The Chosen Council

In 1543, only 14 years old and with astonishing force and bravery, Grand Prince Ivan IV ended the reign of terror of the Boyars. Behind him stood his friend Alexi Adashev and the talented priest Sylvestr, who would succeed the wise Makari as metropolitan of Moscow. Sylvestr and Adashev belonged to a group of advisors called the Chosen Council, which was of great help in reforming Russia during the earlier part of Ivan IV's reign but fell out of favor following the death of Ivan's first wife Anastasia in 1560. Ivan, who had become unbalanced after his grave illness in 1553, accused his old friends of having poisoned his wife and had them exiled, leaving no one to temper his brutality.