After the prince had been interred with great honor, Rostislav went back to the army and held a council: “Return to the capital,” said the Kief boyars, who wished to be sure of the offices. “Settle there with the people, and begin to rule anew well supported. If Yuri comes, make peace or war, as need dictates.” Rostislav did not take their advice, but moved on Chernigoff, sending this message first to Izyaslav, son of David: “Wilt thou kiss the cross to reign in Chernigoff, while I am in Kief?” “I know not what I have done to make thee march against me. If thou come, we shall have that which God gives,” was the answer.
But this far-seeing son of David had sent Polovtsi under Glaib to Pereyaslavl, and was in fact warring at that time with Rostislav. He now joined Glaib with great promptness. Rostislav, finding no zeal in Kief boyars, and thinking himself outnumbered and powerless, lost courage, and discussed terms of peace with the son of David. Such indecision roused Mystislav, son of the recent Grand Prince, who left his uncle with these words: “Soon neither thou nor I will have any place.” Rostislav, deserted by his nephew, [[92]]and outflanked by the Polovtsi, fought two days, and then fled, saving his life with much difficulty. The Polovtsi turned now toward Kief, which they threatened. “I wish to go to you,” was the message sent by Izyaslav to Kief citizens. The capital was helpless, Izyaslav was the one man to save it. “Come thou to Kief, lest the Polovtsi take us. Thou art our prince, come at once,” was the quick answer.
Izyaslav needed no second call. He appeared, took the throne of Kief, and sent Glaib, son of Yuri, to Pereyaslavl. When Yuri heard that Izyaslav, his nephew, was dead, and that Rostislav, his other nephew, was in Kief, he set out with strong forces immediately, and was nearing Smolensk, for which he intended the first blow, when he learned that Vyatcheslav, his brother, was dead; that Rostislav was defeated, that Izyaslav, son of David, was reigning in Kief, and Glaib his own son, was prince in Pereyaslavl.
Rostislav, who had reached Smolensk and had collected men, was marching to meet Yuri. Each now wished peace with the other. Yuri was hastening to Kief, which he coveted beyond everything else. Rostislav, who had no desire at that juncture for Kief, was glad to agree with his uncle, and they made peace with apparent sincerity. Yuri continued his march toward Kief, and Rostislav retired to his own capital. Near Storodub, Yuri met his old ally, Sviatoslav, son of Oleg, with whom was Vsevolod’s son, Sviatoslav, who appeared now with a prayer for reinstatement. “In days past I lost my mind altogether. Forgive me.” These were his words to Yuri. The son of Oleg interceded, and Yuri gave pardon, making Sviatoslav kiss the cross not to desert either him, or the son of Oleg. All three set out then for Chernigoff.
Before reaching that city the son of Oleg sent the Kief prince this message: “Go out of Kief, brother, Yuri is marching against thee.” Izyaslav was unwilling to leave Kief. A second message came, but he took no note of it. Thereupon Yuri sent these words: “Kief is my inheritance, not thine.” Without right, and without the special favor of the people, Izyaslav could not remain, so he answered: “I am here not of my own will; the Kief people sent for me. Kief is thine, but harm me not.” Yuri made peace with him and entered Kief, 1155, with four sons, whom he seated in regions about there,—Andrei in Vyshgorod, Boris in Turoff; Vassilko in the Ros country, and Glaib remained in Pereyaslavl. [[93]]
Thus the succession of Kief fell at last to the oldest man of the family. The heirs of Mystislav the Great could not stand against the seniority of Yuri their uncle. David’s descendants had dropped out still earlier; those of Oleg had perished. Yuri’s seniority now received perfect recognition; he had broken through every claim and given victory once more to the right of seniority. Once more and for the last time appeared a perfect reëstablishment of the old regime of Kief dominion, but in the person of Yuri it ended forever. In this was the fateful position of the last son of Monomach: Yuri Dolgoruki stood on the very line dividing the old from the new time in Russia. Even in the early days of this unresisted establishment of Yuri in Kief, there was dissatisfaction, for it was quickly manifest how unacquainted he was with the state of things there, and with the minds of the people. Though perhaps not wantonly cruel, according to the standards of that age, he was grasping and selfish, but as his grandfather, Monomach, was the most popular prince in Russian history, and Mystislav the Great, his father, was second only to the renowned Monomach, he, Dolgoruki, was endured as Prince of Kief, because of his family position. He held the office until death came to him, two years later, 1157, just before an effort was to have been made to expel him.
Yuri, when he became Grand Prince, wishing to keep Andrei near him, had given this favorite son the fortified town of Vyshgorod, fifteen versts distant from Kief, but Andrei was ambitious, and soon became dissatisfied with his humble and dependent position. Therefore he left Vyshgorod secretly and went to Vladimir, his birthplace, taking with him all his belongings and the miraculous image of the Mother of God painted, according to legend, by Saint Luke, and greatly valued by Russians.
This holy image had been brought from Tsargrad to Kief, especially for Yuri, and he had placed it in a cathedral in Vyshgorod.
When Andrei, with the help of the monks, secured the image, he intended to place it in a church in Rostoff, but after leaving Vladimir, and when ten versts beyond that city, the horses drawing the vehicle containing the holy image stopped suddenly, and could not be made to cross the river. Several times the horses were changed, but with no result. Thereupon Andrei declared to the [[94]]people present that the previous night the Mother of God had appeared to him in a vision with a charter in her hand, and had told him to put her image in a church in Vladimir.
The procession turned back at once, and the image was placed in the Vladimir church. Andrei commanded a church and monastery to be built on the spot where the Virgin had made herself manifest. He called this place Bogolyuboff, which means the love of God, and from it he received his own name later on. Henceforth all deeds of valor and prowess, and successes of every kind were ascribed to the miraculous image.