To govern was difficult; to preserve the empire intact, still more so; further aggrandisement almost impossible with the conditions then prevailing. Theodore left everything to the council,--_duma_, consisting of boyards whom Godunov held in the hollow of his hand. From his brother-in-law he obtained special titles and special powers; he became viceroy of immense territories, and could put 100,000 armed men into the field at need. He was practically regent and lacked nothing that was royal but the title. When the Shooiskis, the Belskis, the Mstislavskis and others did not please him he forced them from power. Mstislavski had to become a monk; Shooiski, who tried to get together a party among the merchants, was banished to a distant town; Dionysius, the metropolitan, was deposed, and a nominee of Godunov's succeeded to the primacy of the church. When, in 1586, Batory, King of Lithuania died, Boris Godunov put forward Theodore as candidate for the crown of Poland. But the Poles would have no ruler who belonged to the eastern church. Moreover, they feared the Muscovites would join Poland to Muscovy like a sleeve to a coat; but the claim proved that Russia was still a power with which the west would have to reckon. Boris, who had always been friendly with the English, obtained for Theodore the support of England against Danes and Swedes; he quite won over Queen Elizabeth to the side of the young Tsar and, in many ways, as Grand High Chancellor advanced the interests of his sovereign and his country. In Moscow he acted intelligently. The middle town, the Bielo-Gorod or free town, between the Kitai Gorod and the present boulevards was enclosed with a wall of stone, having twenty-eight towers and nine gates. The last gate, that on the Arbat, was razed in 1792, the wall having been earlier demolished and its site utilised for the present existing boulevards. Its style was that of the wall around the Donskoi Monastery built in 1591 to commemorate the victory of the Muscovites under Mstislavski against 150,000 Krim-Tartars advancing on the city under the leadership of the Khan Kazi Ghiree. Another building of Godunov's is the smaller "Golden Palace" in the Terem of the Kremlin, which was erected for the accommodation of the Tsaritsa Irene. Many bells were cast, and some cannon including the monstrous Tsar Pushka--still within the Kremlin--which bears a [Illustration: A CORRIDOR--THE OLD PALACES] portrait of Theodore on horseback on its reinforcement. Theodore lived in regal state: his household numbered over 1000, and he entertained foreign ambassadors with even greater pomp and magnificence than his predecessors. Not only were these guests provided with a fitting residence and a large suit, but it was not uncommon for as many as a hundred and fifty dinners to be sent daily from the Tsar's kitchen for their entertainment.