Ryurik II Rostislavich of Kiev (c1137-1212)

Ryurik Rostislavich (baptiszed Vasili, c1137-1212) - the third son of Rostislav Mstislavich], Prince of Novgorod (1170-1171), Prince of Ovruch ( 1173 - 1194 ), Grand Prince of Kiev (1173, 1181, 1194-1201, 1203-1204, 1205-1206, 1207-1210 ), Prince of Chernigov (1210-1212).

Biography
After the death of his father in 1167 Ryurik remained to reign in the Principality of Ovruch, demanding possession from the new Grand Prince of Kiev prince and his cousin Mstislav Izyaslavich. The conflict for Kiev volosts was used by Andrei of Bogolyubovo to capture Kiev for his brother Gleb (1169). Soon after the campaign of the troops of Andrei of Bogolyubovo and his allies to Novgorod in 1170 the Novgorodians expelled Roman Mstislavich of Volhynia and was invited to Ryurik's reign. In 1171, his brother Roman, taking Kiev, gave him the Pricipality of Belgorod-Kievsky.

In subsequent years, Ryurik together with other younger Rostislavich sharply opposed the attempt of Andrei of Bogolyubovo to dispose of the Kiev volosts. When Roman in 1173 did not undertake to investigate the poisoning of Gleb Yurevich and punish the perpetrators and obeyed the order of Andrei of Bogolyubovo to leave Kiev. Mikhail Yuryevich sent his brother Vsevolod and nephew Yaropolk Rostislavich to Kiev, Davyd Rostislavich took them prisoner, and in Kiev Rurik woken up. Soon Andrei of Bogolyubovo moved his younger troops to younger Rostislavich, Ryurik left Kiev and retreated to Belgorod-Kievsky. Yaroslav Izyaslavich Volynsky came to the Kiev prince with the support of the troops of Halych, Andrei of Bogolyubovo's allies fled.

After the murder of Andrei of Bogolyubovo by his boyars in 1174. Roman Rostislavich returned to Kiev. In 1177 the troops under the leadership of Ryurik and Davyd were defeated by the Polovtsians in the Battle of Rostovets, after which Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich Chernigovsky demanded that Roman deprive Davyd of his volost as the culprit of the defeat. Roman refused and was expelled by Svyatoslav.

The struggle against Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (1180-1181)
See also: Northern expedition of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich

The campaigns of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (1168-1185) Black Forest (1168) • Yuryev (1176) • Koloksha (1177) Northern Expedition (1181) • Volga Bulgaria (1183) • Horol (1184) Orel (1184)

When Vsevolod the Big Nest intervened in Ryazan affairs, preventing the concentration of power there in the hands of Roman, Svyatoslav's son-in-law (1180), Chernigov-Vladimir relations, allied with the struggle for the legacy of Andrei Bogolyubsky, deteriorated sharply, Svyatoslav spoke against Vsevolod, while sending allied troops to Smolensk.

In 1180, Ryurik took Kiev for a short time, entered into an alliance with the Princes in Volhynia and Yaroslav Osmomysl Galitsky, sent his brother Davyd to help Roman, who then reigned in Smolensk. At this time, Roman died, and Davyd headed the defense of the Chernigov and Polotsk troops. Svyatoslav's attempt to establish control over the Kiev land did not succeed: Igor Svyatoslavich and the Polovtsi Konchak were defeated by Rurik. As a result, he gave precedence to Svyatoslav, he himself took "the whole of the Russian land," that is, the rest of the cities of the Kiev volost.

Duumvirate with Svyatoslav
Subsequently, Ryurik acted together with Svyatoslav against the Polovtsians (the Battle of the Oryol River, the battle on the river Khorole) and as a whole closely interacted with him. Svyatoslav and Ryurik's "duumvirate" (1180-1194) in historiography is considered to be the most characteristic type of relations between the leaders of two princely groupings claiming Kyivschina in the second half of the 12th century. However, the Ipatiev Chronicle, which highlights the events in this way, had a significant impact on the so-called. Vydubitskaya chronicle (from the monastery of the same name ), close to Smolensk Rostislavich. [8]

In 1181 (presumably) Ryurik married his daughter Predslava to the Prince of Halych Roman Mstislavich. In 1188, Roman conquered Halych, but soon fled from there at the news of the approach of the Hungarian army and asked for help from Ryurik. Ryurik sent Roman a small army, which did not achieve anything in HalychGalicia. Svyatoslav's proposal to obtain Kiev's assistance in the fight for the throne of Halych in exchange for Ovruch and other towns was rejected by Ryurik. However, after this failure, Ryurik gave Roman diplomatic support in the return of Vladimir Volynsky, which Roman's younger brother Vsevolod Mstislavich did not want to leave.

War with the Olgovichi (1196)
See also: The internecine war in Russia (1196) In 1194, after Svyatoslav's death, Ryurik revived in Kiev. The conflict with the Olgovichi began to ripen. The following year, Ryurik gave to his son-in-law Roman a fairly large volost in the Kiev region in Porosye, which included five cities: Torchesk, Trepol, Korsun, Boguslav and Kanev. Vsevolod Yuryevich, for whose recognition the eldest in the genus of Monomachovichs went Ryurik, he asked Roman's volost for himself, giving Torchesk to his son Rurik Rostislav. So Vsevolod Yuryevich destroyed the union of the southern Monomakhs, so as not to lose influence on southern affairs. In response, Roman divorced his wife, Predslava Ryurikovna, and then entered into a secret alliance with the Prince of Chernigov Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who claimed to Kiev. In the winter of 1196, the Olgovichi, in alliance with Polotsk, conducted a campaign to the Principality of Smolensk In the autumn of 1196 Roman ordered his people to destroy the lands of Ryurik, who, in turn, soon organized the attack of the troops of Vladimir Galitsky and Mstislav Romanovich on Pereomil, Rostislav Rurikovich - on Kamenets. At the same time, Rurik, Davyd and Vsevolod attacked the Chernigov princedom and, although they could not overcome Chernigov's defense and spotted in the north-east of the principality, forced Yaroslav Vsevolodovich to give up claims to Kiev and Smolensk.

The fight against Roman Mstislavich
The balance of power changed drastically after the death of Vladimir Galitsky and the capture of Roman Galich (1199). In 1201, Rurik entered into an alliance with the Olgovichi and began to prepare a campaign for Galich. However, Roman outstripped Ryurik, unexpectedly appearing in the Kyiv region at the head of the Volhynian and Galician regiments. Black hoods crossed over to his side, and the Kievers themselves opened the gates to him at Kopyrev's end. Rurik was forced to abandon Kiev, the Olgovichi returned to the Dnieper, and Roman gave Kiev to his cousin Ingvar Yaroslavich Lutskiy. Close to Vsevolod the Big Nest, whose seniority was recognized by Ryurik, the Laurentian Chronicle reports that Ingvar was imprisonedVsevolod and Roman. The same chronicle reported that in 1194 Ryurik was sent to Vsevolod by the prince of Kiev.

Ryurik did not accept defeat. On January 2, 1203, his troops, in alliance with the Olgovichi and the Polovtsians, took Kiev, and the allies subjected the city to the most severe plunder: they even robbed the city's largest temples, the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Tithe Church, as well as all the monasteries; monks and nuns, priests and their wives, the old and the crippled killed, but the young and healthy were taken prisoner, as well as the rest of Kiev; spared only foreign merchants locked in stone churches - they were granted freedom in exchange for half the value of their goods. Rurik voknyazhilsya in Kiev, only oaths otorekshis from Olgovichi and Polovtsians, as well as "kissing the cross" Vsevolod and his children, that is, giving up seniority in the clan and after Vsevolod's death.

In 1203, Rurik took part in the great campaign of the South Russian princes to the Polovtsi, organized by Roman Halytsky. On the way back, Roman and Rurik with their sons stopped at Trepol and began negotiations on the distribution of the volosts, but they did not come to an agreement. The case ended in the fact that Roman arrested Rurik and his sons. Rurik, he sent to Kiev and there he ordered to cut monks with his wife Anna and daughter Predslava (Roman's ex-wife). The two sons Rurik Rostislavich Roman took as prisoners in Galich, but after negotiations with the Grand Duke Vsevolod the Big Nest released them; the elder, Rostislav Rurikovich, married the daughter of Vsevolod the Big Nest, became the prince of Kiev.

June 19, 1205 Roman Galitsky was killed during a campaign in Lesser Poland. Rurik, learning about the death of Roman, immediately threw off his monastic robe and declared himself the prince of Kiev instead of his son; he wanted to cut his wife, too, but she did not agree and was cut into a schema. The Ol'govichi held a congress in Chernigov, attended by Mstislav Smolensky and the Polovtsi, set out on a campaign against Galich, merging in the Kiev land with Rurik, and taking away the inheritance from the sons of the Romanovs. On the river Seret, the Allies met the Galician and Volyn army, fought with him all day and forced to retreat to Galich. However, they could do nothing to the city itself and therefore returned home without success.

Fighting Vsevolod Chermny
In the following 1206, at the invitation of the Hungarian king, the son of Vsevolod Yuryevich Yaroslavnof Pereyaslavl tried to occupy Galich, but he was ahead of the representative of the Chernihiv Olgovichi Vladimir Igorevich. There was a rupture of the union of the Olgovichi and Rostislavich that existed during Roman's reign: Vsevolod Chermny, the elder in the Olegovich family, and soon drove Yaroslav from Pereyaslavl, putting his son Mikhail in his place. Rurik went to Ovruch, his son Rostislav - in Vyshgorod, and nephew Mstislav Romanovich - in Belgorod-Kievsky. But in the same year, Ryurik, connecting with his sons and nephews, drove the Olgovichi from Kiev and Pereyaslavl, he sat down in Kiev, and installed his son Vladimir in Pereyaslavl. Vsevolod the Red appeared in the winter with brothers andt the Polovtsians to mine Kiev, stood under him for three weeks, but could not take and left back with nothing.

In 1207, Vsevolod Chermny, joining with Svyatopolchy Turov and Vladimir Igorevich Galitsky, proceeded to Kiev. Rurik fled to Ovruch; Trepol, Belgorod, and Torchesk were also taken from the Monomachichi. Vsevolod Chermny sat down again in Kiev, having done a lot of evil to the Russian land through his allies Polovtsians, as the chronicler says. In the same year, Rurik suddenly appeared to Kiev and drove out of him Cherny (during the campaign of Vsevolod Yuryevich to Ryazan on the dating of the Laurentian Chronicle, 1207).

Only in 1210, after the aggravation of relations between Vsevolod Yuryevich and Smolensk Rostislavichi because of Novgorod, Vsevolod Chermny managed to return Kiev, sending ambassadors to Vsevolod Yuryevich with a prayer , according to the version of the Laurentian Chronicle. Kiev went to Chermnoi, and Chernigov to Ryurik, where he died two years later.

Family and children
Marriages :

from 1163 - the daughter of Polovtsian Khan Beluk ; daughter of Prince Yuri Yaroslavich Turovsky Anna (+ 1214 )

Children :
 * Anastasiya Ryurikova - since 1182, married to Gleb, the son of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich of Kiev
 * Predslava Ryurikovna Mstislavich Volynsky
 * Rostislav Ryurikovich
 * Yaroslava Ryurikovna - since 1187 is married to Svyatoslav Igorevich, the son of Igor Svyatoslavich.
 * Vseslava Ryurikovna (c1180-c1220) - from 1199 married to Yaroslav Glebovich, appanage prince of Ryazan.
 * Vladimir Ryurikovich - the Grand Duke of Kiev (1223-1235, 1235-1236)