Svyatoslav III Igorevich

Svyatoslav III[1] Igorevich (1176 – September 1211)[2] was a Rus' prince (a member of the Rurik dynasty).[3] His baptismal name was Adrian.[2] He was prince of Peremyshl (1206, 1208–1209, 1210–1211), and of Volodymyr-Volynskyi (1206).[2]

Contents

His early life

Vladimir was the third son of prince Igor Svyatoslavich of Putivl, by his wife (possibly Evfrosinia Yaroslavna), a daughter of prince Yaroslav Volodimerovich of Halych.[2] Around 1184, Svyatoslav was betrothed to Yaroslava Rurikovna, a daughter of prince Rurik Rostislavich of Belgorod.[2]

In 1184, Igor Svyatoslavich dispatched Svyatoslav to escort Vladimir Yaroslavich (Igor Svyatoslavich’s brother-in-law) home when the latter had reconciled with his father (Svyatoslav's maternal grandfather), prince Yaroslav Volodimerovich of Halych.[2]

Towards the end of October, 1188, Svyatoslav married his fiancée in Belgorod.[2]

Prince of Peremyshl and Volodymyr-Volynskyi

In 1206, the infant prince Daniil Romanovich of Halych fled to his patrimony of Volodymyr-Volynskyi when grand prince Vsevolod IV Svyatoslavich of Kiev organized a campaign against Halych.[2] The Galicians asked Svjatoslav’s brother Vladimir Igorevich to rule Halych.[2] On receiving the information, Vladimir Igorevich rode to Halych, and occupied it.[2] Both Vladimir Igorevich and his brothers had blood ties to the extinct dynasty of Halych whose last member prince Vladimir II Yaroslavich of Halych (who had died in 1198) was their maternal uncle.[2] Vladimir Igorevich gave Peremyshl (today Przemyśl in Poland) to Svyatoslav.[2]

Shortly afterwards, Vladimir Igorevich sent troops against Volodymyr-Volynskyi forcing Daniil Romanovich and his mother to flee to the Poles.[2] Vladimir Igorevich appointed Svyatoslav to the town which had been the patrimony of Daniil Romanovich and his father.[2] However, prince Aleksandr Vsevolodovich of Belz (who was Daniil Romanovich’s cousin) asserted his own claim to the town with help from duke Leszek I of Cracow.[2] The people of Volodymyr-Volynskyi betrayed Svyatoslav by opening the gates to Aleksandr Vsevolodovich and duke Leszek I.[2] Thus, Svyatoslav not only lost his newly acquired domain to Aleksand Vsevolodovich but also was taken captive by the Poles.[2]

Nevertheless, according to Polish sources, Svyatoslav and duke Leszek I became friends, formed an alliance, and sealed their pact with a personal bond: Svyatoslav’s daughter, Agafia Svyatoslavna, married duke Leszek’s brother, duke Konrad I of Masovia.[2] In the autumn of 1208, the Galicians expelled Rostislav Rurikovich, who had occupied Halych for some months, and installed Roman Igorevich (Svyatoslav’s younger brother) with his brother.[2] Since Roman Igorevich had usurped power from his brother, Vladimir Igorevich, we may assume that he ruled with his younger brother, Svyatoslav who had returned from captivity.[2]

King Andrew II of Hungary took the rebellion of the Galicians as the excuse for attacking them.[2] He dispatched Benedek (the Voivode of Transylvania)[4] against Halych.[2] Voivode Benedek captured the town and took Roman Igorevich captive; Svyatoslav returned to Putivl.[4] Andrew II refused to appoint a prince to Halych; the atrocities the Hungarian troops inflicted on the Galicians suggest that the king wished to avenge himself on them for breaking their promise.[2] Voivode Benedek tormented the people, and he and his men also gave vent to their lust by defiling married women, nuns, and the wives of priests.[2]

Sometime in the early part of 1210, it seems, Roman Igorevich escaped from Hungary.[2] Shortly afterwards, the Galicians sent messengers to the three brothers admitting that they had sinned against them and begging them to save Halych from the tormentor.[2] The three brothers set out against Benedek and drove out him from Halych.[2] They evidently returned to the same towns that they had ruled before their quarrel.[2] Svyatoslav, we are told for the first time, got Peremyshl.[2]

According to the chronicler, the three brothers conspired to do away with the Galician boyars and, as chance presented itself, killed some 500 of them.[2] They were also accused of plundering the boyars’ estates, of handing over their daughters to marry slaves, and of giving their patrimonies to outsiders from the Chernigov lands.[2] Because a faction of boyars championed Daniil Romanovich’s return, the three brothers undoubtedly removed the hostile boyars from their domains and replaced them with Chernigov druzhinniki and loyal Galicians.[2] Because of these outrages, some boyars fled to Hungary and beseeched king Andrew II to let them have Daniil Romanovich and to help them seize Halych.[2] The king answered their pleas by dispatching a great force with the young prince.[4]

Significantly, Daniil Romanovich’s attacking forces were made up mostly of non-Galicians: except for the boyars who organized the revolt, the troops backing them constituted the Hungarians, the Poles, and the princes of Volhynia.[2] The strategy of Daniil Romanovich’s forces was to capture the towns ruled by the three brothers, and thus Svyatoslav was taken captive by the Hungarians.[2] After Vladimir Igorevich had fled from Halych, the boyars of Volodymyr-Volynskyi and Halych, along with the Hungarians, installed Daniil Romanovich on the throne.[2]

The Hungarians proposed to take Svyatoslav, his brother Roman Igorevich and a certain Rostislav (who may have been Roman Igorevich’s son) that they had taken captive to the king.[2] But the Galicians bribed the commanders to turn over the captives to them.[2] In September, the Galicians hanged the three princes.[2]

Marriage and children[5]

#October, 1188: Yaroslava Yurikovna, a daughter of prince Rurik Rustislavich of Belgorod[2] by his wife Anna Yurevna of Turov.[3]

Ancestors

Footnotes

  1. ^ “Obsidian” (2009-02-17). "Regnal Chronologies". Ukraine - Chernigov. Foundation of Medieval Genealogy. http://my.raex.com/~obsidian/ukraine.html#Chernigov. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap Dimnik, Martin. The Dynasty of Chernigov - 1146-1246. 
  3. ^ a b c d Charles Cawley (2009-03-14). "Russia, Rurikids - Grand Princes of Kiev, Princes of Chernigov, descendants of Sviatoslav II, Grand Prince of Kiev (fourth son of Iaroslav I)". Medieval Lands. Foundation of Medieval Genealogy. http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/RUSSIA,%20Rurik.htm#RostislavMikhailovichdied1263B. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
  4. ^ a b c Benda, Kálmán (General Editor). Magyarország történeti kronológióája – I. kötet: A kezdetektől 1526-ig. 
  5. ^ Charles Cawley suggests that prince Oleg Svyatoslavich of Novgorod-Seversk was also Svyatoslav’s son ([1], retrieved on 2009-04-13). Oleg Svyatoslavich, however, escaped from the Kayala massacre in 1185; therefore he was probably the son of prince Svyatoslav Olgovich of Rylsk; Dimnik, Martin op. cit. p. 303.

Sources

Preceded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)		 Prince of Peremyshl
1206		 Succeeded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)
Preceded by
Daniil Romanovich		 Prince of Volodymyr-Volynskyi
1206		 Succeeded by
Aleksandr Vsevolodovich
Preceded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)		 Prince of Peremyshl
1208–1209		 Succeeded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)
Preceded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)		 Prince of Peremyshl
1210–1211		 Succeeded by
(part of the Principality of Halych)