formerly been due merely to Varagian influences, the last occasion when Russia and the empire came into collision occurred under Jaroslav. The casus belli was a quarrel between Russian merchants and Byzantines. The punitory expedition with which Jaroslav intrusted his son Vladimir in 1043 ended disastrously, once more in consequence of the devastating effect of the Greek fire. Part only of the Russian army was able to rally and inflict a defeat on the pursuing Greeks. Jaroslav, though no hero in the style of Sviatoslav, still knew how to handle the sword. He struck the Pecheneges such a blow that they no longer ventured to attack Russia; their name soon disappeared. Their rôle was taken over, however, by another wild people, the Polowzes, whom we already know (pp. 92, 338, 380) as Kumanes. In the west, also, Jaroslav fought with Lithuanians, Jatvinges, and Masovians, and helped his son-in-law Casimir of Poland to win back the empire.

Kiev reached the zenith of its grandeur under Jaroslav and excited the admiration of the West; among its churches, which were said to number four hundred, that of St. Sophia with its splendid mosaics was conspicuous. The city with its eight markets was the rendezvous of merchants from Byzantium, Germany, Scandinavia, Hungary, and Holland; flotillas of merchantmen furrowed the waters of the Dnieper. Jaroslav founded monasteries, for instance the Crypt Monastery (Petscherskaja Lawra), at Kiev, which was destined to become a seminary of culture for Russia. Himself acquainted with writing, he took an interest in schools, and founded one in his beloved Novgorod for three hundred boys. He had not artists enough to decorate all the churches, nor priests enough to provide for divine service. He summoned Greek choristers from Byzantium to the capital, who were to instruct the Russian clergy. Adam of Bremen was justified, therefore, in calling Kiev the rival of Constantinople and the fairest ornament of Greece. Since Russia had hitherto no written laws, Jaroslav ordered the customary law to be noted down ("Ruskaja Prawda "). This simple code contains little beyond a scale of penalties for various crimes, and a fixed table of fines; it does not mention death sentences or corporal punishments. Nevertheless it was a promising preliminary step. The first ecclesiastical laws for Russia were also put into writing under Jaroslav.

Jaroslav enjoyed a high reputation among his contemporaries. He formed connections by marriage with the royal houses of Norway, Poland, Hungary, and France, and was in request as an ally. The Russian people called him the Wise; the Scandinavian sagas have much to tell of him. If, however, the empire was to be preserved in its old grandeur the succession must be fixed in some way In old times, when the State was governed in patriarchal style and the sovereign held a paternal authority, when the royal treasury was also the national treasury and the offices at the royal court were also State offices, when, that is, the empire was considered the private property of the monarch, family law was identical with public law, and the sovereign had the control of the kingdom as much as of his own goods and chattels. And just as, according to the civil law of the time, every child had a claim to a part of the paternal or family property, so every member of the reigning house had a claim to a share of the kingdom. Since, then, according to Germano-Slavonic custom, the eldest of the tribe or of the family administered affairs within the family circle, so in the empire the younger members were pledged to obey the eldest. This was the so-called right of Seniority. 1 His daughter Anna married in 1051 King Henry I of France, who died 1066.

Russia had long been ruled on this principle. The custom had grown up there since the days of Olga that the eldest should have his home in Kiev, while the younger sons lived elsewhere and were in some sense his subjects. Sviatoslav had divided the kingdom among his sons on this principle, only reserving for himself the title of Grand Duke. According to the Russian Chronicle Jaroslav, foreseeing his death, made the following arrangements: "Isjaslav, your eldest brother, will represent me and reign in Kiev. Subject yourselves to him as you have subjected yourselves to your father. I give to Sviatoslav Tchernigov, to Wsewolod Perejaslav, to Wjatshelav Smolensk. Igor, the youngest, receives Vladimir with Volhynia. Let each be content with his share; if not, then shall the elder brother sit in justice over you as lord. He will defend the oppressed and punish the guilty." By this arrangement Jaroslav had merely acted according to the ancient custom. How far the privileges went which customary law gave to the "eldest" is shown by the expression current at that time: the younger rode at the rein of the elder; he had him as master, stood at his orders, and looked up to him. The Grand Duke, whose seat was in Kiev, was lord over all Russia; he disposed of vacant principalities and was the supreme judge and commander-in-chief.

The innovation probably introduced by Jaroslav only consisted in clearly defining the order in which the younger princes should be promoted after the death of the Grand Duke. The territories, which he assigned to his sons according to their respective age and rank, formed the following scale: Kiev I, Tchernigov II, Perejaslav(1) III, Smolensk IV, Vladimir V. The royal throne was only to be reached by proceeding from V to I. If a junior prince died before the elder, and therefore without having reached Kiev, his sons also remained excluded from the grand ducal title. Thus the son of Vladimir of Novgorod († 1052), Rostilav, was forced to abandon any prospect of reaching Kiev. The princes, who were thus from the first precluded from advancing, since their fathers had not been Grand Dukes, were called Isgoji. But the weakness of the law lay in this very point; for those who were set aside felt the injustice of it, and had recourse to arms. Parties were formed which were bitter foes to each other. The position of the Grand Duke at the same time was not strong enough to ensure order. His power rested on the idea of a paternal authority which was deficient in any true basis of power: he had, in fact, only obtained one share, like the others. If he wished to enforce the right of Seniority, he was compelled to look out for alliances. And since self-interest always outweighs patriotism, Russia was plunged into long years of civil war through the increasing numbers of the royal house. Subsequently many petty principalities, which were unceasingly at war with each other, sprang up side by side in Russia, since the legal arrangement was broken down by unforeseen contingencies. The root of the evil is to be found in that defective legislation and in the large increase of the Rurikoviches (see the genealogical tree on p. 452).

Thus the heroic age ended with Jaroslav († 1054). Russia, parcelled out into numerous provinces, its strength sapped by prolonged civil wars, soon sank from the pinnacle which it had reached in its days of prosperity. Perhaps for this reason tradition has shed a flood of glory round the last prince and despot of the old era.

C. THE FALL OF THE UNITED NATION OF SOUTH RUSSIANS

THE very first successor of Jaroslav, the Grand Duke Isjaslav, whom his father had placed on the throne at Kiev during his lifetime, could not maintain his position. The people of Kiev banished him and raised to the throne a prince who stood outside the prescribed order of succession. A hot dispute soon broke out which was destined to last for centuries. Not a single Russian prince was ashamed to invoke, in case of need, the help of Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Hungarians, or even Polovzes. The first appeal for help was to the Polish duke Boleslav II the Bold, who conquered Kiev in 1069, as Boleslav I had once done, and for the first time sacked the city. Soon, however, the threatened Isjaslav was compelled once more to give way, and his renewed appeals to the Poles for help were futile. Then in 1075 he made overtures to the emperor Henry IV; but the embassy of the latter failed to obtain any results in Kiev. Isjaslav, in order to leave no stone unturned, actually sent his son Jaropolk to Rome to Pope Gregory VII (a course which was followed later by his second son Svatopolk, Grand Duke from 1093 to 1114). If we reflect that the Investiture struggle was then at its height, and that the rift between Rome and the Greek Church was now too wide to be bridged, we must from the Russian standpoint condemn the conduct of Isjaslav in offering for sale in every market the honour of his country. He had not been able to induce Little Poland or Germany to lend him any help without some return, and he now went to Rome and professed himself to be a vassal of the papal chair. The Pope in gratitude nominated his son Jaropolk to be his successor. Had that nomination been accepted, a hereditary monarchy would at one stroke have been created in Russia, certainly to the country's advantage. But Isjaslav never came to the throne.

Hitherto there had not been wanting a supply of able princes and heroes of the old stamp; but they destroyed each other. Every one knew that this meant the ruin of Russia; but no one was willing or able to prevent it. Vladimir Monomach, the son of that Wsewolod to whom, according to the distribution made by Jaroslav, the district of Perejaslav was assigned, was a man of gentle character, religious and just, but at the same time brave and shrewd. He always endeavoured to settle disputes by pacific methods, and pointed out the great ravages caused by the Polovzes. The princes finally concluded a peaceful alliance, when they met in 1097 at Lubetch by Tchernigov on the Dnieper. The source of the evil was seen to lie in the proviso that the princes, since they moved from one country to another, gradually approaching Kiev, never felt at home anywhere, but neglected their principalities. It was therefore decided that every Rurikovich should continue to hold his father's share. All kissed the cross of peace, and promised to defend the country, one and all, against the Polovzes.

But the rule of succession, which had become in Lubetch the law of the land, did not put an end to the civil wars. David of Volhynia, the son of Igor and grandson of Jaroslav, was at enmity with Volodar of Terebowla and Vassilko of Przemyšl, the sons of Rostislav. The princes had hardly separated, when the Grand Duke Sviatopolk, in consequence of the hints of David, enticed Vassilko to Kiev, and then surrendered him to the latter, who put out his eyes. The princes once more assembled in 1100 at Uwjatyči (Witičewo) on the Dnieper and concluded a new peace; the

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chief agent this time, also, was Vladimir Monomach. He was Grand Duke from 1113 to 1125, and conducted the government with vigour and justice. A letter which he wrote to Oleg of Tchernigov is still extant, as also his will, some of the chief sentences of which deserve to be quoted. "Since my end is near, I thank the All Highest that he has prolonged my days. . . . Praise the Lord, dear children, and love also your fellow men. Neither fasting, nor solitude, nor monasticism will save you, but good deeds alone. . . . Do not always have the name of God on your lips; but if you have strengthened an oath by kissing the cross, beware of breaking it. . . . Look diligently yourselves after everything in your households, and do not trust to retainers and servants, or the guests will speak evil of your house. Be strenuous in war, setting a model to your Voivods. . . . When you travel through your country, suffer not your vassals to molest the people, but where you halt, give your meat and drink to your hosts. Above all honour your guests, noble and lowly, merchants and ambassadors; if ye cannot give them presents, make them content at least with food and drink. For guests spread good and evil report of us in foreign lands. . . . Love your wives, but be not governed by them.. Keep in mind the good which ye hear, and learn that which ye do not know. My father could speak in five languages. . . . Man ought always to be occupied. When you are journeying on horseback, and have no business to transact, do not give way to idle thoughts, but repeat some prayer which you have learnt; if no other occurs to you, then the shortest and best, 'Lord have mercy upon me.' Never go to sleep without having bowed your head to the earth; but if you feel ill, bow yourselves thrice to the earth. Let the sun never find you in bed! Go early into the church to offer your matins to God; my father did so, and so did all good men. . . . After doing that they sat in council with the Družina, or administered justice or rode to the chase. But at noon they lay down to sleep; for God hath fixed noontide as a time of rest not only for men, but also for four-footed creatures and for birds. Thus, too, hath your father lived. I have always done personally that which I might have employed my servants to do. . . . I myself exercised supervision over the church and divine worship, over the household, the stables, the chase, the hawks, and the falcons. I have fought in eighty-three campaigns altogether, not reckoning the unimportant ones. I concluded nineteen treaties of peace with the Polovzes. I took prisoners more than a hundred of their noblest princes and afterwards released them; more than two hundred I executed and drowned in the rivers. Who has travelled quicker than I? If I started in the morning from Tchernigov, I was in Kiev before vespers. . . . I loved the chase, and your uncle or I have often captured wild beasts together. How often have I been brought to the ground . . . but the Lord hath preserved me. Therefore, dear children, fear neither death nor battle nor wild beasts. Be men, whatever be the destiny that God intends for you! If divine providence has destined death for us, neither father nor mother nor brother can save us. Let the hope of man be in the protection of God alone." When Vladimir Monomach died in 1125 "all the people wept," said his contemporary Nestor (p. 435).

The number of the princes fighting for the possession of Kiev grew more and more, and the position of Russia became more and more desperate. South Russia in particular could never regain tranquillity and defend itself against the wild dwellers in the Steppe. It was a fortunate circumstance indeed that inveterate feuds prevailed among these latter. The western tribes, the Torkes, Berendejans, and Pecheneges, which were called collectively Chornyje Klobuki (Black Caps),

were mortal enemies of the Polovzes, and therefore sided with Russia and were settled in the country. They were soon assimilated with the Russian people, and thus brought a peculiar strain into the national characteristics of South Russia. These various nations of the Steppe fought as allies of one Russian prince against others, until they all became Slavs. But as late as the sixteenth century a tribe in the district of Skvirsh near Kiev called itself "Polovces."

The end of all this was the political and economic collapse of South Russia. A consequence of the same causes was that the princes, who were excluded from the contest for Kiev, shook themselves free from the supremacy of the Grand Duke there, and that totally independent principalities were formed. This was the case with Polock, Novgorod, Rostov, Turov, Pskov, Wjatka, and in the west. with Halicz.

4. RUSSIA FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE ELEVENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

A. THE AGE OF THE PETTY PRINCES TO THE YEAR 1240

(a) Halicz. A powerful principality developed in the southwest of Russia, in the Dniester district. Vladimir, who had been intrusted by Jaroslav the Wise with the conduct of the campaign against Byzantium in 1043, and as prince of Novgorod had predeceased his father in 1052, had left a son, Rostislav. The latter, as Isgoj had no claim to the throne of the Grand Duke, had to be content with Rostov. When, then, one of his uncles, Vjatcheslav of Smolensk, died and the youngest uncle, Igor, advanced from Volhynia to Smolensk, Rostislav obtained Volhynia, while Rostov was defeated at Perejaslav. But when Igor also died at Smolensk in 1060, and Rostislav indulged in hopes of advancing to Smolensk (and later eventually to Kiev), the uncles did not wish to make this fresh concession to him. The adventurous prince, therefore, went in 1064 with his Družina in an oblique line from the extreme west of Russia to the farthest eastern boundary, to Tmutorokan, and drove out the prince Gleb, the son of his uncle Sviatoslav of Tchernigov. As the nearest neighbour of the Byzantines he aroused their alarm; a Katapan who was sent to him won his confidence and poisoned him in 1066.

Rurik, Volodar, and Vassilko, the sons of Rostislav, inherited a part of the Volhynian principality, Przemyšl and Terebowla; these "Chervenian towns," which had been conquered by Vladimir the Great in 981, and taken from him by Boleslav of Poland in 1018 (p. 456), had been won back by Jaroslav in 1031, at the time of the Polish disturbances. The Diet of Princes at Lubetch recognised their right to the towns. The efforts of the Igorid, David of Volhynia, to wrest this province from the Rostislaviches (the blinding of Vassilko; p. 469) were unsuccessful. New bishoprics were formed here in the twelfth century, as, for example, in Przemyšl (1120) and Halicz (c. 1157). Vladimirko, the son of Volodar, after the death of his father, his uncles, and his brother Rostislav of Przemysl, united the whole country under his sceptre and made Halicz on the Dniester his capital. When he died in 1153 he left to his only son Jaroslav Osmomysl, who reigned until 1187, a principality stretching from the river San almost to the mouth of the Dniester. The Chronicle extols the wisdom and learning of this.