The Mongols in Russia Author:Jeremiah Curtin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: sons, Volodar and Vassilko, are well-known to us. Both died in 1124, the first leaving two sons, Vladimirko and Rostislav; the second left two also, Grigori and ... more »Ivan. Of these four men, Vladimirko alone was remarkable. This prince not only kept his own among others, but was able to leave a strong principality to his son, whose friendship or enmity became highly important. Being weaker at first than most of his neighbors Vladimirko worked for success without reference to truthfulness or methods. In 1127 he called in the Hungarians and rose against Rostislav, his elder brother. His cousins came to the aid of Rostislav, as did also Mystislav, the Kief prince, and saved him. Rostislav died some years later; his two cousins died also. Thereupon Vladimirko took all Galitch, disregarding his nephew, Ivan, then ruling in Zvenigorod. The wars which followed the death of Mystislav the Great left a free hand to Vladimirko. In Vsevolod's struggle with Monomach's descendants, Vladimirko helped him, but matters changed altogether when the son of the Kief prince was transferred to Volynia. Vsevolod might permit Vladimirko to snatch land from a descendant of Monomach, but not from Sviatoslav, his son. Both men were perfectly selfish, neither had scruples of any kind, and in 1144 Vsevolod quarreled with Vladimirko because of Volynia, and marched against Galitch with a large army. Nine Russian princes went with him, and the Polish prince Vladislav. Vladimirko had called in his friends, the Hungarians, but his troops, outnumbered and cut off, would have been forced to surrender had he not saved himself cunningly through Igor, the Kief prince's brother, to whom he sent this wily message: "Reconcile me with thy brother, and I will make thee prince in Kief, after Vsevolod." Igor, influenced by th...« less