He also called the very first meeting of the Zemsky Sabor a grand council of representatives similar to the Estates General that would become so important in France 200 years later. And he reformed the army, emphasizing the new technology of muskets. But in the second part of his reign, Ivan earned his nickname the Terrible, which can mean either bad or just awe-inspiring, depending on your perspective. Psychological historians will point out that things started to go terribly wrong with Ivan after the death of his beloved wife, Anastasia Romanov, or they might point to the fact that he enjoyed torturing animals when he was a kid. Regardless, Ivan set out to break the power of the nobility, the former princes and landowners, called the Boyars. They were the last link to princely rule, and after an odd episode that saw him briefly abdicate, Ivan returned to Moscow and declared that he had the right to punish all traitors and evildoers. To help him in this effort, Ivan created the Oprechniki, a corps of secret police who rode around on black horses wearing all black, whose job it was to hunt down and destroy any enemies of the Tsar.