Thanks to the royal privileges and rights bestowed upon the nobles since late 15th century mainly by Louis I of Hungary and kings of the Jagiellon dynasty who, being Lithuanian, lacked ties to local nobles and thus had to buy their support with new privileges to maintain the throne. Due to such politics, Polish nobility emerged as the uniquely uniform estate what basically meant that every nobleman, regardless of wealth and position was in equal standing from the legal and political standpoint, meaning that they have equal right to be elected to any official position and had equal vote in the local parliaments or during the national convocations. This essentially meant that the political system in Polish-Lithanian Commonwealth was similar to modern democracy with the caveat that the voting right were limited to nobility only. Such situation, although generally lauded by lower nobility was not that appealing to the richest and most influential members of nobility (magnates) who tried to curb the 'golden liberty' what would allow them to use their assets directly to gain better political standing (this was not unlike the conflict between nobility and lower classes in Western Europe).
Initial popularity of Ivan IV stemmed largely from the fact, that after ascending to the throne, he managed to curb the power of the most influential boyars. Some speculate that Ivan did it due to the influence of Ivan Peresvetov, Ruthenian nobleman and writer who for yet unknown reasons got involved in some form of conflict with the Muscovite aristocracy and as young tsar's councellor, he was praising the strong, authoritarian rules as opposed to oligarchy, summing up his books depicting the rule of the sultan Mehmed II and the Eastern Emperor Constantine. Young tsar realised that the country is to large extent anachronistic and requires reforms to match the quickly developing neighbours. The great fire of Moscow that broke out in the year of Ivan's coronation resulted in widespread upheavals and open rebellions of peasants and burghers against the old aristocratic houses. Ivan used this situation to purge the court of the old, influential nobility (boyars) and support the interests of lower nobility (dvoryans) to reinforce his position as a ruler. In the reforms that quickly followed, boyars lost their legal and administrative influence over the provinces that were to be administrated by the tsar's officials usually recruited from lower nobility.
The diminishing of the boyars' supremacy What seemed to be compatible with the anti-magnate sentiments of the most of the nobility swearing by so-called executionist movement that supported the ideas of decentralised, parliamentary form of government, where king is the head of state rather than autocratic ruler and the politics are shaped by the parliament rather than small group of aristocrats. They have quickly realised, however, that the suppression of the influential Russian nobility was aimed not at democratisation of the Russian politics, but rather on the reinforcing the position of the tsar himself. Realising that, executionists ceased to support Ivan IV seeing him more a menace than a boon to their political cause. Additionally, Ivan IV led quite aggressive politics against his immediate neighbours, successfully attacking Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates, initiating Livonian Wars against Livonian Brothers and attacking Grand Duchy of Lithuania what, due to personal union between Lithuania and Poland, drawn the latter into the series of wars, further antagonising Poles and Russians.
When meeting with the first envoy, Lithuanian chancellor Lew Sapieha, Ivan IV shown interest in the Polish-Lithuanian crown, and declared that although he is deeply interested in the Livonian lands, he can withdraw from Courland and the lands surrounding Polotsk as the sign of the good will. Sapieha reported however, that the envoys were stalled by the Russian courtiers and when the second envoy, great secretary of Lithuania, Michał Haraburda arrived, tsar was much less eager to accept the crown. This is interpreted that Ivan IV wanted to gather information about the state in affairs in the freshly proclaimed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and realised that the democratically inclined lower nobility will never accept autocratic, centralistic government he wanted to create in his lands, and that there were too many territorial conflicts to resolve them in diplomatic way. The conditions proposed by the Polish-Lithuanian nobility and presented by Haraburda to Ivan IV included joining of Polotsk, Smolensk, Ozyeryshche and Usvyaty to Lithuania, acceptance of all privileges polish nobility enjoyed so far and resigning from hereditary rules in the Commonwealth. Tsar's counterproposal included ceding Polotsk and Courland to Lithuania, attaching Livonia and Kiev to Russia and performance of the coronation ceremony by the Orthodox priest rather than primate of Poland. Following the instructions he received from Polish parliament, Haraburda could not have accepted the counterproposals. This and tsar's suggestion that the entire Lithuania could become a part of Russia met with absolute rejection of the Polish nobility essentially nullifying any possibility of Ivan IV being crowned king of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. Ivan IV sent his representatives again in 1575 after Henry de Valois, elected king in 1573, returned to France leaving Polish throne behind, but this time Russia did not manage to convince anyone to support tsar's candidature in the electional convocation that ended with the election of Transilvanian prince Stephan Bathory, during whose reign Ivan IV died.