Moneybag (Rus. Kalita):
--". . . Ivan's nickname Kalita (Moneybags) refers to his skill at collecting tribute for the Mongols from other Russian princes. He used the money he kept from the tribute to purchase more land: entire appanages from bankrupt rulers, and separate villages. . . ." (Borrero: 10)
--" . . . The nickname Kalita, or 'moneybag', was given to him because he was generous to the poor, to whom he used to distribute copper coins from a bag. To the family traits common to the Danilovich princes he added remarkable financial and administrative acumen, which formed the basis of his political power. . . ." (Auty & Obolensky: 84)
----" . . .The surname of Kalita given to Ivan comes from the kalita, or alms-bag, he wore always at his girdle. This kalita may also have been Shylock's purse, ---the bag of a prince who was farmer-general and usurer, who demanded from Novgorod double what he intended to pay on its behalf to Uzbek. . . ." (Rambaud: 195)
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| Ivan II of Moscow the Debonaire @Wikipedia |
the Debonair
"Ivan II, brother and successor of 'the Proud,' deserves, on the contrary, the surname of 'the Débonnaire.' He was of a different type from the sinister princes of Souzdal, and was pacific and gentle. The anarchy into which Russia fell during the six years of his reign, shows how little his virtues were those of his century. Without attempting to avenge himself, Ivan permitted Oleg of Riazan to insult his territory, burn his villages of the Lopasnia, and ill-treat his lieutenant. He allowed the Novgorodians to despise his authority and obey Constantine of Suzdal; he let the Grand Duke Olgerd occupy Rjef, and Andrew of Lithuania menace Pskof. He interfered neither in the civil wars of the princes of Riazan, nor in those of the principality of Tver, not in the troubles excited at Novgorod by the rivalry of the Slavonian quarters and that of St. Sophia, nor in the storm raised in the Church by the Patriarch of Constantinople, who dared to consecrate metropolitan a rival of St. Alexis. The murder of one of his officers, Alexis, military governor of Moscow, remained unpunished. In this weakness of the prince, the churchmen naturally came to the front, and took up the part abandoned by him. . . At the death of Ivan II, the title of Grand Prince, which his three predecessors had made such efforts to perpetuate in the house of Moscow, passed to that of Souzdal. . . " (Rambaud. Nations of the World: 146)
the Fair.
"Ivan II Ivanovich, called the Fair, was installed the Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir (1353-1359) . . . The grand prince was called 'Fair', though his real attitude was closer to the lesser value, as being meek and gentle, which in Russian identified by a special name - 'krokiy'. The public and history would rarely accept it as a positive attribute of rulers and especially in this country. The Russians didn't like the meek, gentle rulers. More often such humane values would create the image of weakness beneficial and provocative, enticing the outside and inside enemies and appressions. These guys were right there, and they had used the prince's meek attributes to their best advantage. The Lithuanian troops walked all over the western principalities of Moscow, in Smolensk and Bryansk, but the Grand Prince did nothing to oppose. The major cities of the north, Veliky Novgorod, Murom and Tver were in turmoil. In this situation, the local princes of the cities were seeking the Mongol khan, asking for his favor and arbitration and punishment of the restless Russian people." (Leonard. The Visage of Empire)
the Meek
"In many respects after the Black Death, political and social life in the Russian lands continued as much before. For Moscow, however, the death of Simeon had nearly disastrous consequences. Ivan II (1353-1359), his only surviving brother, followed him as ruler of Moscow and successfully claimed the grand princely throne. Even before his accession, Ivan had displayed calamitous lassitude. As ruler, his ineptness as a military and political leader fully justified his nickname 'the Meek'. In his capacity as grand prince, he offered no resistance when, in 1365, Grand Duke Olgerd (Algirdas) of Lithuania attacked Smolensk and Briansk and captured Rzheva and Belaia. He could not even defend the ancestral possessions of his family: Oleg, the ambitious young ruler of Riazan, seized the district of Lopasnia on the Oka, long a possession of Moscow." (Crummey. The Formation of Muscovy 1300 - 1613: 43)
the Binder of the Russian Land: " . . . He acquired the surname of 'Binder of the Russian Land,' a name which his eight predecessors equally merited. It was owing to their earlier labors that Ivan was able to become the greatest and most powerful of these 'Binders.'. . . ." (Rambaud: 223)
the Gatherer of the Russian Lands: "Ivan III (1462-1505) and his son, Vasili III (1505-1533), completed Moscow's quest to dominate Great Russia. Of the two rulers, Ivan III (the Great) accomplished the most, and Russian historians have called him 'the gatherer of the Russian lands.'" (Moss: 88)
the Great: "Ivan III became grand prince of Moscow in 1462 and ruled until 1505, a reign that became a watershed in Russian history. During this era Russia's centuries-long disunity came to an end, as Ivan annexed most of the other Russian principalities, quadrupling Moscow's territory in the process. So did the centuries of painful and humiliating subservience to the Mongols when, in 1480, Ivan officially declared Russia independent of the Golden Horde. Despite serious setbacks, Ivan skillfully managed Moscow's relations with the powerful non-Russian states of the region, including Tartar polities other than the Golden Horde and Lithuania and Sweden, powerful European monarchies to the west. Ivan relentlessly increased his powers as grand prince within his domains at the expense of other princes and noble families. He broke new symbolic ground by calling himself 'czar' (Caesar) of all Russia. For his success in promoting Russia's unity, Ivan III earned the unofficial designation 'gatherer of the Russian lands.' For his achievement as a whole, however ruthlessly he went about realizing them, with considerable justification he is called Ivan the Great." (A Brief History of Russia: 24)
the New Constantine of Moscow: ". . . The younger daughter of Thomas, Zoe, became the wife of Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, in 1472. Her betrothal was blessed in Rome by Pope Sixtus IV, who provided her dowry. . . The Russians called her Sophia, and the fact of this union between 'the new Constantine of Moscow', as Ivan III liked to be known, and the niece of the Last Constantine Palaiologos, lent some substance to the growing myth that Moscow was the Third Rome." (Nicol: 400)
the Terrible (Rus. Grozny):
the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment. "Empress Elizabeth oversees the establishment of the Imperial Academy of Arts by Count Ivan Shuvalov, her Minister of Education and sometimes lover, who some called the 'Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment." (Vorhees: 24)
Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgoruky.
the Balcony: "Around these two gathered a bitter group of several branches of the family, including Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgoruky. Dolgoruky (nicknamed the Balcony for his protruding chin) was the grandson of Peter's sister Natalia, who had been exiled to Siberia with her husband (later executed) in 1730. . . ." (The Pearl: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in Catherine the Great's Russia: 92)
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (by Catherine):
the Boneless: " . . . The later nickname may connect with the Viking who plundered a French monastery and was punished by his bones shrivelling." (Bradbury: 54)
Ivon Vane.
the Fair Vane: " . . . His son, styled by the Welsh heralds Griffith ap Howel Vane, had to wife Lattice, daughter of Bledwin ap Kenwyn, Lord of Powis, whose son by her was Ivon Vane, styled the fair Vane, from hie complexion; and by Angharaud his wife, daughter of Owen ap Edwin or ap Evan Meredith, left issue." (Collins & Brydges: 283)
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