Stolyarova L.V., Belousov P.V. The price of a medical mistake in the end of the XV century: the death of “kamchuga”

Abstract: the article examines the dynastic struggle between the heirs of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III from his two marriages — to the Grand Duchess Maria Borisovna and Sophia Fominichna Paleolog. The chronicles on the illness and death of Ivan Ivanovich the Young (Molodoy) from “kamchuga in the legs” are analyzed in connection with the assumption of “murdering” of the unwanted heir by his father and stepmother. The article attempts to establish the true cause of death of Ivan the Young and characterize the therapeutic measures taken by physician Leon Zhidovinov of Venice. The authors conclude that the cause of early death of the eldest son of Ivan III was in the wrong diagnoses. It is obvious that the death of Ivan the Young was beneficial to Sophia Paleolog, clearing the way to the throne to her children, most of all, Vasily III. Medical error of a medieval physician, which cost him his life and resulted in the death of his patient, led to the fact that the dynastic struggle between the heirs of Ivan III at the end of the XV century developed with renewed vigor.

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