Principality of Pereiaslavl'
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The Principality of Pereiaslavl' was a Rus' lordship based on the city of Pereiaslavl' (now Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi) on the Trubezh river[1] and straddling extensive territory to the east in what are now parts of the Ukraine, on the southern frontier of Rus'ian civilization with the steppe.
The Primary Chronicle dates the foundation of the city of Pereiaslavl' to 992; the archaeological evidence suggests it was founded not long after this date.[2] In its early days it was the third city in seniority in Kievan Rus' behind the Principality of Chernigov and that of Kiev. The city was located at a ford where Vladimir the Great fought a battle against the nomad Pechenegs.[3]
The principality can be traced as a semi-independent dominion from the inheritance of the sons of Iaroslav the Wise, Sviatoslav receiving Chernigov, Vsevolod getting Pereiaslavl, Smolensk going to Viacheslav and Vladimir-in-Volhynia going to Igor; this ladder of succession is related to the seniority order mentioned above.[4] Vsevolod's appanage included the northern lands of Rostov and the lighly colonised north-eastern zone of Rus'.[5]
The Primary Chronicle had recorded that in 988 Vladimir had assigned the northern lands (later associated with Pereiaslavl') to Iaroslav.[6] The town was destroyed by the Mongols in March 1239, the first of the great Rus' cities to all.[7]
[edit] See also
- Prince of Pereiaslavl', for list of rulers
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- 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)
