Biography Of Andrey Kurbsky: The Chosen Council Of Ivan IV
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In 1528 Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky was born into the noble family, the Rurikid princes of Yaroslavl. Ivan IV appointed Kurbsky as a member of the Chosen Council in 1547. The Chosen Council of Ivan IV was a “compilation of respected figures that used their wise, loyal judgment to aid in the decisions of state.” Kurbsky became a member of the boyarin, “the Russian aristocratic order next in rank below the ruling princes,” while serving as a member of the Chosen Council. Kurbsky also served as a high ranking commander in the Russian Army and participated in the Capture of Kazan (1549) and the Livonian War (1558-1583). Following the death of his beloved first wife, Anastasia Romanovna who died of poisoning in 1560, Ivan IV suffered his first mental breakdown resulting in him becoming paranoid. As a consequence of her…show more content… While serving in the Russian Army, he claims the Tsar was not grateful for his service nor did Ivan ever recognized him for any of his achievements. Instead, Kurbsky claims the Tsar expressed a sense of hatred towards anyone who served him.
Kurbsky explicitly describes how the Tsar was ungrateful for his service:
Wherefore, oh tsar, have you destroyed the strong in Israel and subjected to various forms of death the voevodas (the commandants) given to you by God? And wherefore have you spilt their victorious, holy blood in the churches of God…In front of your army have I marched - and marched again; and no dishonor have I brought upon you…But to you, oh tsar, was all this as nothing; rather do you show us your intolerable wrath and bitterest hatred, and, furthermore, burning stoves.
When he was serving the Tsar, Kurbsky explains that he was “separated from his fatherland, and little have I seen my parents and wife.” He describes Ivan as a tyrant who mercilessly massacred his own