13th-century battle in the Kievan Rus'
The
Battle of Lipitsa
(
Russian
:
Ли?пицкая би?тва
) was the decisive battle in the
Vladimir-Suzdal
war of succession
(1212?1216), the struggle over the grand princely throne following the death of
Vsevolod the Big Nest
.
[a]
In the battle, fought on 22 April 1216, the forces of
Mstislav the Bold
and
Konstantin Vsevolodovich
defeated those of Konstantin's younger brothers
Yuri Vsevolodovich
and
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich
. Konstantin took the throne of Vladimir and reigned as grand prince until his death two years later.
The large-scale battle typifies the fratricidal strife that sapped the strength of the successor states to
Kievan Rus'
before the
Mongol invasion
. A detailed account of the battle first appeared in the older redaction of the
Novgorodian First Chronicle
, and later in the
Novgorodian Fourth Chronicle
, the
Sofia First Chronicle
, and elsewhere.
[4]
Background
[
edit
]
The war of succession broke out when
Vsevolod the Big Nest
died (15 April 1212), and his sons ? the Vsevolodovichi ? quarrelled over the inheritance.
Although
Yuri
had been the son-in-law of the Olgovichi Kievan grand prince
Vsevolod Chermnyi
, the latter was dethroned by the
Rostislavichi of Smolensk
and also died in August 1212.
This made all Vsevolodovichi
izgoi
, ineligible to become
grand prince of Kiev
.
Thus, they had no legitimacy and motive anymore to interfere in the Kievan succession, and fully concentrated their efforts on fighting each other over supremacy in the north.
Apart from the Suzdalian patrimonium, they sought to regain their lost control over the
Novgorod Republic
, where the Rostislavichi prince
Mstislav Mstislavich
reigned from 1210 to 1215.
Yaroslav
briefly occupied in Novgorod in 1215, but Mstislav allied himself with
Konstantin
against Yuri and Yaroslav.
The
Novgorodian First Chronicle
relates that
Mstislav the Bold
launched his campaign against his son-in-law,
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich
on 1 March 1216, leading a
Novgorodian army
into his own districts around
Lake Seliger
at the head of the
Volga
, where they were told "Go out foraging but take no heads."
Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich
, the fourth son of
Vsevolod the Big Nest
, invested Rzhevka with 10,000 men, but Mstislav and
Vladimir of Pskov
[
ru
]
broke the siege with, according to the chronicle, a mere 500 men and Sviatoslav fled.
[
citation needed
]
After this encounter, Mstislav joined up with Vladimir of
Smolensk
and advanced toward
Pereiaslavl
. At this same time, detachments of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich's troops attacked a small force led by one of Mstislav's lieutenants (Yarun) near
Torzhok
, between
Tver'
and Novgorod, but Yaroslav's forces were beaten off. The survivors reported to Yaroslav who then attacked towns along the Volga before turning back to muster forces from Novgorod and then joining Yuri and Sviatoslav at Pereislavl. These forces mustered along the river Kzha or Gza (
Russian
:
Гза
).
[
citation needed
]
Mstislav joined Konstantin and "the two Vladimir's" and mustered their forces on the river Lipitsa River and sent a sotnik (a commander of 100) to Yuri saying they had no quarrel with him, but Yuri stood by his brother, Yaroslav. Mstislav also asked that the Novgorodians and men of Novy Torg that were part of Yaroslav's army be released and allowed to return home so that brothers and sons would not fight each other, as much of Mstislav's army was also Novgorodian. Mstislav offered peace as long as Yaroslav would return Mstislav's Novgorodian districts, but Yaroslav would not sue for peace.
[
citation needed
]
Battle
[
edit
]
The
Novgorodian First Chronicle
and other chronicle accounts do not relate the precise
order of battle
(the account was written by a monk who was not familiar with strategy or tactics). The battle begins with the Novgorodians telling Mstislav that they did not want to fight on horseback but on foot, as their fathers had at an earlier battle. This pleased Mstislav (fighting on horseback may have implied a willingness to flee the battle on horse rather than standing to fight). The Novgorodians then threw off their horse breeches riding boots and ran into battle barefoot. With "the help of
Saint Sophia (Holy Wisdom)
," the Novgorodians drove off Yaroslav and Yuri, and the number of those killed was said to have been "countless."
[6]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Yaroslav fled to Pereiaslavl and cast the Novgorodians in his army into a pit or into prison there, where large numbers of them died. Mstislav entered Pereiaslavl and the town and princely residence caught fire (the chronicle does not say if it was intentionally set alight or not). Yuri parleyed with Mstislav and agreed to withdraw from the city the following day. He withdrew to Radoliv while Mstislav and his Novgorodian army placed Konstantin on the throne in Vladimir after which Mstislav returned to Novgorod with the remnant of the Novgorodian army.
[7]
Location of the battlefield
[
edit
]
The location of the battlefield was a matter of some contention until 1808, when a peasant woman from Lykovo near
Yuriev-Polsky
on the river Koloksha (a tributary of the
Klyazma
) discovered an old gilded helmet with an image of St. Theodore, the patron saint of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. The helmet has been preserved in the
Kremlin Armoury
.
[
citation needed
]
As a piece of rare workmanship, the helmet is usually attributed to Yaroslav. Indeed, the chronicler noted that Yaroslav had fled the battlefield without his armour and arrived in Vladimir having nothing on but a shirt. Actor
Nikolai Cherkasov
, when playing the part of Yaroslav's son
Alexander Nevsky
in the
eponymous film
, wore a replica of this helmet.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"When
Vsevold
died in 1212 he divided his territories among his sons, the largest portion going to the second oldest,
Iuri
. Immediately the sons began to war amongst themselves, each striving to achieve a more favorable position and lands which contributed to the decline of the
Suzdal-Vladimir principality
."
References
[
edit
]
- ^
See "Povest o Bitve na Lipitse" in
Biblioteka literatury drevnei Rusi
, available online at
http://lib.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=4951
. The Old East Slavic version of the Novgorodian First Chronicle is also available online at
http://litopys.org.ua/
.
- ^
A. N. Nasonov, ed.,
Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov
(Moscow and Leningrad: AN SSSR, 1950), 55-57, 254-257; for an English account, see Robert Michell and Neville Forbes, eds.,
The Chronicle of Novgorod 1016-1471
(London: The Camden Society, 1914; reprinted New York: American Medieval Society, 1970), 55-57.
Novgorodskaya Letopis' po Spisku P. P. Dubrovskogo
in
Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei
, vol. 43 (Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskoi kul'tury, 2004), 80-81. See also Dmitrii Shkrabo, "Bitva pri Lipitse 1216 g.,"
Voin
9, pp. 12-15.
- ^
Nasonov, ed.,
Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis
(Moscow and Leningrad: AN SSSR, 1950), 57, 257; Michell and Forbes, eds.,
The Chronicle of Novgorod
, 57.
Novgorodskaya Letopis' po Spisku P. P. Dubrovskogo
80-81.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
52°36′21″N
39°35′16″E
/
52.6059493°N 39.5876808°E
/
52.6059493; 39.5876808