Reference no: EM133560589

Assignment:

"This prince of Moscouia, hath vnder hym prynces of many prouinces, and those of great power: Of the whiche, that olde whyte bearded man, whom this Emperour of the Ruthians sent for his ambassadoure to Themperours maiestie into Spaine, is not one of the least. For euen he, when necessitie of warre requireth, is accustomed to make for his Emperour a bande of .xxx. thousand horsemen. But this is to their singular commendation, that they are so obedient to theyr prince in all thynges, that beyng sommoned by hym by neuer so meane an heralde, they obey incontinent, as if it were to God, thynking nothing more glorious then to die in ye quarel of theyr prince.

By reason of which obedience, they are able, in a short tyme, to assemble an army of two or three hundred thousand men against theyr enimies, eyther the Tatars, or the great Cham... And to be briefe, only the Moscouites may seeme that nation which hath not felte the commodities of peace: Insomuch that if theyr region were not strongly defended by the nature of the place, beyng impreignable, it had or now been oftentymes conquered" (extract from the English translation of Sigismund von Heberstein, Notes on Muscovite Affairs [1547], pages 196-197).

Sigismund von Heberstein, an accomplished diplomat for the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, wrote this account on the basis of a visit to the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1517, publishing it in Latin three decades later. What do you think Heberstein got right about Muscovite state and society during that time, and what might he have exaggerated or misjudged? How do you think Heberstein's background as a German-speaking nobleman from Central Europe would have influenced his perception of what he saw and heard during his travels?