Galich

Who holds it

Name

Roman Mstislavich, prince of Vladimir and Galich

Title

Prince of Galich

Since

1199

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Prince Roman Mstislavich (since 1199), often in residence; no governor (posadnik) or commander of the town host (tysyatsky) is named for 1200.

How things stand that morning

Roman's since 1199; the boyar party that resisted him is broken, some of its men exiled; the town is his main seat. Bishop of Galich in 1200: not pinned.

Charter

No written charter: towns of Rus' held no chartered privileges in 1200; the townsmen acted through their assembly (veche) and their elders.

Council

The town assembly (veche), led by the boyars, which called in and drove out princes in 1144, 1187, 1188 and 1189; now overawed by Roman. The bishop of Galich (a see since the mid-12th century).

Communities

Not pinned for 1200. Hungarian, Polish, Greek and German merchants are likely visitors; the Hungarian garrison of 1188-1189 tried to bring in Latin rites (Dimnik). Armenian and Jewish communities in Galicia are attested only later.

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

The town host and the boyars' retinues; no figures.

Walls and castle

Earth ramparts and timber walls round the Krylos hill and the town below; white-stone churches (the Dormition cathedral and others of the 12th century); no stone walls.

Trade and crafts

Salt from the Carpathian foothills; the Dniester road to the Black Sea and the lower Danube; trade with Hungary over the passes and with Poland; furs, wax, honey, horses and cattle; stone-carvers and builders of the white-stone churches.

Where the sources disagree

• The later town of Halych, on the Dniester about 5 km north of Krylos, is the successor settlement; the medieval capital is at Krylos.

Evidence: Galich's role and buildings are well attested; its officers in 1200 are not.

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