Vsevolod Yuryevich of Novgorod (c1212-1238)

Vsevolod Yuryevich (in the baptism of Demetrius ) (c1212-7 February, 1238) - Prince of Novgorod, son of the Grand Duke Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich. Mother - the daughter of Vsevolod the Red Agafya. Holy, martyr of the Russian Orthodox Church ; memory: February 4 and June 23 (in the Cathedral of the Vladimir Saints ) on the Julian calendar.

Biography
Vsevolod received the princely and baptismal names in honor of his grandfather - the Grand Duke Vladimir of Vsevolod Yuryevich. Since the time of Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest, who built in Vladimir a princely house temple in honor of the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, this saint became especially venerated in Northeast Russia , his name became preferable in the princely environment for the dedication of boys.

In 1222 the Novgorodians asked for a prince from Yuri, and the latter let Vsevolod, almost an infant, with boyar leaders, and sent his brother Sviatoslav to Novgorod to fight the Crusaders in the same year. The 12,000-strong Russian army, in alliance with the Lithuanians, besieged the Livonian castle of Kes. But the boyars, who were with the young Vsevolod, did not get along with the Novgorodians, and in 1222 Vsevolod left Novgorod. On a new request of the Novgorodians to Prince Yuri responded by sending them his brother Yaroslav, after a campaign to Revel left Novgorod.

Yuri in 1224 again sent to Novgorod son Vsevolod, who in 1224 again left the latter in Torzhok. In Torzhok, Yuri himself came with his brothers Yaroslav, Svyatoslav, brother-in-law Mikhail Chernigov and Prince of Rostov Vasilko, and demanded that he give him seven prominent Novgorod boyars, in case of disagreement threatening to attack Novgorod. But the Novgorodians prepared for defense, and Yuri was satisfied with the repayment of 7,000 hryvnia and the appointment of Prince Mikhail to Novgorod, and Vsevolod left with his father for Vladimir.

On August 15, 1224, the crusaders besieged the Russian garrison (200 men), led by Prince Vyachko in St. George's. According to Heinrich of Latvia, Vyachko expected help from the Russian principalities, and such help was indeed sent, but the army managed to reach only Pskov. Yuryev fell, Vyachko perished (the Novgorod chronicle puts this news between Vsevolod's arrival in Novgorod and his departure to Torzhok), and the " vassal of the Grand Duke of Suzdal", captured by the crusaders , was released to Russia with the news of the fall of the city.

Vsevolod went to the Mordovians in 1232, and in 1237, with the prince of Ryazan Roman Ingvarich, the Vladimir voivode Yerem Glebovich and " all the people" was sent to Kolomna to meet the Tatars, in the battle with whom he lost the voevoda, and he himself fled to the "militia" Vladimir. Here, for the meeting of the Tatars, he was left a father along with another son of Yuri, Mstislav. When the Tatars besieged the city, they offered the Russians to surrender in exchange for preserving the life of the first prince of Moscow, Vladimir Yurievich, captured by them, on the eve of Vsevolod and Mstislav's brother. When the brothers defending the city refused, the Tatars betrayed Vladimir before the Golden Gate.

The martyr's death of his brother inspired Vsevolod and Mstislav to persuade voivode Peter and the squadron to make a sortie and give an open battle to the Tatars outside the walls of Vladimir. This desperate decision was accompanied by these words:

brothers are radiant, to be enamored before the Golden Gate for the holy Mother of God and for the righteous Faith of the [Rist] Yan [1]. Petr Oslyadyukovich flatly refused. On February 7, 1238, the Mongols captured the fortifications of the New Town. The princes and their families, Bishop Mitrofan, moved to the Pecherny town, where the prince, together with princesses, princesses and children, shut himself up in the Assumption Cathedral. The army of Batu began to overcome and the brothers decided to meet him with gifts. However, according to the chronicler, Batu neglected Vsevolod's youth:

Thou svѣrpıi zvѣr not spare ounosti it velѣ pred themselves and zarѣzati Grad vѣs izbe, episkopou same prepodobnomou in tsѣrkv oubѣgshou with princess and dѣtmi and povѣlѣ nechѣstivyi fire zazheschi [2]. On the eve of the death Vsevolod took monastic image from Vladyka Mitrofan. On the capture of the Tatars by Vladimir, he was found outside the city limits and was buried with his brother Mstislav in the St. George chapel of the Assumption Cathedral.

Family and children
His wife - from 1230 Marina, the daughter of Vladimir Ryurikovich of Kiev. It is known that Vsevolod had a daughter, Evdokia, and a son of Avraham [3]. The latter, perhaps, received his baptismal name in memory of the martyr Abraham of Bulgaria. Ten years before the invasion of the nomadic Mongols, the merchant Abrahami was murdered in the Volga Bulgaria for not denying Christ. Yuri Vsevolodovich ordered to transfer his relics from Bulgar to Vladimir. Vsevolod participated in the festivities in 1230 to glorify the martyr and the position of his relics in the Princess's Cathedral in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary convent [4]. Vsevolod's children, apparently, as well as his wife, died in a smoky dump together with all those who were locked up in the Assumption Cathedral during the capture of Vladimir by Tatars - See Vladimir Martyrs.

Notes

См. также

 * The campaigns of Russian princes against the Order of the Swordmen
 * Battle of Kolomna (1238)
 * Defense of Vladimir (1238)

Bibliograpy

 * НОВГОРОДСКАЯ ПЕРВАЯ ЛЕТОПИСЬ СТАРШЕГО ИЗВОДА
 * Генрих Латвийский. Хроника Ливонии
 * Генрих Латвийский. Хроника Ливонии