Yaroslav the Wise

Yaroslav the Wise
Grand Prince of Rus'
Forensic facial reconstruction
Reign	1019–1054
Full name	Yaroslav Vladimirovich
Titles	Prince of Rostov? (978–1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010–1019)
Born	~978
Died	February 20, 1054 [aged ~76]
Predecessor	Sviatopolk the Accursed
Successor	Iziaslav I
Wife	Ingegerd Olofsdotter, later Irene-Anna (a daughter of Olof Skötkonung)
Offspring	see the main article
Dynasty	Rurik Dynasty
Father	Vladimir the Great
Mother	Rogneda of Polotsk by the Primary Chronicle

Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus', known as Yaroslav the Wise (Old Norse: Jarizleifr; ^[1]; Old East Slavic and Russian: Ярослав Мудрый; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; c. 978 – February 20, 1054) was thrice Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev, uniting the two principalities for a time under his rule.

A son of the Varangian (Viking)^[2][3] Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father’s death in 1015. Subsequently, his eldest surviving brother, Svyatopolk the Accursed, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian mercenaries,^[4] defeated Svyatopolk and became the grand prince of Kiev in 1019. Under Yaroslav the codification of legal customs and princely enactments was begun, and this work served as the basis for a law code called the Russkaya Pravda ("Russian Justice"). During his lengthy reign, Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural flowering and military power.^[5]

Contents 1 Rise to the throne 2 Reign 3 Family life and posterity 4 Legacy 5 Ancestors 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Rise to the throne

The early years of Yaroslav's life are shrouded in mystery. He was one of the numerous sons of Vladimir the Great, presumably his second by Rogneda of Polotsk, although his actual age (as stated in the Primary Chronicle and corroborated by the examination of his skeleton in the 1930s) would place him among the youngest children of Volodymyr. It has been suggested that he was a child begotten out of wedlock after Volodymyr's divorce from Rogneda and marriage to Anna Porphyrogeneta, or even that he was a child of Anna Porphyrogeneta herself. Yaroslav figures prominently in the Norse Sagas under the name of Jarisleif the Lame; his legendary lameness (probably resulting from an arrow wound) was corroborated by the scientists who examined his remains. In his youth, Yaroslav was sent by his father to rule the northern lands around Rostov but was transferred to Novgorod, as befitted a senior heir to the throne, in 1010. While living there, he founded the town of Yaroslavl (literally, "Yaroslav's") on the Volga. His relations with his father were apparently strained, and grew only worse on the news that Volodymyr bequeathed the Kievan throne to his younger son, Boris. In 1014 Yaroslav refused to pay tribute to Kiev and only Volodymyr's death prevented a war.

During the next four years Yaroslav waged a complicated and bloody war for Kiev against his half-brother Sviatopolk, who was supported by his father-in-law, Duke Bolesław I Chrobry of Poland. During the course of this struggle, several other brothers (Boris, Gleb, and Svyatoslav) were brutally murdered. The Primary Chronicle accused Svyatopolk of planning those murders, while the Saga of Eymund is often interpreted as recounting the story of Boris's assassination by the Varangians in the service of Yaroslav.

Yaroslav defeated Svyatopolk in their first battle, in 1016, and Svyatopolk fled to Poland. But Svyatopolk returned with Polish troops furnished by his father-in-law, seized Kiev and pushed Yaroslav back into Novgorod. Yaroslav at last prevailed over Svyatopolk, and in 1019 firmly established his rule over Kiev. One of his first actions as a grand prince was to confer on the loyal Novgorodians (who had helped him to gain the Kievan throne), numerous freedoms and privileges. Thus, the foundation of the Novgorodian republic was laid. For their part, the Novgorodians respected Yaroslav more than they did other Kievan princes; and the princely residence in their city, next to the marketplace (and where the veche often convened) was named Yaroslavovo Dvorishche ("Yaroslav's Court") after him. It probably was during this period that Yaroslav promulgated the first code of laws in the East Slavic lands, "Yaroslav's Justice" (now better known as Ruskaia Pravda, "Rus Truth [Law]").

Reign

Leaving aside the legitimacy of Yaroslav's claims to the Kievan throne and his postulated guilt in the murder of his brothers, Nestor the Chronicler and later Russian historians often presented him as a model of virtue, styling him "the Wise". A less appealing side of his personality is revealed by his having imprisoned his younger brother Sudislav for life. Yet another brother, Mstislav of Tmutarakan, whose distant realm bordered the Northern Caucasus and the Black Sea, hastened to Kiev and, despite reinforcements led by Yaroslav's brother-in-law King Anund Jacob of Sweden (as Jakun - "blind and dressed in a gold suit"),^[6] inflicted a heavy defeat on Yaroslav in 1024. Yaroslav and Mstislav then divided Kievan Rus' between them: the area stretching left from the Dnieper, with the capital at Chernihiv, was ceded to Mstislav until his death in 1036.

In his foreign policy, Yaroslav relied on the Scandinavian alliance and attempted to weaken the Byzantine influence on Kiev. In 1030, he reconquered Red Rus' from the Poles and concluded an alliance with King Casimir I of Poland, sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister Maria. In another successful military raid the same year, he founded Yuryev (today Tartu, Estonia) (named after Saint George, or "Yury", Yaroslav's patron saint) and forced the surrounding province of Ugaunia to pay annual tribute.

In 1043, Yaroslav staged a naval raid against Constantinople led by his son Vladimir and general Vyshata. Although the Rus' navy was defeated, Yaroslav managed to conclude the war with a favourable treaty and prestigious marriage of his son Vsevolod to the emperor's daughter. It has been suggested that the peace was so advantageous because the Kievans had succeeded in taking a key Byzantine possession in Crimea, Chersones.

To defend his state from the Pechenegs and other nomadic tribes threatening it from the south he constructed a line of forts, composed of Yuriev, Boguslav, Kaniv, Korsun, and Pereyaslav. To celebrate his decisive victory over the Pechenegs in 1036 (who thereupon never were a threat to Kiev) he sponsored the construction of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in 1037. Other celebrated monuments of his reign, such as the Golden Gates of Kiev, have since perished.

Yaroslav was a notable patron of book culture and learning. In 1051, he had a Russian monk Ilarion proclaimed the metropolitan of Kiev, thus challenging old Byzantine tradition of placing Greeks on the episcopal sees. Ilarion's discourse on Yaroslav and his father Vladimir is frequently cited as the first work of Old Russian literature.

Family life and posterity

In 1019, Yaroslav married Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of the king of Sweden, and gave Ladoga to her as a marriage gift.

The Saint Sophia Cathedral houses a fresco representing the whole family: Yaroslav, Irene (as Ingegerd was known in Rus), their five daughters and five sons. Yaroslav had three of his daughters married to foreign princes who lived in exile at his court:

• Elizabeth of Kiev to Harald III of Norway (who attained her hand by his military exploits in the Byzantine Empire);
• Anastasia of Kiev to the future Andrew I of Hungary;
• Anne of Kiev married Henry I of France and was the regent of France during their son's minority;
• (possibly) Agatha who married Edward the Exile, of the royal family of England, and was the mother of Edgar Ætheling and St. Margaret of Scotland.

Yaroslav had one son from the first marriage (his Christian name being Ilya (?-1020)), and 6 sons from the second marriage. Apprehending the danger that could ensue from divisions between brothers, he exhorted them to live in peace with each other. The eldest of these, Vladimir of Novgorod, best remembered for building the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, predeceased his father. Three other sons—Iziaslav, Sviatoslav, and Vsevolod—reigned in Kiev one after another. The youngest children of Yaroslav were Igor (1036–1060) of Volyn and Vyacheslav (1036–1057) of Smolensk. About the last one there are almost no information. Some documents point out the fact of him having a son Boris who challenged Vsevolod sometime in 1077-1078.

Legacy

Four different towns in four different countries were founded by and named after Yaroslav: Jaroslaw (in today's Poland), Yaroslavl (in today's Russia), Yuryev (now Tartu, Estonia) and another Yuryev (now Bila Tserkva, Ukraine). (Yuriy was Prince Yaroslav's baptismal name.) Also, following the Russian custom of naming military objects such as tanks & planes after historical figures, the helmet worn by many Russian soldiers during the Crimean War was called the "Helmet of Yaroslav the Wise". It was the first pointed helmet to be used by any army, even before German troops wore pointed helmets.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Yaroslav the Wise
16. Rurik               8. Igor of Kiev                       4. Sviatoslav I of Kiev                             9. Olga of Kiev                       2. Vladimir the Great                                   5. Malusha                             1. Yaroslav I the Wise                                         6. Rogvolod                             3. Rogneda of Polotsk

See also

• List of rulers of the Kievan Rus'
• List of Russian rulers
• List of Ukrainian rulers

References

• Martin, Janet (1995). Medieval Russia, 980-1584. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36276-8. 
• Nazarenko, A. V. (2001) (in Russian). Drevniaia Rus’ na mezhdunarodnykh putiakh: mezhdistsiplinarnye ocherki kul’turnykh, torgovykh, politicheskikh sviazei IX-XII vekov. Moscow: Russian History Institute. ISBN 5-7859-0085-8. 

External links

• Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Yaroslav I Genealogy
• http://www.novgorod1150.com/history/novgorodcy/

Yaroslav I the Wise Rurikovich Born: 978 Died: 1054
Regnal titles
Preceded by established	Prince of Rostov 996–1010	Succeeded by Boris Vladimirich
Preceded by Vyachelav Vladimirich	Prince of Novgorod 1010–1034	Succeeded by Vladimir Yaroslavich
Preceded by Sviatopolk I Vladimirich	Grand Prince of Kiev 1019–1054	Succeeded by Iziaslav I Yaroslavich
Titles in pretence
Preceded by Sviatopolk I	Grand Prince of Kiev 1015–1016	Succeeded by Mstislav of Chernigov
Preceded by Vysheslav Vladimirovich	2nd in line to Grand Prince of Kiev 1010–1015	Succeeded by Mstislav of Chernigov

Persondata
Name	Wise, Yaroslav I The
Alternative names
Short description	Grand Prince of Rus'
Date of birth	978
Place of birth
Date of death	February 20, 1054
Place of death