[26] Through marriage to Sophia Palaiologina, Ivan made the double-headed eagle Russia's coat of arms, and adopted the idea of Moscow as the third Rome.

[41] Some Novgorodians were also attracted to Moscow due to it being the center of Russian Orthodoxy as opposed to Lithuania, where Catholicism was dominant and its culture was being increasingly polonized, though some Novgorodian clergy adopted a pro-Lithuanian policy for political reasons due to fears that embracing the grand prince of Moscow would eventually lead to the end of Novgorod's independence.

[46] In a peace treaty signed on 11 August 1471,[43] Novgorod agreed to abandon its overtures to Lithuania and to cede a considerable portion of its northern territories, while paying a war indemnity of 15,500 rubles.

In 1477, two Novgorodian envoys, claiming to have been sent by the archbishops and the entire city, addressed Ivan in public audience as gosudar (sovereign) instead of the usual gospodin (sir).

[51] Subsequent revolts (1479–1488) were punished by the removal en masse of the richest and most ancient families of Novgorod to Moscow, Vyatka, and other cities.

[16] Soon after the formal annexation of Novgorod, Ivan assumed the title of sovereign of all Russia (gosudar vseya Rusi); the title reflected his achievements in uniting the Russian lands but also implied claims to other territories inhabited by the East Slavs which were under the control of the Lithuanian grand dukes, and would later lead to conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

[57] Moscow also subjugated several Finno-Ugric tribes to the east of Vyatka in the late 15th century, some of whom had fled eastward as far as the Ob River, but by 1500, they were all paying tribute.

[46] Whereas his father Vasily II followed the custom of dividing the realm between his sons, seeing this as a cause for weakness and instability, Ivan consolidated his exclusive control over Muscovy during his reign.

[16] Ivan's refusal to share his conquests with his brothers, and his subsequent interference with the internal politics of their inherited principalities, involved him in several wars with them, from which, though the princes were assisted by Lithuania, he emerged victorious.

After the fall of Constantinople, Orthodox canonists were inclined to regard the grand princes of Moscow, where the Metropolitan of Kiev moved in 1325 after the Mongol invasions, as the successors of the Byzantine emperors.

[61] The Russians had also long called the Byzantine emperor tsar, and had known of the South Slavic writers who gave the title to their most successful rulers.

[62] A Serbian monk who had arrived in Moscow in the early 1440s helped to provide the foundation for the title, having composed a "chronograph" which included the prophecy of a "Russian" clan coming to rule in Constantinople.

After the death of his first consort in 1467, Maria of Tver, and at the suggestion of Pope Paul II in 1469, who hoped thereby to bind Moscow to the Holy See, Ivan III wedded Sophia Palaiologina (also known under her original name Zoe) in 1472, daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, despot of Morea, who claimed the throne of Constantinople as the brother of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor.

[63] Ivan combined the double-headed eagle with his emblem of St. George slaying the dragon;[62] his family seal became and remained a symbol of the Russian tsars until the monarchy was abolished in 1917.

[64] He granted estates called pomestie to a new noble class in exchange for military service and other conditions, allowing him to build up a centralized army and create a counterbalance to the boyars.

[64] Ivan did his utmost to make his capital a worthy successor to Constantinople, and with that object invited many foreign masters and artificers to settle in Moscow.

[57] Throughout the autumn, the Muscovite and Tatar hosts confronted each other on opposite sides of the Ugra River until 11 November 1480, when Ahmed retreated into the steppe.

The Crimean khan, Meñli I Giray, helped him against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and facilitated the opening of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Constantinople, where the first embassy appeared in 1495.

The first attempt at forging an alliance was made by Alexander I, king of a small Georgian kingdom of Kakheti, who dispatched two embassies, in 1483 and 1491, to Moscow.

[32][64] Beginning in 1484, Ivan began to use the title of tsar in his foreign correspondence with secondary powers in Europe including the Livonian Order.

[80] According to Isabel de Madariaga, had the title of Russian monarchs continued to be translated as rex, Russia's assimilation into the ranking order of states in Europe would have been much easier.

[81] In Nordic affairs, Ivan concluded an offensive alliance with John of Denmark and maintained regular correspondence with Emperor Maximilian I, who called him a "brother".

He built a strong citadel in Ingria, named Ivangorod after himself, situated on the Russian-Estonian border, opposite the fortress of Narva held by the Livonian Confederation.

Ivan deemed Moscow to be the legitimate heir to the territories that formerly belonged to Kievan Rus', leading to wars with Lithuania,[82] including skirmishes in the late 1480s and early 1490s.

The throne of Lithuania was now occupied by Casimir's son Alexander, a weak and lethargic prince so incapable of defending his possessions against the persistent attacks of the Muscovites that he attempted to save them by a matrimonial compact, wedding Helena, Ivan's daughter.

[84] The Lithuanians were routed at the Battle of Vedrosha on 14 July 1500, and in 1503, Alexander was glad to purchase peace by ceding Chernigov, Starodub, Novgorod-Seversky, and sixteen other towns.

It remained for Ivan III to absorb Moscow's old rivals, Novgorod and Tver, and establish virtually a single rule over what had been appanages.

Although the circumstances surrounding the acquisitions varied, the results were basically the same: former sovereign or semi-autonomous principalities were reduced to the status of provinces of Moscow, while their princes joined the ranks of the Muscovite service nobility.

The Vatican sponsored the marriage in hope of bringing Moscow under the sway of the Pope and of establishing a broad front against the Turks, a goal that failed.

[note 4][89] At the beginning of the 1490s, he also had the following title: "Ivan, by the Grace of God, Sovereign of all Russia and Grand Prince of Vladimir, and Moscow, and Novgorod, and Pskov, and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and Bulgar, and others".