Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure

Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure. Ivan the Terrible he characterises as an arrogant, swaggering, vain and abrupt man, surrounded by dull-witted boyars and streltsy. The prince, moreover, was wholly inattentive and simply did not listen as the embassy's letters and addresses were read out, distracted all the while and chatting with the boyars. Dressed in costly garments and hung with golden chains, with a pearl ring on every finger, Ivan Vasilyevich sat enthroned on a lofty seat, and what particularly caught the envoys' attention was the Tsar's habit of toying with a large golden apple studded with precious stones. The orb struck the Danish aristocrats as something unusual and outlandish, and they were greatly intrigued that the Tsar kept lifting it, turning it about and setting it down on a special stand. In truth, this royal insignium was unfamiliar even to the Grand Duke himself: the spherical regalia had only recently been borrowed from Europe, and he did not quite understand what one was to do with it.