True face of the ‘cruellest man’ who was known to boil, impale and roast victims revealed by scientists

There is only one truly terrible person who historians have been equally fascinated and repulsed by, and now his 'true face' has been revealed.

With stories from his reign 500 years ago depicting a man so prone to violence, he is one of the cruellest people in Russia and now scientists believe they have revealed what he looked like.

Ivan IV Vasilyevich was born in 1530 and ruled Russia from 1547 to 1584, until he died whilst playing chess, aged 53.

Commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, he was one of the country’s worst villains who is thought to have enjoyed inflicting mass pain on others.

Ivan the Terrible was known to boil his victims. (Getty stock photo)

Ivan was said to have been a brute with a rage like no other, and not even his family could escape.

For years artists have depicted his face as a haggard old man with a long moustache and beard, but his true face hasn’t been known since his death.

Now, we know exactly what he looked like and it’s not nearly as terrible as his namesake.

In his younger years, he was described as ‘as tall, with beautiful hair, broad shoulders, strong muscles, and a pleasant face’, according to Cicero Moraes, the lead author of Ivan’s new facial reconstruction image.

The researcher used his skull to figure out what he would have looked like at the time of his death.

Moraes said: “It appears that Ivan indulged in a disorderly life of excessive eating and alcohol abuse.

“This must have worsened his condition in his last years."

The tsar was alleged to drink excessively. (Pen News/ Cicero Moraes)

Ivan’s face was pale with blue eyes and greying hair- but no devil horns were to be seen.

Moraes explained the condition of his body: “An interesting fact is that they found a large amount of mercury in his body, which made some suspect poisoning.

“But given the habits of the time, it may have been used as a treatment for some health problem.”

The researcher created Ivan’s face using data from living donors, which helped to find out how thick his skin would have been.

After that, they used the face and skull of a living donor to match the dimensions of Ivan’s digitally.

Moraes explained: “The final bust was a combination of all this data.

“It was a very interesting experience, as it involved not only facial approximation, but the study of the tsar’s history.

“I found sources that affirmed the epithet of ‘terrible’ and others with different evidence, indicating that the fame may have been exaggerated, for example, by enemies and adversaries.”

Historians believe he murdered his own son. (Pen News/ Cicero Moraes)

But this isn’t the first time reconstruction had been done on Ivan.

In 2017, a group used multispectral imaging from the book Apostle that was published in 1564.

Interestingly, it is remarkably like Moraes’.

He shared: “After finishing, I compared the faces and, although we used different approaches composing the busts, the results were very similar,’ he said.

“They only differ in the lower lip and chin region.”

This baby-faced man was known to impale, roast, boil, drown and tear apart his victims by horses.

Not only did he murder the everyday man, but historians also believe he murdered his first-born son (and his intended successor) in a fit of rage during an argument.

He was even said to have pulled the feathers from birds as a toddler and throw his furry companions out of windows to their deaths.