Izyaslav / Изяслав
Неизвестен, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In our last episode, we saw how Yaroslav took power in Kiev after driving out his brother. He soon faced the opposition of yet another brother, Mstislav, but after a bloody battle, the two men came to terms and split the country, with Yaroslav as the senior partner. The two acted together to take back the cities captured by Boleslaw, but the partnership ended with Mstislav’s early death. The Pechenegs took advantage of the situation by beseiging Kiev with a huge army. Yaroslav returned and drove them away with great slaughter. With the steppe frontier quiet, Yaroslav concentrated on building up Kiev, funding the church, encouraging the translation of books and securing the western borders in concert with his ally Casimir of Poland. However, tragedy was to strike, as Yaroslav’s eldest son Vladimir died in 1052. As he felt his own death approaching, he gathered his remaining sons to assign them principalities and to swear to live in peace with each other.
Things start off relatively well for Izyaslav and his brothers. Vsevolod took care of burying Yaroslav in St. Sophia Cathedral, in a marble tomb (which still exists, even if Yaroslav isn’t in it), while Izyaslav familiarised himself with the levers of government in Kiev. Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod seemed to be working as a team at this time, so much so that the period of their co-operation (1054-1073) has been called the Yaroslavich Triumvirate.
Yaroslav’s tomb, St. Sophia’s Cathedral, Kiev. Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Later on in 1054, Vsevolod, Prince of Pereyaslavl’ takes action against the Torks, defeating them at Voin’, a border fort on the Dnieper and then met the first recorded Polovtsy incursion under Khan Bolush. Vsevolod exchanged gifts with the nomadic prince and the two sides parted in peace and friendship.Polovtsy 1 Unfortunately, the peace and friendship was not to last, but for the moment, all was calm.
Vsevolod beats the Torks.
In 1057, Vyacheslav, Prince of Smolensk died at the age of 21. According to the system Yaroslav had put in place, Igor’, who had originally been given the smaller principality in Vladimir-Volynsky, moved up to become Prince of Smolensk, while the principality of Vladimir-Volynsky was given to Rostislav, the son of their late elder brother Vladimir. The borders of Smolensk had a bulge out to the east – this area was largely inhabited by the remains of a Baltic (i.e. related to modern Latvian and Lithuanian) speaking population called the Golyad’. Although this area was well within the Russian state by this time, the population was still noticeably of a different ethnic origin. In 1058 i.e. the year after Smolensk was taken over by Igor’, it is said that Izyaslav conquered the Golyad’, whom one must presume had taken advantage of the opportunity to rebel against their new Prince.
In 1059, the three brothers remembered the sad fate of their uncle Sudislav, who had spent twenty-four years in custody. He swore loyalty, they released him and he spent the rest of his life as a monk, dying in 1064. The next year, 1060, Igor’ of Smolensk died as well, and the income from the principality was divided up among the three remaining brothers. Both Vyacheslav and Igor’ had left infant sons, but, like Vladimir’s son Rostislav in 1054, they did not automatically receive any inheritance. This left them in a social position described by the legal term “izgoy”: someone who had left, or been driven out of, their previous social status, including slaves who had bought their own freedom, bankrupt merchants or outlaws. The existence of a growing group of young noblemen of royal descent, trained in warfare and needing an income led to considerable instability. For example, Igor’ Yaroslavich’s son David spent most of his life fighting for a position, trying to take Tmutarakan’, winning and after many years losing Vladimir-Volynsky and finally being granted a part of that principality for his own. The solution to this problem: to grant younger princes small fiefdoms – merely put off the problem. As the larger principalities lost territory and income, and the number of independent actors increased, co-ordinated government became increasingly difficult.
In 1060, things were still manageable, as Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod joined forces with Vseslav of Polotsk to strike at the Torks, gathering an army so formidable, the Torks fled at the word of their coming, never to bother the Russians again. However, this is probably because they were absorbed into the Polovtsian confederacy, who would be a constant deadly threat until they, in turn, were absorbed in the 1240s by the ultimate nomadic raiding empire: the Mongols. The Polovtsy, under the command of Khan Iskal (or Sokal) attacked Vsevolod’s principality of Pereyaslavl’ in 1061 defeating his army, but then leaving, presumably with whatever wealth he could take. Looting the bodies of the dead for fun and profit 2
Going after the Torks, by land and river.
In 1064, the internal peace of Russia starts to break down, when Rostislav Vladimirovich, who had been ruling in the small principality of Vladimir-Volynsky, along with Vyshata, his father’s commander, and Porey, Vyshata’s brother, drive his cousin Gleb Svyatoslavich from Tmutarakan’. The next year, Svyatoslav of Chernigov turns up with a large army to restore his son Gleb to power and Rostislav retreats from the city, so as not to fight his uncle. However, as soon as Svyatoslav had returned across the steppes, Rostislav re-entered the city, drove Gleb out again and ruled there for another three years, while Gleb lived in Chernigov with his father.
Svyatoslav puts Gleb in charge of Tmutarakan’
However, things did not end well for Rostislav. The Roman adminstration in the Crimea was disturbed by his success in controlling the Kasogs and other nations nearby, so sent a military officer to kill him. The officer entered into Rostislav’s confidence and one night, at a banquet, poisoned him. The Povest’ Vremennykh Let (PVL) states that the officer raised a toast to the Prince’s health, drank half the wine, then offered the cup to Rostislav to drink the rest. As he handed the cup over, he surreptitiously dipped his finger into the wine. Under the fingernail was a slow acting poison. Rostislav was alive and well when the officer headed back to Korsun’, but he died on the day predicted by the officer, already back home. However, being in Korsun’ wasn’t enough to guarantee the safety of the assassin. Once the local people heard how treacherously he had killed a courageous and noble man who had treated him as a friend, they pelted the officer with rocks. Gleb returned to Tmutarakan’ in 1067, before taking over in Novgorod in 1069Measuring the sea at Tmutarakan’ 3.
Mmm, nice wine. Hints of berry, nutmeg and slow acting poison.
The disorder did not end there – Vseslav, Prince of Polotsk known as “the Conjurer”, the one supposedly conceived from wizardry and born in a shirt, declared his hostility against the sons of Yaroslav. There had been a number of bad omens mentioned in the PVL: in 1063, the river Volkhov in Novgorod was seen to flow backwards for a few days, while on 19th April 1064, there had been a solar eclipse, with the sun appearing like the crescent moon for a while. In 1065, a dead child was found in the river near Kiev. Nestor, the author of the Povest Vremennykh Let, stated that “we investigated him until the evening then threw the body back in the water”. One would assume it was not given a Christian burial because of its deformity – it had what appeared to be sexual organs on its face, so would suggest, at least to the people of the time, a demonic, not human, nature. Last, but not least, early in 1066 Halley’s comet became visible, taken as a bad sign in Russia, just as it was in England.
To be honest, I don’t know what comets look like. Will this do?
Vseslav first tried to take Pskov from Mstislav Izyaslavich, who had been placed in charge of the principality of Novgorod (including Pskov) by his father. Vseslav beseiged the city in 1065, but withdrew. Then, early in 1067, Vseslav attacked again, raising an army in Polotsk and, just as his father Bryacheslav had in 1020, captured Novgorod after defeating Mstislav at the banks of the river Cheryokha. Novgorod was sacked and partially burnt down before Vseslav withdrew with the loot.
Vseslav captures Novgorod and burns it.
The three Yaroslavichi once more joined forces and moved against Minsk during a frost, capturing the city, killing the men and taking the women and children as prisoners. Vseslav returned from Novgorod with his forces and the two armies met on 3rd March just outside Minsk on the banks of the river Nemiga. The snow was deep and the battle was fierce, so much so that the bloodshed was recalled a century and a half later in The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. The banks of the river were said to be sown with Russian bones and the sheaves that were spread were human heads.
The bloody battle on the river Nemiga.
Not unreasonably, Vseslav fled. In July, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod invited Vseslav to come to them, swearing publicly that they would do him no harm. Vseslav travelled to Rsha and crossed over the Dnieper to the camp of the three Yaroslavichi. As soon as Izyaslav entered the meeting place, despite the oath, Vseslav was seized, taken to Kiev and imprisoned along with his two sons in a “porub”, a prison cell without a door, built around the inmate to make it more difficult to escape. This might sound like a bad thing, but it actually turned out to be the reason Vseslav will get his own rating on Rate My Tsar.
Hey, Vseslav, come over and see us. We promise we won’t imprison you!
The factor that transformed Vseslav from grimy prisoner to Grand Prince was the attack by the Polovtsy in 1068. Maybe having seen the trouble the Russian princes were having with Polotsk, they attacked in huge numbers. Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod again worked together, leading a large defending army to the banks of the Al’ta, near the walls of Pereyaslavl’. This time however, things went badly, the army was decimated, Izyaslav and Vsevolod retreating to Kiev and Svyatoslav moving back to Chernigov.
The Polovtsy beat the three brothers.
On their return to Kiev, the populace gathered at the market place and demanded weapons and armour to go and fight the Polovtsy but Izyaslav refused. The angry crowd blamed the commander Kosnyachko for this and went to his house to kill him, but he had already escaped. They then went to the house of Bryachislav, Vseslav’s late father, and some of them decided to free the prisoners from Polotsk so they could have their own army. The rest went to the royal court, where they argued with Izyaslav and his council. When it had become apparent that the rest of the crowd had released the prisoners, one of Izyaslav’s advisers suggested that they trick Vseslav into approaching the window and they could then cut him down with a sword. The idea did not appeal to Izyaslav, who instead fled to Poland, while Vseslav was liberated and proclaimed Grand Prince by the population, who took advantage of the opportunity to rob the royal court of anything not nailed down.
Vseslav is released and Izyaslav runs away.
In Izyaslav’s absence, Svyatoslav collected a new army from Chernigov and fought an army of twelve thousand Polovtsy with a far smaller force of his own at Snovsk. As battle commenced, Svyatoslav encouraged his three thousand men with the words “Let’s fight, we can’t avoid it anyway.” The exhortation did the trick and Svyatoslav’s men killed many enemies and captured a number of Polovtsian princes. According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, these princes included Khan Sharukan, their leader.
Polovtsian Camp, 1913. Nikolai Roerich
In the meanwhile, Izyaslav was in Poland, preparing to return with the help of his nephew, Boleslaw II the Bold. In 1069 Izyaslav came back at the head of a Polish army and although Vseslav at first moved to resist him, at Belgorod he lost his nerve and fled to Polotsk. The next morning, when the men of Kiev realised Vseslav had left them, they returned to the city and called for Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. They expressed their repentance for having driven out Izyaslav and asked his brothers to take the city. The locals were fearful of the Polish army and threatened to burn the city and to go into exile in the Roman Empire rather than let the Poles take it.
Izyaslav promises to be nice and Boleslaw sends most of his army home.
Svyatoslav promised to sort things out with his brother. He and Vsevolod sent messengers to tell Izyaslav that Vseslav had gone, the city was under control but that if he wanted to take revenge on Kiev, the two of them would stand up for their father’s capital city. Izyaslav and Boleslaw advanced with only a small guard, and sent Mstislav into Kiev before them. Unfortunately, Mstislav proceeded to kill seventy men he considered guilty of having freed Vseslav and to blind and kill many others without apparent reason. When Izyaslav arrived, he was accepted by the people of Kiev as their prince, although he moved the market into an area inhabited by his noble supporters to try and avoid a repeat of the process that led to his overthrow.
I spy with my little eye… Well, I used to.
Boleslaw’s men were spread out to avoid bringing them into Kiev, as well as to help split the cost of feeding them across a number of towns, but they provoked hostility in the locals and the rash of violent clashes encouraged Boleslaw to return to Poland sooner rather than later.
The other loose end that needed tying up was Vseslav and Polotsk. Mstislav was sent to take Polotsk and ruled there until his death soon after. The vacant position was filled by Mstislav’s younger brother Svyatopolk, who held Polotsk until 1071, when Vseslav returned and managed to drive Svyatopolk out. Yaropolk, another of Izyaslav’s sons and Prince of Turov and Vladimir-Volynsky, attacked Vseslav, beating him at a place called Golotichesk but was unable to follow up the victory due to the spring thaw making the land effectively impassable for an army. Whatever the reason, this inability of Izyaslav and his sons to deal with Vseslav, along with a feeling of betrayal associated with the way Mstislav acted in Kiev after Svyatoslav and Vsevolod had given reassurances to the city, meant that the brothers were increasingly distrustful of Izyaslav.
Yaropolk beats Vseslav.
In the rest of the country, strange omens continued to appear: in 1071, a pagan priest appeared in Kiev and predicted that in five years time, the flow of the Dnieper would change direction and lands would move around so that Russia and the Roman Empire would change places. In Rostov, two pagans from Yaroslavl’ turned up after a bad harvest and, like in 1024, caused unrest by claiming that they knew who was hiding the food. This time, instead of blaming the royal administrators, they accused the wives, mothers and sisters of the rich – when the ladies were brought before them, the pagan priests cut the backs of their dresses behind their shoulders and used sleight of hand to take out fishes, honey and even animal furs. They gathered a mob of three hundred people and moved around the north-east of Russia, killing the innocent women they accused as they went.
Sorcerers victimising innocent women.
In Beloozero, they faced Yan’, the son of Vyshata the military commander. He found out the priests were the serfs of Prince Svyatoslav, so ordered them to be arrested. The people of Beloozero were unwilling to carry out the order, so he went into the forest with twelve men to capture the two priests. The mob threatened to kill Yan’ and in a fight, one of them almost struck him with an axe, but Yan’ deflected the blow, knocked the man out with the handle of his own axe and chased the mob into the forest, where, unfortunately, they found and killed Yan’s chaplain.
Yan’s men drive the mob into the forest.
He returned to Beloozero and threatened the people that he would stay here for a year (eating all their reserves) if they didn’t capture the two priests themselves. This seemed to do the trick and the locals brought the two pagans to Yan’. There was an interesting discussion between Yan’ and the twoBogomils and other heretics 4, which ended with the priests foretelling Yan’ great misfortune if he didn’t let them go. At this point, it seems they had exhausted the commander’s patience. Yan’ asked the men rowing his ship whether any of them were related to the women whom the priests had killed. A number of the crew answered in the affirmative. Yan’ told them they could avenge their loss, they beat the priests to death and hanged their corpses from a tree. To underline the evidence of God’s anger, the PVL adds the fact that a couple of days later, a bear came and feasted on the corpses.
Sweet revenge.
Gleb Svyatoslavich was ruling in Novgorod since 1069, the peace of which was also plagued by a pagan priest, although Gleb sorted the problem out swiftly. The wizard claimed to be able to tell the future and had managed to convince a number of locals that he was a god. The bishop asked the people of Novgorod to come and stand with him to show their faithfulness to Christ, but a large crowd stayed with the priest. To deal with this incipient revolt, Gleb himself came to speak to the man, asking “Do you know what will happen tomorrow, or today before the evening?” “I know everything,” replied the priest. “And do you know what will happen to you today?” “I will perform great miracles!” At this point, Gleb pulled out the axe he had under his cloak and struck the priest with it, killing him. I’d like to imagine Gleb muttering “Oh no, you won’t,” under his breath as he wiped the mess off his axe, but unfortunately the chronicler missed that. 1071 in the Roman Empire 5
I can predict the future too. I predict one of your miracles will involve changing the colour of my axe to bright red.
1072 sees the last time the Yaroslavich brothers came together to re-bury the remains of their uncles Boris and Gleb in Vyshgorod cathedral, which was reconsecrated in their names. The three princes carried the coffins themselves. Sadly, 1073 sees them fall out and Izyaslav was driven out of Kiev by his two brothers. Svyatoslav took over as Grand Prince, and Vsevolod moved from Pereyaslavl’ to Chernigov. The PVL blames a greed for power on the part of Svyatoslav and suspicion of a conspiracy between Izyaslav and Vseslav of Polotsk in the mind of Vsevolod. In any case, Izyaslav once more travelled to Poland seeking the help of his kinsman Boleslaw II. This time, however, the welcome was rather less generous. Maybe ruing the loss of his soldiers last time, he refused to help Izyaslav and even relieved him of part of the wealth he was carrying before expelling him from the country.
Boleslaw helps Izyaslav by reducing the amount of cash he needed to carry around.
Izyaslav went further west, to the court of Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and paid him a lot of money to gain his favour, but Henry was too busy with his own problems to help, so Izyaslav sent his son Yaropolk to Rome to meet the Pope in 1075. Yaropolk must have been a better diplomat as he managed to convince Gregory VII to back Izyaslav. Gregory VII sent a papal bull to Boleslaw, condemning him for stealing Izyaslav’s money and instructing him to help Izyaslav return to the throne of Russia. Interestingly, Gregory even crowned Yaropolk (not Izyaslav!) as King of Russia holding the title as a vassal of the Pope. However, even in 1076, Boleslaw was still on the side of Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, even getting military support from Vsevolod’s son Vladimir (known as Vladimir Monomakh, after his mother’s maiden name) and Svyatoslav’s son Oleg in his conflict with Bohemia.
Yaropolk, Irina (his wife) and Gertrude (his mother) venerating St. Peter.
However, the Pope was happy to offer Boleslaw the crown of Poland, if only he would help Izyaslav. Boleslaw had desperately wanted to gain the title of King that had been denied his father, so changed his mind about Izyaslav, even inviting him as a guest of honour at the coronation as King of Poland on Christmas Day 1076.
The portrait above comes from a prayerbook belonging at one point to Gertrude, Izyaslav’s wife. In it, we find some interesting evidence for Izyaslav’s character. The PVL describes him as being “handsome of face, tall in body, of a kindly nature, hating lies but loving truth. There was no cunning in him, but he was of an uncomplicated mind and wouldn’t pay back evil with evil.” Gertrude’s prayerbook tells a different story, in that, at least while in exile, she would pray that God would turn Izyaslav’s heart away from hatred, irritability and anger and towards humbleness, good-heartedness and peacefulness. In another place, she prays for God to drive away the grief she has because of Izyaslav’s crudity and unwillingness to listen to her advice.
Svyatoslav died of a burst tumour two days later and Vsevolod took the throne. Given the instability in Kiev and the support of Poland, Izyaslav felt the time was right to make a comeback. He returned to Russia in early 1077 at the head of a Polish army. Vsevolod set out to fight Izyaslav, but when the two sides met in Volhynia, they came to an agreement, with Vsevolod vacating the throne of Kiev and returning to Chernigov.
Izyaslav and Vsevolod make up.
Izyaslav was not the only one to take advantage of the death of Svyatoslav: once again, Vseslav of Polotsk tried to attack Novgorod. However, things didn’t go well for him this time either. Despite the confusion elsewhere and the death of his own father, Prince Gleb was supported by Vsevolod, Vsevolod’s son Vladimir Monomakh, and Izyaslav’s son Svyatopolk. They even recruited some Polovtsy to help them push back against Vseslav, invading Polotsk in the summer of 1077 and again in the winter.
When Vsevolod returned from Kiev to Chernigov in May 1077, he found it occupied by his nephew Boris Vyacheslavich, who after only eight days as Prince of Chernigov, fled to his cousin Roman Svyatoslavich in Tmutarakan’. His brother Oleg Svyatoslavich, who had been ruling in Vladimir-Volynsky, had been forced to leave as Yaropolk Izyaslavich reclaimed his principality. Oleg lived as a guest of Vsevolod in Chernigov for a while, but as he too had not received a principality of his own, left to join Roman and Boris in Tmutarakan’ in April 1078.
These three princes made a deal with the Polovtsy to raise an army to drive Vsevolod out of Chernigov, which had been Roman and Oleg’s father’s principality. They attacked in August, defeating Vsevolod’s army on the banks of the river Sozhitsa to the east of Pereyaslavl’. Vsevolod rode to Kiev to ask for his brother’s aid and, in the autumn, an army led by Izyaslav, Vsevolod, Yaropolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Vsevolodovich (Monomakh) rode out to confront the Svyatoslavichi. Boris and Oleg were not in Chernigov, but while Izyaslav’s forces were beseiging the city, with Vladimir’s men having already captured the gate and the outer city, news came that Boris and Oleg were approaching with their army.
Vladimir’s men take the outer city.
When they had seen the size of the force opposing them, Oleg tried to convince Boris to avoid a fight and to come to terms with their relatives, but Boris was more confident, saying “Look, I am ready. I will go and stand against them.” The two armies met at a place called Nezhatina Niva, somehere near Chernigov on 3rd October. Boris’s confidence proved misplaced as he soon fell in battle, shortly followed by Izyaslav, who took a spear to the shoulder from an unknown rider. Oleg barely made it out of the battle alive, escaping back to Tmutarakan’ with only a few of his warband surviving.
Grand Prince Izyaslav I Yaroslavich. Vasily Vereshchagin.
Twenty-four years after burying his father, Vsevolod brought his older brother’s body back to Kiev for burial, the people of the city came out to meet his body and the weeping was so loud that it drowned out the priests and monks singing hymns. He was laid to rest in the Tithe Church.
Izyaslav returns to Kiev for the last time.
RATINGS:
Length of Reign: Izyaslav’s time as Grand Prince had a couple of interruptions of almost four years in total, leaving him in charge for around 20 years. Add to that the time he was Prince in Turov and Novgorod (about 10 years), and he gets 5 points out of 10.
World Fame: As of November 2023, Izyaslav’s biography appeared in thirty-five languages on Wikipedia, giving him 3 points out of 20.
Achievements: If we remember how quickly things went downhill after the death of Svyatoslav, and of Vladimir (with Vladimir, things were already going downhill while he was still alive), the ability of Izyaslav to manage the potential for instability of sharing power with four brothers and a number of junior princes is an accomplishment. Although he lost power twice, twice he was able to return without a fight. The first time, Vseslav recognised he could not resist the rightful Grand Prince (and to be fair, Vseslav had not tried to take the throne, it was thrust upon him by events). The second time in particular demonstrated his prestige – rather than fight, Vsevolod voluntarily gave up the throne of Kiev to its rightful owner.
Like his father, Izyaslav was a legislator: along with his brothers, he developed Yaroslav’s law code, adding twenty-three new articles to the original eighteen. The new section has become known as the “Justice of the Yaroslavichi”. After Yaroslav had significantly reduced the scope for physical vengeance within the law, Izyaslav banned it completely. Now, exacting financial compensation for the loss was the only legal means of settling a dispute and a wide variety of fines were set for crimes of different types.
No ruler of Russia before him had needed to deal with such a number of increasingly independent princes, while facing an unprecedented threat to both the security and wealth of the nation as the Polovtsy. That his last years in power should be blighted by the devastation of the Roman Empire, Russia’s main trading partner, just makes his position even more challenging. His list of positive achievements is limited, but in a situation like this, surviving as long as he did and passing the state on to his brother is an achievement in itself. I’ll give Izyaslav 14 points out of 30.
Defence of the Realm: Izyaslav faced both internal and external enemies. The initial threat from the Torks was limited and successfully dealt with by him and his brothers. The Polovtsy were a different matter altogether and here Izyaslav was rather less successful, not least in the battle on the river Al’ta, defeat in which led to him losing the throne in 1068, while he also managed to die in the battle at Chernigov, even though he and Vsevolod won.
Internally, he had to face not only a number of junior princes, like Rostislav Vladimirovich, who were fighting for a patch of land of their own, but also Vseslav of Polotsk, who managed to be a long term trouble-maker for Izyaslav and his brothers. Vseslav’s father Bryachislav had also attempted to attack Novgorod under Yaroslav, but was put in his place and did not attempt to repeat his mistake. Vseslav, on the other hand, was a far more determined opponent, forcing his way back into Polotsk after being driven out and attacking Novgorod (and being attacked in his turn) until the end of Izyaslav’s life and even into Vsevolod’s reign. Polotsk was effectively independent of Kiev at the end of Izyaslav’s rule.
Izyaslav’s own grip on power seemed relatively weak – he fled from a mob in Kiev in 1068, while Vsevolod had brushed himself down and was fighting back against the Polovtsy. In 1073, he fled from his brothers, rather than fighting for his throne and both of his returns to power were ultimately peaceful: Vseslav ran away and Vsevolod gave the throne back to his brother without a fight.
Izyaslav’s successes came as the head of a coalition, rather than a victorious commander in his own right. His reign saw a serious decline in the power and prestige of the Grand Prince of Kiev and Russia as a whole. While the causes were deeper than Izyaslav’s personal competence, his performance cannot merit a high score. I’ll give him 7 points out of 20.
Bonus Points: Sadly for Izyaslav, he doesn’t get a great deal of love from his descendants. Even the series Rurikovichi skips over his reign and those of his brothers in a few words to get to that of Vladimir Monomakh. He does appear as a minor character in Pavel Zagrebel’ny’s 1975 novel “Eupraxia” about the daughter of Vsevolod, who married the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. No streets, no ships (it looks like the ships that were named Izyaslav were named after Vladimir’s eldest son), no statues as far as I can see.
Only 1 out of 20, I’m afraid.
Izyaslav’s Rating: 30 out of 100
Reflected Glory:
It is not known exactly when Yaropolk Izyaslavich was born, probably before 1050. We first hear of him in 1071, when he leads the army that beat Vseslav of Polotsk at Golotichesk, but was unable to follow-up the victory because of the spring thaw that turned the land into a bog. In 1073 he accompanied his father into exile, first in Poland, then in Germany. In 1075, he was sent to Rome to get the Pope’s support and was so successful that Pope Gregory VII crowned him King, although in English the title is often translated as King of Ruthenia, although Rex Rusiae looks like “King of Russia” to me. He convinced the Pope to help his father so Gregory VII bribed Boleslaw II to support Izyaslav with the one thing Boleslaw wanted more than anything: the title of King.
Upon returning to Russia in 1076 he became Prince of Vyshgorod; his reward from Vsevolod for taking part in the battle at Nezhatina Niva was to be promoted to the Principality of Vladimir-Volynsky and Turov – his title as King of Russia was then associated with Volhynia and Galicia for centuries, even though in 1084 he was driven out of Vladimir by the sons of Rostislav Vladimirovich, Volodar, Rurik and Vasil’ko. Vsevolod sent his son Vladimir Monomakh to help return Yaropolk to power, but the two men fell out over Vladimir’s decision to grant the town Dorogobuzh to another cousin, David Igorevich. Yaropolk only got back to the city of Vladimir in 1086, but was murdered later in the year during a campaign to crush his Rostislavich enemies. He left all his wealth to the Caves Monastery in Kiev and is a saint, with his day of remembrance on 22nd November.
Yan’ Vyshatich was the son of Vyshata, the commander of Vladimir Yaroslavich who tried to lead the stranded men back to Russia on foot during his unsuccessful raid on the Roman Empire. Yan’ was born in 1016 and died at the ripe old age of eighty. When we first hear of him, it is in 1071, as he crushes the pagan / Bogomil rebellion near Beloozero on behalf of Vladimir Monomakh by capturing the two priests who were falsely accusing women of hiding food and killing them.
Christianty and Paganism (Yan’ Vystatich and the pagans), 1912, Sergey Knyaz’kov
His continued to serve Vladimir Monomakh as a military commander, taking part in a number of battles under his prince’s command. He was also the father of a saint – Varlaam, the first abbot of the Caves Monastery in Kiev.
St. Varlaam by Sergey Nikitin, based on the skull, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Which brings me on to Anthony, Theodosius and Nikon, early saints of the Caves Monastery. Anthony was born in Lyubech around 983 and as a young man travelled to Mount Athos to live as a hermit. In 1011 he was sent back to Russia to help found monasteries, but preferred to live as a hermit in the pits dug near Kiev by the future Metropolitan Ilarion. After Ilarion left to take up his duties as Metropolitan, around 1051, Anthony took up permanent residence and was later joined by a number of companions, including Theodosius, and Nikon.
Theodosius had been from a military family, born around 1036, but had wanted to be a monk from a young age. In around 1055, he travelled to Kiev in the attempt to join one of the many monasteries there. He was refused by them all because of his young age, only Anthony took him in.
Nikon was a hieromonk (i.e. both priest and monk) who had also been attracted by Anthony’s holiness and moved to the caves around 1058. As Nikon was a priest, Anthony asked him to take Theodosius’s final monastic vows around this time. Shortly afterwards, around 1061, two military men joined the monastery: Yan’ Vyshatich’s son Varlaam and Efrem, both of whom had been commanders under Izyaslav. Izyaslav demanded their return, Nikon was summoned to the Prince, but refused to hand over the two men, and eventually Gertrude convinced Izyaslav to back down.
Anthony was not interested in the day-to-day running of a monastery and appointed Varlaam as the first abbot, while he retreated to another set of caves nearby, where he lived until a period from 1069 to 1073, when Izyaslav, suspecting Anthony of sympathy with Vseslav, essentially forced him to leave the city and move to Chernigov under the protection of Svyatoslav, where Anthony founded another monastery. He returned to Kiev when Svyatoslav took over as Grand Prince, dying shortly after and he was buried in his cave.
Varlaam was abbot when the first above-ground church was started in the Caves Monastery, but he was asked by Izyaslav to set up a number of other monasteries, including one dedicated to St Demetrius, and the first monastery for women in Russia. His replacement as abbot was Theodosius, who continued the work of building churches, housing for the increasing number of monks and the first library. Theodosius also wrote the first monastic rule for the monastery, based on one in use in Constantinople.
Theodosius died in the mid 1070s and chose a monk called Stefan as his replacement, but he proved unpopular with the other monks and resigned in 1078, to be replaced by Nikon, who had been away from the monastery, possibly in Tmutarakan’. Nikon lasted as abbot for ten years, developing the monastery, but most importantly, he is believed to have collected many older annals and collected them into a document which served as the basis of the Povest’ Vremennykh Let. He died in 1088, and, as with the others, is venerated as a saint.
Next time, we look at the first man to keep the throne of Kiev warm for Izyaslav when he was otherwise engaged: Vseslav the Sorcerer, Prince of Polotsk.
- As Izyaslav’s reign marks the start of the decline of early Russia, now would be a good time to look at the Polovtsy. Polovtsy was the name used for them by the Russians, meaning blonde, or light haired, although the other name by which they are often known – Cuman – might also come from a Turkic word with the same meaning. Although there were lighter haired natives of Central Asia in the past (and even a few now), some think this might refer to the colour of their horses.
The steppes to the south of Russia stretched across Eurasia and, as the climate was generally too dry for agriculture there, they were the preserve of nomadic pastoralists who, using their enhanced mobility, could often get away with successful raids against settled agricultural neighbouring cultures, especially when united under strong rulers. We have already seen two different Turkic nomadic empires to the south east of Russia pass in the two centuries since Rurik came: first the Khazars and then the Pechenegs.
The Polovtsy formed the western end of a huge confederation that stretched as far as the Altai mountains and it is entirely possible that the attack on Kiev by the Pechenegs and their subsequent collapse was driven, at least in part, by Polovtsy expansion from the east. However, the size of the Polovtsian confederation meant that they were a far more formidable threat than the previous two nomadic powers and this enhanced military threat had two deleterious effects on the power of the Grand Prince of Kiev.
Firstly, it became much more difficult and costly to guard the trade expeditions down the Dnieper to Constantinople, reducing the profits and therefore the ability of the Grand Prince to finance the defence and development of the country. Secondly, their raiding caused far more damage than that of the Pechenegs, leading to a slow depopulation, from slave raiding and from the desire of the previous natives to seek a safer place to live. ↩︎ - As a guide to the benefits of holding the field of battle, it has been estimated that the relative value of the folded steel used in weapons in the early middle ages would have been roughly equivalent to that of silver today – the cost of fuel for smelting would make it so valuable, that merely getting the chance to strip the dead of a defeated professional army would make a victorious battle financially worthwhile for a mediaeval warleader. ↩︎
- Gleb Svyatoslavich’s second term as Prince of Tmutarakan’ saw the first recorded topographic and hydrographic investigation in Russian history. A stone discovered in the 18th century states that in 6576 (1068) Prince Gleb measured the distance between Tmutarakan’ and Kerch across the ice, which was 14,000 fathoms (24,000 metres). This very accurately describes the distance between the central churches in each town.
↩︎ - The PVL gives details of the beliefs of the two men. At some points, they refer to “gods, but at others, they make the claim that the Devil created humans, but God put in the soul, so when people die, the body goes back into the earth, but the soul goes back to God, they further claimed that their God was the anti-Christ. This seems similar to the dualist beliefs that were spreading in other parts of Europe at the time. The Bogomils in Bulgaria and the Cathars in southern France both believed that the God of the Old Testament was the creator of the physical world, but that he was evil and the God of Christ and the New Testament was the true, good God. The bad God had made humans from clay, and vivified them and his creation by trapping elements of the divine essence inside them.
For more information about these dualist religions, I would strongly recommend The Other God by Yuri Stoyanov. ↩︎ - While Gleb was dealing with possibly Bogomil inspired priests in Novgorod, one of the other hammer blows to early mediaeval Russia’s political economy fell, without anyone in Russia realising at the time. The Russian state made much of its income from the profits of selling the taxes collected in kind, of fur, honey, wax and slaves in the bustling markets of Constantinople. In 1071, Romanos Diogenes lost the Battle of Manzikert against the Seljuk Turks. Romanos and Alp Arslan, the leader of the Turks became friends and allies, however Romanos was soon deposed and killed and the Turks felt justified in avenging their new friend by invading Anatolia. Within a few years, they had reached the Bosphorus, and although the Romans were able to push the Turks back from the coasts, they had permanently lost control of the central Anatolian highlands – a core area for military recruitment and of trade routes into the Middle East.
While the Roman Empire did not collapse for almost four hundred years, the loss of inland Anatolia did start the process by which the trade routes which had for centuries focussed on Constantinople started to move away. The profits for Grand Princes in the trade with Constantinople was never again sufficient to allow them to rebuild the power and prestige that Vladimir or Yaroslav had, and within a century, the economic and political centre of Russia had shifted to the north and east. ↩︎
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