Ivan III of Russia - Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy

It was in the reign of Ivan III that Muscovy rejected the Tatar yoke. In 1476 Ivan refused to pay the customary tribute to the grand Khan Ahmed. All through the autumn the Muscovy and Tatar hosts confronted each other on opposite sides of the Ugra, till the 11th of November 1480, when Ahmed retired into the steppe.

In the following year the Grand Khan, while preparing a second expedition against Moscow, was suddenly attacked, routed and slain by Ivak, the Khan of the Nogay Horde, whereupon the Golden Horde suddenly fell to pieces. In 1487 Ivan reduced the khanate of Kazan, one of the offshoots of the Horde, to the condition of a vassal-state, though in his later years it broke away from his suzerainty. With the other Muslim powers, the Khan of the Crimean Khanate and the sultans of Ottoman Empire, Ivan's relations were peaceful and even amicable. The Crimean Khan, Meñli I Giray, helped him against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and facilitated the opening of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Istanbul, where the first Muscovian embassy appeared in 1495.

It was during Ivan’s reign that the Christian rulers in the Caucasus began to see the Russian monarchs as their natural allies against the Muslim regional powers. The first attempt at forging an alliance was made by Alexander I, king of a small Georgian kingdom of Kakheti, who dispatched two embassies, in 1483 and 1491, to Moscow. However, as the Russians were still too far from the Caucasus, neither of these missions had any effect on the course of events in the region. From Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, gun-founders, gold- and silversmiths and (Italian) master builders were requested by Ivan.

In Nordic affairs, Ivan III concluded an offensive alliance with Hans of Denmark and maintained regular correspondence with Emperor Maximilian I, whom called him a "brother". He built a strong citadel in Ingria named Ivangorod after himself, situated on the Russian-Estonian border, opposite the fortress of Narva held by the Livonian Confederation. In the Russo-Swedish War (1495–1497) Ivan III unsuccessfully attempted to conquer Viborg from Sweden but this attempt was checked by the Swedish garrison in Viborg Castle led by Lord Knut Posse.

The further extension of the Moscow dominion was facilitated by the death of Casimir IV in 1492, when Poland and Lithuania once again parted company. The throne of Lithuania was now occupied by Casimir's son Alexander, a weak and lethargic prince so incapable of defending his possessions against the persistent attacks of the Russians that he attempted to save them by a matrimonial compact, and wedded Helena, Ivan's daughter. But the clear determination of Ivan to appropriate as much of Lithuania as possible, finally compelled Alexander to take up arms against his father-in-law in 1499. The Lithuanians were routed at Vedrosha (14 July 1500), and in 1503 Alexander was glad to purchase peace by ceding to Ivan Chernigov, Starodub, Novgorod-Seversky and sixteen other towns.

• Much information on Ivan III and his court is contained in Sigismund von Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (1549).