Definitions
TERRIBLE [ter-uh-buhl]

Ivan IV

Russian Ivan Vasilyevich known as Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV, icon, late 16th century; in the National Museum, Copenhagen.

(born Aug. 25, 1530, Kolomenskoye, near Moscow—died March 18, 1584, Moscow) Grand prince of Moscow (1533–84) and first tsar of Russia (1547–84). Crowned tsar in 1547 after a long regency (1533–46), he embarked on wide-ranging reforms, including a centralized administration, church councils that systematized the church's affairs, and the first national assembly (1549). He also instituted reforms to limit the powers of the boyars. After conquering Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), he engaged in an unsuccessful war to control Livonia, fighting against Sweden and Poland (1558–83). After the defeat and the suspected treason of several Russian boyars, Ivan formed an oprichnina, a territory separate from the rest of the state and under his personal control. With a large bodyguard, he withdrew into his own entourage and left Russia's management to others. At the same time, he instituted a reign of terror, executing thousands of boyars and ravaging the city of Novgorod. During the 1570s he married five wives in nine years, and, in a fit of rage, he murdered his son Ivan, his only viable heir, in 1581.

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Mont-Terrible was one of the 130 départements of Napoleonic France, with its capital at Porrentruy.

The Mont Terrible for which the département was named is now known as mont Terri, in Jura, Switzerland.

The département was created in 1793 with the annexation of the short-lived Rauracian Republic, created a few months earlier, in the previous year, from a part of the annexed Bishopric of Basel.

In 1797, the old principality of Montbéliard, formerly given to Haute-Saône, was reattached to Mont-Terrible.

The département was abolished in 1800, being annexed to the Haut-Rhin, within which it formed the two arrondissements of Delémont and Porrentruy.

In 1815, the territory that had previously formed part of Mont-Terrible was partitioned between Doubs (Montbéliard) and the Swiss canton of Bern (now forming the canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura).

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