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Ivan the terrible was born in Kolomenskoye, near Moscow Russia by his mom, Elena Glinskaya, and dad Vasili the 3rd of Russia. He was the grandson of Ivan the Great.
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Ivan's dad, Basil the 3rd, died when Ivan was just 3 years old in 1533. He announced Ivan as the Grandprince of Russia before he died.
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Ivan's mom ruled until her death when Ivan was just 8 in 1538. She might have died to poisoning while she was ruling, she was the last parent that Ivan had left.
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Ivan marries his first wife (Anastasia) who he picked out of all the potential brides brought to him. Anastasia is arguably the only wife that Ivan loved, she helped balance out his anger and sudden rage fits.
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Ivan had a son with Anastasia who was named tsarevich ivan and would grow up to be the heir to Ivan's throne. Ivan was the 4th child of Anastasia and the 2nd son of Anastasia.
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Ivan's first wife died due to a strange illness which could have been poisoning, Ivan accused the Boyars of poisoning his wife, and executed and/or tortured many of them without a fair trail. Anastasia could be said to be Ivan's first and only true love.
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Ivan marries his second wife Maria Temryukovna who was the daughter of a muslim prince. She was illiterate and a poor character, however she was still picked because of her beauty.
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Ivan was paranoid about not being safe around his boyars, and not being safe around traitors, so he created the Oprichnina to be allowed to do what he wanted in order to be safe, and continue to rule with all the power.
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Ivan's second wife Maria dies by poisoning because she could not adapt to the new environment, and was a good fit for being the Queen and mom of Ivan's family. However, it is unclear whether Ivan killed her himself or if someone else poisoned her because he executed many nobles in blame of poisoning her.
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Ivan illegally marries his 4th wife without the church's blessing, because he claimed that he never actually consummated his 3rd wife. Therefor he could marry again, so he did with Anna Koltovskaya.
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Ivan was unable to have a baby with Anna so he sent her to a convent to live for the remainder of her live, she outlived him in the convent.
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Ivan murders his own son after a sudden fit of anger came over him when he was fighting his son. Ivan had beaten his son's wife which led to a miscarriage, this cause Ivan's son to retaliate leading to a fight in which Ivan kills him in.
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Ivan became very frantic and worry some about his health, so he tried to use magic and medicine to keep him alive. However, that failed to work and he died on March 3rd, 1584 by a stroke.
