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00:12On March the 18th, 1584, the bells of Moscow rang out to mark the death of one of the most
00:18violent rulers in history. A man of extremes, he bedded thousands of women as well as killing
00:26and torturing anyone who crossed him. The courtiers watching over his funeral had all learned
00:36to fear the man they knew as Ivan the Terrible. Strangely, Ivan's sudden death came on the
00:45very day the fortune tellers had predicted. Divine intuition or, according to rumours
00:51on the Moscow streets, a palace coup. For decades, scientists and historians have argued
01:00over the facts. But now, a leading criminologist investigates whether Russia's first Tsar was,
01:06in fact, murdered.
01:11In fact, in some instances, we had to be a very cruel man to say, which again
01:24Love you, have an Marilyn.
01:30Love you, have an L.L.A.
01:38Love you, have an Ezra.
01:38As a criminologist, murder is my business.
01:43I've worked with some of the most violent offenders in Britain
01:46to find out why they kill.
01:49Now I've come to Moscow to unpick the facts
01:52surrounding the death of a 16th-century serial killer.
01:56I've always been fascinated by Ivan the Terrible
02:00and why he took such a personal delight in brutalising
02:04and killing his own people.
02:07Historians have debated about whether he was mad or just bad.
02:13But what I'm interested in finding out
02:15is could the man who murdered so many of his own citizens
02:19have himself been murdered?
02:31For many people in Russia, Ivan is a national hero
02:35and yet he was a man of huge contradictions.
02:42He believed he was chosen to save the souls of his people
02:45but he put thousands to death in bloody purges.
02:49He fought to secure his family's right to the throne
02:53but killed his own son and heir.
03:01Throughout his reign, he waged holy wars
03:03on the lands that surrounded Russia,
03:06building up a huge empire.
03:09But these campaigns drained Russia.
03:12When he died in 1584,
03:15he left behind a broken land
03:27to find out if any of those enemies ultimately killed him,
03:31I had to establish who had the means,
03:34the motive and the opportunity.
03:36As a criminologist,
03:38the first thing I would normally do
03:40is to look for witness statements.
03:43Although Ivan's legacy clearly lives on,
03:46tracking down such evidence from the 16th century
03:49could be difficult.
03:51I needed some specialist advice.
03:54So, Jana, where are you taking me to?
03:56I'm taking you to the manuscript department
03:58of the Historic Museum.
04:00Jana Howlett is an eminent historian
04:03who has an in-depth knowledge
04:04of 16th century Russian manuscripts.
04:07And what I want to do is show you two
04:09which are directly relevant to this whole story.
04:12Excellent.
04:12Hello.
04:13Do you remember me?
04:14Yes, of course.
04:15I'm very happy to see you.
04:17I have a book for you.
04:20I was hoping that these contemporary records
04:22would give me first-hand evidence
04:25for my case file.
04:26But as Jana explained,
04:28there could be problems.
04:31Russian historical narratives
04:33are not like contemporary European narratives.
04:37They don't discuss motives.
04:39They don't discuss anything
04:40that would go against what is the view
04:43of what is a czar's role, right?
04:46And it's certainly the notion
04:47that you would discuss someone preparing
04:49the death of a czar, for example,
04:51would be impossible
04:52because if any scribe wrote that down,
04:54he would be immediately beheaded for treason
04:56and therefore, you know,
04:58was immediately punishable by death.
04:59So you couldn't even really write
05:01about contemporary rulers
05:03as mere mortals.
05:06With this in mind,
05:08we began searching through the Russian chronicles
05:10written at the time
05:11to try and find out
05:12what they would say
05:14about the moment of Ivan's death.
05:15This is the Battle of Kazan,
05:17so it'll be somewhere after this.
05:19And the Holy Spirit...
05:21No, still miles away.
05:26Am I just being so naive
05:27as to be unimaginable
05:29that his death will be
05:30at the end of this chronicle?
05:31No, unfortunately,
05:32you are being naive
05:33because unfortunately
05:34the end of the chronicle
05:35doesn't coincide
05:36with the death of Ivan the Terrible,
05:37so that's why
05:38I am having this difficulty.
05:41Still bloody Kazan again.
05:44It seemed that finding
05:45an account of his death
05:46was going to be harder
05:48than I thought.
05:51Finally,
05:52tucked away in the museum's archive,
05:54we found a volume
05:55of the Russian chronicles
05:56which did mention Ivan's death,
05:59but it had all the hallmarks
06:01of Russian censorship.
06:03So I'll read you what happened
06:05according to the chronicle
06:07at his death.
06:08OK.
06:09And it says here
06:10in the year 1584
06:12the Tsar and Grand Prince
06:14Ivan Vasilevich of all Russia
06:16died in March
06:18on the 19th day
06:20at five o'clock
06:21in the evening.
06:23He had lived for 54 years
06:24and he was buried
06:26in the Archangel Cathedral
06:27in Moscow.
06:29So the chronicle
06:29makes no mention
06:31of a murder.
06:32The chronicle
06:33does not identify
06:34suspects or people
06:35who did the dirty deed.
06:37Most of the really
06:39interesting stories
06:40that you read
06:40about Ivan's death
06:41is based on accounts
06:44written by Westerners
06:45of whom one of the most famous
06:47is Jerome Horsey
06:49who claims to have written
06:51an account of Ivan's death
06:52based on an eyewitness experience.
06:55Oh, wait a minute.
06:55An eyewitness account
06:58of Ivan's death?
07:00That's what he claims.
07:02Could this be
07:03what I was looking for?
07:05To find out
07:06Jana led me to a place
07:07called the English House
07:09to see a copy
07:10of the manuscript.
07:13It was here
07:14round the corner
07:15from the Kremlin
07:15that English diplomats
07:17stayed in the time of Ivan
07:19and it could have been here
07:21that Horsey
07:22wrote his observations.
07:25Jana, explain to me
07:27a little bit
07:27about Jerome Horsey.
07:29He was a trader
07:31from London
07:33who worked in Moscow.
07:35He came to Moscow
07:35on several embassies
07:37and then was sent
07:38also by the court
07:39of Ivan
07:40to England
07:41on several embassies.
07:43So clearly
07:43he was somebody
07:44who was close
07:44to the court
07:45and who had spent
07:47several years here.
07:48So Jerome Horsey
07:50was actually in Moscow
07:51living and working
07:53at the time
07:53of Ivan's death.
07:55In March 84
07:56as far as we know
07:57he was definitely
07:57in Moscow.
07:58Read to me
07:59what he says
08:00about the last few hours
08:01of Ivan's life.
08:02He says
08:03that the emperor
08:05in his scout shirt
08:07and linen
08:08made great preparation
08:09for the bath.
08:11He came out
08:12about the seventh hour
08:14was brought forth
08:16and sat down
08:17upon his bed.
08:26He called his gentleman
08:28who he favoured
08:28to bring the chessboard.
08:30He set his men
08:32his chief favourite
08:33Boris Fyodorovitch
08:34Garunov
08:35about him.
08:43They say
08:44today is the day
08:45I will draw
08:46my last breath
08:51but I
08:52feel myself
08:53reviving.
09:11then the emperor
09:12fates
09:13and falls backwards.
09:15One man was sent
09:16for Acquavita
09:19another to the apothecary
09:20for Marigold and Rosewater
09:22and to call
09:23his ghostly father
09:24and the physicians.
09:26In the mean
09:26he was strangled
09:28and stark dead.
09:29Strangled.
09:32Many people
09:33who've read this
09:34wonder whether
09:34in fact
09:35Horsey
09:36here means
09:37strangled
09:38or whether
09:39he's referring
09:40to some kind
09:41of internal
09:42strangulation
09:42blockage
09:43in the man's throat
09:44which prevented
09:45him from breathing.
09:47This might be
09:47the information
09:48that was actually
09:49being spoken about
09:50in the streets
09:51but didn't exist
09:51in the chronicles.
09:53It is not impossible
09:55that such information
09:57circulated in the streets
09:58but you cannot give him
10:00the status of an eyewitness
10:01I would have said
10:03unless at least
10:04there is some corroboration
10:05to the information
10:06that he gives.
10:08This looked like
10:09my first lead.
10:11Could it be that
10:12Horsey
10:12although not physically
10:14present at Ivan's death
10:15had spoken
10:17to someone
10:17who was?
10:19Yana's given me
10:21a copy
10:21of Horsey's account
10:22and other bits
10:24and pieces
10:24of documentary
10:26supporting evidence
10:27and you know
10:28she's right.
10:29I can't simply
10:30presume that Horsey
10:31was actually
10:32a witness
10:33to Ivan's death.
10:34I need other kinds
10:36of corroborating evidence.
10:38In fact
10:39I need to see
10:40the body.
10:48and for that
10:50I had to go
10:51to a place
10:51where Ivan's body
10:53has lain
10:53since his death
10:54the Archangel Cathedral
10:57deep within
10:58the foreboding walls
10:59of the Kremlin.
11:21I felt as if I was
11:23truly entering
11:24Ivan's world.
11:28To help
11:29in my investigation
11:30I'd arranged
11:31to meet
11:31my Russian translator
11:33Yelena Smolina
11:34and as we
11:37entered
11:38the Archangel Cathedral
11:39I knew
11:40this was my chance
11:41to come face
11:42to face
11:43with one
11:44of the cruelest
11:45men in history.
11:46gosh
11:47the arena
11:48I'm pointing
11:48at his neck
11:49at the place
11:50I've seen
11:51all this for the first time
11:52the very first time
11:53it was absolutely
11:55wonderful.
12:07The Archangel Cathedral
12:09contains all the tombs
12:10of the Russian royal family
12:12since the 16th century.
12:15Ivan's tomb
12:16lies in a room
12:17behind the altar
12:18of the church
12:19access is forbidden
12:21to all but the most privileged.
12:24But Yelena
12:25has arranged for me
12:26to meet the head
12:27of the archaeology department
12:29of the Kremlin
12:30Dr. Tatiana Panova.
12:33Hello.
12:34How are you?
12:36Thank you very much.
12:38I gather you can
12:38help me
12:39find Ivan
12:41the Terrible's tomb.
12:45To be allowed
12:46to pass through this door
12:47is an incredible opportunity.
12:57This is one
12:58of the very few times
13:00that Western television cameras
13:02have been allowed inside.
13:06And so is his body
13:08actually in there
13:09or is it lower down?
13:11This is just a tombstone.
13:14The body itself
13:14is below the floor level.
13:16However,
13:17Ivan hasn't lain here
13:19undisturbed
13:20since his death.
13:23When the Archangel Cathedral
13:25was refurbished
13:27in the 1960s,
13:28Ivan's body
13:29was exhumed
13:30under the watchful eye
13:31of the Soviet leadership.
13:33And after 500 years,
13:35his coffin
13:36was opened up.
13:44This gave scientists
13:45an opportunity
13:47to study his bone structure
13:49and allowed them
13:50to use techniques
13:51pioneered at the time
13:52to create a snapshot
13:54of how Ivan
13:55may have looked.
13:59Oh, my word.
14:02May I touch it?
14:07Look at this.
14:10There used to be
14:11a 19th century
14:13criminological theory
14:15that you could tell
14:16a lot about a person
14:17by the bumps
14:19on his head,
14:20phrenology.
14:20It was rubbish,
14:22of course,
14:22but look at his mouth.
14:24He's so contemptuous
14:26and the sharpness
14:27of his nose
14:28and his beard.
14:30He just looks
14:31very, very,
14:33very cruel.
14:36But the exhumation
14:37offered much more
14:39than the chance
14:39to see how Ivan looked.
14:42Examining the bones
14:44for any signs
14:44of fractures
14:45offered the possibility
14:47of discovering
14:48whether he was,
14:49in fact, strangled.
14:51Was there any evidence
14:53of physical trauma
14:54to the neck?
14:56Have you found
14:57some evidence
14:58that the neck had been
14:59no damage?
15:00No, there was no damage.
15:03No harm was done
15:04to the neck,
15:05which proves
15:06that he wasn't
15:08smothered
15:08or he wasn't choked.
15:10So he wasn't strangled?
15:11There's no evidence
15:12of strangling then?
15:13No, there's no evidence.
15:14So there's no evidence
15:14of relief?
15:15No.
15:16But that wasn't
15:17the end of the story.
15:18Scientists made
15:19an astonishing discovery
15:20when they carried out
15:22a chemical analysis
15:23of Ivan's remains.
15:27There was very high content
15:29of both mercury
15:30and arsenic
15:31in all their bones.
15:33At high enough levels
15:34to have killed them?
15:36Yes, it was known.
15:37There was a pretty high
15:38amount of artyth
15:40in theory.
15:41Well, the content
15:42was high enough
15:43to have killed
15:43the person.
15:45Yes.
15:49Surprisingly,
15:50in the 1960s,
15:51this research
15:52was carried no further.
15:54Ivan's bones
15:55were reburied
15:56and all that remains
15:58are some of the records
15:59and these photographs.
16:03It's hard to understand
16:04why,
16:05except to remember
16:06that we're talking
16:07about Soviet Russia
16:09when, bizarrely,
16:10Ivan was hailed
16:11as the savior
16:12as the savior
16:12of the masses.
16:13Any suggestion
16:15of a successful
16:16plot against him
16:17could have been dangerous.
16:22Dr. Panova,
16:23where are you taking me?
16:25In a Kremlin attic,
16:26Dr. Panova
16:27has been carrying out
16:29some controversial research
16:30which might have
16:31a crucial bearing
16:32on the cause
16:33of Ivan's death.
16:35So this is your office?
16:37Yes.
16:38It's our
16:39archaeological office.
16:40Although Ivan's bones
16:41were reburied 40 years ago,
16:44Dr. Panova has been able
16:45to get access
16:46to those of his mother,
16:47Elena Glenskaya.
16:49And for the past
16:50three years,
16:51her team has been carrying
16:52out extensive tests
16:53on Glenskaya
16:54as well as creating
16:55an accurate image
16:57of her.
16:57Oh, look at this.
16:58She's very,
17:00very beautiful.
17:01Mm-hmm.
17:04Elena Glenskaya
17:06was a powerful figure
17:07in 16th century Moscow.
17:11When Ivan was just
17:13three years old,
17:14his father died
17:15leaving Russia
17:15under his mother's control.
17:19She stopped at nothing
17:21to increase the power
17:22and influence
17:23of her family.
17:27She made many enemies
17:28amongst the ruling classes,
17:30executing them at will
17:31if they dared
17:32to stand in her way.
17:36But less than three years
17:38after she took charge,
17:39she died suddenly,
17:41leaving Ivan alone
17:42and isolated.
17:47Some have suggested
17:49hers was not
17:50a natural death.
17:57Dr. Panova
17:58has been searching
17:59to find any evidence
18:00of this.
18:02Among other things,
18:03her hair survived
18:05very well
18:06and criminologists
18:07or forensic experts
18:08studied the remains
18:10of the hair.
18:13And very high content
18:15of mercury
18:16was discovered.
18:17In the tissues
18:19of her body,
18:19in the bones
18:20of her body,
18:21everywhere.
18:21This is why
18:27it became quite obvious
18:30that she was poisoned
18:31and this is how she died.
18:32She was poisoned?
18:34Yes.
18:35It was a random act.
18:37They killed her.
18:37The content of mercury
18:40was so high
18:42that even experienced
18:43forensic experts
18:44were surprised
18:45and the tests
18:47were done twice
18:48just to confirm
18:50the findings
18:50and everyone
18:52came up with a conclusion
18:53that she was definitely
18:55murdered.
18:56Dr. Panova's research
18:58suggests that Ivan
18:59was brought up
19:00in a world
19:01in a world
19:01where poison
19:01and intrigue
19:02were a way of life
19:04making it far more likely
19:06that the mercury
19:07in Ivan's remains
19:08are an indication
19:10of murder.
19:13With the possible means
19:14of Ivan's death
19:15established,
19:16the next thing
19:17I needed to do
19:18was to find a motive.
19:20I've got to look
19:21at significant points
19:23in Ivan's life
19:25and by looking
19:26at the enemies
19:27that he created
19:28we might be able
19:30to list
19:30a group of suspects
19:32who would have had it
19:33in their interest
19:34to have killed him all.
19:38There are plenty
19:39of enemies
19:40to choose from.
19:41Much of Ivan's life
19:42is characterised
19:43by power struggles
19:44and you need
19:46to understand them
19:47to understand him.
19:51Several letters exist
19:53which were actually
19:53written by Ivan
19:55and these make
19:56reference to his
19:56bitterest enemies
19:57the boyars
19:59who tormented him
20:00even as a child.
20:11They began to feed us
20:13as though we were
20:14foreigners
20:15with the most
20:16wretched menials.
20:19Suffering did I not
20:21endure.
20:21through lack
20:22of clothing
20:23and hunger
20:24for in all
20:25these things
20:26my will
20:27was not my own.
20:35I wanted to find out
20:36more about the boyars
20:38so I arranged
20:39to meet
20:39Professor Borisov
20:40a Russian historian
20:42who specialises
20:43in 16th century
20:44political history.
20:45The boyars
20:46well they were
20:48the top level
20:49aristocracy
20:50and practically
20:51they were
20:51the ruling class.
20:52They were
20:53military leaders
20:54governors
20:55landlords
20:56and here
20:57they had
20:58their palaces
20:58their monasteries
20:59their churches.
21:01So what was
21:01life like
21:02in Russia
21:03when the boyars
21:04were in charge?
21:06Well you know
21:07under the boyars
21:09Russia was
21:09practically in chaos
21:11because the boyars
21:12were generally
21:13interested
21:14in a struggle
21:16among themselves
21:17they were
21:18in a sort
21:19of civil war.
21:23So Moscow
21:24at the time
21:24of the boyars
21:25was a brutal place
21:27where murder
21:28was the means
21:29to power.
21:34the young child
21:35understood
21:35nothing
21:36but violence.
21:38Unable to
21:39strike out
21:40at his tormentors
21:41Ivan took
21:42his frustrations
21:43out in other ways.
21:56Borisov's
21:57account of
21:57the young
21:57Tsar's life
21:58was not
21:59what I would
21:59have expected.
22:04Far from
22:05enjoying
22:05the privileges
22:06of a young royal
22:07he was ignored
22:08by those
22:08he believed
22:09should serve him.
22:10According to
22:11his own letters
22:12he was a servant
22:13in his own court.
22:19Then
22:19at the age
22:21of 13
22:21he decided
22:22to take
22:23the boyars
22:24on.
22:31he ordered
22:33one of the
22:33most prominent
22:34boyars
22:35to be arrested.
22:43Ivan accused
22:44the rest
22:45of having
22:45taken advantage
22:46of his extreme youth
22:47but he had
22:48decided
22:49to make an example
22:50of only one of them.
22:55He was to show
22:56no mercy
22:57to their leader.
23:02he was to
23:08look out
23:21through my work
23:24I know that children who are exposed to extreme violence at an early age often go on to display personality
23:31disorders of various kinds.
23:35The more I understand about Ivan's childhood, the more I begin to understand why he may have become so cruel,
23:42sadistic and psychotic later in his life.
23:47And when at 17 he declared himself to be divinely appointed, Ivan already seemed to be showing signs of delusion.
24:03In 1547 he had himself crowned Russia's first Tsar, a title which not only suggested his divine status, but it
24:12also suggested his desire for territorial expansion.
24:24With his position temporarily secured, he began to formulate plans which would change the face of Russia forever.
24:32Ivan launched a holy war against his traditional enemies, the Muslim Tartars, seeing them as infidels.
24:38His conquests of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia glorified him as the orthodox crusader and expanded Russia's borders like never before.
24:49This, above all else, would mark his place in history.
25:00His military success had kept the boyars at bay, but it took its toll on his health.
25:11Fearing for his life, Ivan demanded the boyars swear allegiance to his newborn son.
25:26The boyars appeared to go along with Ivan's request, but behind the scenes were planning a revolt.
25:47A request was sent to Ivan's cousin, Prince Saritza, to usurp the throne of Ivan's son, destroying Ivan's main goal
25:56in life to secure the Tsardom for his family line.
26:08It's clear from the records that Saritza lost his opportunity when Ivan made an unexpected recovery.
26:15But what this whole episode indicates to me is that Ivan was an increasingly isolated figure
26:21and had become acutely aware of the weakness of his position, possibly to the point of paranoia.
26:28What happened next confirmed Ivan's fears.
26:41When his much-loved wife, Anastasia Romanov, fell mysteriously ill, Ivan became convinced the boyars had a hand in it.
26:58She died soon after, poisoned, Ivan believed, by the boyars.
27:27Professor Borisov sees her death as a turning point for Ivan.
27:33Ivan dismissed his government, and he exiled his advisors, and many aristocratic families were attacked by him.
27:44He said, you killed my wife, you poisoned my wife, and now I have a right to revenge.
27:50After Anastasia's death, once he starts this process of repressing the boyars, could that have given people a motive for
28:01killing Ivan?
28:02Sure. At that period, there were many people who hated him because of his repressions,
28:08and maybe some of them really wanted to kill him.
28:17With Anastasia gone, so too went his mental stability.
28:23Ivan started hallucinating and saw enemies everywhere.
28:27He became convinced he would be the next to die.
28:36It looked like Ivan was finally beaten.
28:54Reading through the historical records, it would seem that just at that point in time,
28:59when Ivan was under the greatest threat from the boyars,
29:03he did something that the boyars couldn't have expected.
29:07Ivan abdicated.
29:09He literally packed his bags and left Moscow.
29:35Ivan traveled a hundred miles outside Moscow to a place that had once been his father's retreat.
30:02This is the place.
30:04This is the place, this is Alexandrova Sloboda.
30:06a monastery where in 1564 Ivan left Moscow to come and seemingly take refuge.
30:18In fact, he wasn't taking refuge, he was playing a game of, kind of,
30:22a political game of Russian roulette with the boyars.
30:28Whilst Ivan bided his time here, there was uproar
30:32as the people rebelled at the prospect of the boyars, once again taking control of Russia.
30:53Just as Ivan had predicted, the boyars, fearing a revolt, begged him to return to Moscow.
31:02He agreed, but on one condition,
31:05that they acknowledge his God-given right to wield absolute power over Russia,
31:10punishing traitors by stripping them of their land and position.
31:16Little did the boyars know that by accepting this,
31:20they were signing their own death warrants.
31:29To carry out his plan, Ivan set up the Oprichniki,
31:33a ruthless band of men who, one by one, forced the boyars off their land.
31:39Those who refused were mercilessly rounded up and tortured to death.
31:56Here, within these walls, Ivan took great pleasure
32:00in seeing his enemies, the boyars, suffer.
32:29Over the seven years of the Oprichniki,
32:32the ranks of the boyars were decimated,
32:35and with them went their power and threat to Ivan.
32:39Push, push, push!
32:45You know, I'm sure there were
32:47lots of 16th and 17th century monarchs
32:52who tortured political opponents
32:56to extract confessions.
32:57But the thing about Ivan the Terrible was
33:00he seemed to not only personally participate
33:03in the process of torture,
33:06he actually enjoyed torturing.
33:09Now, as a criminologist,
33:12I know the kind of person who enjoys inflicting violence
33:16on his fellow human beings.
33:21Fantastic sadism, cruelty,
33:24outbursts of pathological behaviour.
33:26Really, he was, from the point of view
33:29of the people who lived under him,
33:30he was a disaster.
33:31I mean, the number of people who died,
33:33and died in horrible circumstances.
33:35You know, if you are caught, so to speak,
33:37answering back in a party to Ivan,
33:41you will be sent down to the cellars
33:44and disposed of by his huntsmen.
33:45He was very sadistic.
33:47Isabel de Madriaga is the grand dame
33:49of Russian history.
33:51She has her own theories on Ivan.
33:53Do you think he was mad?
33:54I don't like the word mad.
33:56I don't know what mad means.
33:57There are so many different forms of madness.
33:59I think he was unbalanced,
34:01and more unbalanced as he grew older.
34:04Is part of that created by the circumstance
34:06of his childhood, the loss of his father,
34:08the loss of his mother,
34:09the violence he was exposed to as a child?
34:12I don't quite know to what extent
34:16what he describes is enough to account for
34:19the destabilisation of personality
34:22that he obviously suffered from,
34:24or whether there was some other genetic predisposition.
34:27So he's got this very kind of paranoid mindset.
34:31Well, I think that he becomes paranoid in jumps.
34:35It's not a...
34:36A linear process.
34:37No, it doesn't go smoothly more and more from day to day.
34:40But every now and then, it just...
34:42And then it goes, and then it goes.
34:44And you get these episodes of fantastic cruelty and sadism.
34:49And then, for a while, maybe it calms down, and so on.
34:53The development of Ivan's sadistic madness
34:56was more erratic than I'd thought.
35:00The result of it, however,
35:02was to destroy all the boyars he thought were a threat.
35:11A new circle of advisers was to surround Ivan,
35:14and it was to them that I was to look for the murder suspect.
35:20After all, I know that murder is more often than not
35:24committed by someone close to the victim.
35:32With this criminological truism in mind,
35:35I went to Moscow Scientific Institute
35:37to meet someone who believed he had evidence
35:39that could back up this theory.
35:45Professor Boris Floria directed me to an account
35:48which surfaced after Ivan's death,
35:51which he is sure is written
35:52by one of Ivan's closest advisers.
35:56There is a version about Ivan the Terrible being murdered,
36:03being poisoned.
36:04And the only person who could have given poison
36:08to Ivan the Terrible could have been his favorite,
36:14Bogdan Belsky.
36:16Bogdan Belsky.
36:18He was the person, he was the only person from whose hands
36:23Ivan the Terrible accepted medicine.
36:27Is it possible that Belsky could have poisoned Ivan?
36:31Bogdan Belsky could have forgiven Ivan the Terrible.
36:41No one else but Bogdan Belsky could have given poison
36:45Ivan the Terrible.
36:47We have documents proving
36:48that all the medicines,
36:51that all the drugs that Ivan the Terrible was taking,
36:54were being prepared
36:56under bogdan Belsky's supervision.
36:58It is probably possible.
37:01well I don't know about you but for me that was incredibly exciting because for the very first
37:06time I felt we got a suspect he tells us that Belsky Bogdan Belsky is somebody who mixes his
37:15medicines who could have delivered poison to him and this account is supported to some extent by
37:22Horsey's account confirming that Belsky was in the room at the time that Ivan died the Chronicles
37:32tells that Belsky had risen up from lowly origin to become Ivan's trusted advisor to try to find out
37:48why Belsky might have wanted Ivan dead I returned to England to meet the historian Maureen Perry but
37:57she took me straight back to the Horsey account although surprisingly it was not the one I was
38:03used to this version that you have is the full text of Horsey's manuscript which in fact was only first
38:12published in the 19th century but there is another shorter version of Horsey's travels published in
38:23his own lifetime which does in fact have an interesting difference from the longer version so if you see
38:33here you have the paragraph in which he describes the actual death of Ivan the Terrible suddenly collapsing
38:42he faints and falls backwards
38:50one man was sent for aqua vitae meantime he was strangled and here you can see the word strangled
38:59is followed by an asterisk and in the margin here against the asterisk we have the words suppose the
39:07act of Belsky and Boris that's Bogdan Belsky and Boris Godinov his two courtiers and favorites at the
39:16end of his life and that is not in the published version that you've been using so what this version
39:25is actually saying is that there are two suspects Belsky and Godinov yes he names the two suspects so
39:34Belsky may have had an accomplice Boris Godinov
39:42Godinov was a court noble who had like Belsky risen up through the ranks of the
39:47of the old Christian key his sister had married Ivan's son so he held great sway at court but both
39:55of
39:55these men owed their success to Ivan's patronage Maureen I'm clearly missing something here because
40:05I don't understand why Godinov and Belsky would want to kill the person on whom their power and prestige
40:14lives yes exactly that's a that's a good point and I think in order to explain it it helps if
40:22we
40:23consider the whole question of the succession to the throne Ivan and his eldest son and heir Ivan
40:33Ivanovich were close and known to share everything between them they were rumored to have bedded thousands
40:42of virgins and orgies of sex and drink but the line of succession that Ivan had spent his life securing
40:51would be dealt a devastating blow in 1581 after an argument Ivan had an irrational and inexplicable mood
41:03swing which resulted in the unthinkable
41:15Ivanovich fell into a coma and died soon after leaving Ivan overcome with grief
41:30and now he faced a dynastic crisis
41:36Ivan knew his remaining son Fyodor was a simpleton and unlikely to secure Russia against a growing threat
41:43from its neighbors he would have to look elsewhere for an heir it was to England and the court of
41:56Queen
41:56Elizabeth the first that Ivan sent his envoy in a bid to gain an alliance through marriage this would
42:03be good news for Russia's trading power but bad news for Belsky and good enough Boris Godinov's position
42:12at court largely depends on the fact that he is the brother-in-law of Tsarevich Fyodor
42:19you could even think of him as Fyodor's guardian so Boris Godinov and his crony Bogdan Belsky
42:26might have been very worried that Ivan would contract an English marriage which would upset the whole
42:33balance of power at court and that this might undermine Godinov's position in particular
42:41could Ivan's negotiations for an alliance with England which may have taken place
42:46here at Hampton Court have been the reason that he died Godinov and Belsky were both in the room at
42:58the moment of his death Belsky was his chemist could he have administered the mercury found in
43:07such massive quantities in Ivan's body and one other thing to remember when Fyodor died several years
43:17later it was Boris Godinov himself who became Tsar I mean clearly Godinov didn't want anything to
43:25happen that would destabilize the existing position and jeopardize his his own position Jerome Horsey as
43:33a well-informed contemporary does seem to think that it might have provided him with a motive and he was
43:41very well placed to make that kind of judgment so he's got the opportunity he's got the motive if
43:47this marriage comes off Godinov kills Ivan isn't that what happened I think he has motive and opportunity
43:55there were suspicions at the time that Ivan hadn't died a natural death and it was Godinov and Belsky who
44:02were named by people rioting on the streets after Ivan's death Godinov ends up as Tsar himself in 1598
44:09so if he did do it it was a risk that you could argue did pay off at least in
44:14the short term
44:18I'm fascinated by what Maureen has just told me it may well have been that Belsky was influenced by
44:25Godinov to administer a lethal dose of mercury to Ivan but there was to be one more twist in the
44:33tale
44:37I took the evidence I had gathered to Cambridge University to meet up with leading pathologist
44:42professor Austin Gresham I wanted to find out if it was possible that one dose of mercury could really
44:50have killed Ivan I think that's most unlikely a single large dose of mercury would not kill you in order
44:59to
44:59kill somebody with mercury you have to persist in administering it over the months and years
45:04so the chances are if he had been administered mercury that would have been done for some other reason
45:11namely the treatment of a disease what sort of medical conditions would mercury have been used to
45:18treat in the 16th century well it was used for all sorts of diseases including syphilis and perhaps
45:25they thought it would do good now syphilis makes sense because Ivan had many sexual partners so quite
45:32clearly he could have contracted syphilis and surprisingly even from the limited examinations
45:39done in the 1960s there's evidence of this if you know what to look for in the long bones and
45:46particularly
45:47in the tibia the shin bone you see pits or pox with the bone growing around that's very characteristic
45:57moth-eaten appearance of syphilitic osteitis is the word we use and there was more the mercury in Ivan's
46:06body was 25 times what it should have been and this would have had a devastating effect
46:12in the case of mercury poisoning chronic mercury poisoning you get a condition called ericism
46:20and that is characterized if i may quote to you by changes of personality and behavior
46:30loss of memory increased excitability severe depression delirium and hallucination
46:41so the question of who killed Ivan has brought me to a surprising conclusion
46:49as far as i'm concerned Ivan showed some classic signs of being a psychopath he was grandiose
46:56he was sadistic he lacked empathy he had multiple sexual partners but the evidence i've just been given
47:03as a Heilman also raises an interesting possibility mercury provided as a medicine administered by a trusted chemist
47:13in effect fuels Ivan's psychosis his belief that the boyars were out to get him could have at least in
47:22part have been the paranoid result of this poisoning
47:27even the extraordinary killing of his own son that followed
47:31could have been due to a bad of mercury madness
47:37so it seems to me the evidence suggests Ivan was poisoned
47:42but I don't think he was murdered
47:44in a bid to save Ivan's life
47:47Belsky gave him the mercury that resulted in his death
47:59she entertained the likes of Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria
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48:25you