Ivan III Becomes Grand Prince of Moscow

1462

The twenty-two-year-old prince inherited a modest Russian principality tributary to the Golden Horde and began methodically absorbing his neighbors. Within thirty years he would end the Mongol yoke, call himself Tsar, and lay the foundations of an empire his descendants would drag to the Pacific. His marriage to the last Byzantine emperor's niece brought imperial ceremonial and the double-headed eagle to Moscow.