Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Note on names, dates, and transliteration
- Chronology
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The era of Vladimir I
- 2 Princes and politics (1015–1125)
- 3 Kievan Rusˈ society
- 4 Kievan Rusˈ: the final century
- 5 The Golden Horde
- 6 The Russian lands within the Golden Horde
- 7 The Daniilovich ascension
- 8 The unification and centralization of Muscovy
- 9 Muscovite domestic consolidation
- 10 Foreign policy and foreign trade
- 11 Ivan IV the Terrible
- 12 Conclusions and controversies
- Select bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Medieval Textbooks
1 - The era of Vladimir I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Note on names, dates, and transliteration
- Chronology
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The era of Vladimir I
- 2 Princes and politics (1015–1125)
- 3 Kievan Rusˈ society
- 4 Kievan Rusˈ: the final century
- 5 The Golden Horde
- 6 The Russian lands within the Golden Horde
- 7 The Daniilovich ascension
- 8 The unification and centralization of Muscovy
- 9 Muscovite domestic consolidation
- 10 Foreign policy and foreign trade
- 11 Ivan IV the Terrible
- 12 Conclusions and controversies
- Select bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Medieval Textbooks
Summary
In the year 980, an obscure prince landed on the northern shores of a land that became known as Rusˈ and, later, Russia. Almost a decade earlier his father, the ruler of this land, had placed him in charge of the area surrounding one of its towns, the recently founded Novgorod. But after his father died (972) and one of his elder brothers killed the other (977), this prince, Vladimir (Volodimer) Sviatoslavich, fled abroad. After several years of exile he now led a band of Varangians (Norsemen) across the Baltic from Scandinavia. His intention was to depose his half-brother Iaropolk and assume the throne of Kiev.
VLADIMIR'S SEIZURE OF THE KIEVAN THRONE
Upon landing in Rusˈ, Prince Vladimir immediately sought allies to join him against Iaropolk. He turned to the prince of Polotsk (Polatsk), Rogvolod, a fellow Varangian but unrelated to Vladimir and his family, and requested the hand of his daughter Rogneda in marriage. But she haughtily refused him, calling him the “son of a slave” and indicating a preference for Iaropolk. Vladimir responded by leading his Varangian force, along with Slovenes, Chudˈ, and Krivichi from his former domain of Novgorod, against Polotsk. He defeated and killed Rogvolod and his sons, captured Rogneda, and forced her to become his bride. Polotsk was attached to the realm of Vladimir's family, the Riurikid dynasty.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medieval Russia, 980–1584 , pp. 1 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007