| Principality of Murom Муромское княжествоо (Old East Slavic) | |||||
| Personal union with the Principality of Ryazan | |||||
| |||||
| Coordinates : | |||||
| Capital | Murom | ||||
| Languages | Official language: Old East Slavic | ||||
| Religion | Official religion: Orthodox | ||||
| Government | monarchy | ||||
| Legislature | Prince | ||||
| History | |||||
| - | Established | 1127 | |||
| - | Disestablished | 1392 | |||
| Currency | Grivna | ||||
| Today part of |  Russia
| ||||
The Principality of Murom was a medieval Rus' principality based on the city of Murom, now in Vladimir Oblast, Russia. Murom lay in an area that was inhabited mostly by Finno-Ugric peoples for much of its medieval history, located in the homeland of the Muromians. It appears to have been an important Finnic settlement in the ninth-century, with an archaeologically noticeable Scandinavian presence from the tenth-century, as evidenced by Frankish swords, a tortoiseshell brooch and a sword chape.[1]
The Primary Chronicle alleges that Murom came under Rus' control in the eighth-century.[2] Gleb Vladimirovich, son of Vladimir the Great, ruled the principality in the early eleventh-century.[3]Murom was part of the territory of the Principality of Chernigov in the late eleventh-century, controlled by the Svyatoslavichi family, the descendants of Yaroslav the Wise; probably it was retained by Vsevolod Iaroslavich even after this Prince of Chernigov became Grand Prince in 1076.[4]
Oleg Svyatoslavich, grandson of Yaroslav and Prince of Chernigov, ruled Murom through a posadnik in the early 1090s, and it was recognised as Oleg's sphere of influence at the Council of Liubech of 1097.[5] Here Oleg's brother Davyd was made co-ruler of Chernigov, and Oleg's lands were parcelled out between Oleg, Davyd and their brother Iaroslav; the latter obtained Murom with Ryazan.[6]
Murom appears to have been destroyed or at least devastated by the Mongol Invasion of Rus' in 1237-8. Khan Batu came to the frontier of Ryazan in the winter of 1237, and demanded tribute from the princes of Ryazan, Murom and Pronsk. This was rejected, and devastation of these lands followed.[7] After 1239, the princes of Murom disappear for nearly a century.
In 1392 Vasili Dmitr'evich, Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of Vladimir, obtained a patent from Khan Tokhtamysh authorising the annexation of the Murom principality, along with the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod and Gorodets.[8]
Notes[]
- ^ Franklin & Shepard, Emergence, pp. 38-9, 46.
- ^ Franklin & Shepard, Emergence, p. 48.
- ^ Franklin & Shepard, Emergence, p. 185.
- ^ Martin, Medieval Russia, p. 31.
- ^ Franklin & Shepard, Emergence, p. 185.
- ^ Dimnik, Dynasty of Chernigov, p. 12.
- ^ Dimnik, Dynasty of Chernigov, pp. 342-7.
- ^ Martin, Medieval Russia, p. 228.
References[]
- Dimnik, Martin, The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146-1246, (Cambridge, 2003)
- Franklin, Simon, and Shepard, Jonathan, The Emergence of Rus, 750-1200, (Longman History of Russia, Harlow, 1996)
- Martin, Janet, Medieval Russia, 980-1584, (Cambridge, 1995)
| ||||||||