Belgorod

Who holds it

Name

Rurik Rostislavich

Title

Prince of Kiev

Since

1194

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Rurik's own town (his seat in 1181-1194); the governor or son he set there in 1200 is not pinned

How things stand that morning

Rurik's.

Charter

No charter: Rus' towns of this age had no written privileges. The prince's governor or steward judges and collects; the townsmen meet in assembly (veche) at need.

Council

The prince's governor; the bishop of Belgorod.

Communities

Rus'.

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

Its townsmen and garrison.

Walls and castle

Large earth-and-timber fortress on the Irpin, with the bishop's and the prince's courts; the stone church of the Holy Apostles (1197).

Trade and crafts

A market for the western Kiev land; the court of the bishop.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Rurik's seat and his church are in the Kievan Chronicle; the 1200 holder is not.

Primary sources for Kiev (Rurik Rostislavich)

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
• The Laurentian Chronicle (the Suzdal continuation kept in the late 12th and 13th centuries; manuscript 1377). The court record of Vsevolod III of Vladimir. 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