Novgorod the Great

Who rules

Name

Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich

Title

prince of Novgorod, installed on the town's terms; the town itself is governed by its own elected officers

Since

1 January 1200, St Basil's day: the Novgorod chronicle (under the year 6707, which runs from March 1199 to February 1200) says he came to Novgorod on St Basil's day and was enthroned in St Sophia. His father had granted him to the Novgorod envoys in the autumn of 1199.

Born

27 March 1196 (en.wikipedia), so three years and nine months old

Family

Fifth surviving son of Vsevolod III Big Nest, grand prince of Vladimir, and Maria Shvarnovna

Confidence

high

Novgorod First Chronicle under 6707 (Michell and Forbes, scan pp. 93-94): Vsevolod took Yaroslav Vladimirovich out of Novgorod; Archbishop Martirii died at Lake Seliger on 24 August on his way to fetch Vsevolod's son; the posadnik and Mikhalko went to Vsevolod, who gave them Sviatoslav and installed Mitrofan as archbishop-elect; on St Basil's day (1 January) Sviatoslav came and was enthroned. The March year 6707 puts that January in 1200.

The realm that morning

At first light on 1 January 1200 the boy prince Sviatoslav and the Novgorod envoys are at the town or on its doorstep; he is enthroned in St Sophia that day. Since Yaroslav Vladimirovich was taken out in 1199 Novgorod has been governed by its posadnik Miroshka and the boyars. The archbishop's court is held by Mitrofan, chosen at Vsevolod's will and waiting for the metropolitan's summons. Pskov has no prince of its own and serves under Novgorod's prince.

The Votes, Izhora and the Ves of Obonezhye pay tribute; the Dvina Chud pay through Novgorod's pogosts; Perm, Pechora and Yugra are beyond reach that winter. Across the borders: the Estonians of Virumaa, Vaiga and Ugandi beyond the Narva and Lake Peipus (ees); the Latgalians of Atzele and Tālava to the south-west of Pskov (liv); Polotsk beyond Luki (pol); Smolensk's Toropets and Rzhev (pol); Vladimir-Suzdal at Tver, Kashin, Beloozero and Ustyug (vla); the Karelians on the Ladoga shore and the isthmus (Scandinavia map).

Wealth

Furs (sable, marten, squirrel, beaver, ermine) from the tribute lands and the boyars' expeditions; wax and honey; walrus ivory and hunting birds from the north; salt from Rusa; flax and hides; slaves taken in war (the Latgalian women and children of 1200 are a later example). The town lives by the transit trade between the Baltic and the Rus' rivers, and it buys grain from the Suzdal land through Novy Torg because its own land feeds it poorly.

Military

Earth and timber fortress (detinets) with the stone St Sophia inside; stone citadel at Ladoga (1116); forts at Pskov, Izborsk, Luki and Novy Torg; Rusa walled in 1199. Record: defeat of the Swedes before Ladoga (1164); defence of the town against the coalition of Andrei Bogolyubsky (1170); victory beyond the portage over the Suzdal men (1169); Yuryev and Otepää taken (1191-92); disaster in Yugra (1193); the march on Polotsk (1198-99).

Threats

• Vsevolod III, who rules Novgorod through a child prince and can close the grain road at Novy Torg.
• The Lithuanian war bands on the Lovat and at Luki.
• Faction among the boyars: the Miroshkinichi and the Mikhalkovichi alternate in the posadnik's office.
• The fur frontier: Yugra has been lost since 1193, and the Rostov-Suzdal men at Ustyug compete for the Dvina tribute (open war in 1169).
• Fire: the great fires of 1194 burned much of Novgorod, Ladoga and Rusa.

Seat note

The town governs itself from the veche at Yaroslav's Court on the Trade Side and from St Sophia in the fortress (detinets). The prince lives outside the town at the Gorodishche, about 2 km up the Volkhov.

Consort

None: the prince is a small child.

Heirs

None in Novgorod. The office is not hereditary: the town takes a prince from the house of Rurik by agreement, and since 1196 the princes of Rus' have acknowledged its right to choose (Novgorod chronicle under 6704). In practice Vsevolod III chooses for it.

Officers and household

The posadnik: Miroshka Nezdinich, in office since 1189 (chronicle under 6697), held as a hostage by Vsevolod in 1196-1198, back since the winter of 1197-98, leader of the embassy that fetched Sviatoslav (Posadnik Miroshka). The tysyatsky: Vyacheslav is named in Prince Yaroslav's treaty with the Germans and Gotlanders, made between 1189 and 1199; whether he still holds the office on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (Tysyatsky of Novgorod). The archbishop: Mitrofan, archbishop-elect, chosen at Vsevolod's will in the autumn of 1199 and installed in the archbishop's court, not yet consecrated (Archbishop-elect Mitrofan).

The hundredmen (sotsky): the sotsky Mikifor went on the embassy of 1196, and the sotskys escorted Yaroslav back in 1197-98. The prince's own men (his court or dvor, his judges and collectors) serve under him; for a child prince they are his father's men (not named).

Great families

The chronicle names the leading boyars of these years: Miroshka Nezdinich and his kin (his brother Vnezd Nezdinich, his son Dmitr, posadnik in 1205-1207); Mikhalko Stepanich, posadnik before 1189 and again in 1203-1205, who went with Miroshka to Vsevolod in 1199, and his son Tverdislav (Mikhalko Stepanich); Boris Zhiroslavich, Ivanko and Foma, held with Miroshka by Vsevolod in 1196; the family of the late posadnik Zavid (his widow became abbess of the new Mikhalitsa convent in 1199); the Prokshinichi (Vyacheslav Prokshinich, grandson of Malysh, completed the church of the Forty Saints founded in 1199; Yakovets Prokshinich, killed in Yugra in 1193, was probably his brother). See Novgorod boyars.

Towns and strongholds

Novgorod itself (Novgorod) with the fortress (detinets) on the Sophia Side; the prince's residence at the Gorodishche; Pskov with its fortress on the Velikaya (Pskov) and Izborsk (Izborsk); Ladoga with its stone fortress of 1116 (Ladoga); Rusa, walled in 1199 (Rusa); Novy Torg on the Tvertsa (Novy Torg); Luki on the Lovat, the fort against Lithuania (Luki); Bezhichi (Bezhichi). No fort yet stands at Koporye (built by the Germans in 1240) or at Oreshek on the Neva (1323), nor at Yam (1384) or Porkhov (1239).

Mints tolls markets

No coins are struck in Rus' in these years: payments are reckoned in silver bars (grivna), in kunas and in furs. The great market (torg) lies on the Trade Side by Yaroslav's Court, with churches founded by merchants (the overseas merchants built the church of St Paraskeva Friday on the market place in 1156; Kosnyatin and his brother built another to St Friday there in 1191). Tolls are taken on the Volkhov and at the portages; the figures are not known.

Treaties

• With the Gotlanders and the Germans: Prince Yaroslav, the posadnik Miroshka and the tysyatsky Vyacheslav 'confirmed the old peace' with the envoy Arbud, all the German sons, the Gotlanders and all the Latin tongue (treaty made between 1189 and 1199, in years when Yaroslav and Miroshka held office together; de.wikipedia dates the Gotlanders' first treaty 1188-1195). It ended the quarrel of 1188-1189, when Novgorod merchants were seized on Gotland and elsewhere and Novgorod sent the Varangians away 'without peace'.
• With Polotsk: in 1191 Yaroslav met the Polotsk princes at the border near Luki and they agreed to campaign together each winter against the Lithuanians or the Chud; after the Polotsk men joined a Lithuanian raid on Luki in the autumn of 1198, Yaroslav marched on Polotsk that winter and peace was made at Lake Kasplya (Kasopl), without battle.
• With the princes of Rus': the peace that ended Vsevolod's war on Chernigov in 1196 'freed Novgorod in its princes' (chronicle under 6704).

Wars and feuds

• No war is being fought on 1 January 1200.
• Lithuanians: the Lithuanians with the Polotsk men burned Luki's trading quarter in the autumn of 1198; the next Lithuanian raid, along the Lovat, comes in the year from March 1200 (likely course). No truce with the Lithuanian dukes is recorded.
• Estonians (Chud): Yaroslav took and burned Yuryev (Tartu) in the winter of 1191-92 and his court with the Pskovians burned Medvezhya Golova (Otepää) in the summer of 1192; no fighting is recorded since, and no peace either. No Estonian land is shown paying tribute to Novgorod in 1200.
• Yugra: the tribute collectors were killed in Pechora and beyond the portage in 1187, and the expedition of the commander Yadrei was destroyed in Yugra in the winter of 1193-94; no expedition has gone since.
• The Yem (Tavastians): Novgorod and the Karelians raided them by boat in 1191.

Relations

Vladimir: Vsevolod III is the arbiter. He detained the posadnik and three boyars in 1196-1198, took Yaroslav out in 1199, chose the archbishop-elect and gave his own son as prince; he can stop the grain at Novy Torg. Polotsk: at peace since the winter of 1198-99. Smolensk: no quarrel; Toropets, Smolensk's town, borders Luki and the Seliger. Chernigov: its prince Yaropolk was taken and expelled in 1197; the Olgovichi remain rivals for the seat.

The Karelians are allies (joint raid on the Yem in 1191; see the Scandinavia map). The Votes and Izhora pay tribute and serve in war. The Gotlanders and Germans trade under the treaty of Yaroslav. No Swedish attack on Novgorod's land is recorded since their defeat before Ladoga in 1164. The Estonians and Lithuanians are enemies without a war in progress.

Church

The archbishop of Novgorod is chosen in Novgorod and consecrated by the metropolitan of Kiev; the see has been an archbishopric since 1165. On 1 January 1200 Mitrofan is archbishop-elect (Archbishop-elect Mitrofan). The great monasteries are St George (Yuriev), where princes and posadniks are buried and Yaroslav's sons lie, St Anthony, Khutyn (founded by Varlaam, whose church Archbishop Gavrilo consecrated about 1192), the Arkazh monastery and the new convent on Mikhalitsa founded by Yaroslav's princess in 1199.

The Latin Church has no see here; the Gotlanders and Germans keep their own churches.

Coinage

None struck: silver bars (grivna), kunas and furs.

Belts note

No raiding belt is drawn for Novgorod. The last raids before 1 January 1200 are the Polotsk and Lithuanian attack on Luki in the autumn of 1198 (peace with Polotsk followed that winter at Lake Kasplya) and Novgorod's campaigns on Yuryev and Otepää in 1191-92; the next Lithuanian raid, on the Lovat, falls in the year from March 1200. No raid is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200 itself, and no expedition has gone to Yugra since the disaster of 1193.

The host

The town host is raised by ends and hundreds under the tysyatsky and the sotskys, with the boyars' retinues; the subject towns send their own men (the chronicle lists the men of Novgorod, Pskov, Novy Torg, Ladoga and 'the whole province' in the winter campaign of 1198-99). The prince brings his court (dvor) and retinue. Novgorod fights by boat on the lakes and rivers and campaigns in winter over the frozen marshes. Expeditions to the north are raised by boyar companies (the commander Yadrei to Yugra in 1193).

No numbers are given for these years.

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.

In 1200

1. 1 January 1200 (St Basil's day)Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich is enthroned in St Sophia, and the town rejoices (chronicle under 6707).Depends on: The child's arrival as planned with the Novgorod envoys and Vsevolod's men. Stopped by: A veche refusing Vsevolod's son, which the chronicle gives no hint of.
2. 1200, in the year from March 1200 (chronicle under 6708; month not pinned)The Lithuanians raid along the Lovat towards Nalyuch and from Belaya to Svinort and Vorch; the Novgorodians pursue them to Chernyany, beat them and recover the plunder, losing fifteen named men.Depends on: The Lithuanian bands' plans and the state of the ice. Stopped by: A truce with the Lithuanian dukes, or a strong force at Luki.
3. 1200 (chronicle under 6708)Nezdila Pekhchinich is made commander of Luki and raids the Latgalian land (Lotygola), killing men and carrying off women and children.Depends on: The posadnik and veche choosing him; peace with Polotsk on the Daugava. Stopped by: A different choice of commander, or a Polotsk objection to raids on its tributaries.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 (after this year)Archbishop-elect Mitrofan goes to the metropolitan with Novgorod's and Vsevolod's men, is consecrated on 3 July and returns on 14 September 1201.Depends on: The metropolitan's summons and Vsevolod's support. Stopped by: A rising against Vsevolod's choice.
2. 1201-1202 (after this year)Novgorod lets the Varangians leave by sea without peace; in the autumn they come back overland and get peace on Novgorod's terms; a wooden fort is built at Rusa.Depends on: A new quarrel with the overseas merchants. Stopped by: Good relations through 1200-1201.
3. 1203 and 1205 (after this year)Miroshka dies (1203) and Mikhalko Stepanich becomes posadnik; in 1205 Vsevolod replaces Sviatoslav with his eldest son Konstantin and the town gives the office to Dmitr Miroshkinich.Depends on: Miroshka's age and health; Vsevolod's plans. Stopped by: Changes in Vsevolod's fortunes.

Places of note

• St Sophia and the fortress (detinets): the cathedral of the commonwealth and the archbishop's court
• Yaroslav's Court and the market: the veche place and the great market on the Trade Side
• The Gorodishche: the prince's residence outside the town
• Lake Seliger: where Archbishop Martirii died on 24 August 1199, on the road to Vsevolod

Where the sources disagree

• The GM's Church notes do not cover the Orthodox Church or Novgorod; no conflict.
• Common modern lists give Sviatoslav's first reign in Novgorod as 1200-1205 and some accounts put Yaroslav Vladimirovich in Novgorod until 1200. The Novgorod chronicle puts Sviatoslav's arrival under the year 6707 'on St Basil's day', which in the chronicle's March year is 1 January 1200: so Yaroslav is gone before 1 January and Sviatoslav is enthroned that day. The neighbouring Vladimir-Suzdal research (vla) was written with Yaroslav still in Novgorod on 1 January and should be checked against this.

Evidence: The Novgorod First Chronicle is year by year and detailed for these years; offices other than the posadnik's are thinly named; the boyars' estates are not recorded at all for 1200.

On the map: The outer edges are drawn along watersheds and the known towns: against Vladimir-Suzdal the line follows the neighbouring research; against Polotsk, Smolensk and the Latgalians it is an estimate through forest and marsh; the Narva and Lake Peipus are fair. Volok Lamsky, Novgorod's old town on the portage to the Moskva, has been in the grand prince's hands since Vsevolod burned it in 1178 (en.wikipedia Volokolamsk) and 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 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 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 Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. 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 law of the Gotlanders; The saga of the Gotlanders (Guta lag about 1220, Guta saga about 1220 to 1275; manuscript of about 1350). The law and the short history of the self-governing island. Read online