Galician boyars

Who he is

Name

No leader named for 1199-1200. The Kormilchichi (Volodislav Kormilchich and his brothers) are the best-known family of the party Roman drove out

Title

The boyars of Galich

Since

The boyar class grew strong under Yaroslav Osmomysl (1153-1187)

Born

not pinned

Family

Several families with estates and salt rights round Galich, Przemyśl and Zvenigorod; names for 1200 are not pinned.

Confidence

low

The Galician-Volhynian chronicle names the Kormilchichi among the boyars Roman had driven out, when they return with the Igorevichi after 1205; en.wikipedia (Roman the Great) has Volodislav Kormilchich advising in 1205. Other boyar names in the chronicle (Sudislav, Zhiroslav, Dobroslav, the Arbuzovichi, the Molibogovichi) belong to 1205-1240 and are not used for 1200.

Overlord

Prince Roman, whom many of them did not want.

What it holds

• Estates round Galich, Przemyśl, Zvenigorod and Terebovl (not located)
• Shares in the salt works and the river trade

How it was acquired

Service and land grants under the Rostislavichi; inherited estates.

Allies and rivals

Some look to the Igorevichi and to Hungary; Roman's townsmen and his Volhynian boyars are their rivals.

How things stand that morning

Cowed. Opponents of Roman are dead or in exile (the Kormilchichi's exile is not pinned to 1199); the rest serve him (allegiance galicia).

Wealth

Land, salt and trade.

Military

Their own retinues, which form the core of the Galician host.

Threats

• Roman's purges

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1205-1206 (later)After Roman's death the exiled boyars, the Kormilchichi among them, bring in Hungary and then the Igorevichi and drive out Roman's widow and sons.Depends on: Roman's death (Zawichost, 1205). Stopped by: Roman living.

Where the sources disagree

• The Encyclopedia of Ukraine says the boyars invited Roman in 1199; Kadłubek (via en.wikipedia's Principality of Galicia) has strong local resistance.

Evidence: No boyar is named in a source dated 1199-1200; the families are known from 1173-1189 and 1205-1240.

On the map: Boyar estates are not located for 1200; no map part is drawn.

Primary sources for Roman's Galicia and Volhynia

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• Chronicle of the Poles, by Master Vincent (Wincenty Kadłubek), Wincenty Kadłubek (about 1190 to 1208). Book 4 is a contemporary's account of the fight for the senior throne of Kraków. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign (about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)). A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198. Read online