Khorobrit and Dux Susdaliensis: The struggle for power in Vladimir-Suzdal in the late 1240s

Abstract

The article examines the struggle for power in Northeastern Rus’ in the late 1240s, a topic that has received little attention in the historiography. The prevailing view holds that after the death of Grand Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodich of Vladimir in the Mongolian steppes in 1246, his brother Sviatoslav became grand prince by testament, only to be deposed in 1248 by another brother, Mikhail Khorobrit, who soon fell in battle against the Lithuanians. Subsequently, Yaroslav’s sons Andrei and Alexander returned from Mongolia: the former assumed the grand princely throne of Vladimir, while the latter received the honorable, though largely nominal, rule over devastated Kiev. However, a close analysis of all available chronicle evidence leads to different conclusions that substantially revise this narrative. The story of Sviatoslav’s deposition by Mikhail appears only in later chronicles, likely not before the fifteenth century. Earlier sources, including a text dated to the late thirteenth century, indicate that Sviatoslav was expelled by Andrei Yaroslavich, who, as the de facto ruler of Northeastern Rus’, was subsequently confirmed by the Mongol authorities as grand prince of Vladimir. Foreign sources, in turn, attest that Alexander Yaroslavich also laid claim to the Vladimir throne at that time. Finally, the sobriquet Khorobrit attributed to Mikhail Yaroslavich proves illusory: first, it should apparently be read as khorobrii ‘brave, bold’; second, it applied not to Mikhail but to Andrei Yaroslavich.