Concluding this series, the youngest of the sons of Vladimir Monomakh, Yuri Dolgoruky of Suzdalia, gets his time in Kyiv.
[00:00:00] Hello everyone, this is Robin Pearson from the History of Byzantium Podcast. If you're
[00:00:05] someone who likes a bit of Roman history but thinks it ends in 476 AD then do I have
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[00:00:22] podcasts. But for now it's back to the Russian Empire History Podcast.
[00:00:53] Hello and welcome to the Russian Empire History Podcast, the history of all the peoples
[00:00:59] of the Russian Empire. I'm your host, JP Bristow. This is season one, The Forest, The Step,
[00:01:08] and the birth of the Russian Empire and episode 48, The Sons of Monomach, part three.
[00:01:16] Just a reminder that we are about a month away from the episode 50 Q&A. So if you have a question
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[00:01:47] Yuri has been there on the outer reaches of Rusk, intruiting into our narrative more and more.
[00:01:54] Like Sauron, his arm has grown long, imposing his influence over the 1000 km from Susdal to Kiev
[00:02:04] and earning himself the name of Yuri Dolgoruki. Yuri the long arm, sometimes rendered by reaching.
[00:02:14] Finally, he has taken Kiev. But I think we're all aware that there's nothing especially secure about
[00:02:23] the way he managed it and Ezeoslav is still out there.
[00:02:32] Sgratislav Olgavic turned up straight away with his, by now traditional request,
[00:02:37] that all the patrimonial demands of the Olgavic that Ezeoslav had taken be returned to him.
[00:02:44] Yuri agreed and returned Kursk, which had been given to his son, Gleb.
[00:02:51] Beating Ezeoslav meant that Yuri was now in possession of the Monomach home city of Bereaslava,
[00:02:59] so he was willing to give up Kursk's secure support.
[00:03:03] He then demanded and received Vladimir and Ezeoslav Davidovich's of Genevives' pledge of
[00:03:14] allegiance for whatever that was worth. That left Ezeoslav, and that conflict was still hot.
[00:03:24] Both Yuri and Ezeoslav took the interesting position that neither of them had the right to claim
[00:03:31] the throne of Kiev since Vyacheslav, as the eldest Monomach had the legitimate claim.
[00:03:38] However, since Vyacheslav had been unable to take Kiev for himself,
[00:03:44] he was going to have to reach an agreement for a partnership with one of them.
[00:03:52] The standoff gradually escalated back towards open warfare in early 1150.
[00:03:59] Yuri moved his son out of Vyshkura of Baikiv and invited Vyacheslav to move in.
[00:04:05] Ezeoslav attacked Gleb in Paris, Orpnitsa. Gleb surrendered and Ezeoslav had his sons
[00:04:13] convoyed back to Yuri, pointing out along the way that all the land he could see belonged to them
[00:04:20] and their father. Ezeoslav continued gathering troops,
[00:04:26] and the outnumbered Yuri moved to Gleb's Asteosky. Vyacheslav seized the opportunity to occupy Kiev.
[00:04:39] The people of Kiev obviously had no faith in Vyacheslav, understandable given his performance over
[00:04:45] the last couple of decades, so they forced him to leave and declared Ezeoslav their king.
[00:04:52] As soon as he was back in Kiev, he sent his son, Mrs. Slav, to shift Rostislav Yurivich from Periyaslavl.
[00:05:02] Yuri sent Andrei to support Periyaslavl and summoned the Davidvichy and Olga Vichy
[00:05:10] to help drive Ezeoslav out of Kiev. Vladimirko of Halic also joined him.
[00:05:17] To avoid being stretched too thin, Ezeoslav acknowledged Vyacheslavl as his father
[00:05:24] and Vyacheslavl acknowledged Ezeoslavl as his son. Ezeoslav left to join his army, leaving Kiev
[00:05:34] to Vyacheslavl. Ezeoslavl had assembled a large army but maybe one with too many components
[00:05:42] to perform well. Beside his own men and the Rusvoreas of his son, Mrs. Slav and brother Vyladimir,
[00:05:51] he had contingents of Hungarians, Poles and Black Caps, also known as Churne Clubuki or Karakolpak.
[00:06:02] Turkic riders from the steppe.
[00:06:04] Despite having the superior numbers, they were defeated by Vyladimirko of Halic without even
[00:06:13] encountering Yuri's main force and Ezeoslav had the fleet of Vladimir and Valinia.
[00:06:24] Vyladimirko attempted unsuccessfully to install Yuri's son, Mr. Slav in Doroga Bush
[00:06:32] and then settled for Perysopnica. Yuri appointed Andrei Tuturov.
[00:06:39] This would lead Vyacheslav to accuse Yuri of attempting to seize his patrimony
[00:06:45] and it shows that Yuri was acting more aggressively than Ezeoslav, who had not made any attempts
[00:06:52] to seize Yuri's towns when they were contesting Perriasl level.
[00:06:56] Vyacheslav's officials and the peoples of Kiev had asked Ezeoslav to return,
[00:07:04] so he prepared to attack Yuri.
[00:07:10] Siyatopolk was left to defend Vladimir and Valinia while Ezeoslav marched with Vladimir,
[00:07:17] Mr. Slav and their Hungarian allies. He declared to his drujina that he was not prepared
[00:07:25] to reject his inheritance or pasture money again and that he would either die or recover the throne.
[00:07:33] So whatever his words to his uncle or Yuri, Ezeoslav was looking at Kiev as his pasture money
[00:07:41] and therefore claiming that he had the strongest right to sit there.
[00:07:48] Yuri once again withdrew to Garotietzastjoski and Ezeoslav was able to occupy Kiev without
[00:07:54] a fight. Vladimirko was disgusted by this. He was unable to understand how with his sons placed
[00:08:03] in strategic terms Yuri had allowed Ezeoslav to catch him off guard.
[00:08:11] Ezeoslav once more went to Vyacheslav and acknowledged him as his father
[00:08:17] and Vyacheslav acknowledged Ezeoslav as his son. Once again they took over the joint rule of Kiev.
[00:08:27] While Ezeoslav might have considered Kiev his own,
[00:08:31] keeping Vyacheslav around like this deprived Yuri of the ability to claim that Ezeoslav was
[00:08:38] violating the rules of succession.
[00:08:40] The short time after Ezeoslav's Yuri which died, as the ruler of Periaslival he was buried in
[00:08:52] Michaels alongside his uncles, Sretislav and Andrei. In the spring of 1151 Yuri summoned his allies
[00:09:04] for another attempt on Kiev. Vladimir Davidovich, Sretislav Olgavich, Sretislav Syevalodovich,
[00:09:12] some of the young in FUs and their Palovtsi assembled in Garotietzastjoski in April.
[00:09:20] Ezeoslav Davidovich had for reasons unknown gone over to the other side where he joined
[00:09:28] Rostislav, Mr. Slava Vyacheslav Smyalyensk and his son Roman, Vladimir Mr. Slava Vyacheslav,
[00:09:34] Borisov Gorodna, the people of Kiev, the Turks, Perin day and Karakhal Paks,
[00:09:40] and even some Pecheniks, escapees from the final destruction of the Pecheniks in the Balkans who had
[00:09:48] strangled back to the step. Yuri attacked Kiev and was defeated. He returned to Periaslival but
[00:09:58] that was too close to Kiev and Vyacheslav and Ezeoslav wanted him out of harm's way.
[00:10:04] They laid siege to Periaslival and ordered Yuri to return to Susdal. He left and Ezeoslav appointed
[00:10:12] Mr. Slava to rule the city. Yuri only went as far as Garotietzastjoski and that was still too close.
[00:10:23] So Ezeoslav prepared to attack him again. Yuri decided to move back to Susdal,
[00:10:31] but even that was not enough for Ezeoslav and Ezeoslav. Their advisers were telling them that
[00:10:39] with Gleb Yurivich in Garotietzastjoski he could summon their step allies to attack from the south
[00:10:46] while Yuri attacked from the north. So in the winter of 1152, Ezeoslav Ezeoslav Davidovic of
[00:10:59] Geniev and Sretaslav of Sivolodovic marched on Garotietzastjoski, threw down its walls and burned
[00:11:07] the town to the ground. Gleb was driven off. Just like when he had thrown out Rostislav for supposedly
[00:11:16] potting against him, Ezeoslav had made a serious error. By attempting to eliminate Yuri's influence
[00:11:24] in the south, he had managed to provoke him into doing exactly what he'd been trying to prevent.
[00:11:31] Yuri recruited Rostislav Yereoslavic of Rizan, his cousins from Murong, his pull of the allies
[00:11:39] and set out for the south. But rather than attacking Ezeoslav directly, he punished Sretaslav
[00:11:47] Sivolodovic and Ezeoslav Davidovic, but taking part in the attacks on his lands.
[00:11:53] Sretaslav Olgavic joined him again and they laid siege to Geniev,
[00:12:01] burning the suburbs and allowing the Polofti to pillage at will. Then they were drew,
[00:12:08] ravaging the Zadecinia as they went. Yuri left his son Vassalko with Sretaslav Olgavic's support,
[00:12:18] necessary as Ezeoslav was in fact, soon planning to punish him for changing science again.
[00:12:30] In February 1153, Ezeoslav is nephew Roman Rostislavic of Smalyansk,
[00:12:37] Ezeoslav Davidvich and Sretaslav Sivolodovic set out to conquer Novgorod Sivoski
[00:12:45] and resolve the Sretaslav Olgavic problem. The campaign was a failure,
[00:12:51] but resulted only in a peace agreement that nobody wanted.
[00:13:05] Meanwhile, back in Svidalya, Yuri seems to have decided to take a time out from trying
[00:13:12] to seize Kiev and to invest in developing his own domain. He terminated Svidalya's payments
[00:13:19] of tribute to Kiev and spent his time building towns and churches.
[00:13:26] So as I'm sure some of you are wondering what is this Svidalya that has appeared in our tale
[00:13:32] from out of nowhere, this is a perfect opportunity to take a quick look at the domain of Vladimir
[00:13:39] Monomax, youngest son, a domain that will form the basis of what subsequently emerges as Muscovy.
[00:13:52] Svidalya was the name given to the region that the Rus had originally called the Zalyskaya
[00:13:59] Zimlia or land beyond the forest. The Volga flowed through the middle of the region
[00:14:07] to join the Okha in the east. The Klyasma rose north-west of Moscow and also flowed to the Okha.
[00:14:16] What would soon become the regional capital Vladimir stood on the middle of the Klyasma
[00:14:22] and was often known as Vladimir Zalyskaya or Vladimir on the Klyasma to distinguish it from Vladimir
[00:14:31] in Bolinia. It was founded by Vladimir Monomax but remained merely a fortified outpost at the time
[00:14:41] we are dealing with here when Rostov and Susdol were the principal cities. Most of the oldest
[00:14:50] important towns lay either on the Volga or the Klyasma or in the area lying between them.
[00:14:58] The two Uglic Yaroslav and Kastroma on the Volga, Vladimir and Stara Dub on the Klyasma,
[00:15:08] Susdol, Priyaslav Zalyskaya, Rostov Dmitrov and Yurif Polsky playing between.
[00:15:15] The first mention of the region was back in the testament of Yaroslav where
[00:15:26] Cevalod receives Priyaslav as his patrony including its subordinate lands of Rostov, Susdol,
[00:15:35] Piyalor-Ozara and the Volga region. It passed down through Cevalod to Vladimir Monomax
[00:15:42] and then to Yuri without being contested.
[00:15:49] Perhaps this was because little attention seems to have been paid to it at all.
[00:15:54] It was not until later in Vladimir Monomax time that it even had a princely ruler appointed.
[00:16:01] It appears to have been too remote from the heartland of Kiev,
[00:16:05] Chenyiv and Priyaslav to worry about.
[00:16:10] However, the region is relatively fertile, connected to the Volga and Baltic trade routes
[00:16:17] and was growing steadily. It also bordered the Volga Bulgas, who were themselves growing strongly
[00:16:25] and at the south as we've already heard it ran up against the Chenyiv lands where the Monomaxes'
[00:16:33] disputes with the other ruling families meant that defenses were necessary.
[00:16:40] With this in mind Vladimir Monomax appointed Yuri to rule in Susdol and as we have seen
[00:16:48] he ruled largely independently of Kiev. You'll have already picked up that Yuri had a long reign,
[00:16:56] some 37 years in total and he deserves to be recognised as the founder of Susdol as a state.
[00:17:06] Under him, the borders with Chenyiv in the south and Novgorod in the north were set.
[00:17:14] New towns including Moscow were founded, churches and monasteries were built
[00:17:20] and Yuri's sons were established to rule in their own cities.
[00:17:26] The divide was starting to form between Northern Rus, Susdolia and Novgorod,
[00:17:32] which were acting increasingly independently of Kiev and Southern Rus, Kiev, Chenyiv,
[00:17:39] Priyaslav and Galicia.
[00:17:41] Despite their historical importance, Susdol and Rostov have not become major modern cities.
[00:17:55] Rostov, which is known as Rostov Veliki,
[00:17:58] Rostov the Great to distinguish it from Rostov Andon, which did become a big modern city,
[00:18:05] as a population today of around 30,000, while Susdol has less than 10,000 inhabitants.
[00:18:19] While Yuri's attempts to intervene in Southern Rus met with mixed results,
[00:18:25] his rule in his own domain was an undoubted success.
[00:18:29] During this period, when he turned his attention away from Chenyiv, Kiev and Priyaslav,
[00:18:37] he moved his capital to Susdol and the region acquired the name of Susdolia.
[00:18:44] But the absence of adventures to the south did not mean that he was focused on internal matters
[00:18:49] alone. In response to Susdolia encroaching on their territory, the Volga Bulgas had attacked
[00:18:57] back in 1107. Yuri had then led the campaign against Bulgaria in 1120 that resulted in an easy
[00:19:06] piece between them for a couple of decades, during which he continued to build towns and fortifications
[00:19:13] to assert and defend his borders. Yuri ended Susdolia's payment of tribute to Kiev.
[00:19:21] This was a turning point, an assertion that Susdolia was not a vassal of Kiev and that he did not
[00:19:28] owe a field to the king of Kiev. At the same time, he continued to assert his place in the
[00:19:34] succession by claiming to respect Priyaslav's claim to rule Kiev and insisting that his own
[00:19:40] claim put him ahead of Miss dyslove. In a pattern that we're going to see repeated over the coming
[00:19:48] decades, while Susdolia enjoys a period of relative peace, consolidation and growth in southern
[00:19:56] routes, the squabbling and disputes between the ruling families will continue.
[00:20:03] Various monomashichy, Miss dysloveichy and Davidevichy will continually be going to war with each other.
[00:20:19] In 1153, Izyslav went to war with the excellent renamed Yaroslav Osmo Miso or eight wits,
[00:20:28] eight brains we might say in a more modern idiom due to his great wisdom. The chronicles did not
[00:20:35] tell us what the pretext for the conflict was. Yaroslav had succeeded his father of Vladimirko
[00:20:44] and his father had been an ally of Yuriy. And Yaroslav appears to have followed suit in not
[00:20:51] pledging allegiance to Vyacheslav and Izyslav. Izyslav assembled the Karakolpak,
[00:21:00] whom by the way are not the same Karakolpak as lived in Uzbekistan today. His sons,
[00:21:09] the Miss dyslovichy and other allies, was unable to defeat Yaroslav so the campaign ended with nothing.
[00:21:20] Besides Izyslav Davidevich of Geneva, all Izyslav's allies were monomashichy from the south and west.
[00:21:30] Susdolia and Smolensk appeared to be secure with Yiri and Rostislav.
[00:21:36] Karakolpak was with the Miss dyslovichy, but Valinia was becoming increasingly fragmented.
[00:21:50] The following year 1154, Yuriy turns his gaze south once again. This time he marched directly
[00:21:59] against Izyslav and Vyacheslav, most probably with the intent of recovering Karakolpak's diocese.
[00:22:07] However, luck was against him. When his forces reached the Viyatichi land, some kind of
[00:22:14] sickness struck the horses and forced him to abandon the campaign. Before Yuriy could assemble
[00:22:21] his next campaign, there was a new crisis in Kiev. On 14th November 1154, Izyslav died.
[00:22:33] He had been the clear leader of the Miss dyslovichy and by seizing the throne of Kyiv,
[00:22:38] he had made his own family, the Izyslavichy, claimants to the throne of their father.
[00:22:44] But seizing the throne had destabilized Ruse and the expansion of pretenders to the throne
[00:22:51] did not bow to the world for the future. With Izyslav dead, Vyacheslav was alone in Kiev
[00:23:00] with the usual results. Within days, Izyslav Davidovich turned up at the gates, claiming that he
[00:23:07] was there to pay his respects and pray at the dead king's grave.
[00:23:12] But once Vyacheslav showed some resistance, he refused Izyslav Davidovich,
[00:23:23] entered the city and summoned Rusev's love from Novgorod, whom Izyslav had most likely designated
[00:23:30] as his successor. Vyacheslav was by now an elderly man, so while he waited for Rusev to arrive,
[00:23:41] he needed to appoint someone to command the troops if Kiev was attacked.
[00:23:47] He had several options, Izyslav's son Vladimir was in Vladimir and Valinia,
[00:23:53] while his own brother Vladimir was in Doro-Kabush.
[00:23:58] This Vladimir had already acted as the commander of Kiev when he failed to save Ego's life.
[00:24:06] Another son of Izyslav, Miss dyslov, was in Periasslovom.
[00:24:12] Rather unexpectedly, Vyacheslav chose Svetislav Syvalodovich, who was an Orgovich,
[00:24:19] but was also a nephew of the Miss dyslovichy as his mother Maria had been Izyslav and Rostislav's sister.
[00:24:30] While the presumed heir was traveling south, Izyslav Davidovich and Svetislav Orgovich of
[00:24:37] Cherniv, set the grounds for another confrontation by demanding that Yuri succeed Izyslav.
[00:24:54] Rostislav made it to Kiev first. Meanwhile, Gleb Yurivich, who was with the Polovtsy,
[00:25:01] attacked Periasslovom. Rostislav sent his son Svetislav to assist with the defense
[00:25:07] and the attack was driven off. Rostislav began preparing to attack Cherniv.
[00:25:15] While Rostislav was in Vysherod, assembling his forces,
[00:25:19] word came from Kiev that Vyacheslav had died. He was buried in the church of Saint Sophia next to
[00:25:26] his father. I think we have to rate Vyacheslav fairly badly. It's hard to get much of a sense of
[00:25:34] the personality of the rulers of Rostislav during this period as the Chronicles are very dry and
[00:25:40] matter of fact, but Vyacheslav has consistently taken on rulership without fulfilling any of
[00:25:47] the obligations of a ruler whatever the reason was. He has to bear some of the blame for the
[00:25:54] fracturing of southern Rus. After his death, Tvuraov passed under the control of Stratopolk
[00:26:04] Izyslavic's descendants and ceased to play any significant role in Rus politics.
[00:26:14] Rostislav decided that the best way to secure his position in Kiev was to get recognition from
[00:26:21] Izyslav Davidovich of Cherniv. This would kill two birds with one stone, aligning the Olga Vyacheslavic
[00:26:29] against Yuri and meaning that Izyslav was dropping his own claim to Kiev.
[00:26:37] Izyslav Davidovich on the other hand saw no reason to concede.
[00:26:42] Rostislav's place on the throne was still up for discussion and he thought that together
[00:26:47] with Glöbjurivic and his Balotsi he was stronger than Rostislav.
[00:26:54] He came to battle and Rostislav lost. He fled back to Smalyand.
[00:27:01] Mrislav Izyslavic abandoned Perriestlava and fled to Valinia.
[00:27:08] The people of Kiev were afraid that the Palovtsi would enter the city, so they invited Izyslav
[00:27:15] Davidovich to take Kiev. He rewarded his supporters by appointing Svatov Slav
[00:27:21] Olga Vyacheslavic to Cherniv and Glöbjurivic to Perriestlava.
[00:27:31] But Izyslav was no more secured than Rostislav. Even before Rostislav had set out for Cherniv,
[00:27:38] Yuri had already left Suzdal to march on the Kiev.
[00:27:42] He gathered his allies as he went, including Glöbjurivic to return to his army.
[00:27:51] While he marched through Smalyand, he reached an agreement with Rostislav,
[00:27:57] who submitted to his seniority as the eldest of the Monomax and further augmented to his military superiority.
[00:28:06] Izyslav Davidovich had also undermined any claim that he might have,
[00:28:13] because he and Svatov Slav Olgavic had jointly summoned Yuri when Izyslav Mr Slavic died.
[00:28:22] Therefore they had already acknowledged him as the rightful junior ruler,
[00:28:27] and when Vyacheslav died, that made him the rightful claimant to Kiev.
[00:28:32] So when Yuri reached Cherniv, Svatov Slav Olgavic acknowledged his right of succession.
[00:28:42] Izyslav would also have to contend with the already established opposition of the people of Kiev
[00:28:48] to rule by an Olgavic. So when Yuri reached Kiev with his allies,
[00:28:56] Svatov persuaded Izyslav to submit without a battle.
[00:29:00] Yuri declared that Kiev was his patrimony, not Izyslavs,
[00:29:04] for Izyslav's father had not sat on the throne. However there was no punishment for Izyslav.
[00:29:12] As he had summoned him upon the death of Izyslav Mr Slavic and had been generous to Glöb when
[00:29:19] he gave him pyrreasable. Ruling Kiev was a temptation that anyone could fall for but no harm done.
[00:29:30] So on 20th March 1155, Yuri Dorgoruki once more ascended the throne of Kiev.
[00:29:43] As was traditional, he then dispensed domains to his sons.
[00:29:48] To Andrei, he gave the fortified outpost of Kiev, Vyshgorod.
[00:29:52] To Barys, he gave Turov to Glöb pyrreaslvl and to Vasylko, the Porosya region between the Stugna
[00:30:01] and Ross Rivers. That is, he surrounded Kiev with his sons in attempt to secure his position.
[00:30:10] Another son, Miss Islav, remained in charge of Novgorod, while the two youngest Mikhailko
[00:30:16] and Sevalod remained at home in Svizdalia.
[00:30:21] As it become traditional, the Bolovtse marked the ascension of a new ruler in Kiev by
[00:30:27] raiding Rostteri on the Ross River. Vyshgorod Yuri Vich successfully drove them off.
[00:30:35] According to the Chronicles, Izyslav Davidovich started making moves to challenge Yuri but
[00:30:42] Svetoslav Ogovich talked him out of it. Yuri continued to be fairly tolerant towards the other
[00:30:49] ruling families. The only junior ruler that he punished was Mr. Slavitch, who had rejected his claim
[00:30:57] to Kiev. Mr. Slav was still in Perysolknitsa which was traditionally part of the Kiev domain,
[00:31:09] so Yuri sent troops to evict him. Mr. Slav fled west to Lutsk, but that was not enough for Yuri who
[00:31:17] asked Yaroslav Osmo Mishil to drive him out of there too. Mr. Slav went to join his uncle in
[00:31:25] Vladimir and Valinia which was too strong for Yaroslav Osmo Mishil to take on.
[00:31:31] Yuri's wife traveled from Sustol to Smalyansk and was then escorted to Kiev by
[00:31:40] Rostislav of Smalyansk, now the eldest and head of the Miss Dyslavitchi.
[00:31:48] Yuri greeted him as a friend and Rostislav used the occasion to intercede for his relatives.
[00:31:55] His brother Vladimir was summoned from Vladimir and Valinia, along with the two Iziyaslavitchi,
[00:32:02] Mr. Slav and Yaroslav. Vladimir and Yaroslav made the journey to Kiev, but Mr. Slav was afraid of
[00:32:11] what was waiting for him and did not. Yuri welcomed the Mr. Slavitchi warmly and sent professions of
[00:32:20] friendship to Mr. Slav. We generally get the impression from the chronicles that Rostislav was not
[00:32:28] as ambitious as his brother Iziyaslav had been. The opposition between the Mr. Slavitchi and the
[00:32:34] Monomashichi had been driven by the contest for Kiev, and if Rostislav was not going to press his claim
[00:32:42] then they were all willing to let bygones be bygones and be friends.
[00:32:51] Around the same time, Emissaries arrived from the Pollyvtzee who were interested in establishing a
[00:32:56] new treaty after being soundly beaten by Vassolko. Yuri marched out with his new allies,
[00:33:04] Rostislav and Vladimir, Yaroslav is his Slavitchi and troops from Galicia.
[00:33:10] The Pollyvtzee saw his overwhelming superiority in forces and fled into the steppe.
[00:33:20] The next move was to send Iziyaslav Davidovich and offer to conclude a peace.
[00:33:28] Iziyaslav could also see the overwhelming forces arranged against him
[00:33:33] and he agreed to peace. Therefore, by skilled manoeuvring, Yuri had consolidated his authority
[00:33:42] in Kiev by forming alliances and making displays of force without actually having to fight.
[00:33:50] Partially, this was also down to the strength of his claim as the last of the sons of Monomash,
[00:33:56] but we have also seen throughout his career that Yuri was cautious and pragmatic
[00:34:02] and had nearly always offered his opponents an alternative to fighting.
[00:34:09] He continued to strengthen his position by marrying his son Gleb to the daughter of Iziyaslav
[00:34:15] Chenyiv and Mr Slav to the daughter of one of the prominent boyars of Novgorod.
[00:34:25] But not everything worked out so well. In 1156, the Mr Slavitchi in Valinia went to war with
[00:34:34] each other. Mr Slavitch drove his uncle, Vladimir, Mr Slavitch, out of Vladimir in Valinia and into
[00:34:42] exile in Hungary. This aggression, seizing the most important town in western Rus, could not be allowed
[00:34:50] to go unchallenged. In the winter, Yuri, Yaroslav Osmemeysil and Berendee auxilaries marched on
[00:35:00] Vladimir. The Chronicle notes that Yuri was not trying to take the city for himself.
[00:35:07] As we have already noted and as was common among the rulers of Rus, he had promised to take care
[00:35:15] of his brother Andrei's son, another Vladimir, and that was his plan to put Vladimir in Vladimir.
[00:35:23] Unfortunately, the people of Vladimir in Valinia refused outright to accept Vladimir Andrei
[00:35:30] and Mr Slavitch helped the city. So instead Yuri gave his nephew Doro Gogors,
[00:35:39] Peter Sobnitsa and some smaller towns on the Hore and River.
[00:35:44] First, we're extending the buffer around Kiev that he had already created by placing his own sands.
[00:35:52] The situation in Vladimir was a bit complicated by the usual succession complexities.
[00:35:59] The Mr Slavitch were treating Vladimir and Valinia as their patrimony. Vladimir and Mr Slavitch,
[00:36:06] as the only surviving son of Mr Slav, had the senior claim, Vladimir and Grayvitch was the nephew
[00:36:15] of Mr Slav, which put him in the same genealogical tier as Vladimir and Mr Slavitch.
[00:36:22] Mr Slavitch was a generation younger than either and that meant he had the junior claim
[00:36:29] but once again, force and popular acclaim outweighed birthrate.
[00:36:39] The next incident involved a fellow by the name of Ivan Rusdyslavitch Berl Adnik.
[00:36:45] Berl Adnik had ruled in the minor town of Zvenigurod and had attempted to take over Galicia at
[00:36:52] the request of some boyars. He lost the resulting contest and fled to Barled in Moldova where he acquired
[00:37:00] his nickname. After that, he spent his time moving around some of the domains less friendly to Halic,
[00:37:09] serving Vsivolod and Sveta Slavolkovitch, Prostya Slavitch and Smalyensk, ending up with Yury and
[00:37:17] Suzdal. This all made him the enemy of Yeroslav Osmomeysil and as Osmomeysil was now a close
[00:37:25] ally of Yury, Yury agreed to hand Ivan over. He was bound and shipped off the Kiev but the church
[00:37:35] intervened on his behalf. Yury thought better of handing him over and ordered him sent back to Suzdal.
[00:37:43] On the way, Yuslav Davidovitch's people captured him and took him to Cherniv.
[00:37:50] Yuslav was surprisingly loyal for the time and did not release Berl Adnik to any of the many
[00:37:55] emissaries who'd arrived demanding he'd be handed over. When it became too dangerous for him to
[00:38:02] remain in Cherniv, he fled to the Pohl of Tsyn in the step where he raided Galicia and shipping.
[00:38:09] He briefly returned to Kiev to claim the domain from Yuslav Davidovitch but ended his days in
[00:38:16] exile in Greece, according to tradition, he was poisoned by his enemies.
[00:38:27] Yuslav Davidovitch's defiance of Yury in this matter did not come out of nowhere.
[00:38:33] He had in fact begun approaching potential supporters to organize his own attempt to seize Kiev.
[00:38:40] He managed to win over Yuslav, Yuslav, and Yuslav, who were angry over Yury's intervention in
[00:38:48] Bolivia. Yuslav sent troops under the command of his son, Gromand, to Cherniv,
[00:38:56] and Mr. Slav marched out at the head of his own army, but on the very day that they combined forces
[00:39:03] assembled to set forth for the capital, a messenger right from Kiev.
[00:39:09] People of Kiev asked Yuslav Davidovitch to take the throne. Yury Dogarukhin was dead.
[00:39:17] The traditional story is that the people of Kiev did it.
[00:39:27] If you remember from the last episode, in 1149 they had come out in support of the
[00:39:32] Mr. Slavitch and had only accepted Yury because he was the strongest militarily.
[00:39:39] So although the Chronicles do not state anything explicitly,
[00:39:43] we can guess that there was maybe an opposition faction in the city.
[00:39:49] While they had been quiet for the first couple of years after Yury returned to Kiev,
[00:39:54] and appeared to be in a very strong position, the attack on Vladimir and Valiniyy,
[00:39:59] the Berladnik affair, and Yuslav Davidovitch's plotting could have triggered a new round of
[00:40:05] opposition in Kiev. The Chronicle states that Yury died on 15th May 1157, after a drinking session
[00:40:16] at the house of a certain Petrilo, following which he lay ill for several days. The assumption is
[00:40:23] that it was the result of poisoning. When the news of his death broke, bands of Kievans
[00:40:32] rioted across the city, pillaging the courts and slaughtering officials from Suzdalia.
[00:40:38] They refused to bury Yury next to his father in Sons of Kiev, the expected resting place for a
[00:40:44] monomark and ruler of Kiev. Instead he was buried at the church of the Savior outside the city.
[00:40:52] Not so much a sign of disrespect as this church was founded by Monomark and the burial was
[00:40:58] performed correctly, but a clear sign that Yury was not popular in the city.
[00:41:11] We've accepted that Rus was distinguished from Western European states by the absence of
[00:41:16] centralisation and that there's nothing wrong with that, different peoples can develop in different
[00:41:22] ways. We've also seen how, despite this, some historians argue that Vladimir Monomark did try to
[00:41:30] centralise and form Rus into a unified state, and we've seen how his work fell apart almost
[00:41:37] immediately as soon as he was dead due to the peculiarities of lateral succession and the
[00:41:43] difficulties of keeping everyone happy as the number of pretenders grows with each generation.
[00:41:49] But that is Rus as a whole. If we look at Yury's career in Suzdalia, he had very successfully
[00:41:58] taken a peripheral region with a handful of towns that were old.
[00:42:03] Vrostov and Suzdol had been around since the earliest days of Rus.
[00:42:08] At never previously had their own princely ruler, and he had made it into an independent and
[00:42:14] powerful domain capable of dominating Rus.
[00:42:20] The key of remained for now, the richest and most prestigious city of Rus.
[00:42:27] In the middle of the 12th century, the Kievan lands had more than 80 towns while Suzdalia had less
[00:42:32] than 20. But Suzdalia was on the rise, and southern Rus seemed stuck in the never-ending chaos
[00:42:40] of intra-denastic rivalry. The question is, can Suzdalia continue this development?
[00:42:49] Or will Yury's many sons pull it apart as they all try to grab their own piece of the pie?
[00:42:56] Meanwhile, Izia Slav Davidovich is heading for Kiev. Do in my next episode to see how long you can
[00:43:03] keep it. Thank you for listening and until next time goodbye.