Usvyat

Who holds it

Title

lord

Confidence

low

the grant of 1021 (Vitebsk and Usvyat to Bryacheslav of Polotsk)

Lord in 1200

Not pinned: given to Polotsk with Vitebsk in 1021; on the Vitebsk side of the Smolensk and Novgorod borders.

How things stand that morning

Polotsk (Vitebsk) ground; not pinned.

Council

Not recorded.

Communities

Not recorded.

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Small fort.

Trade and crafts

The portage road between the Daugava and the Lovat.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The grant of 1021 and the battle of 1226 only.

Primary sources for Polotsk

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 Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online
• Charter book of Livonia, Estonia and Courland, volume 1, 1093 to 1300 (documents of 1093 to 1300, edited 1853). The documents of the Livonian mission: Innocent III's bull of 5 October 1199 calling for a crusade to protect the Livonian church, the privileges for Bishop Albert, Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen's acts for the see of Üxküll, and the later charters that settle who held what on the Düna.
• 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