The Chernigov land of the Olgovichi

Who rules

Name

Igor Sviatoslavich

Title

Senior prince of the Olgovichi, holding the Chernigov throne (stol)

Since

1198, on the death of his cousin Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (Hypatian Chronicle, year 6706; dated 1198 by Makhnovets and by Dimnik; the Radziwill Chronicle's 6708 would allow 1199)

Born

2 April 1151 (en.wikipedia gives 3 or 10 April); aged 48 on 1 January 1200

Family

Olgovichi: son of Sviatoslav Olgovich (d. 1164), grandson of Oleg Sviatoslavich (d. 1115); married about 1169 to Euphrosyne Yaroslavna, daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl of Galich

Confidence

high

The Kievan Chronicle (Hypatian codex) records that Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Chernigov died and 'the right-believing prince Igor Sviatoslavich sat on his throne'; Makhnovets dates the entry 1198. Igor dies in spring 1201 (Pyatnov, Dimnik) or on 29 December 1202 (Tatishchev's date), so he is alive and senior on 1 January 1200.

What the realm holds

• Chernigov, with its fortress (detinets), outer town (okolny grad) and the Chernigov district, held by Igor directly (Igor of Chernigov, Chernigov)
• Lyubech, the Olgovichi's castle on the Dnieper (Lyubech)
• Novgorod-Seversky, the second throne of the land; holder that morning not pinned (Novgorod-Seversky)
• The Seim towns (the Posemye) of Igor's line: Putivl under Igor's son Vladimir (Vladimir Igorevich of Putivl); Rylsk (Sviatoslav of Rylsk, not pinned); Kursk (holder not pinned, Kursk)
• Trubchevsk under Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod 'Bui Tur' (Sviatoslav of Trubchevsk)
• The northern towns of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich's sons: Starodub under Vsevolod the Red by one account (Vsevolod the Red, Starodub); Kozelsk under Mstislav, not pinned (Mstislav of Kozelsk)
• Snovsk under Rostislav Yaroslavich, son of the late senior prince (Rostislav of Snovsk)
• The Sozh towns Gomel and Chechersk (holders not pinned)
• The Vyatichi land on the upper Oka and the upper Desna: Bryansk (Debryansk), Vshchizh, Karachev, Kozelsk, Mtsensk, Novosil and the forest country round them (holders of most not pinned)
• The service of the Kovui, Turkic horsemen settled in the land

How it was acquired

The Chernigov land fell to Sviatoslav Yaroslavich's sons by the settlement of Lyubech (1097). Oleg's descendants outlasted his brother David's line, which died out with Sviatoslav Vladimirovich of Vshchizh in 1166 or 1167. After Sviatoslav Olgovich's death in 1164 an agreement gave Chernigov to Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich and Novgorod-Seversky with the Seim towns, Kursk among them, to Sviatoslav Olgovich's sons. Igor held Novgorod-Seversky from 1180 and took Chernigov by seniority when Yaroslav Vsevolodovich died.

Date conversion: the Hypatian Chronicle gives Yaroslav's death under 6706 (on the March year, March 1198 to February 1199; Makhnovets converts it as 1198); the Radziwill Chronicle gives 6708, which on the ultra-March year runs from March 1199 to February 1200. Historians give 1198 or 1199; we follow 1198 (Makhnovets, Dimnik).

Allies and rivals

Allies: the Olgovichi with one another, uneasily; Konchak's horde by marriage; Vsevolod III as guarantor of the 1196 peace; Roman in 1195-1196, now a rival over Galich. Rivals: Rurik of Kiev and the Rostislavichi of Smolensk (for Kiev and Smolensk); Roman (for Galich); the Cumans who are not their kin.

The realm that morning

Igor Sviatoslavich sits at Chernigov as senior prince. The land is quiet: no war with any neighbour and no Cuman raid recorded for that winter. Igor's eldest son Vladimir holds Putivl and perhaps Novgorod-Seversky; Vsevolod the Red holds Starodub by one account; Rostislav Yaroslavich holds Snovsk; Sviatoslav, son of 'Bui Tur', holds Trubchevsk. The holders of Novgorod-Seversky, Kursk, Rylsk, Gomel and most Vyatichi towns that morning are not pinned.

Across the borders: Rurik's Kiev and Vyshgorod beyond the Dnieper; the southern Pereyaslavl (Oster, Pryluky, Romny) to the south, held apart from Kiev; Mstislav Romanovich's Smolensk beyond the Sozh and the upper Desna (Krichev, Roslavl); Vsevolod III's land beyond the Protva at Moscow; Ryazan beyond the Oka at Kolomna and Pronsk; the Cuman steppe south of Kursk and the Seim, on the upper Psel, the Donets and the Oskol.

Wealth

Furs, honey and wax from the forests of the Desna and the Vyatichi land; grain, cattle and horses from the forest-steppe of the Seim; tolls at the Dnieper and Desna crossings (Lyubech, Chernigov) and on the roads from Kiev through Chernigov to the Vyatichi land, the Oka and Volga Bulgaria; horses, cattle and captives from the steppe. The princes live on tribute and court fines from each district, gathered by their own men.

Military

Towns of timber and earth: Chernigov's citadel and outer town, Lyubech castle on the Dnieper, Novgorod-Seversky, Putivl, Kursk, Rylsk, Trubchevsk, Starodub, Vshchizh, Bryansk, Kozelsk. In 1196 Yaroslav held the Vyatichi land against Vsevolod and David by breaking the bridges and blocking the roads with felled trees (abatis), avoiding battle. Record: Igor's raid of 1185 ended on the Kayala in May with Igor, his son Vladimir, his brother Vsevolod and his nephew Sviatoslav of Rylsk taken prisoner; his campaigns of 1191 against the Cumans reached the Oskol and turned back.

Threats

• Roman Mstislavich, master of Galicia and Volhynia, who will seize Kiev in 1201
• Vsevolod III, who has already invaded the Vyatichi land once (1196) and holds the Olgovichi to the 1196 terms
• The succession: Igor dies in 1201 or 1202, and the seats then move down the line
• Cumans outside Konchak's kin, whom Kiev hired against the Olgovichi in 1196
• Rivalry between the two branches over Novgorod-Seversky and the Seim towns

Consort

Euphrosyne (Yefrosinya) Yaroslavna, the 'Yaroslavna' of the Tale of Igor's Campaign, daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl of Galich and Olga Yuryevna; married about 1169. Her baptismal name comes from the Lyubech synodicon and later genealogies. She is the full sister of Vladimir Yaroslavich, the last prince of the old Galician line (d. 1198 or 1199), which is the root of her sons' claim to Galich. Whether she is alive on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Heirs

The Chernigov throne passes by seniority within the dynasty, not from father to son. After Igor the senior Olgovich is Oleg Sviatoslavich (born about 1147), eldest son of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich of Kiev; he succeeds when Igor dies (1201 or 1202) and is followed in 1204 by his brother Vsevolod the Red (Chermnyi). Their brothers Mstislav and Gleb come after; another brother, Vladimir, prince of Novgorod the Great in 1180-1181, may be dead by 1200: his death is not pinned in the sources we could reach.

Igor's own sons hold Seim towns and look to Galich, their mother's patrimony.

Officers and household

• The commander of the Chernigov town host (tysyatsky): not named for these years in any source we could reach
• Olstin Oleksich, a boyar of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, led the Kovui of Chernigov on Igor's campaign of 1185 (Hypatian Chronicle); whether he is alive and serving Igor in 1200 is not pinned
• The bishop of Chernigov, suffragan of the metropolitan of Kiev: a Bishop Porfiry appears in the chronicle in the late 1180s, and a Bishop Porfiry is taken by the Mongols in 1239; who holds the see on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
• Each appanage prince keeps his own retinue (druzhina) and his own men in his towns; no household officer of Igor's is named for 1198-1201

Great families

No Chernigov boyar kindred can be traced for these years. The chronicle names single boyars (Olstin Oleksich in 1185); archaeology shows a rich class of boyars and retainers with town houses and suburban estates round Chernigov. The Kovui, Turkic horsemen settled in the land, serve the princes under their own leaders.

Treaties

The peace of the autumn of 1196 between Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Vsevolod III, sworn on the cross in late September 1196 after Vsevolod and David of Smolensk had invaded the Vyatichi land: the Olgovichi freed Mstislav Romanovich of Smolensk, whom they had taken prisoner in the fighting of early 1196, and expelled Yaropolk Rostislavich; they gave up Kiev and Smolensk during the lifetimes of the Rostislavichi and accepted the right of Vsevolod and his sons to hold land in southern Rus'; Yaroslav refused Vsevolod's demand that he break with Roman, and had it agreed that Novgorod might choose its own prince (ru.wikipedia, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, after the Hypatian Chronicle). Rurik of Kiev, left out, took offence at Vsevolod but made no war on Chernigov. Whether Igor renewed the oath when he took Chernigov is not recorded.

Wars and feuds

No war is being fought by the Olgovichi on 1 January 1200. Live quarrels: (1) Kiev, given up in 1196 only for the lifetimes of the Rostislavichi; (2) the Igorevichi's claim to Galich, which Roman Mstislavich took in 1198 or 1199 on the death of their uncle Vladimir Yaroslavich; (3) the upper Dnieper and Vitebsk, fought over with Smolensk in 1195-1196 and settled by the peace; (4) the steppe: Igor's house is tied by marriage to Khan Konchak's horde, but other Cumans (the chronicle's 'wild Cumans') raided the Olgovichi's lands in Rurik's pay in 1196.

Relations

Kiev

Rurik Rostislavich holds Kiev (kie). The Olgovichi fought him in 1195-1196 and keep the 1196 peace. Gleb Sviatoslavich is Rurik's son-in-law. In 1201 Rurik and the Olgovichi will move together against Roman (likely course).

Vladimir

Vsevolod III of Vladimir, the strongest prince in Rus', made the 1196 peace and is its guarantor. Rostislav Yaroslavich of Snovsk is his son-in-law (married 1186 to his daughter Vseslava). The Olgovichi recognised his sons' rights in the south in 1196; his son Yaroslav will be sent to the southern Pereyaslavl in 1200 or 1201 (vla, kie).

Smolensk

At peace since 1196. Mstislav Romanovich, captured by the Olgovichi early in 1196 and freed under the peace, has held Smolensk since David Rostislavich gave it to him at his death in April 1197 (pol).

Galicia

Roman Mstislavich, ally of the Olgovichi in 1195-1196, has added Galich to Volhynia (hal); he blocks the Igorevichi's claim through their mother.

Polotsk

Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich's wife was a Polotsk princess, and Polotsk forces joined the Olgovichi's raid on the Smolensk land in the winter of 1195-1196; the Encyclopedia of Ukraine says the Chernigov princes had sovereignty over Polotsk towards the end of the century. What tie stands on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (pol).

Pereyaslavl

The southern Pereyaslavl (Oster, Pryluky, Romny, the Sula forts) lies to the south of the Chernigov land and is held apart from Kiev that winter (kie).

Ryazan

The Vyatichi land meets Ryazan on the upper Oka and the Upa; no quarrel is recorded for 1198-1199 (rya).

Cumans

Igor's son Vladimir married Svoboda, daughter of Khan Konchak, while a prisoner after 1185 and brought her home in 1187 or 1188 (wedding 26 September). Igor fought beside Konchak in 1180 and against him in 1185; his two campaigns of 1191 went against the Cumans towards the Oskol. en.wikipedia gives 1187 for Konchak's death; we could not check it against the chronicle, so his survival to 1200 is not pinned. His son Yuri Konchakovich rides with Rurik in 1203 (cum).

Church

The bishop of Chernigov is a suffragan of the metropolitan of Kiev (Metropolitan Nikifor II is named in Rurik's church consecrations of these years). The Orthodox see holds no temporal lordship that the sources show; the princes' monasteries (the Yelets monastery and the Boldino hills monastery at Chernigov, the Saviour monastery at Novgorod-Seversky) hold gifts and villages.

Coinage

No coin is struck in Rus' in these years: payment runs in silver ingots (grivnas), cut silver and furs. Archaeologists call one hexagonal ingot type the Chernigov grivna; its dating is not pinned.

The host

Each prince's retinue (druzhina), the boyars with their own men, the town hosts under their commanders (tysyatsky), and the Kovui, Turkic horsemen in the princes' service. The men of Kursk are praised as seasoned warriors in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. Numbers unknown.

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. During 1200 (Dimnik's chronology, as given by en.wikipedia)Oleg Sviatoslavich, eldest son of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich, holds Novgorod-Seversky in 1200-1201, before taking Chernigov.Depends on: Dimnik's reconstruction being right; the princes of the house agreeing the move. Stopped by: A quarrel between Igor's line and Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich's line over the second throne; play that changes Oleg's position.
2. 1200 into 1201Rurik of Kiev and the Olgovichi draw together against Roman Mstislavich, now master of Galich and Volhynia.Depends on: Roman's growing power and his quarrel with his father-in-law Rurik; the Olgovichi's hope of Galich for the Igorevichi. Stopped by: A settlement between Rurik and Roman; Roman courting the Olgovichi as in 1195-1196; Vsevolod III forbidding it.
3. About summer 1201 (Makhnovets; others give 1202) (beyond 1200)Rurik with the Olgovichi marches against Roman; Roman forestalls him, the Kievans open their gates to Roman and Rurik withdraws to Ovruch.Depends on: The alliance above holding and Roman striking first. Stopped by: No alliance; Roman staying in Galich.
4. Spring 1201 (Pyatnov, Dimnik) or 29 December 1202 (Tatishchev's date) (beyond 1200)Igor dies; Oleg Sviatoslavich takes Chernigov.Depends on: Natural death on that date. Stopped by: Play that changes Igor's circumstances.
5. 2 January 1203 (beyond 1200)Rurik with the Olgovichi and the Cumans sacks Kiev.Depends on: The Rurik-Olgovichi alliance and Cuman help. Stopped by: Peace between Rurik and Roman; no Cuman alliance.
6. 1206 (beyond 1200)After Roman's death (19 June 1205) the Galician boyars call in Igor's sons: Vladimir sits at Galich and Roman at Zvenigorod.Depends on: Roman's death; the boyars' choice. Stopped by: Roman living; another claimant preferred.

Places of note

• Chernigov: the citadel with the Saviour and Boris and Gleb cathedrals: Seat of the senior prince and of the bishop.
• Lyubech castle: The princes' castle on the left bank of the Dnieper, guarding the river road to Kiev; the Olgovichi met here in 1180.
• Vshchizh hillfort: Old appanage seat on the Desna, the last seat of David's line (Sviatoslav Vladimirovich, d. 1166 or 1167).

Where the sources disagree

• Yaroslav Vsevolodovich's death: Hypatian 6706 (March year, 1198/99; Makhnovets: 1198) against Radziwill 6708 (ultra-March year, March 1199 to February 1200). If the Radziwill date were right and the death fell in January or February 1200, Yaroslav, not Igor, would be senior on 1 January 1200. Historians give 1198 or 1199 (ru.wikipedia); we follow 1198.
• Igor's death: many reference works give 29 December 1202, a date resting on Tatishchev's reading of the Radziwill Chronicle; Pyatnov and Dimnik argue for spring 1201 (the Laurentian entry 6710 read as ultra-March, Igor's death its first item). Either way he is alive on 1 January 1200.
• Novgorod-Seversky after 1198: ru.wikipedia (Igor Sviatoslavich) gives Vladimir Igorevich 1198-1206; ru.wikipedia (Novgorod-Seversky principality) gives as the prevailing view that the seat passed to Vsevolod Olgovich's descendants while Igor's line kept the Seim towns; en.wikipedia (Oleg III Svyatoslavich, after Dimnik) has Oleg there 1200-1201. Not pinned for 1 January 1200.
• ru.wikipedia (Chernigov principality) dates to 1198 an alliance of the Olgovichi with Rurik 'to fight for Galich on behalf of the Igorevichi against Roman'. In the chronicle as dated by Makhnovets, Rurik and the Olgovichi move against Roman only about summer 1201. We treat the alliance as the likely course, not as a fact of 1 January 1200.
• The death of Vladimir Yaroslavich of Galich is 1198 in Makhnovets's notes and 1199 in most accounts and in the brief; the Igorevichi's claim is the same either way.

Evidence: The Kievan Chronicle in the Hypatian codex is full down to 1198-1199 and then stops; for 1200-1205 the south has only short notices in the Laurentian Chronicle and the opening of the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle. Igor's accession is firm. Who held the lesser seats in 1200 rests on later genealogies (the Lyubech synodicon) and on modern reconstructions, chiefly Dimnik (2003), which disagree. Dimnik's book, the Medieval Lands pages and the Ukrainian Wikipedia did not load in this run; we used Makhnovets's dated translation of the chronicle and the Russian and English Wikipedia.

On the map: The outline follows the usual reconstruction of the Chernigov land at the end of the 12th century and is rough on every land border. The Vyatichi land's limits against Smolensk (the Ugra and the Protva), Vladimir (south of Moscow) and Ryazan (the Oka and the Upa near Tula) are approximate; the southern Pereyaslavl border runs between Nizhyn and Baturyn (Chernigov) and Oster, Pryluky and Romny (Pereyaslavl). No raiding belt is drawn on the Seim and the Psel: no Cuman raid on the Chernigov land is recorded for 1198-1199, Igor's house is allied by marriage to Konchak's horde, and the raids by Rurik's 'wild Cumans' are three winters old. The steppe edge south of Kursk and Putivl is open country where the Rus' did not farm far beyond the forts. Rechitsa, on the right bank of the Dnieper opposite the Chernigov land, is sometimes counted a Chernigov town in the early 13th century; it is not drawn here.

Primary sources for this realm

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