British merchants on the Baltic,
"because," he said, "if the Muscovite, who is not only our present
adversary, but the eternal enemy of all free countries, should provide
himself with guns, bullets, and munitions; and, above all, with
mechanics who continue to make arms, hitherto unknown in this barbaric
country, he would be a menace to Europe." Ivan, on the other hand, was
equally anxious that the Russians should possess all the advantages of
Europe's superior civilization. This, added to the inherited hostility
between the two countries, caused many wars.

While Ivan was pursuing his conquests in the south, he was attacked by
Gustavus Wasa, Sweden's famous king, who entertained the same fears as
the King of Poland. The war ended by a commercial treaty whereby (p. 120)
Swedish merchants might trade with India and China by way of Russia,
and those of Russia with Holland, England, and France by way of
Sweden. This war had scarcely ceased before envoys of the Livonian
Order arrived to request a renewal of the truce. Ivan demanded tribute
for Iourief which he claimed as his "patrimony." This was refused, and
war was declared. It was owing to Ivan that this brotherhood was
dissolved and its territory divided. In 1566, a truce was proposed by
Poland.

It was on this occasion that he called the assembly referred to on
page 116. The war continued. Ivan was attacked also by Sultan Selim II
of Turkey, in 1569, and the Khan of the Crimea marched straight upon
Moscow, set fire to the suburbs, and destroyed the capital except the
Kremlin. He carried off a hundred thousand prisoners. (1571.) As he
withdrew, he wrote to Ivan: "I burn, I ravage everything on account of
Kazan and Astrakhan. I came to you and burned Moscow. I wished to have
your crown and your head, but you did not show yourself; you declined
a battle and you dare call yourself a Czar of Moscow! Will you live at
peace with me? Yield me up Kazan and Astrakhan. If you have only money
to offer me, it will be useless were it the riches of the world. What
I want is Kazan and Astrakhan! As to the roads to your empire, I have
seen them--I know them." The khan made another invasion the next year,
1572, but was defeated.

In the same year Sigismund Augustus II of Poland died. There was a
party at Warsaw that proposed to elect Ivan's son, but the czar (p. 121)
wanted Poland for himself. He failed in the attempt, and the Duke
of Anjou, brother of the King of France, was ch