SINGLE RULE ESTABLISHED
Foti, the metropolitan, died in 1431. His successor was Iona, who was
born at Soli-Galitch, a place north of the Volga. The late metropolitan
had favored Iona, and foretold his elevation. On Foti’s death the Grand
Prince wished to make Iona metropolitan. He was appointed, and needed
only ordination by the Patriarch, but civil war in Moscow delayed this.
In view of Moscow disorders, another metropolitan was chosen in Western
Russia and Lithuania. The Smolensk bishop Gerásim was ordained to the
office in Tsargrad. But in 1435 Gerásim met a tragic death, because of
his negotiations with Sigismund of Poland,—Vitold’s successor,
Svidrigello, seized the metropolitan and burned him at the stake. Then
Vassili of Moscow, in agreement with the Lithuanian Grand Prince, sent
Iona to Tsargrad, but before he arrived there the Emperor and Patriarch
had made Isidor, a Greek, metropolitan of Russia.
The Emperor Ioann was well known for his discussions with Rome touching
union of the Churches. Surrounded by the Osmanli on every side, he
sought safety in church union, trusting that the Pope would bring aid
to him from all Europe. Church union had been a question at Basle, to
which council Ioann had sent three envoys, who agreed on conditions for
union. One of these three, the most zealous for union, was Isidor.
Wishing to involve Russia in the union, the Patriarch made Isidor
metropolitan of Kief and all Russia. He came to Moscow with Iona. The
Grand Prince was dissatisfied; still he received the new metropolitan,
not knowing the plans of the Emperor and Patriarch. Isidor was barely
in office when he asked to make a journey to Italy to be present at the
Eighth Oecumenical Council, assembled in Ferrara at that time, 1437, to
unite the two Churches. The Grand Prince was very unwilling to grant
the metropolitan leave of absence, and demanded from him a promise to
preserve Orthodox purity in church belief.
At Ferrara were the Byzantine Emperor, with his brother Dmitri and the
Patriarch Iosif. The Council was opened 1438. Pope Eugene IV presided.
Some months later the plague appeared at Ferrara and the Council was
taken to Florence. Two parties were acting among the Greek members; one
favored union with Rome, hoping thus to get aid against Islam, while
the other would not sacrifice religion to politics for any cause. This
party refused to recognize papal supremacy, procession of the Holy
Ghost from the Son as well as the Father, and some other articles of
faith. The soul of the party was Mark, metropolitan of Ephesus. At the
head of the other, and more numerous party, stood the Emperor and the
Patriarch. Its most eloquent representative was Vissarion, metropolitan
of Nicaea. Isidor, the metropolitan of Russia, was attached to this man
through long friendship; he was bound heart and soul to his project of
union, and did much for its temporary triumph.
In July, 1439, in the Cathedral of Florence, was proclaimed the union
of Churches. One of the cardinals read the Latin text of the bull
containing the decision of the Council, and Vissarion read the Greek
version. Among the names of the twenty metropolitans who signed the
bull is that of Isidor. The Greek minority, headed by Mark of Ephesus,
refused every signature. Eugene IV appointed Isidor papal legate for
Livonia, and Eastern and Western Russia; with this title he left
Florence in October. In Western Russia his first act was to publish the
decision of the Council. On his return to Moscow a Latin crucifix was
borne in front of him. This confused people greatly. In his first mass
he prayed for the Pope before others, and at the end of the service the
bull was read announcing Church union. In this bull those doctrines
were proclaimed which, according to Russian ideas, form the main errors
of Latinism. This reading produced immense scandal among both the
clergy and laity. The Grand Prince denounced Isidor as a wolf, not a
pastor and teacher. He commanded that he should be removed from office
at once, and conveyed to the Chudoff monastery. Then he assembled
bishops to judge the recreant.
This was in 1440. Isidor did not await a decision; he fled from the
monastery, and, going through Tver and Lithuania, halted not till he
reached the Pope’s palace. The Grand Prince did not pursue him, being
satisfied, it seemed, with ending the matter in that way.
In Tsargrad the union of Florence met firm resistance. The Emperor and
Patriarch dared not proclaim it in the Sophia Cathedral. The new
Patriarch, Gregory Mana, a determined advocate of the union, was forced
from his office, and withdrew to Rome. Events showed very soon that the
plans made in Rome were fruitless. The Turk was not driven from Europe.
The Pope roused Yagello’s son, Vladislav, to attack the Osmanli, but
Vladislav fell in battle. In 1444 the Christian army was thoroughly
defeated by Murad II at Varna. The remnant of the Byzantine Empire
received no aid from Western nations.
Isidor was welcomed by the Pope with open arms, and made cardinal. He
continued, however, to call himself metropolitan of Russia. The next
Pope, Nicholas V, favored Isidor also, who was perhaps the chief agent
between Rome and Byzantium. After the death of Gregory, who had been
driven from his office by adhering to the union, the Pope appointed
Isidor Patriarch. Of course the position was titular only.
There was no obstacle now to the installation of Iona. The Grand Prince
sent an envoy to the Patriarch to explain Isidor’s heresy, and ask him
to install a new metropolitan. But while the envoy was on the road
tidings met him from Mount Athos that the Patriarch and Emperor had
joined the church union, hence he returned to Moscow, and for eight
years there was no metropolitan in Russia.
In the autumn of 1438 Ulu Mohammed (Big Mohammed) was expelled from the
Horde by his rival, Kutchuk Mohammed (Little Mohammed). Ulu Mohammed
seized the town of Bailoff on the boundary of Lithuania, and thought,
as it seems, that he could win back his throne with the aid of Vassili,
to whom he had given the Grand Principality. But Vassili, either
wishing to be rid of Mongol robbery, or not desiring to quarrel with
the Khan then occupying the throne, sent against Ulu voevodas with whom
Dmitri Shemyaká and Dmitri Krasni, his two cousins, joined their
forces. This army besieged the Mongols in Bailoff. In vain did Ulu beg
for peace, promising to defend Russia from other Mongols, and never
again to ask for tribute. The Russian commanders would listen to
nothing. But with them at Bailoff was the voevoda Gregori Protasieff,
sent, as it seems, by the Lithuanian Grand Prince to help Moscow. This
man betrayed his allies. He joined the Khan’s forces and made it
possible for him to inflict a defeat upon Moscow. After this victory
Ulu withdrew and halted near Nizni. At that point many Mongols came to
him, and thus strengthened he was able to make raids against Russia,
and even to hold Moscow besieged for several days in succession.
In the spring of 1445 the Grand Prince received news that Mongols under
Mohmutek and Yagup had been sent against Moscow. Vassili summoned a
number of smaller princes and marched out in person to drive back those
forces. July 6 he halted near Suzdal, and an encounter with the enemy
took place. The Russians attacked the Mongols with vigor, and dispersed
them after a short and sharp conflict. But, while hunting the enemy,
Vassili’s men scattered, and some fell to stripping the dead. The
Mongols now employed their usual tactics. They turned suddenly and
attacking on all sides, defeated the Russians. A number of important
boyars and princes were captured, among others the Grand Prince
Vassili.
The Mongol commander took the cross, which Vassili wore next his body,
and sent it to Moscow to his wife and his mother, but Vassili they led
away with them to Nizni. Before going, however, they plundered many
places in Vladimir and Murom.
There was weeping and wailing when news came to Moscow that the Grand
Prince was a captive among Mongols; all looked for great woe, and a
speedy attack on the capital. But the Mongols did not come, and the
excitement gradually died away.
Vassili’s captivity was not of long duration. From Nizni, the Khan with
his forces went eastward to the edge of Moscow regions; thence he sent
Baigitch, his murza, to Dmitri Shemyaká, who heard of Vassili’s
misfortune with gladness, and straightway sent an envoy to work against
liberating the prisoner. The envoy, however, was delayed for a long
time; hence the Khan thought Shemyaká an enemy, and liberated the Grand
Prince, who took an oath to give a large price for his freedom.
Vassili returned to Moscow in the autumn of 1445. With him went Horde
magnates, and a crowd of attendants to receive the promised ransom.
Some of these men, pleased with Moscow, remained in Russia as subjects.
It must be noted that Vassili, in those days of Horde quarrels, had
attracted princes and murzas to his capital. He had taken these men to
his service, and given land to support them. Many Russians, not
understanding his policy, were displeased to see Mongols treated as if
they were people of Moscow.
Hence, when the Grand Prince had to find his large ransom,
dissatisfaction rose straightway on all sides. Shemyaká took advantage
of this and brought over to his plans Vassili’s cousin, Ivan, son of
Andrei, and grandson of Vladimir the Brave. This Ivan had fought nobly
at Suzdal, where Vassili was captured. Wounded and thrown from his
horse, he had succeeded with great difficulty in mounting another, and
escaping. Discontented with a slender inheritance, as he thought it, he
hoped to divide the lands of the Grand Prince with Shemyaká, the new
claimant. He and Shemyaká now arranged with the malcontents of Moscow,
and going to a place near the city, held communication daily with those
conspirators.
Vassili, not knowing the plot which his enemies were weaving, went on a
pilgrimage to the Troitski monastery, with Ivan and Yuri, his two
little sons. His attendants were a few intimate boyars, and a small
number of servants. Shemyaká and Ivan rushed with all haste to Moscow
and took possession of the city at night, through the help of
confederates, who opened the gates to them. The Grand Prince’s mother,
Sophia, and his wife were both captured; the treasury was pillaged;
boyars faithful to Vassili were made prisoners and their property
taken; wealthy citizens were robbed without ceremony.
That same night, February 12–13, 1446, Shemyaká sent Ivan to the
monastery to capture the Grand Prince. Vassili was at mass when a man
named Bunko rushed in and declared that an enemy was approaching. Bunko
had served the Grand Prince somewhat earlier, but had left him for
Shemyaká’s service. Vassili, therefore, suspected the man of plotting,
and commanded to expel him, but at the same time he sent guards out to
learn what was happening. Ivan’s men saw those guards and reported. The
conspirator had sent in a long line of sleighs, each carrying two armed
men hidden under mats and other covering. Behind each sleigh walked a
third man, who seemed to be a peasant following his load. Vassili’s
guards let a number of these sleighs pass unchallenged. All at once the
line halted, and armed men sprang out and seized the guards. As there
was deep snow at each side of the road, no man could escape to give
warning to Vassili. Ivan’s men were seen only when near the monastery.
The prince rushed to the stable, but no horse was ready. The old monks
were helpless; among the younger monks some were opposed to Vassili.
The prince hastened to the stone Church of the Trinity. He entered and
the sexton closed and barred the heavy door.
The attackers stormed like wolves in winter; they burst into the
monastery, and ran to the Church of the Trinity. “Where is the Grand
Prince?” shouted Ivan. Hearing Ivan’s voice, Vassili opened the door,
and implored for his eyesight. Ivan commanded to seize him. Nikita, a
boyar, obeyed his command. “Thou art taken,” said he, “by Dmitri, son
of Yuri, Grand Prince of Moscow.” “God’s will be done,” replied
Vassili.
They placed him in a rough country sleigh and conducted him to Moscow.
His attendant boyars were seized also, but in their haste the attackers
forgot the two young princes, Ivan and Yuri, who had hidden, and when
Ivan and his men had left the monastery the boys and those who were
with them found refuge with Prince Ryapolovski in his village, Boyar
Kovo. Later Ryapolovski and his brothers took the princes to Murom, and
shut themselves up in the city, where a large force of warriors soon
assembled.
February 14, Prince Ivan reached Moscow and lodged Vassili at
Shemyaká’s court, where three days later his enemies blinded him,
accusing him thuswise: “Thou didst bring Mongols to Russia, and give
them land. Thy love for those enemies and their speech is beyond
measure; thou givest gold, lands, and silver to them; thy oppression of
churches is unsparing. Also thou didst blind Prince Vassili, son of
Yuri.” Then they sent him, with his princess, to Uglitch. Sophia, his
mother, they sent to Chuhloma.
Shemyaká began then to reign as Grand Prince in Moscow; his success was
short-lived, however. Many princes would not recognize this new man. In
Moscow not all the boyars took the oath, and soon complaints and
indignation rose mightily against him. His Galitch boyars and
attendants seized the best places. People were not gratified when they
saw that he was beginning to divide Moscow lands, consolidated with so
much toil by preceding princes. Shemyaká soon felt his weakness, and
determined to get Vassili’s sons into his power. At his request the
nominated metropolitan, Iona, went to Murom and, by promising that
Vassili should be liberated, persuaded the Ryapolovskis to surrender
the little princes.
Not merely was Vassili not liberated, but his sons were imprisoned with
him in Uglitch. A great movement began then throughout Moscow regions
in favor of the imprisoned and blinded prince. It was agreed by the
Ryapolovskis, by Obolenski, and others to meet at Uglitch, storm the
town, and free Vassili. Some reached the place, but others were waylaid
by Shemyaká’s warriors. Thereupon they attacked and defeated those
warriors, and brought in fresh assistants. Seeing that more and more
men were leaving him, Shemyaká listened at last to Iona, who ceased not
to complain that he had been used as a tool in taking the sons of
Vassili from Murom. “What can a man without eyesight do?” asked Iona.
“Besides, his sons are little children. Bind him to peace by an oath,
and the bishops.”
Shemyaká went to Uglitch with abbots, boyars, and bishops, freed
Vassili from prison, and begged forgiveness. The blind man said that he
had suffered for his sins; he showed great mildness, blaming only
himself. Shemyaká, after taking an oath from Vassili that he would not
seek power for himself or for his children, gave a great feast as
evidence that they were reconciled. Vassili promised that he and his
sons would live in distant Vologda. But barely was he free when the new
oath was ignored, and the rôle changed completely. From Vologda Vassili
went, as it were, on a pilgrimage to the Cyril Bailozero monastery.
There many boyars and other men came to him, deserting his opponent.
Trifon, the abbot of Bailozero, freed Vassili from the oath given his
enemy, taking on himself the sin of breaking it. Then Vassili set out
for Tver to obtain the co-operation of Prince Boris and make a league
with him against Shemyaká. The alliance was made, and Boris betrothed
his daughter to Ivan, Vassili’s eldest son.
Meanwhile those attendants of Vassili who had fled to Lithuania
gathered their warriors and marched to free the Grand Prince, but on
the way they learned that he was already free. They met Mongol troops
and fell to fighting. “Who are ye?” inquired the Mongols. “We are men
of Moscow hastening to free Prince Vassili, our sovereign.” “We too,”
replied the Mongols, “are going with our two princes, Kasin and Yagup,
to rescue Prince Vassili in return for kindness.” Both parties now
advanced to aid Vassili.
Shemyaká and Prince Ivan had despatched troops to block the Moscow road
before the boyar Pleschyeff, sent by Vassili to Moscow. But Pleschyeff
marched around Shemyaká’s troops very cleverly, and reached Moscow
Christmas morning. The gates had just been thrown open for the Princess
Julianna, a daughter-in-law of Vladimir the Brave. Vassili’s uncle,
Pleschyeff, and his men rushed in behind her suite, and seized the
Kremlin immediately. Learning that warriors were marching from Tver
with Vassili, that other forces were hurrying from the west, and that
the Kremlin was taken, Shemyaká and Ivan fled to Kargopol. At Vassili’s
demand they now freed his mother, Sophia. They then begged for peace,
and it was granted, but Shemyaká did not keep the conditions which he
himself had put forward. He began at once to work against Vassili, who,
when he had received undoubted proof of the perfidy, placed the
question before the clergy.
Then in the name of all spiritual persons a letter was written to
Shemyaká. It began by reminding him of the offenses of Yuri, his
father; it recounted his own crimes, comparing him to Cain, the first
murderer, and to Sviatopolk the Accursed. It reproached him with
treason, with robber attacks on the Grand Prince; with the blinding of
Vassili, and other offenses. In conclusion, it asked him to observe his
own treaty, otherwise he would be cursed and deprived of communion.
Threatened not only with a curse, but with warriors of the Grand
Prince, Shemyaká strengthened the treaty with a new oath. But soon he
was false to this oath also, and renewed the civil war, which continued
a number of years. At last Vassili’s troops, led by Obolenski, reached
Galitch, now fortified strongly, and armed well with cannon. After a
stubborn engagement Shemyaká was defeated and fled to Novgorod. Galitch
yielded to Vassili, and in 1450 its citizens took the oath to him.
The battle of Galitch was the last struggle of note between Russian
princes. After that Shemyaká made a number of efforts. He marched
against Ustyug and Vologda, but his acts were mere senseless
destruction of property. At last, in Moscow, it was thought best to
bring his intimates, by rewards, to abandon him. It is stated that he
died in Novgorod in 1453, after eating a chicken which his own cook had
poisoned. Vassili Baida came galloping to Moscow with news of his
death. For this news he received a good office.
Thus ended a strife which had lasted two decades. It cost Moscow
dearly, and delayed for a time the final ending of subjection to
Mongols. But it had its own value also in developing single rule
strongly in Russia. This struggle showed how firmly the new order was
established. All classes stood on its side now, and favored its
triumph. During Shemyaká’s warfare, Vassili the Dark (that is, blind),
as men called him, spared all the other small princes lest they might
join his rival, but when Shemyaká, that last champion of the old order
of things, had vanished, Vassili was unsparingly stern to opposition,
and seized the land of all warring princes.
His cousin Ivan, grandson of Vladimir the Brave, who had aided
Shemyaká, and betrayed the Grand Prince very often, even trying to
bring the Polish king, Kazimir, to Moscow, was expelled from Mojaisk
forever. He fled to Lithuania, and his portion was added to Moscow.
Vassili of Serpukoff, who had formed a conspiracy against the Grand
Prince, was seized and died later in prison. His son, Ivan, went to
Lithuania, as did Shemyaká’s son, and Ivan of Majaisk; there the exiles
spent their time in framing fruitless plots against Moscow. Toward the
end of Vassili’s reign all minor places had been incorporated, save
only Vereisk. The prince of that place had always been faithful, and
Vassili did not disturb him.
While assimilating the land of small princes, Vassili extended his
influence over the Tver and Ryazan principalities. He undertook a
campaign against Novgorod which ended in establishing Novgorod’s
dependence on Moscow; he also subjected Vyatka, that disorderly nest of
freebooters.
Iona had aided Vassili more than many, and Vassili determined to make
him metropolitan. He could not turn then to Tsargrad, for Isidor, who
had fled from Moscow, not only continued to call himself metropolitan
of Russia, but was recognized as such by the Patriarch and Emperor. At
the call of the Grand Prince, the bishops of Russia held a council in
the Archangel Cathedral. Referring for authority to the rules of the
Apostles and early churches, they ordained Iona December 5, 1448. Thus
was created the first Russian metropolitan entirely independent of
Tsargrad.
The importance of this step was well understood in Russia. Its legality
was proven. Iona wrote an epistle to his flock, a special one to Kief,
and several to Western Russia. In those epistles he justified his
installation, a work not superfluous in that time, for even in Moscow
there were men who considered his elevation as contrary to Orthodox
usage.
When news came that the throne in Tsargrad was occupied by Constantine,
instead of Ioann, the defender of the Florentine union, the Grand
Prince sent a letter, in which he explained his whole course with Iona
and Isidor, and asked final blessing from the Patriarch on the former.
But communication with Tsargrad in those days had grown uncertain,
through robber bands on the road, and disorders in the Empire itself.
Then came the tidings that Tsargrad had fallen, and that Constantine
had died while defending the city, May 29, 1453. This sad event in the
Orthodox East aided the complete liberation of Russia from Tsargrad.
The close connection between each metropolitan and Grand Prince, and
the tendencies of Moscow to consolidate brought disagreement between
the Moscow metropolitan and the Grand Princes of Lithuania, since the
latter were rivals of the Moscow Grand Prince, especially after the
Latinizing of Lithuania; hence the attempts to get a separate
metropolitan for Western Russia. Finally, in Iona’s day, despite all
his efforts, the separation of the Russian Church into two parts was
effected. This was grievous to Iona. He wrote in vain to the Western
Russian bishops, princes and boyars, to all the Western Russian people,
advising them to stand firmly for the Orthodox religion.
Three years later Iona died. His successor, Thedosi, Archbishop of
Rostoff, was ordained by Russian bishops; thus this system was
confirmed finally in Russia.
The Grand Prince Vassili died in 1462, before he had reached his
fiftieth year. In the second half of his reign, Vassili the Blind was
no longer the active, rather simple, and somewhat light-minded person
that he had been in his youth. Not so much years as bitter suffering
and experience, and especially the loss of his eyesight, developed
adroitness and stern resolution. He brought into his own hands almost
all the principalities near Moscow, and advanced very greatly the union
effected by his immediate successor. At his death Russia included,
besides the enlarged principality of Moscow, four independent lands,
that is, Pskoff and Novgorod, with the Tver and Ryazan principalities.
To give a brief picture of affairs in Lithuania and Russia is now
indispensable for an understanding of Moscow. We must return to the
beginning of Vassili’s reign.
The death of Vitold of Lithuania, in 1430, without heirs raised the
great question: Who shall succeed? The former Russo-Lithuanian Grand
Prince, Yagello, at that time King of Poland, hesitated to put the two
crowns on his own head, fearing opposition from the Russo-Lithuanian
boyars, who struggled against merging their own state in Poland.
Besides Yagello, there were two grandsons of Gedimin, Svidrigello,
Yagello’s younger brother, and Sigismund, the youngest brother of
Vitold. There were also grandsons of Olgerd, but being of the Orthodox
faith they were unacceptable to the Poles, and to Catholics. Yagello
gave the preference to his brother, who succeeded Vitold, and was
crowned in the Vilna Cathedral. But Yagello was mistaken in thinking
that he had found an obedient assistant. Though Svidrigello had gone
over to the Latins through the influence of his brother, he was not a
zealot, and was well inclined toward his former co-religionists. Having
ruled in Russian principalities, he was Russian in language and
sympathies; hence the Russians greeted his elevation, and expected aid
from him against Latinism and absorption.
Svidrigello had no wish to be a servant. He looked on the Grand
Principality as his by right, and wished to preserve the integrity of
his inheritance. In one word, his wish was to follow the policy of
Vitold. Polish magnates were greatly displeased that the king had
permitted this brother to be crowned without pledges, and had yielded
Podolia and Volynia, which they claimed for themselves, and which, as
they said, they had fought for.
The taking of Galitch by Kazimir the Great was the first exploit in
distributing the lands of Russia among Polish nobles and the clergy,
and also of taking lands from Russian owners, and giving them to Poles.
This system had extended to Podolia from Galitch, a part of which had
been joined to Poland. But in Vitold’s day Podolia had been given back
to Russia almost entirely. In cities and castles were representatives
of the Grand Prince supported by Russo-Lithuanian garrisons.
No one supposed that Svidrigello would surrender Podolia and Volynia to
Yagello, hence the Poles planned to capture them by stratagem.
Kamenyets, the chief Podolian city, was commanded by Dovgerd, a noted
Lithuanian. The local Polish nobles appeared at the castle of Kamenyets
before the news of Vitold’s death had reached it. They came under
protext of friendly consultation, and invited Dovgerd to meet them with
his attendants. He did so. The Poles threw off the mask then, seized
him with his attendants, and took possession of the castle. At the same
time they surprised Smotritch, with a few other places, and thus won a
part of Podolia. The voevodas of Volynia had heard of Vitold’s death
and were prepared. There the Poles could obtain nothing.
Svidrigello was indignant when he heard of what had happened at
Kamenyets. Yagello was still in Lithuania, hunting; he had not returned
since the funeral of Vitold. Svidrigello reproached the king bitterly,
and declared that he would hold him a captive till Podolia was returned
to its Grand Prince. Yagello met his brother’s outburst of anger and
accusation with mild and insinuating speeches. But Svidrigello was
unyielding. The king’s Polish suite proposed then a desperate measure:
to kill Svidrigello, capture the Vilna castle, and defend themselves
till aid came. The king would not consent to this murder, but to effect
his escape he made an agreement by which he returned the castles in
Podolia to his brother, and commanded Butchatski to yield Kamenyets to
Prince Michael Baba, Svidrigello’s commander. Svidrigello was
delighted. He rewarded Yagello’s messenger well, then he made rich
presents to Yagello and his suite, and they departed for Poland.
Despite his sixty years, Svidrigello had let himself be badly deceived.
Polish magnates near the king, perhaps with his connivance, thought out
a stratagem. They sent a private letter to Butchatski, forbidding him
to obey Yagello’s order to yield Kamenyets, and commanding him to
arrest Prince Baba and the messenger. The letter was placed in a tube
which was covered with wax and made to look like a candle. This
counterfeit candle was taken to Butchatski by an attendant of the
king’s messenger, who said, as he delivered it: “You will find in this
candle all the light needed.” Real candles were burned before images,
and were sent to chapels and churches, therefore this candle roused no
suspicion. Butchatski cut the candle, found the letter, and followed
its instructions.
When he heard of the trick Svidrigello was enraged. He tried to recover
the castles, but took only a few of them; Smotritch and Kamenyets
remained with his opponents. The Poles now declared that Svidrigello
must surrender not only Podolia, but Lutsk, and the south of Volynia.
They demanded too that he should go to Poland and take an oath of
obedience to Yagello. Svidrigello refused to do this. He made a treaty
with the Germans, and with the Emperor. Sigismund opposed the growth of
Poland, and desired the Order to assist Svidrigello, to whom he
promised the same kind of crown that he had sent to Vitold.
From the Polish king now came an envoy with reproaches. He condemned
Svidrigello savagely for his alliance with the enemies of Poland. The
envoy added also that Svidrigello was not a Grand Prince till so
acknowledged by a Polish Diet. Svidrigello, borne away by furious
anger, detained the Polish envoy, and had him imprisoned. After this
insult there was no way to decide the dispute except by armed action.
In 1431 the king led a large army into Volynia. The Poles were
distinguished for their fury in that war; so irrepressible was it that
the people were forced to hide in forests and swamps, and in
inaccessible places. The king, to spare native regions, tried to curb
the troops under him; he even warned people of his coming, and thus
incurred the taunt that he was sparing his rebel brother. The Poles
sacked Vladimir; Volynia was burned. Svidrigello, with Wallachians and
Mongols, was preparing to meet the invasion, but discovering the great
strength of the king’s forces, he withdrew and burned Lutsk to save it
from the enemy. In the Lutsk castle he put Yursha, a Russian, who
defended that stronghold so stubbornly that the Poles could not take
it. Angered by this defeat, they accused the king of malevolent
slackness, and of intentional blunders.
In the Polish camp disease attacked the men, and a distemper broke out
among the horses. Food failed. German knights declared war, and invaded
northern provinces. These calamities caused the king to offer peace.
The Grand Prince accepted, and concluded a truce without consulting the
Germans. Svidrigello retained what he had when the war broke out, that
is Eastern Podolia, and Volynia entire. He had vindicated independence
for the lands under him, but beyond that the result of the war was
merely plunder and bloodshed.
At the head of Polish affairs was Olesnitski, the chancellor, at that
time cardinal. On meeting failure in the field he sought other means to
subject Svidrigello. A rival was selected, Sigismund, Vitold’s youngest
brother. Sigismund was to claim the Grand Principality; and in various
ways a party was created to support him. A revolt was brought about and
Svidrigello, being careless and improvident, was surprised and very
nearly captured by his rival. He escaped by desperate speed, but his
wife was seized. Vilna and Troki surrendered. Soon Lithuania
acknowledged Sigismund, while Russia adhered to Svidrigello.
Sigismund was crowned in Vilna, where a papal bull was read freeing
Lithuania from its oath to Svidrigello. In Grodno, somewhat earlier,
before senators and Olesnitski, Sigismund had surrendered the regions
of Lutsk, and its lands, as well as Podolia and Goróden.
Meanwhile Svidrigello had no intention of yielding to Sigismund broad
regions which were still in his possession. Help was coming to him from
the Tver prince. His Russian voevodas were successful. Alexander Nos
defended Kief lands, and Prince Ostrogski, Volynia. Especially
distinguished was Fedko, who, with help of Wallachians and Mongols, not
only repulsed the Poles in Podolia, but seized Kamenyets, luring
Butchatski from the fortress, and taking him captive.
During this war Yagello died at the age of eighty-six. Thus ended a
reign of fifty years, a reign memorable in Eastern Europe. The two
great results of his life were the union of Lithuania and Poland, and
the reduction of the royal power till it was a mere shadow. Now the
nobles, with Olesnitski at the head of them, became all-powerful.
Instead of combining his provinces, and organizing an army, Svidrigello
sought alliances, treated with Sigismund, with the Germans, with the
Khan, and with the Pope. All this proved his unfitness, and weakened
the attachment of the Orthodox party. Besides he was passionate, given
to anger, and cruel. He sometimes punished with death those adherents
of Sigismund whom he captured. For example, he had one of the princes,
Olshanski, sewn up in a bag and drowned in the Dvina. Worse than all of
his evil deeds, he burned at the stake the metropolitan Gerásim, for an
unknown reason, but presumably for communicating with Sigismund.
A decisive battle was fought near Vilkomir, in which Sigismund was
victor. Svidrigello fled to Kief, and found refuge there, while
Smolensk, Polotsk and Vitebsk received lieutenants from Sigismund.
Svidrigello had still a part of Podolia, much of Volynia and the whole
of the Kief principality, in which Yursha, his brave voevoda, was
commanding, but feeling that he had not sufficient power to continue
the struggle, he went to Cracow and offered to become a feudatory of
Poland.
Sigismund was active against him, and spared nothing in bribery. He
demanded for himself all that Svidrigello had held, and his side
succeeded. Svidrigello, fearing to fall into Sigismund’s clutches,
withdrew to Wallachia, and Kief and Volynia were given to Sigismund, on
condition that after he died Lithuania and Russia should be given to
Poland.
So the war ended with victory for Sigismund, but he had little profit
from his triumph. The humiliating position in which the new prince had
put his own office roused opposition among Lithuanians and Russians.
Especially active were Olgerd’s descendants in fighting against this
son of Keistut, who had seized power unjustly, as it seemed to them.
Their indignation was increased by the cruelty with which Sigismund
hunted down every opponent. Men of the highest distinction were
imprisoned and deprived of their property, while others were put to
death without cause.
When Sigismund summoned a Diet, the report went out quickly that that
was only a trap to ruin princes and boyars. Unable to cast down the
tyrant, for he was surrounded by Polish defenders, they formed a
conspiracy, at the head of which stood a Russian, Prince Chartoriski,
Dovgerd, voevoda of Vilna, and Lelyush, who commanded in Troki. The
conspirators used the hay tribute to carry out their stratagem.
In the night before Palm Sunday, March, 1440, three hundred sleighs
bringing hay were drawn into Troki. In each sleigh two or three armed
men were secreted, and with each went a driver,—in all a thousand men
or more. The following morning Sigismund’s son, Michael, went,
accompanied by his father’s attendants, to early mass in the cathedral.
During mass the men hidden in the hay came out, shut the gates of the
fortress, and were led into the castle by Chartoriski. Sigismund,
without leaving his bed, was hearing mass offered up by a priest in a
chapel adjoining his chamber. He had a tame bear which served as a
guard near his person; when the beast wished to enter he scratched at
the door for admission. Chartoriski, seeing the bear in the courtyard,
and knowing its habit, scratched on the door in imitation. The door was
opened, and the conspirators entered. Skobeiko, equerry to Sigismund,
but now false to him, seized an iron poker from the fireplace, and
struck the prince on the head with such violence that his blood and
brains stained the walls of the chamber. Slavko, a favorite and
intimate of the Grand Prince, tried to shield his master; but he was
hurled through the window and instantly killed. The body of the dead
prince was conveyed in a sleigh to the lake, and left on the ice there;
later it was buried, near Vitold’s grave, in the Cathedral of Vilna.
When news of this terrible crime spread through Troki, there was a
great outbreak. Michael and his attendants took refuge in a small
castle on an island of the lake near Troki. Lelyush seized the main
castle in the name of Svidrigello, and hung out his white banner above
it. Dovgerd did the same in Vilna, but in Vilna the upper castle was
taken by adherents of Michael. Meanwhile couriers raced off for
Svidrigello. He hurried back from Moldavia, and appearing at Lutsk, was
received with gladness by the people. Men imprisoned in strongholds of
Lithuania and Russia were freed, but Svidrigello, instead of hastening
to Vilna and Troki and securing the throne, which had come to him a
second time, loitered in Lutsk till affairs changed again, and not to
his profit.
In Olshani a number of noted Lithuanians met and resolved to depose
both Svidrigello and Michael, and make Yagello’s youngest son, Kazimir,
Grand Prince. It seemed to these magnates that they might rear this
young boy in the ways of the country and manage it themselves during
his minority. The Polish magnates insisted that the Lithuanian throne
belonged to their actual king, Vladislav, who at ten years of age had
been named as Yagello’s successor, but Vladislav, having been made king
in Hungary, and being attracted by the war just beginning with Turkey,
was willing to yield Lithuania to his brother. Still the Poles insisted
that Kazimir, not being a sovereign, but only a viceroy, should be
called prince, and not Grand Prince. This angered Lithuanians, who
considered him sovereign, and they acted as follows:
Young Kazimir came to Vilna with a large, brilliant suite, and attended
by senators from Poland. The Lithuanian magnates prepared a great
banquet to show him honor, and plied Polish senators with wine so
generously that they were all fast asleep on the following morning.
Very early in the day of July 3, 1440, the Lithuanians crowned Kazimir
in the Vilna Cathedral, putting on his head the Grand Prince’s cap worn
by Gedimin. They then gave him the sword, and placed on his shoulders
the Grand Prince’s mantle. The Poles were roused from their slumbers by
the thundering shouts of the people, who were greeting their new
sovereign. Rich gifts were given to the senators, and they could do
nothing but hide their mortification and displeasure, and reply with
good wishes.
Not slight was the task which confronted young Kazimir. The preceding
wars with their manifold miseries, the frosts, untimely and terrible,
the failure of harvests, famine, the pestilence, and other visitations
are mentioned continually in the chronicle. Besides, many regions
refused to accept him as Grand Prince. The king would not acknowledge
him, and the Poles were ever ready to uphold his opponents, so as to
break up the Grand Principality, and take in its fragments one after
another more easily. Hence Svidrigello received Volynia and part of
Podolia from the Polish king. Michael, son of that Sigismund murdered
at Troki, joined with Mazovian princes, and gave them Berestei. Jmud,
which rose against Kazimir, sided with Michael. Smolensk was rebellious
in like manner, but Ivan Gashtold, the Grand Prince’s guardian and
chief of his council of magnates, pacified all. Even Michael came
finally to Vilna, and made peace with Kazimir, receiving from him those
same places which Sigismund, his father, had held till he was murdered.
This peace, however, proved hollow, for Michael was raging against
Kazimir in secret, and plotting to take the throne from him at any
cost.
Once, when the Grand Prince was learning to hunt, some hundreds of men
well armed and mounted appeared in the forest. The moment notice was
given of their coming, Andrei Gashtold, the son of Ivan, seized young
Kazimir and galloped away with him to Troki. Gashtold, the father, sent
warriors to hunt down the horsemen. Some were killed, others made
captive; among the latter were five Russian princes, the brothers
Volojinski, who were put to death straightway in Troki. Gasthold then
hurried off toward Bryansk to meet Michael. But Michael had fled to
Moscow, and his lands were confiscated straightway.
With Svidrigello the action was simpler. He abandoned the king, and
gave oath to Kazimir, who was his nephew. Kazimir left Svidrigello, his
old, childless uncle, in Volynia, giving Kief with all its connections
to Alexander, his cousin, a grandson of Olgerd and son of Vladimir.
Smolensk was not managed so easily, but still it was managed, and kept
for the Grand Principality.
Barely had Kazimir, acting through Gashtold, brought peace to the
princedom and saved its integrity, when new troubles and new dangers
came from Poland. The Polish-Hungarian king, Vladislav, brother of
Kazimir, attracted by his kingdom of Hungary and his struggle with
Turkey, left Lithuania and Russia unmolested; but in 1444 that young
king fell at Varna, and his death destroyed the new union between
Hungary and Poland. The Poles had their election in 1445, and chose
Kazimir. The union with Hungary being lost, they were all the more
eager for the Russo-Lithuanian connection. If a king, not descended
from Yagello, took the throne, every bond between Poland and the Grand
Principality would be severed, but as the election of Kazimir gave the
chance not only of preserving this bond, but of merging the Grand
Principality in Poland, his election was favored by Poles without
exception. This desire of the Poles to subject the principality and
find in it lands, wealth and offices was irrepressible, and roused
great indignation in Russia, for the nobles valued their independence,
and the Orthodox clergy feared Latin encroachment.
Young Kazimir, grown accustomed to Russia, liked its ways and its
language. Besides, the sovereign had power in Russia, while in Poland
he had none. So when first his election was suggested, he answered
evasively, saying that his brother’s death was still doubtful. At last
the Poles used diplomacy to force him. They feigned to elect a
Mazovian, Prince Boleslav, and to prepare for the coronation. This
election meant war for the land claimed by Boleslav, and also a new war
with Michael by Boleslav himself. The prospect of two wars, and the
words of his mother brought conviction to Kazimir. In June, 1447, he
was crowned with solemnity in Cracow.
The time following Kazimir’s election was remarkable for boisterous
Diets. The Poles sought to turn Lithuania and Russia into provinces of
their kingdom. They claimed all Podolia and Volynia, with the Upper Bug
region. Feodor Butchatski succeeded in seizing some castles, and
placing Polish troops in them. The Russo-Lithuanian magnates were
indignant. With burning words they defended the integrity of their
country at the Diets, and demanded the return of Volynia and Podolia to
their proper connection. They showed that historically those regions
were theirs beyond question. The Poles referred to their own former
conquests, as they called them. They referred to the Horodlo union, and
treaties with various Lithuanian princes. The Lithuanians rejected
those statements, and declared that from the Horodlo pact should be
excluded certain words touching the union of Lithuania and Poland,
words inserted without their knowledge, and in secret.
The position of the king was unenviable. At first he was under the
influence of Gashtold and others, and also of his own feelings, but as
king he was powerless to counteract the demands of Polish nobles, who,
besides the union of Russo-Lithuanian provinces, asked for confirmation
of certain rights granted by Yagello, and demanded still others
restricting royal action. There were two Polish parties at this time,
those of Great and Little Poland. Great Poland formed what is now
Poznan, Little Poland that part of the present Austrian Poland which
has its center at Cracow. The men of Great Poland were mainly
indifferent to questions in the Grand Principality, because they were
distant. Little Poland, on the contrary, turned every effort toward
those questions. Immense lands, great careers, and much power were to
be won through getting Lithuania and Russia. The head of the Little
Poland party was Olesnitski, the chancellor. He held the first place in
all councils; behind him stood the party in Cracow. The queen mother
supported the chancellor. The young king yielded much to Olesnitski,
who had made Sigismund Grand Prince, and was now working ardently for
Michael, and urging the king to give him lands in Lithuania and be
reconciled. The king would not listen to this; he did not forget that
this same Michael had striven to kill him.
Michael, after fleeing from Gashtold, had tarried in Moscow for some
time, and, with help of the Mongols, had endeavored to seize lands from
Lithuania. Vassili the Blind had supported him, while Kazimir had
upheld the opponents of Vassili. Failing at last, Michael went to
Moldavia, then to Silesia, and afterward back to Moscow. But by this
time Vassili of Moscow had agreed with Lithuania, consequently he
refused to help Michael further. At last Michael died, it is stated
through poison given by some abbot,—poison of such power that the
prince died immediately. Then the abbot, terrified by the thought of
vengeance from Michael’s cousin, Sophia, the daughter of Vitold, also
drank of the poison and died.
That same year, 1450, died Svidrigello at Lutsk. Persecuted by the
Poles all his life, he had hated them thoroughly, and had taken from
his boyars an oath to give the land only to agents of the Grand Prince
of Moscow. After his death all places were occupied by Russo-Lithuanian
garrisons in the name of the Grand Prince. The Poles were incensed, and
announced a campaign to recover those places. But the opposition of the
king, and the unwillingness of Great Poland to take part in a struggle,
cooled Cracow statesmen, who were forced to be satisfied for the moment
with verbal attacks on the king, and hot quarrels with the
Russo-Lithuanian contingent of the Commonwealth. The quarrels at last
became so savage that all save Poles left the Diet, and went from the
place secretly in the night-time.
After that the king had great trouble in allaying the bitter hatred and
rancor of parties, and in the next Diet, formed of Poles only, he
yielded, confirming all the rights demanded, and taking an oath never
to alienate from Poland any lands which had ever belonged to it, among
others the lands of Lithuania, Moldavia, and Russia. More important
still, the king bound himself to keep near his person at all times a
council made up of four Poles, and to remove the Lithuanians who were
hostile to Poland.
In 1455 Olesnitski, the cardinal, died, at a time when the Poles were
beginning a war which proved most serious.
In Prussia there had long been a dull and stubborn conflict between
towns and lay landholders on one side, and the Order, composed of
Knights of the Cross, on the other. The Order, retaining all authority,
burdened the people with great dues and taxes, and hampered the Hanse
towns in their traffic. Certain landholders had formed against the
Order a league called the Brotherhood. To this Brotherhood almost all
the large trading towns joined themselves. In the struggle which
followed, the Pope and the Emperor inclined toward the Order. The
league turned to Kazimir, and signed a pact making the Prussian lands
subject to Poland, reserving for itself various privileges as to trade,
taxes, and government.
But now the need came to defend this position. The German Order,
notwithstanding its fall, had much force still left, as well as the
energy to resist for a long time, and even in 1454 it inflicted on
Kazimir a notable defeat on the field of Choinitsi. After that the war
lasted with changing results for twelve years. Then the Order, having
exhausted its forces, sued for peace, and in 1466 received it at Thorn
through the aid of the papal legate.
By this peace the lands of Culm and Pomerania, with the cities
Marienburg, Dantzig and Elbing, went to Poland, but Eastern Prussia,
with Königsberg, its capital, remained with the Order, which assumed
certain feudal relations to Poland. The main reason why the war was so
long and ended without conquering the Order completely, is found in the
quarrels and struggles between the Poles and the Russo-Lithuanians. The
latter refrained almost entirely from taking part in the conflict, and
the whole weight of it fell upon Poland. Though the same sovereign was
both king and Grand Prince, he had so little authority in Poland, and
was so hampered by parties that he had no power to make the three
countries act as one body. Dlugosh, the Polish historian, declares that
in the Grand Principality Russians and Lithuanians opposed to the Poles
had secret relations with the Order, against which the Poles were then
warring.
The first prince in Kief descended from Gedimin, and under a Grand
Prince of that descent also, was Gedimin’s grandson, Vladimir, son of
Olgerd. In his long rule of thirty years, from 1362 to 1392, the old
city rested to a certain extent, and recovered considerably from the
terrible destruction wrought by Batu and other Mongol khans.
Orthodox in religion, and Russian externally, Vladimir cared for the
Orthodox Church of Kief regions, and wished the metropolitan to reside
in that ancient city; hence he supported Cyprian when Dmitri would not
admit him to Moscow. When Vitold became Grand Prince of Lithuania, he
drove out Vladimir, and put him in Kopyl, a small district. Kief he
gave to Vladimir’s brother, Skirgello, in 1392. Vladimir tried hard to
get the aid of Vassili of Moscow, but he met with no success, and spent
the last years of his life in Kopyl. Skirgello, who in action was much
like his brother, lived only four years. After his death Vitold, who
wished to break up the old system, put no prince in Kief; he governed
the city through agents, the first of whom was his confidant, Prince
Olshanski.
Svidrigello, at the beginning of his rule as Grand Prince, placed
Yursha, his valiant assistant, in Kief. When expelled from northwestern
regions by Sigismund, Svidrigello found refuge in Kief, and that city
became the center of a large political division. Svidrigello,
notwithstanding his official change from Orthodox faith to Latinity,
was attached to his old Church. When the dignity of Grand Prince went
to Yagello’s son, Kazimir, Svidrigello got Lutsk, and Ivan Gashtold,
the guardian of Kazimir, thought it needful to yield to the boyars and
the Russian party; hence he gave the Kief region to the son of Vladimir
of Kopyl, that is, to Prince Alexander, whose surname was Olelko.
Alexander, being a grandson of Olgerd, and married to the daughter of
Vassili, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was a man of distinction,
therefore Sigismund, the son of Keistut, thought him dangerous, and
imprisoned him with his wife and two sons. He remained in prison till
death removed Sigismund.
Alexander governed fifteen years in the spirit of Vladimir, his father.
He died at Kief in 1455, and was buried in the Catacomb Monastery of
that city. His two sons, Simeon and Michael, thought to divide the Kief
region between them, but Kazimir forbade this, adding these words:
“Vladimir, your grandfather, fled to Moscow and deserted his Kief
rights.” Still Kazimir gave Kief to Simeon to govern, and to Michael
the younger he left Slutsk and Kopyl as a property. Simeon ruled in
Kief till he died in 1471. After his death, right to Kief went to
Michael, his brother, and to his son Vassili.
But the Polish king felt so strong now in Western Russia that he
determined to give a blow to the system, and put an end to Kief’s
separate existence. Kazimir, remembering that the Russo-Lithuanian
boyars had demanded that he should live in Lithuania at all times, or
send viceroys, indicating Simeon while they did so, not only refused to
give Kief to any son of Alexander, but appointed a viceroy, Martin, son
of Gashtold. The Kief people now refused to admit this man, but Martin
brought with him an army, took Kief by assault, and seated himself in
the so-called “Lithuanian castle.”
Michael, the son of Alexander, was at this time in Novgorod, whither
the Boretskis had called him as Kazimir’s lieutenant. Hearing that his
brother Simeon was dead, he left Novgorod quickly and went to Kief, but
finding that Martin was already master there, he was forced to take
Slutsk and Kopyl. This loss of a princedom offended him deeply.
Kazimir had adopted the method of Vitold, and was supplanting the
princes by his own men. The princes, of course, did not yield without a
struggle. A conspiracy was formed; at the head of it was Alexander’s
son, Michael, and his cousin Feodor Bailski, also a grandson of
Vladimir. The plans of the conspirators have not been made clear to us;
according to some historians, they intended to seize Kazimir, dethrone,
or kill him, and make Michael Grand Prince. According to others, they
planned to take possession of certain eastern districts, and put them
under the Grand Prince of Moscow.
Feodor Bailski, who was marrying a daughter of Alexander Chartoriski,
had invited the king to his wedding. The king went, but the plot was
discovered, and Bailski’s servant, under torture, revealed the whole
secret. Bailski, learning of this in the night, jumped out of bed, and
when only half dressed sprang on horseback and galloped away toward the
boundary. He reached Moscow in safety, and entered the service of the
Grand Prince. Kazimir kept Bailski’s young wife in Lithuania, and
Bailski found a new wife in Moscow. His associates, Prince Olshanski,
and Alexander’s son, Michael, were seized, brought to trial, and
received a death sentence. Straightway Kazimir confirmed the sentence,
which was carried out August, 1482, in front of the “Lithuanian castle”
at Kief.
Though the conspiracy is involved in deep mystery, both as to details
and object, it is evident that the old order had been given a blow from
which it could not recover. Some princes retained their lands, but
those petty rulers, serving superior princes, were no longer dangerous
to political unity. They took high offices willingly, and very gladly
received the incomes going with them. The only danger was from princes
whose lands bordered on Moscow, and who thus had the possibility of
joining the capital. Therefore the Grand Prince of Lithuania tried to
hold them by special treaties. Such treaties proved of small value,
however, and toward the end of Kazimir’s reign some of those princes
left Lithuania for Moscow.
Smolensk was deprived of its old princely stock, and the city was held,
through commanders, as a kind of corner-stone to the Lithuanian state
in northeastern regions.
In the reign of Kazimir IV took place the final separation of the
Orthodox Church in Russia into two parts, the Eastern and Western.
Isidor, now in Rome, but whilom metropolitan of Russia, played his part
in this movement. At the wish of Callixtus III he surrendered to
Gregory, his pupil and friend, his right to a part of the Russian
Church, namely, nine bishoprics in Lithuania, Western Russia and
Poland, and the former Patriarch, Gregory Mana, living also in Rome,
ordained in 1458 this Gregory as metropolitan of Kief, Lithuania, and
all Western Russia. King Kazimir protected Gregory; but the Orthodox
bishops, and generally the Orthodox people, were so opposed to a
metropolitan from Rome, that Gregory did not go to Kief; he lived
mainly in Kazimir’s palace, and died in 1472 at Novgrodek.
Two years later the Smolensk bishop, Misail, was made metropolitan.
Being opposed to church union, he received confirmation from Tsargrad,
and hence was accepted by all Western Russians. With him began the
unbroken succession of Kief metropolitans, independent of Moscow. Kief
for a second time became the church center of Western Russia, and
through the zeal of the clergy and the people the old city gradually
rose again.
In 1492 Kazimir IV fell ill while visiting Lithuania, and hastened
toward Poland; but he died on the way, at Grodno. In his will he had
designated his second son, Yan Albrecht, to the Polish throne, and
Alexander, his third son, to the throne of Lithuania. The Poles and
Lithuanians afterward confirmed each selection.
During Kazimir’s time rose the Khanate of the Crimea. Information
touching the origin of this Crimean dynasty is obscure and misleading.
There is a tradition that the Black Sea Horde, crushed by civil war,
after Edigai’s death chose as Khan a certain Azi, one of Jinghis Khan’s
descendants. In childhood, Azi’s life had been saved in Lithuania, and
he was reared by one Girei, whose name Azi and his family afterward
assumed out of gratitude. Some chronicles describe the accession of the
new Khan as happening in Vitold’s time, and under his auspices;
according to others, it took place in the days of King Kazimir. One
thing is clear, that this Azi lived really in Lithuania, and was
descended from Tohtamish, who, as is known, found a refuge in that
land.
According to the second account, when Mongol raids increased against
Russia, Kazimir was advised by his counselors to establish a Khan who
might be devoted to Poland, and opposed to the Golden Horde rulers. So
advantage was taken of the tendency to establish a Mongol state on the
Black Sea.
In 1446 the king sent Azi Girei to the Crimea with a convoy of his own
men, commanded by Radzivill, and on his arrival, the murzas made him
Khan. Besides the Crimean populations, Girei had under him the Nogai
Horde, which lived between the Sea of Azoff and the Dnieper. In general
he is considered the real founder of the Khanate. This separation of
the lands along the Black Sea from the Golden Horde on the Volga was
attended by a strife which was increased through inherited hatred
between the descendants of Tohtamish and Kutlui.
Kutchuk Mohammed was a grandson of Timur Kutlui, and under obligations
to King Kazimir for his election. Azi, or Hadji Girei, remained
faithful to the king all his life, and frequently punished other
Mongols for attacking Russo-Lithuanian lands. Especially distinguished
for such robber expeditions at that time was Sedi Ahmed, apparently
ruling in the steppes between the Don and the Dnieper. In 1451 Ahmed’s
son, Mazovsha, was sent by him to collect tribute. He reached Moscow in
July, and burned its outskirts, but at the walls of the town his men
were defeated by the Russians, and withdrew in a panic, leaving
everything behind them. The following year, while Sedi Ahmed’s men were
making raids in Chernigoff, Girei attacked him suddenly and crushed his
forces. In 1455 he was forced to seek refuge in Lithuania, but was
later captured and imprisoned at Kovno, where he died in confinement.
The Genoese colonies felt the weight of this Crimean Horde, which
extended its lordship throughout the steppes on the north of the Tauric
peninsula, and strove to possess the southeastern shores of it. They
hampered greatly the Genoese, who were at last forced to declare
themselves vassals. The Khan now transferred his residence to
Bakche-Sarai in the Southern Crimea, a city existing to the present
day. This first Khan died in 1467.
The power of the Crimean Khan was limited to a few groups of people. Of
these there were five chief groups: Shirym, Barym, Kuluk, Sulesh, and
Mansur, which managed the destinies of the Khanate. Their influence was
felt mainly in choosing each new Khan. Since the Khans had many sons,
the indefiniteness of succession caused dreadful quarrels and
bloodshed. Such struggles were frequent. Girei, who left several sons,
was succeeded by his eldest son, Nordoulat, but Mengli Girei, one of
the younger sons, got the throne later. This renowned Khan more than
once experienced the vicissitudes of fortune. He mounted the throne
many times, and was driven from it each time by rivals, but at last he
fixed himself firmly, through the aid of the Osmanli.
In 1453 the Byzantine Empire fell. The Genoese had given active
assistance to the Empire in its agony, and hence they had suffered
severely from Mohammed II, whose first work was to ravage Galata, the
Genoese suburb. In 1475 a strong Turkish fleet attacked Kaffa
(Theodosia). Internal dissensions, treason and the imbecility of the
local power helped the Turks to get possession of the city. Among
merchants robbed and slain were many Muscovites. After this the Turks
subjected other Cumean colonies from Italy. We know not exactly what
rôle Girei played in these events; we know that he soon after
recognized the Sultan as suzerain, and that Turkish garrisons were
established in various towns on the Black Sea.
The Crimean Khans, freed recently from subjection to Sarai, fell under
the far stronger grasp of the Osmanli, but Mengli Girei, relying on the
Sultan, established himself firmly, and continued the policy of his
father. As to Sarai, he was its worst enemy, and was ever ready to aid
its opponents. He did not, however, carry out his father’s projects
with reference to Lithuania and Poland.
Never had the Lithuanian state suffered such terrible blows as from
Mengli Girei, in whose day the Crimean Horde received that robber
character which for three hundred years made it famous. It tormented
specially Russian regions connected with Poland, by seizing great
numbers of captives, who, forced into slavery, were taken as living
wares to the markets of the Osmanli.
From the time of Girei, the boundaries of Russia were changed very
sensibly. Olgerd had extended those boundaries into the steppes, and in
Vitold’s day they touched the Euxine. Vitold had striven to guard
southern lands from Mongol raids by strengthening old forts and
building new ones. He had fortified Kaneff, and lower down on the
Dnieper he had founded Kremnchug and Cherkasy. On the main crossing of
the lower Dnieper he had fixed outposts. Near the seacoast he had built
a strong place where Ochakoff flourished later, and had made a port
near the site of the present Odessa. At the mouth of the Dniester,
fronting Akkerman, he had erected a strong post, and higher up a
second, known later as Bender; besides, there were other posts, in the
steppe lands. But the Russo-Lithuanian state lost these boundaries in
the time of the easy-going Kazimir, who was busied far more with
quarreling Diets and the endless debates between Russians and Poles
than with strengthening these boundaries. In his day the Black Sea was
lost; Mengli Girei took possession of those forts built on the steppes
and the sea. After that an immense empty space, known later on as the
“Wild Fields,” lay between the settled Kief lands and the Horde at the
Black Sea. These “Wild Fields” became the battle-ground between Kief
colonists and Mongol cut-throats. Kazimir did an evil deed for his
realms and for many men, when he set up Girei as a ruler.