COXE*S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 623
his new dignity, upon condition of efpoufing Maria, and paying an annual tribute tothe Tzar .
Magnus, however, being oppofed by the Swedes , who maintained a large army inLivonia, and not unanimouily acknowledged even by the natives, was ftill only a titu-lar fovereign ; and after a fruitlefs attempt to take poffeffion of his crown, continuedto difplay his mock dignity at Mofcow. At length, in 1577, being efcorted to Livoniaby the Tzar , at the head of fifty thoufand troops, he obtained the town and territoryof Wenden, the remainder of the province being referved to Ruffia.
Magnus was fcarcely admitted into Wenden, where he was received with greatdemonftrations of joy, than, defpifing a precarious fovereignty, he was prevailed uponby his new fubjedts to form a fecret alliance with the King of Poland , and counteractthe Tzar ’s progrefs in Livonia. Ivan, apprized of this negotiation, laid immediatefiege to Wenden with a numerous army, and compelled the inhabitants to capitulate.Magnus himfelf carried the terms of capitulation, and, advancing to fupplicate theincenfed monarchy threw himfelf at his feet, and interceded for the town. The Tzar ,fpurning at him with his foot*, and ftriking him on the face, loaded him with re-proaches for his ingratitude, and ordered him to prifon; and entering the town, histroops committed every fpecies of horror and devaftation. Many of the principalinhabitants, retiring into the citadel, determined to defend it to the laft extremity;but perceiving all refinance fruitlefs, and expe&ing no quarter, they calmly affembled,received the facrament, and deftroyed themfelves by blowing up the citadel. Thusended the kingdom of Livonia, four years after it was erected into a fovereignty.Mao-nus obtained his enlargement by paying a confiderable fum of money; and re-paired, with his confort Mary, to Pilten in Courland , where he died in 1583, in ex-treme diftrefs f. After the death of her hufband, Maria was enticed in Ruffia, andthrown into a nunnery, with her only daughter Eudokia J. She was never releafedfrom her confinement, and the time of her deceafe is uncertain. The remains, bothof the Queen and her daughter, were depofited in thS convent of the Holy Trinity .
In the fame church repofe the allies of Boris Feodorovitch Godunof, who, upon thedemife of Feodor Ivanovitch in 1 597, was railed from a private ftation to the throne ofRuffia. It is a circumftance extremely favourable to a virtuous conduct, that a fove-reimi cannot commit one flagrant offence without fuffering the imputation of manyothers ; and that iuppofititious cruelties are always added to a£ts of real tyranny. Thiswas the fate of Boris Godunof, who, having defervedly acquired the deteftation of pof-
* Hennin^, author of the Livonian Chronicle, relates this tranfaftion more to the honour of Ivan.He is thus quoted by the authors of the Univerlal Hiftory. voL xxxv p.242. “ The Tzar laid liege
to the place, till, at the earned requeft of the citizens, Magnus, with only a few attendants, wentinto the Tzar ’s camp, and, falling on his knees, begged pardon for himfelf and the city. Bafdowitz noformer faw the King of Livonia thus proftrate before him, than he dismounted from-his horfe, and definedhim to rife, returning him his fword, and, after reproaching him with the ingratitude of his late conducl,freely pardoned him and the city, and allured them of his proteftron. At this inllant a cannon-ball fromthe cattle narrowly miffed killing the Tzar ; which fo incenfed him, that he mounted his horfe and rodeaway direftly, fwearing by St. Nicholas , that, for this frelh inftance of perfidy, every perfon in WendenIhould fuffer death. Magnus was their put under an arrelt in a farm-houfe, and obliged to fign an obliga.tion, by which he engaged to pay the Tzar 46,000 Hungarian florins by the next Chrittmas, as a fatis-faftion for the money taken from Polubenfki; in cafe of failure of payment at that time, to forfeit doublethe fum, and remain a prifoner at Mofcow till the whole fhonld be difeharged.” i have followed the princi-pal hifto’rians of Sweden and Denmark , alio Hcidenftein, and Oderborg, who feem to have given the moftprobable account of this event. t Holberg, vo! i. p.488,
L Fletcher’3 State of Ruffia, chap, v.
terity