Vsevolod I of Kiev

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Kievan court in the times of Vsevolod I

Vsevolod I Yaroslavich (Russian: Всеволод I Ярославич (1030 – 13 April 1093) ruled as Grand Prince of Kiev from 1078 until his death. He was the fourth and favourite son of Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingigerd Olafsdottir. To back up an armistice signed with the Byzantine Empire in 1046, his father married him to a daughter of Emperor Constantine IX. The couple had a son, the future Vladimir Monomakh.

Upon his father's death in 1054, he received in appanage the towns of Pereyaslav, Rostov, Suzdal, and the township of Beloozero which would remain in possession of his descendants until the end of Middle Ages. Together with his elder brothers Iziaslav and Sviatoslav he formed a sort of princely triumvirate which jointly waged war on the steppe nomads, polovtsy, and compiled the first East Slavic law code. In 1067 Vsevolod's Greek wife died and he soon married a Kypchak princess. She brought him another son, who drowned after the Battle of the Stugna River, and two daughters, one becoming a nun and another, Eupraxia of Kiev, marrying Emperor Henry IV.

Upon Sviatoslav's death in 1076, Vsevolod inherited the Kievan throne, but ceded it to the banished Iziaslav in return for his patrimony of Chernigov. But Iziaslav died 2 years later, and Vsevolod took the Kievan throne yet agin. Vsevolod was versed in Greek learning and spoke 5 languages. Since he lost most of his battles, his eldest son, Vladimir Monomakh, a grand and famous warrior, did most of the fighting for his father. Last years of his reign were clouded by grave illness, and Vladimir Monomakh presided over the government.