Smolensk

Who holds it

Name

Mstislav Romanovich

Title

prince

Since

1197

Born

not known

Family

see Mstislav of Smolensk

Confidence

high

ru.wikipedia

Lord in 1200

Prince Mstislav Romanovich, with the boyars and the town assembly (Smolensk boyars); the bishop of Smolensk (name in 1200 not pinned) holds the see founded in 1136.

How things stand that morning

Mstislav's seat; quiet that winter.

Charter

None: custom, and Prince Rostislav's charter of 1136 for the see, which lists the dues of the Smolensk tribute places.

Council

The town assembly (veche) and the boyars; no officer named for 1200.

Communities

Smolensk townsmen and boyars; clergy of the cathedral and monasteries; Gotland and German merchants trade with the Smolensk men, but a German church and court in Smolensk are attested only in the treaty of 1229.

Militia

The Smolensk town host under the prince's commanders.

Walls and castle

Detinets of earth and timber on the left-bank hills, with the Assumption cathedral; ramparts round the trading town; the stone churches named above.

Trade and crafts

The Dnieper-Daugava trade with Gotland and the Germans and the Dnieper trade with Kiev: wax, honey and furs out, cloth, salt and metal wares in; builders, jewellers, leather and wood crafts.

Places of note

• Church of Peter and Paul, 1146: Rostislav's church
• Svirskaya church of the Archangel Michael, about 1191-1194: David Rostislavich's court church

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Churches and the prince are well dated; the town's officers and merchants in 1200 are not.

Primary sources for Smolensk

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 Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia. Read online
• 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 birch-bark letters (11th to 15th centuries). Excavated letters and notes on birch bark, dated by the layer they lie in. 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