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The End of the Oprichnina

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The End of the Oprichnina 396 Chapter 16 Chapter 16 The End of the Oprichnina In resuming the struggle for Livonia, the Russian government counted on an alliance with one of the greatest maritime powers – England. The English queen, however, rejected the draft treaty accepted by her envoy in Vologda and confined herself to vague promises regarding friendly ties. The queen’s council sent a secret communiqué to Moscow promising Ivan and his family asylum if he was overtaken by some unfortunate occurrence, conspiracy, or external hostility. The autocrat’s pride was wounded. The tsar categorically insisted on the conclusion of an agreement with the queen that each would provide the other with refuge in the event of need. The clear response from London, how- ever, was that Elizabeth had no intention of leaving her country. The failure of plans for an Anglo-Russian alliance and dissatisfaction over the secret agree- ment prompted Ivan to immediately annul the privileges granted to the Eng- lish Muscovy Company and to confiscate part of its goods. In a letter to the queen on 24 October 1570, the tsar wrote: “Our business has not been conclud- ed as your ambassador [Randolph – R.S.] stated … And in the light of that, We too shall set these affairs aside.” The tsar went on to demand the return of all the letters patent he had given to the English company and informed London that “all the charters on commercial matters granted by Us before today are invalid.”1 The peace settlement on the western borders was flimsy and short-lived, but it freed Russia’s hands for war with Sweden. On 25 June 1570, the Boyar Duma ratified the decision to move forces up to Reval (Kolyvan’ in the Russian chron- icles), which was tantamount to declaring war on Sweden. The fall of Reval would inevitably have meant the end of Swedish dominion in Estland. The continuing hostilities between Denmark and Sweden encouraged Rus- sia to hope for the support of Denmark and the Danish navy. Duke Magnus had made the tsar a firm promise of such military assistance. But trusting the duke’s assurances proved an unfortunate blunder for oprichnina diplomacy. At the height of the Russian siege of Reval, Denmark made peace with Sweden. The hoped-for alliance with Copenhagen came to naught. The Livonian king approached Revel on 21 August 1570. His army numbered some one thousand men including mercenary landsknechts and three squad- rons of Livonian nobles. This force was wholly inadequate for a siege of the 1 Poslaniia 1951, pp. 142f. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/9789004304017_017 The End of the Oprichnina 397 fortress. Magnus, however, placed his trust more in persuasion than in force. During the first months of the siege, he wrote a continuous stream of letters to those commanding the fortress. Early in September, the Russians brought some light artillery to Magnus’s camp from Narva, but the small cannon did not cause any damage to the city. On 16 October two voevody appeared outside Reval: Ivan Yakovlev-Zakhar’in with zemshchina units and Vasilii Umnoi-Koly- chev with oprichniki. Between them they had an army of 4,000–5,000 men. The voevody called on the defenders of Reval to submit, threatening severe punishments for resistance. In Ivan’s name they demanded the surrender of the city to the tsar’s “vassal” and promised to open the way to all parts of Russia for the merchants of Reval to trade freely. The city magistracy rejected their demands, but the oprichniki did not display valour on the field of battle and began instead to plunder and burn defenceless villages in the hinterland of Reval. Magnus understood that the oprichnina savagery would lose him the support of the Livonian nobles. His attempt to reason with his allies resulted in a sharp clash with the voevody. In this argument Ivan IV took the side of the Livonian king. On the tsar’s orders, the two senior commanders, Ivan Yakovlev- Zakhar’in and Vasilii Umnoi-Kolychev, were arrested and taken to Moscow in irons. King Magnus’s retinue hastened to explain their detention as a punish- ment for cruelty towards their master’s Livonian subjects. In a letter to the commanders of Reval they claimed that the “wicked voevody” had wanted to blacken Magnus in the eyes of the tsar and ruin the good city of Reval for ever. “When the tsar learned of such roguish dealings, … he gave orders last Saturday for both voevody to be taken from here in chains and withdrew all the oprich- niki.” The arrest of the voevody was connected not so much with excesses in Livo- nia as with the continuing investigation into Novgorodian treachery and the withdrawal of the oprichnina detachments was due to the need to refresh the strength of the besiegers. The change of forces led to the complete suspension of siege works. It was in this period of complete inaction that Magnus informed the defenders that he “had no intention of lifting the siege and was only wait- ing for the arrival of Prince Yurii [Tokmakov] with a huge force and artillery.”2 Travelling by the winter route, Tokmakov’s army arrived outside Reval on 12 January 1571. The onset of freezing weather made siege works more difficult. The voevody could not get the cannon close enough to the city walls and a month and a half of bombardment did not yield the desired results. 2 A. Chumikov, “Osada Revelia (1570–1571) gertsogom Magnusom,” Chteniia OIRD, 1891, Book 2, pp. 21, 29f..
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