12th-century prince of Kievan Rus'
Vsevolod's Christian name was Dmitry and so he dedicated his palace church to
Saint Demetrius
, his patron saint.
Vsevolod III Yuryevich
, or
Vsevolod the Big Nest
(Russian:
Все?волод III Ю?рьевич Большо?е Гнездо?
,
romanized
:
Vsevolod III Yur'yevich Bol'shoye Gnezdo
; 1154?1212), was
Grand Prince
of
Vladimir
from 1176 to 1212. During his long reign, the city reached the zenith of its glory.
[
citation needed
]
Family
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]
Vsevolod was the tenth or eleventh son of
Yuri Dolgoruky
(c. 1099 ? 1157), who founded the town
Dmitrov
to commemorate the site of Vsevolod's birth.
Nikolai Karamzin
(1766 ? 1826) initiated the speculation identifying Vsevolod's mother Helene as a
Greek
princess, because after her husband's death she took Vsevolod with her to
Constantinople
.
[
citation needed
]
Vsevolod spent his youth at the chivalric court of the
Komnenoi
. On his return from the
Byzantine Empire
to Rus' in 1170, Vsevolod supposedly visited
Tbilisi
, as a local chronicle records that that year the
Georgian
king entertained his nephew from Constantinople and married him to his relative, an
Ossetian
princess.
[
citation needed
]
Reign
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]
In 1173 two
Smolensk
princes captured Kiev (
Kyiv
), captured Vsevolod and briefly installed him on the throne. Ransomed a year later, Vsevolod took his brother
Mikhalko
's side in his struggle against the powerful
boyars
of
Rostov
and
Suzdal
. Upon Mikhalko's death in 1176, Vsevolod succeeded him in
Vladimir
. He promptly subjugated the boyars and systematically raided the Volga peoples, notably
Volga Bulgaria
. He installed puppet rulers on the throne of
Novgorod
and married his daughters to princes of
Chernigov
and
Kiev
.
[
citation needed
]
Vsevolod's icon shows his patron saint, St Demetrius, drawing a sword from a scabbard
Vsevolod showed little mercy to those who disobeyed his commands. In 1180 and 1187 he punished the princes of
Ryazan
by ousting them from their lands. In 1207 he burned to the ground both Ryazan and
Belgorod
. His military fame spread quickly.
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
, thought to be written during Vsevolod's reign, addresses him thus:
"Great prince Vsevolod! Don't you think of flying here from afar to safeguard the paternal golden throne of Kiev? For you can with your oars scatter in drops the Volga, and with your helmets scoop dry the Don."
[
citation needed
]
But Kievan matters concerned Vsevolod little in the latter part of his reign. He concentrated on building up his own capital,
Vladimir
. His
Ossetian
wife,
Maria Shvarnovna
, who devoted herself to works of piety and founded several convents, was glorified by the
Russian church
as a saint. By her Vsevolod had no fewer than fourteen children, thus earning for himself the
sobriquet
Big Nest
.
[
citation needed
]
Death and succession
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]
Before his death, grand prince Vsevolod divided his territories between his sons, with the second-oldest Yuri receiving the largest share.
[1]
Four of them,
Konstantin
,
George
,
Yaroslav
and
Sviatoslav
, succeeded him as Grand Dukes of Vladimir.
[
citation needed
]
Vsevolod died on 12 April 1212 and was buried at the
Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir
.
[
citation needed
]
Immediately after Vsevolod's death, the
Vladimir-Suzdal war of succession
(1212?1216) broke out between his sons, who each sought a larger share of his inheritance for themselves.
[1]
Marriage and children
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edit
]
Vsevolod married first
Maria
, whose origins are disputed. She has been variously identified as
Ossetian
,
Alan
and
Moravian
. They had at least fourteen children:
[
citation needed
]
Maria died in 1205 or 1206. Vsevolod married Liubov Vasilkovna in 1209. She was a daughter of Vasilko Bryacheslavich, Prince of
Vitebsk
. They had no known children.
[
citation needed
]
References
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]
External links
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