Grand Prince of Vladimir
Yuri II
(
Russian
:
Ю́рий?II
, also transcribed as
Iuri
[1]
), also known as
George II of Vladimir
or as
Georgy II Vsevolodovich
(26 November 1188 – 4 March 1238), was the fourth
Grand Prince
of
Vladimir
(1212?1216, 1218?1238) who presided over the Principality of
Vladimir-Suzdal
at the time of the
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'
.
[
citation needed
]
He was the seventh child and the third and best-loved son of
Vsevolod III
(Vsevolod the Big Nest) and of
Maria Shvarnovna
.
[
citation needed
]
He first distinguished himself in the battles against
Ryazan
in 1208. His father wanted Yuri to inherit
Rostov
and his elder brother
Konstantin
to succeed him in Vladimir. The latter, however, declared that he would rule both towns or nothing at all.
[
citation needed
]
Thereupon Vsevolod disinherited Konstantin
[
citation needed
]
and passed the throne to Yuri, who received the largest portion of his possessions.
[1]
Before his death, grand prince Vsevolod divided his territories between his sons; as soon as he died in 1212, the
Vladimir-Suzdal war of succession
(1212?1216) broke out between them.
[1]
Konstantin allied himself with
Mstislav the Bold
and defeated Yuri and his other brothers on the
Lipitsa River
.
[
citation needed
]
Having gained Vladimir, Konstantin sent Yuri to rule Rostov and
Yaroslavl
. Two years later Konstantin died, and Yuri was allowed to return to Vladimir.
[
citation needed
]
During his reign in Vladimir, Yuri waged several wars against
Volga Bulgaria
and founded the fortress of
Nizhny Novgorod
on the
Volga River
to secure the area from Bulgarian attacks. He installed his younger brother
Yaroslav
in
Novgorod
. When the
Mongols
first approached Russia in 1223, he sent a small unit against them, but it arrived too late to take part in the disastrous
Battle of the Kalka River
in May 1223.
[
citation needed
]
When the Mongols returned in 1237, Yuri treated their envoys with disdain. Likewise, he did not help Ryazan when
Batu Khan
laid siege to that city in December 1237. His own capital, however, was the next in line. Yuri's sons were soundly defeated near
Kolomna
, and Yuri himself could barely escape to Yaroslavl. His wife Agatha (
Mikhail of Kiev
's sister) and all his family died in Vladimir when the
Assumption Cathedral
where they had sought refuge from the fire collapsed in February 1238.
[
citation needed
]
Russian historians (
Vadim Kargalov
[
ru
]
,
Gelian Prokhorov
[
ru
]
) believe that this information was deliberately falsified. The purpose was to hide the fact that some members of the princely family were captured. The most likely was the capture of Agatha, her daughter Princess Theodora, or the young Princess Marina, the wife of Yuri's son
Vsevolod Yur'evich
[
ru
]
. (Princess Marina was not canonized in the Cathedral of the Vladimir Saints together with the rest of the
Vladimir Martyrs
[
ru
]
who died in the Assumption Cathedral).
[2]
Yuri himself was killed on 4 March 1238, in the
Battle of the Sit River
, when vast Mongol hordes defeated the army of Vladimir-Suzdal. The
relics
of the prince are in the
Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir
.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Alef, Gustave (1956).
A history of the Muscovite civil war: the reign of Vasili II (1425?1462)
(PhD). p. 11
. Retrieved
7 May
2023
– via ProQuest.
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
.
- ^
Прохоров Г. М. Повесть о Батыевом нашествии в Лаврентьевской летописи // Труды отдела древнерусской литературы. ? Л., 1974. ? Т. 28. ? С. 77?98.
Further reading
[
edit
]