Carole Levin discusses these two strong rulers and the interactions between their countries.
Description
In the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth was interested in setting up a strong trading relationship with Russia. But the Russian Ivan IV (also known as “the Terrible”) was more interested in a close alliance where they would view one’s country’s enemy would also be the enemy of the other, and he asked if he had to flee Russia that he could come to England, assuring the queen she could always come to Russia. He also pursued the idea that a seventh wife should be English. Elizabeth wanted the trade but not the rest, which led to some difficulties between the two countries. At the end of her reign Ivan’s successor Boris Godunov sent four boys to England to be educated so they return in a few years and help modernize Russia. To Russia’s great consternation, none of them ever returned to Russia.
