of Kiev (1425) by Vitovt, grand-duke of Lithuania; the immediate political consequence of which was the weakening of the hold of Muscovy on the south-western Russian states.

A crafty prince, with all the tenacity of his race, Basil succeeded in incorporating with Muscovy the last remnants of the ancient independent principalities, by accusing the princes of Ryazan and Syeversk of conspiracy against him, seizing their persons, and annexing their domains (1517-1523).

The loss of Smolensk was the first serious injury inflicted by Muscovy on Poland and only the exigencies of Sigismund compelled him to acquiesce in its surrender (1522).

He was opposed to the expedition sent to place the false Demetrius on the throne of Muscovy; but nevertheless accompanied the king to Smolensk and was sent thence with a handful of men against Moscow.

Still more offensive was the attitude of Sweden's eastern neighbour Muscovy, with whom the Swedish king was nervously anxious to stand on good terms. Gustavus attributed to Ivan IV., whose resources he unduly magnified, the design of establishing a universal monarchy round the Baltic.

Hitherto Charles had aimed at supporting the weaker Slavonic power against the stronger; but now that Muscovy seemed about to disappear from among the nations of Europe, Swedish statesmen naturally sought some compensation for the expenses of the war before Poland had had time to absorb everything.

By the beginning of 1616, Gustavus had become convinced of the impossibility of partitioning reunited Muscovy, while Muscovy recognized the necessity of buying off the invincible Swedes by some cession of territory.

In return for these concessions, Gustavus restored Great Novgorod and acknowledged Michael Romanov as tsar of Muscovy.

There is,1 however, also shown, as a result of the Afghan intrusion and the impotency of the later Safawid kings, a long broad strip of country to the west, including Tabriz and Hamadan, marked conquests of the Turks, and the whole west shore of the Caspian from Astrakan to Mazandaran marked conquests of the czar of Muscovy; Makran, written Mecran, is designated a warlike independent nation.

Next year Hudson was again sent by the Muscovy Company to open a passage to China, this time by the north-east route between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, which had been attempted by his predecessors and especially by the Dutch navigator William Barents.

The failure of this second attempt satisfied the Muscovy Company, which thenceforward directed all its energies to the profitable Spitzbergen trade.

Physically and mentally deficient, Ivan was the mere tool of the party in Muscovy who would have kept the children of the tsar Alexis, by his second consort Natalia Naruishkina, from the throne.

Under the increasing pressure of Russia (Muscovy) the Teutonic Knights in 1561 found it expedient to put themselves under the suzerainty of Poland, the grandmaster Gotthard Kettler.

Poland and Muscovy competed for his alliance, and in his more exalted moods he meditated an Orthodox crusade against the Turk at the head of the northern Sla y s.

Instinct told him that his old ally the khan of the Crimea was unreliable, and that the tsar of Muscovy was his natural protector, yet he could not make up his mind to abandon the one or turn to the other.

They had to content themselves with the Arctic Ocean and Muscovy; and they soon found themselves at war in Philips interests.

This he did by the peace of Kardis (July 2, 1661), whereby Muscovy retroceded all her conquests.

An English factory was erected on the lower Dvina soon after that date, and in 1584 a fort was built, around which the town grew up. Archangel was for long the only seaport of Russia (or Muscovy).

Gedymin also secured an alliance with the grand-duchy of Muscovy by marrying his daughter, Anastasia, to the grandduke Simeon.

But he was strong enough to counterpoise the influence of Muscovy in northern Russia, and assisted the republic of Pskov, which acknowledged his overlordship, to break away from Great Novgorod.

By this peace Gustavus succeeded in excluding Muscovy from the Baltic. "I hope to God," he declared to the Stockholm diet in 1617, when he announced the conclusion of peace, "that the Russians will feel it a bit difficult to skip over that little brook."

Does this gnarled old Muscovy duck bare a resemblance to a certain narrowboat navigator?

Ivan meditated the regeneration of Muscovy, and the only men who could assist him in his task were men who could look steadily forward to the future because they had no past to look back upon, men who would unflinchingly obey their sovereign because they owed their whole political significance to him alone.

It was not only the first territorial conquest from the Tatars, before whom Muscovy had humbled herself for generations; at Kazan Asia, in the name of Mahomet, had fought behind its last trench against Christian Europe marshalled beneath the banner of the tsar of Muscovy.

But all his neighbours, apprehensive of the consequences of a civilized Muscovy, combined to thwart him.

Matvyeev remained paramount to the end of the reign and introduced play-acting and all sorts of refining western novelties into Muscovy.

Gradually, however, the chancelleries had to withdraw their protests, for it came to be generally recognized that the semibarbarian, who died at the early age of fifty-three, had transformed the oriental tsardom of Muscovy into a state of the Western type and had made it a powerful member of the European family of nations (see Peter I.).

For him it was no new conviction that his presence in any part of the world, from Africa to the steppes of Muscovy alike, was enough to dumfound people and impel them to insane self-oblivion.