They say that nature rests on children. Yuri Lvovich, the only son and heir of Lev Danilovich, who headed the Galicia-Volyn state after the abdication of his father in 1300, was a clear illustration of this. From an early age, he began to show outstanding talents to fail all the tasks that were assigned to him, or to arrange problems for his father from scratch. For example, during the Russian-Tatar campaign to Gorodno, thanks to his skillful command, the siege failed, although not long before that, his father, even with small forces, managed to occupy Slonim and Novogrudok. In 1287, under the same conditions, with complete superiority in forces, he lost the siege of Lublin. And the next year, when his father was under siege of Telebuga in Lvov, he made a real mess because of the inheritance of his relative, Vladimir Vasilkovich. According to his will, all his possessions were transferred to Mstislav Danilovich, Yuri's uncle, but the prince decided to challenge this, and while Vladimir was still alive, he captured Berestye, including him in his possessions. Yes, he was finally able to take at least some city! True, the father had to strongly apologize for this to the khan, who patronized Mstislav, and to return the inheritance to his younger brother, with whom he had at that time far from ideal relations. I think there is no need to explain that at that time Leo, due to the actions of Yuri, was on the verge of a large-scale conflict with the Horde, with the support of his younger brother. In general, well done son!
They also say that fools are lucky. After the death of Nogai, the defeat of his army and the abdication of Lev Danilovich, Yuri had to wait in Lvov when the horde of Tokhta invaded his lands. The khan could demand anything, up to the dismemberment of the Romanovich state, he could throw Yuri himself into prison together with his renounced monk father, he could devastate the territory of the principality so that it would not have been possible to recover later. Considering Yuri's military talents, there was no hope of winning in an open battle. And then a miracle happened! Tokhta decided to leave the Romanovichs for later, paying more attention to the Balkan possessions of Nogai, where, among other things, one of his sons ruled. After that, Tohta had to go to his eastern borders, and fight with other steppe inhabitants in another strife between the fragments of the Mongol Empire. As a result, "for later" turned into "never", the Horde for some time simply forgot about its large western vassal. To the joy of this, Yuri immediately hurried to be crowned as the king of Russia, and, apparently, refused to pay tribute to the Horde. Quite unexpectedly for everyone, the Galicia-Volyn state became independent again.
Board of Yuri I
Of course, positive events took place during the reign of Yuri I. So, after a long preparation, begun under Leo, a new Orthodox metropolis was founded in Galich. Its Byzantine name - Little Russia - later served as the basis for the Russian name of all the southwestern territories of the empire, i.e. Little Russia. The capital was moved from Lviv to Volodymyr-Volynsky. Old cities were actively expanded and new ones were built, new churches appeared. Urban planning in general has reached significant proportions, which have been noted more than once by future generations. The population grew rapidly both due to natural increase and due to a significant influx of immigrants from Western Europe - primarily Germans and Flemings. Trade continued to develop, mainly along the Baltic-Black Sea trade route, which will flourish for many centuries to come. The minting of its own coin began - however, due to the lack of deposits of precious metals in the country, foreign samples had to be imported and re-minted. The prestige of the Romanovichs rose quite high, and the royal court was quite rich and famous by the standards of Eastern Europe. Since not very much is known about the reign of this king, there could well have been other positive moments that did not get into the annals. A number of historians, even on the basis of all this inner well-being, declare the successful reign of Yuri I, but the author of the cycle finds such an assessment doubtful.
At the same time, King Yuri turned out to be very weak. Power under him actually belonged to the boyars, who greatly strengthened their influence, and began to redistribute state revenues and places of "feeding" in their favor. In addition, the reign of Yuri was marked by peace - or rather, his likeness. The king did not conduct an overly active foreign policy, did not start wars of conquest, and in general, it seems, he forgot about the war machine that his father and grandfather had been creating for years. Savings began on training and equipping troops, as a result of which the Galician-Volyn army began to lose its strength. First of all, apparently, this affected the infantry, the maintenance of which required constant expenses and fees - if earlier they continued to prepare it and actively use it if necessary, then from that moment there are no longer any hints that the Galician-Volyn infantry or it significantly showed itself on the battlefield, and by the middle of the XIV century, it will finally turn into an average European infantry, suitable only for auxiliary purposes. Following this, the fortification underwent a decline - the construction of new fortresses almost ceased, the old ones were practically not repaired and were slowly decaying. Throwing artillery was completely forgotten. Only the cavalry, recruited on a feudal basis, somehow retained their fighting qualities, but this, in fact, was the merit of the boyars, and not of Yuri Lvovich himself.
Because of this, or simply because the king turned out to be an ordinary gasket between the throne and the crown, the Russian kingdom began to quickly lose territory. Already in 1301-1302, Lublin and its surroundings were lost. The circumstances of this loss are also very indicative as an illustration of Yuri Lvovich's talents - if Lev Danilovich skillfully maneuvered between Poles and Czechs, and only indirectly supported Vladislav Lokotok, then Yuri intervened in the war at full length, directly supporting the Poles - and lost the conflict, losing Lublin. In 1307-1310, under unexplained circumstances, Hungary regained all of Transcarpathia. The reason for this loss could be the same as that of Lublin - in the outbreak of the war between the contenders for the Hungarian crown, Yuri Lvovich supported Otto III of Bavaria (the same loser), who in 1307 was arrested by another contender for Hungary, Karl Robert of Anjou, and was forced to renounce your claims. Apparently, this was followed by military actions against the Galicia-Volyn state, during which Transcarpathia was lost, or Yuri ceded it to Karl Robert in exchange for friendly relations. Under unknown circumstances, the northern cities of Slonim and Novogrudok were lost - although everything is so unclear with them that they could have been lost even under Lev Danilovich (many historians adhere to this point of view, but there is very little information on this matter to assert something from confidence).
There was no sharp reaction of the king to this: as a papicist or just a complete insignificance, he did not try to fight for the legacy of his father, and allowed little by little to take away what his predecessors had created with such difficulty. Yuri did not even try to return the lost Kiev principality, which after the departure of Tokhta was in the hands of the small Olgovichi, and could not offer any serious resistance. In Vladimir-Volynsky, a very weak ruler sat under the crown, who turned out to be the head of a strong state. The problem was aggravated by the fact that the Galicia-Volyn principality was created as a fairly centralized one, dependent on the figure of its prince. While Roman, Daniel and Leo were in power, this principality flourished, even during periods of fragmentation and wars of unification. With mediocrity as a sovereign, the state itself sharply subsided and weakened as an independent entity, and Yuri was not just a mediocrity - almost his entire foreign policy can be called a colossal failure. In such a situation, it was only necessary to wait for the barbarians at the gate, so that everything collapsed at once. And these barbarians were already right there….
The end is a little predictable
Relations with Lithuania began to gradually deteriorate since the murder of Voyshelk by Lev Danilovich, although periodically there was a thaw. This great principality did not exist a hundred years ago, and in the first years of the 14th century it successfully withstood the onslaught of the Teutonic knights, and even managed to expand at the expense of the Russian principalities, which became "no-one" after the weakening of the Horde's influence. The large-scale invasion of the Romanovich state by the Lithuanians remained a matter of time, and it was difficult to predict who would win such a war. Yuri I made it easier for the Lithuanians with the beginning of the conflict, he himself declared war on them in 1311-1312 in accordance with the treaty of alliance with the Teutonic Order. In response, the Lithuanian prince Viten began to prepare for a major march to the south, which promised considerable success.
Even before the Lithuanian offensive, troubles befell Russia. Due to the very cold and long winter of 1314-1315, there was a crop failure, and famine began in the country, followed by epidemics that killed a great many people. The command of the weakened soldiers turned out to be disgusting, as a result of which Gedimin, the son of Viten (or grandson, depending on the point of view), taking this opportunity, in 1315 easily and naturally occupied Dorogochin and Berestye, seizing the northern territories of the Romanovich state. Without stopping, he invaded the very heart of Volyn, and a large-scale battle took place between the Galician-Volyn and Lithuanian armies at the walls of Volodymyr-Volynsky. The royal troops were commanded by Yuri I himself, and the most intelligent of the boyars could not help but guess about his outcome …
As it turned out, 15 years of economy on the troops, coupled with hunger and epidemics, turned the once large and strong army into one continuous anecdote. The cavalry remained more or less efficient, but the talentless king commanded it personally, so he managed to screw up the whole thing. To make it clear how sad everything under the walls of Vladimir-Volynsky turned out to be, it is enough to give one example: the Lithuanian infantry (!) In the offensive (!!) overturned the Russian cavalry (!!!). After this, Roman, Daniel, and Leo spun in their coffins at the speed of a jet turbine …. However, King Yuri I did not have time to find out about this: in the same battle he himself died. Oddly appropriate was such an inglorious end for such an inglorious king. It is even difficult to decide whether his death was a blessing, or a tragedy for the Romanovich state, since Yuri managed to show his inability to rule, and complete mediocrity in military affairs - which, if his rule was preserved, would mean an early death of the state under the onslaught of the Lithuanians. On the other hand, given the general scarcity of the Romanovichs, the premature death of each of them brought a dynastic crisis closer, to which the state was especially sensitive due to significant centralization by the standards of its time …
By the way, most sources date the death of Yuri in 1308, but the primary source of this date is the chronicles of Jan Dlugosh, which, most likely, in this case are greatly mistaken. At least modern experts on the topic believe that Yuri died in 1315, as this is confirmed by various Lithuanian, Russian and Lithuanian-Russian sources in a cross-comparison. On the other hand, if he nevertheless died in 1308, then 7 years actually "drop out" from the history of the kingdom of Russia, which seems extremely unlikely. This situation is quite indicative - if in the 13th century in the state of the Romanovichs itself there were still chronicles, and when foreign chronicles were connected, it was possible to form a somewhat holistic picture of what was happening then, then with the accession of Yuri I, the situation began to change rapidly. In fact, their own chronicles were no longer kept, and foreign chronicles were focused more on their own affairs - for which there were serious reasons.
The beginning of the XIV century was associated with decline only in the Galicia-Volyn principality, while all the settled neighbors - Poland, Hungary and Lithuania - entered an era of rapid growth and rise. In Hungary, the Anjou dynasty gradually ended the chaos of the feudal-civil war, due to which the kingdom had almost disintegrated, and was preparing the basis for a new, last flourishing of the state. In Poland, Vladislav Lokotok gradually unified the state under his own leadership, and was preparing to transfer power to his son, Casimir, who was destined to become, perhaps, the most outstanding ruler of Poland in its entire history. Well, in Lithuania, Gediminas acted with might and main - first as the son (or grandson) of Viten, and then as an independent ruler, the founder of the Gediminovich dynasty and the architect of the future power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Moreover, even under Leo Danilovich, this strengthening was not visible - the Lithuanians could hardly withstand the onslaught of the crusaders, half of Poland was captured by the Czechs, and Hungary was on the verge of complete disintegration. And here - in a few decades, all three states jump ahead! Under these conditions, even a strong ruler of the Galicia-Volyn state would have had a difficult time. Meanwhile, things took such a turn that the rulers ended altogether. A dynastic crisis was approaching and the suppression of the dynasty, which inevitably led to losses, if not the death of the state in the face of suddenly strengthened neighbors.
The end of the Romanovichs
After the death of Yuri I, power passed into the hands of his sons, Andrei and Lev, who became co-rulers. It seems that they turned out to be much more skillful commanders and organizers, or they were greatly helped by the Polish allies - already in 1315 they managed to stop the Lithuanian invasion and at the cost of abandoning Berestye and Podlasie (which were lost under Yuri I), for some time having stopped the onslaught from the north. In 1316, the princes fought together with their uncle, Vladislav Lokotk, against the Magdeburg margraves. There is little information about their rule, but on the whole it seems that the kingdom of Russia has begun to gradually recover from the crisis into which it slipped under Yuri Lvovich. Even the loss of the northern outskirts did not become critical for the country's survival - Berestye and Podlasie were still not the most populated territories, which means they were not the most valuable for the state in military and economic terms. Apparently, Andrei and Lev were able to partially restore the army's combat capability and deal with the elimination of the consequences of famine and epidemics of the past.
But the Horde left Southwestern Russia and returned. After the crisis of government under Tokht in 1313, Uzbek, one of the most powerful rulers in history, became the Khan of the Golden Horde. Under him, the state of the steppe people began to experience a new heyday, and of course he remembered the rebellious Romanovichs, who owed him a tribute. This inevitably had to lead to war, since Andrei and Leo intended to fight to the end. Unfortunately, no exact information has been preserved about what happened in 1323. Only Vladislav Lokotok gives some specific information in his correspondence with the Pope, pointing out that both of his nephews (i.e. Andrei and Lev Yurievich) died during the battle with the Tatars. There is another version - that both rulers died in the war with the Lithuanians, but this seems unlikely, since the war with Lithuania had already been completed by that time.
Andrei had only one daughter, who would later become the wife of the Lithuanian prince Lubart, but Leo had a son, Vladimir, who received the state into his own hands. He was deprived of any talents, and was simply displaced by the boyars. Perhaps the reason was precisely the lack of talent, or maybe it was done in order to make room for a more politically advantageous ruler. Be that as it may, Vladimir remained to live in the Galicia-Volyn state, and in 1340 he died defending Lviv from the army of the Polish king Casimir III. With his death, the Romanovich dynasty in the male line was finally interrupted.
True, there is one problem: the existence of Vladimir is generally poorly provable, and it is possible that there was no such ruler in principle. It may well be that it was invented only in order to somehow fill the power vacuum that formed between 1323 and 1325. It is possible that it actually did not exist, and after the death of Andrei and Lev, for some time an interregnum and boyar rule was established in the country, while negotiations were underway with possible candidates for the royal throne. Then these two co-rulers, who died in the same year in the war with the Tatars, turn out to be the last male representatives of the Romanovich dynasty. The author of the current cycle adheres to this particular version, since the story about Vladimir Lvovich is poorly substantiated and looks like a fiction.
The history of the Romanovichs as a result, taking into account the life and reign of Roman Mstislavich, took about 150 years, and covered only 5 generations (with an unproven sixth). This did not prevent the family from becoming one of the brightest representatives of Rurik in Russia, and to strengthen South-Western Russia as much as it was possible at all in those conditions of constant upheavals, wars and a change in alliance layouts. And with the end of the Romanovichs, the end of their brainchild was approaching - a power vacuum was formed in a fairly centralized state, and this, I recall, in the conditions of the rapid strengthening of all the main sedentary neighbors. In such conditions, the problems that swept Southwestern Russia threatened to bury it in the coming years.
The last years of the Galicia-Volyn state
In 1325, for one reason or another, the Mazovian prince Boleslav Troydenovich, who was the nephew of Andrei and Lev, who had died two years earlier, was invited to rule in Lvov. To receive the crown, he had to convert to Orthodoxy, as a result of which he became known as Yuri II Boleslav. Contrary to the views of Polish historians, there is no information that Yuri recognized himself as a satellite of the Polish king, and the information that the childless king of Russia appointed King Casimir III as his heir is at least unreliable. The princes of Mazovia have always been distinguished by their willfulness within Poland, they were quite hostile to the Krakow Piasts (i.e., Vladislav Lokotk and Casimir the Great), Mazovia itself for a long time retained its isolation among other Polish principalities, and therefore it is not surprising that Yuri II began to lead an independent public policy. Claims for his pro-Polishness are based mainly on the events following his death and belonging to the Piast dynasty. In the end, Casimir III later needed to somehow substantiate his claims to Galicia-Volhynia, and all means were good - especially considering how cynical and resourceful this great Polish monarch was.
The beginning of the reign of Yuri II was generally successful. Recognizing the supremacy of the Horde, he got rid of the threat of raids from the steppe, and even received military support, not superfluous in his position. By marrying the daughter of Gediminas, Yuri established good relations with the Lithuanians, and all his life he kept an alliance with them. With the rest of its neighbors, as a rule, peaceful relations were associated with it, which did not prevent the invasion of Hungary in 1332 in order to either upset the Polish-Hungarian alliance, or to return back the lands of Transcarpathia, lost under Yuri I. In addition, together with the Tatars, he carried out an invasion of Poland in 1337, since its king, Casimir III, too openly began to claim the Galicia-Volyn state. However, this venture turned out to be a failure - the Poles defeated the allied army, Casimir was not going to give up his claims - his weakened eastern neighbor was a painfully tempting prey.
Alas, over time, various contradictions began to accumulate. There are two possible pictures of what happened, which will have one or another justification, but at the same time will retain certain weaknesses and a degree of unreliability. According to the first version, Yuri began a conflict with the boyars over power, and instead of the Orthodox elite, the king relied on the Catholic one - fortunately, there were already quite a lot of foreign migrants living in the cities. The administration of the kingdom became entirely Catholic, the persecution of the Orthodox began, the forcible imposition of the Roman rite. The second version is much simpler - part of the nobility was corny bought by the Hungarians and Poles, who had already prepared in absentia for the partition of the Galicia-Volyn principality, and sought to accelerate the fall of its ruler. Considering, again, the peculiarities of the character and the policy of the Polish king, this option looks almost the most plausible. At the same time, it should be understood that Casimir's claims to Galicia-Volhynia were so obvious, and the Russian boyars traditionally loved the Poles only at a distance, resisting the assertion of Polish rule over themselves, that the likelihood of the formation of any broad opposition to Yuri Boleslav was rather low. Any actions against Yuri Boleslav were in the hands of the Polish king, and the boyars could not help but understand this, which is why this whole story becomes even more vague and ambiguous.
Be that as it may, but in 1340 Yuri II Boleslav was poisoned, and his wife was drowned in an ice hole during the ensuing riots. The riots themselves in a number of sources are described as religious, anti-Catholic, however, the murder of an Orthodox Lithuanian woman somehow does not fit into this outline, and the sudden interfaith crisis does not have sufficient justification - such a pronounced conflict between Catholics and Orthodox is not confirmed by sources either before or after these events. A new power vacuum was formed, and Dmitry Detko, an influential boyar of the Galician land, who had significant political weight during the life of Yuri II and, apparently, was part of his government, became the new prince. In fact, he headed the boyar-oligarchic party, which began to play an important role in the life of the state since the reign of Yuri Lvovich, and acted as the main force interested in preserving the state. However, Dmitry Detko no longer had a chance to keep him - Polish regiments invaded Russia from the west.
War for the Galicia-Volyn inheritance
Casimir III took advantage of the murder of Yuri Boleslav, who planned to expand his possessions at the expense of the Galicia-Volyn state. His troops invaded the territory of the principality and quickly captured the main cities. The key to success was decisive action and a large number of the Polish army - so large that it would take a long time to collect it. Considering that Kazimir set out on the campaign almost immediately after the news of the death of Yuri Boleslav, the participation of the Polish monarch in the murder of the last Galician-Volyn prince looks even more likely. Casimir, who was in an alliance with the Hungarians, was opposed by the Lithuanians and Tatars, who in every possible way prevented the establishment of Polish power over South-Western Russia. The Tatars justified their intervention by the vassal status of Galicia-Volhynia, and the Lithuanians had very specific claims to the legacy of the Romanovichs - Prince Lyubart was married to the last representative of this dynasty, the daughter of Andrei Yuryevich, and he, and especially his children, were now the most legitimate heirs of the Romanovich state. The Poles' claims to Galicia and Volhynia were illusory, but Casimir III made every effort to exaggerate their full justification for his actions, which led to the emergence of a number of myths about the will of Yuri Boleslav that still exist today.
In 1340, the Polish king invaded the Galicia-Volyn state, taking advantage of the situation, and quickly occupied all of its main cities, which were not ready for Polish aggression and could not organize effective resistance. The boyars also did not have time to assemble their army, and therefore their defeat in this lightning-fast war was inevitable. Dmitry Detka Kazimir forced him to recognize himself as a vassal of Poland. At the same time, the Poles behaved like conquerors, and arranged a large-scale export to Krakow of everything valuable that could be found in the Galician principality, including Christian shrines. The loot included a cross and an icon, which were brought to Russia by Anna Angelina, the wife of Roman Mstislavich. Nevertheless, the Galician boyars did not put up with submission, and already in 1341 they made a campaign in Poland with the support of the Lithuanians and Tatars, trying to overthrow the Polish rule. Detko actually recognized himself as a vassal of the Lithuanian prince Lubart, who after 1340 bore the title of the Grand Duke of Galicia-Volyn. Formally, the unity of South-Western Russia was restored, although the Galician principality now existed a little apart, while Lyubart ruled Volynia directly. Dmitry Detko died in about 1349, after which a new round of the Polish-Lithuanian confrontation began. So the war for the Galicia-Volyn inheritance began, full of chaos, intrigue and a change in alliances in an effort to divide the inheritance of the already extinct Romanovichs.
Together with the Child and the Lithuanians, a significant part of the Orthodox boyars fought, which did not want to see a sufficiently authoritarian and ambitious Pole over them. For this, Kazimir did not spare them and the Russian cities - for example, Przemysl, which was one of the strongholds of the opposition, was destroyed by the Polish troops, and the local boyars (to whom Detko also belonged) were betrayed or expelled. The city, later rebuilt, had practically nothing in common with the old, Russian-Orthodox Przemysl. This or the like was repeated wherever the Poles met resistance. In the course of subsequent events, many boyars will swear allegiance to Lithuania, and many will go into exile, looking for luck and a new home in the east, in North-Eastern Russia. Southwestern Russia will quickly become a harsh, inhospitable home for those boyars who tried to preserve the old order and resisted the assertion of Polish rule. Over time, a series of strife, which began in Lithuania, was added to the list of reasons for their discontent, which only interfered with the implementation of the main tasks, among which was the restoration of the Galicia-Volyn state, albeit as part of the Gediminovich state. Among such emigrants will be Bobrok Volynsky, who left his native lands in the 1360s and played an important role in the Battle of Kulikovo.
The Russian Orthodox boyars suffered heavy losses, and at a rapid pace they began to lose their influence and significance in society. After several centuries, it will disappear altogether, succumbing to Polonization or emigrating to Lithuania or Moscow. It was such a tough, forceful policy that allowed the Poles to consolidate this region for themselves and to a significant extent isolate it from the rest of Russia. This will have the strongest effect on the territory of the former Galician principality, somewhat less on Volhynia, but the fact remains: it was the Poles who dealt a fatal blow to the Russian boyars of South-Western Russia, forcing them to flee, perish or merge with the Polish gentry. It was the Polish king, Casimir III, who became the main architect of the death of the state itself, extremely skillfully and effectively taking advantage of the successful situation for him with the suppression of the Romanovichs and the approval of Piast as the head of the Galicia-Volyn principality.
The war for the Galicia-Volyn inheritance either gained momentum or subsided for 52 years, until 1392. Its end result was the division of the Romanovich state between Poland, which got Galicia, and Lithuania, which occupied Volhynia. Hungary, which for some time lay claim to the entire region, was forcibly squeezed back beyond the Carpathians, although during the existence of the Polish-Hungarian union under Lajos I the Great, she was still able to briefly seize Galicia. As a single state, the Galicia-Volyn principality ceased to exist, briefly outliving the dynasty of its creators. In the future, these lands experienced many more vicissitudes of fate, changes of borders, invasions of enemy armies and uprisings, and the population of the region had to significantly change their appearance both culturally and religiously, having undergone large-scale colonization and polonization, on which the Poles had already managed to fill hands in their own state. However, this is a completely different story, and the story of South-Western Russia, the Galicia-Volyn state and the Romanovichi ends there.
