Principality of Polotsk

Who rules

Name

Vladimir (Henry of Livonia's 'king Woldemar')

Title

prince of Polotsk (knyaz; Henry of Livonia calls him 'rex de Ploceke', king of Polotsk)

Since

not pinned: Henry of Livonia has him already prince when Meinhard came to the Livs (about 1184-1186); the usual lists give 1186 (pl.wikipedia, de.wikipedia)

Born

not known

Family

house of Vseslav of Polotsk (the Izyaslavichi of Polotsk, a Rurikid branch cut off from the Kiev succession); his father is named in no source: historians have made him a son of Volodar Glebovich of Minsk, or of another Vseslavich line; not pinned

Confidence

medium

pl.wikipedia (Księstwo połockie: 'Włodzimierz połocki 1186-1215'); de.wikipedia (Liste der Fürsten von Polozk: 'Wladimir 1186-1216'); Henry of Livonia I.3 and 1203-1216

Overlord

none: Polotsk has gone its own way since the townsmen threw off Kiev's nominee in 1132; it owes nothing to Kiev, Smolensk or Vladimir in 1200

What the realm holds

• Polotsk, the senior seat, with its district on the Daugava and the Polota (Vladimir's own)
• Vitebsk and its land on the Daugava (sub-principality; probably Vasilko Bryacheslavich; Smolensk's influence 1186-1195, back under Polotsk since the war of 1195-1196)
• Minsk and its land on the Svisloch (sub-principality of the Glebovichi; holder not pinned)
• Drutsk and its land on the Drut (sub-principality; holder not pinned)
• Izyaslavl (Zaslawye): an appanage seat in 1159, after which it vanishes from the chronicles for two centuries
• Logoisk (Logozhsk): an appanage seat from about the 12th century (holder not pinned)
• Borisov, Orsha, Lukoml and Usvyat: forts and market places of the land (Orsha on the west bank of the Dnieper, which has been the Polotsk-Smolensk border since 1119 by ru.wikipedia)
• Gorodets and Strezhev, named among the appanages of Vseslav's grandsons, cannot be placed with confidence
• tribute from the Livs of the lower Daugava (Henry of Livonia I.3) and overlordship of the Rus' princes of Koknese and Jersika (liv)

How it was acquired

By inheritance in the house of Vseslav. Vladimir Monomakh's sons broke the Polotsk princes in 1116-1129 and Mstislav of Kiev deported several of them to Byzantium in 1129, but in 1132 the Polotsk townsmen installed Vasilko Sviatoslavich and the land has ruled itself since. Vseslav Vasilkovich of the Vitebsk line held Polotsk with breaks from 1162 to the 1180s; the lists then give a Boris (de.wikipedia, 'after 1180-1186') and Vladimir from 1186.

How Vladimir came to Polotsk is not recorded.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the Olgovichi of Chernigov, kin by marriage (Sviatoslav of Chernigov, prince of Kiev to 1194, married Maria, daughter of Vasilko of Polotsk, so the Vitebsk line are uncles of the present Olgovichi), who led the Polotsk princes against Smolensk at Drutsk in 1180, with Lithuanian and Liv auxiliaries by the Hypatian account as usually cited; the Lithuanians (joint raid on Luki in 1198). Rivals: Smolensk, which backs Drutsk and Vitebsk princes and marched on Polotsk in 1186; Novgorod, raided in 1198. Dependants: the Livs of the lower Daugava and the princes of Koknese and Jersika.

The Latin mission: Meinhard preached with Vladimir's leave; his successor Berthold was killed by the Livs on 24 July 1198; Albert of Buxhoeveden, consecrated in 1199, is still recruiting in Germany on 1 January 1200.

The realm that morning

Vladimir holds Polotsk and its district; Vitebsk is probably under Vasilko Bryacheslavich and back in Polotsk's orbit since 1195-1196. No raid on Polotsk or Smolensk ground is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200; the last fighting on this ground was the Olgovichi's winter war on Smolensk and Vitebsk in 1195-1196, closed by the peace of autumn 1196. The German trade: Gotland and German merchants have sailed to the Daugava mouth each summer since about the 1180s (Meinhard came with them); on 1 January 1200 Riga does not exist, no German stays on the river over the winter, and no treaty between Polotsk and the Germans is known before the 1210s (Smolensk's treaties are of 1223-1229).

The other seats are held by Vseslavichi whose names for 1200 the sources do not give; Vitebsk is the most exposed to Smolensk, which leaned on it from 1186 to 1195. No war is in force that morning: the last fighting Polotsk men are recorded in is their raid with the Lithuanians on Novgorod's Luki in 1198, whose sequel is not checked here. The Livs owe Polotsk tribute; they have just driven off the mission's crusaders after Berthold's death, and the German merchants leave the Daugava each autumn, so on 1 January 1200 there is no German force on the river.

Across the borders: the Latgalian and Selonian lands down the Daugava (liv), the Lithuanians west of the upper Viliya and the Braslav lakes (lit), Novgorod's Luki to the north-east (nov), Smolensk across the Dnieper and the Kasplya (this file), Turov-Pinsk south of the Ptich (kie).

Wealth

The Daugava trade: wax, furs, honey and slaves downstream; silver, cloth, salt and metal wares upstream from Gotland and the Germans. Tolls on the river and on the portages from the Daugava to the Dnieper (by the Kasplya and at Orsha) and to the Lovat (by Usvyat). Tribute from the Livs and from the Latgalian princes. The princes' own estates and the courts. No coinage: silver bars (grivnas) and furs pass as money, as across Rus' in this coinless period.

Military

The prince's retinue (druzhina), the host of the Polotsk townsmen and the retinues of the sub-princes, with Lithuanian and Liv auxiliaries in 1180. Forts of wood and earth: the Upper Castle of Polotsk, Vitebsk, Minsk, Drutsk, Lukoml, Logoisk, Izyaslavl, Borisov, Orsha. Record: broken by Monomakh's sons in 1116-1129; with Chernigov against Smolensk in 1180; submitted with gifts to the Smolensk-Novgorod host in 1186; Polotsk men raided Luki with the Lithuanians in 1198.

No figures are given in the sources.

Threats

• Smolensk's hand in Vitebsk and Drutsk
• Novgorod's reprisal for the 1198 raid on Luki, now that Vsevolod III's men run Novgorod
• the Lithuanians, allies in 1198 but raiders of every Rus' land around them
• the German mission and merchants on the lower Daugava, who will threaten the Livs' tribute once Albert arrives (1200) and founds Riga (1201)
• quarrels among the Vseslavichi and a veche that can turn out a prince

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. summer 1200 (sailing season)Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden sails up the Daugava with crusaders and merchants (liv and the Church map write him). Polotsk's tribute from the Livs is exposed from now on; no Polotsk reaction is recorded for 1200.Depends on: Albert's recruiting in Germany and a safe passage Stopped by: a failed recruitment or a Liv rising that closes the river
2. 1201 (later than 1200)Albert founds Riga at the Daugava mouth, which will draw the Daugava trade and the Livs away from Polotsk.Depends on: Albert's success in 1200 Stopped by: anything that keeps Albert out of Livonia

Later, on the likely course

1. 1203 (later)Vladimir's first recorded move against the Germans: he takes tribute from the Üxküll Livs and besieges Holme (Henry of Livonia).Depends on: the Germans' settlement on the river Stopped by: a settlement between Polotsk and the bishop
2. 1212 and 1216 (later)Vladimir gives up the Livs' tribute for free trade on the Daugava (1212) and dies in 1216 as he is about to sail against Riga (Henry of Livonia).Depends on: the German advance Stopped by: a different outcome on the Daugava

Where the sources disagree

• de.wikipedia (Fürstentum Polozk) says a 'Boris', grand prince of Polotsk, gave Meinhard leave to build at Üxküll in 1185, and the German list puts a Boris son of David between 1180 and 1186. Henry of Livonia, the only near-contemporary witness, names Woldemar. This file follows Henry; the Boris tradition rests on later writers.
• Henry of Livonia writes Vladimir's licence to Meinhard from the 1220s; it shows Vladimir as prince by the mid-1180s only if Henry is right about the name.
• The GM's Church notes are silent on Polotsk; they agree that Albert is in Germany on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: The Rus' chronicles say almost nothing about Polotsk between 1186 and 1200; Henry of Livonia writes from 1200 onwards and names only the prince of Polotsk. Princes' lists on Wikipedia agree on Vladimir 1186-1216 but do not give his father. Sub-principality holders for 1200 are not known.

On the map: The outline is a modern reconstruction: the Lithuanian frontier in the west and the Turov frontier on the Ptich in the south are not fixed by any 1200 source; the Daugava lands below Druya are the Latgalians' and Selonians' (liv).

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 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