him politely and kindly, and respectfully asked about the Doge. Before the invasion of Akhmad in 1480, Sophia, her children, household and treasury were sent away, first to Dmitrov and then on to Belozersk. For fear Akhmad would finally take Moscow, she was advised to flee farther north, to the sea. These precautions led Vissarion, Bishop of Rostov, to warn the Grand Duke that his excessive attachment to his wife and children would be his destruction. The family did not return to Moscow until the winter. Dynastic problems and rivalry Over time, the second marriage of the Grand Prince became one of the main sources of tension in the court, thanks to the "shrewd" character of the new Grand Princess and the spreading rumours that her husband let himself be directed by her suggestions. It is believed that Sophia introduced grand Byzantine ceremonies and meticulous court etiquette into the Kremlin, pleased with the idea of Moscow as a Third Rome. In 1472, she was repelled by the formal tributary gesture with which her spouse greeted the Mongolian representatives. She is supposed to have convinced him to abandon that subordinate relationship with the Mongols in a break that was eventually completed in 1480. Soon, the court divided into two parties. One supported the heir to the throne, Ivan the Young, and the other sided with Sophia. In 1476, the Venetian Ambrogio Contarini noted that the heir to the throne had lost his father's favor, thanks to the intrigues of the Despoina. (Despoina, or “Lady”, was used as a Byzantine court title. Sophia was so honoured as her father's heir. ) However, if any tension existed between father and son, it did not interfere with his rights: From 1477 Ivan the Young was officially referred to as the co-ruler of Ivan III. The princely family increased significantly: between 1474 and 1490, as the Grand Princess gave birth to eleven children, five sons and six daughters. There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia's eldest son, the future Vasily III: During one of her devout visits to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the Grand Princess had a vision of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh in which the saint "presented her the long-waited son between his arms." Another source of tension appeared in the Russian court in January 1483, when Ivan the Young married Elena, daughter of Stephen III the Great,