Roman, the eldest Ryazan prince, had brought his brothers to war with one another. He was a vain and ambitious man who, as son-in-law of the Kief prince, thought far more of himself than was proper. Igor and Vladimir, younger brothers of this Roman, who with him held Ryazan, had invited Vsevolod and Sviatoslav, their brothers who ruled in Pronsk, to visit them. Those younger [[126]]brothers, hearing that the other two wished to imprison or kill them, remained in Pronsk and fortified the city. The elder brothers marched promptly against Pronsk, besieged the place, and ravaged the country around it. Roman and his brothers, in making this war, appeared to censure their younger brothers for good will toward the Prince of Vladimir, and also to declare that they themselves cared not a whit for that Vladimir principality. Thus their action was a challenge to Vsevolod, and he gave answer very quickly. Without mingling in the quarrel between the brothers, he sent two boyars to Ryazan with this message, which was really a warning: “It is not a wonder to me that pagans ravage your country. But it is a wonder that ye, instead of living like brothers and guarding your lands against Bulgars and Polovtsi, attack one another and slay your own people. I will not permit such deeds. God has sent me to preserve justice and protect people, to bring to obedience those who break the law criminally. I fear that unless I am careful, God will judge me for the crimes that ye are committing. O brothers, what harm are ye doing? I leave that for you to judge.”
Though the princes knew well what these words meant, they answered haughtily. Wise and cool advisers were not numerous among them. “Each man of their intimates gave nine powers to himself in comparison with others, and, seeing no enemy, was a victor at all times.” They nourished the quarrelsome nature of Roman, and he answered the envoys, with insolence: “What right has Vsevolod to talk here? Are we not just such princes as he is?” The envoys brought back these words to Vladimir. The younger princes in Pronsk had asked Vsevolod to help them. He, to show that he had been asked to protect the weaker, and not as an exhibition of strength, sent three hundred men to aid Pronsk, where they were received gladly. But Roman, with his brothers, continued the siege, looking contemptuously on such a contingent. Vsevolod now sent against Roman the Murom princes and a regiment of his own men. These troops were still in Kolomna when Roman, alarmed at the approach of such forces, left Pronsk with his warriors and hurried home. Vsevolod, one of the Pronsk princes, left Sviatoslav, his brother, in the city and went himself to the allies in Kolomna. When informed of Roman’s flight, the contingent considered the campaign at an end, and returned [[127]]to Vladimir. But the Pronsk prince went to Vsevolod’s capital, and asked for further protection, as he had no confidence in maintaining peace with his elder brothers.
When Roman heard of the retreat from Kolomna of the allies, he returned and attacked Pronsk a second time. Turning the river, he deprived the place of water and brought the people to great suffering. Then he tried to capture Pronsk by treachery, and at last succeeded in this way: Sviatoslav, who held the city, became an enemy of Vsevolod, his brother, who had gone to Vladimir. “Destroy not thyself and thy men with hunger,” said Roman to him. “Come out to us. Thou art our brother, why fear us? We are fighting not against thee, but against the Prince of Vladimir.” The friends of the besieged prince continually repeated to him words like these: “Thy brother Vsevolod has gone over to the Prince of Vladimir; he has deserted and betrayed thee. Why destroy thyself and us?” At last, influenced by these speeches, the Pronsk prince surrendered. The three hundred men from Vladimir were captured and sent to Ryazan. A worse fate befell the men serving the prince who had gone to Vladimir, and, as his enemies alleged, had gone over to the Grand Prince. They were seized, every one of them, both boyars and common men, bound with ropes and thrown into prison. Roman detained Vsevolod’s wife and children, and imprisoned them. Vsevolod of Pronsk, on hearing of this, began war against all of his brothers.
When news was brought to the Prince of Vladimir that Pronsk had been captured by deceit, he at once prepared for war in earnest. He began by sending a message to the prince who had surrendered to Roman: “Give back my men. Give back all my men and property. Thou and thy brother asked aid of me. Not wishing to desert you in trouble, I gave it; now thou hast made peace with Roman and betrayed the men sent by me.” When the Pronsk prince received this message, Roman, fearing an attack from Vladimir, sent straightway these words to the Grand Prince: “Thou art our lord, father and elder brother. Wherever there is an offense against thee, we will be first to avenge thee. We have warred against our brother, for he would not obey us, but be not angry because of that. We stand with bowed heads before thee. Thy men will be freed without harm, and immediately.” [[128]]
The Grand Prince, seeing that Roman had turned from venomous malice to deceitful submission, did not wait for a lying peace. “An honorable war is better than a disgraceful peace,” declared he to the envoys of Roman, and he sent them away. He moved then on Kolomna, and commanded the Murom men and the Pronsk prince to advance. They crossed the Oká, and on the Ryazan side made a desert wherever they showed themselves. Knowing the state of affairs in Ryazan, the Polovtsi, who were ever watching with keenness, rose and began to ravage the country. The lands of those wrangling brothers were subjected to every evil that man could inflict. Roman, not forgetting that he was a son-in-law of the Kief prince, and remembering that Ryazan was connected with Chernigoff territory in some degree, begged the Chernigoff princes to bring Vsevolod to leniency. The bishop of Chernigoff, who was the Ryazan bishop also, was sent to the city of Vladimir, where he begged the resident bishop to assist him. The two bishops, aided by boyars from the Kief prince, persuaded Vsevolod that peace was best if obtained with honor. The trouble now lay in details. The real question which rose in the mind of Vsevolod was this, that the Ryazan princes must cease to be sovereign, they must obey Vladimir. The bishop assured him that the princes promised this faithfully, that they would kiss the cross to be under his will altogether, and would in future obey him. The Grand Prince granted power to make peace on this basis. That done, he liberated all the Ryazan men held captive in Vladimir. He freed also the envoys, who had been sent to him, and then appointed an embassy to conclude the treaty in Ryazan. The Chernigoff bishop reached Ryazan earlier than Vsevolod’s envoys. He brought details of the conditions proposed, and had influence on negotiations, but everything that he presented, and that he did was in a different spirit from that concerted in Vladimir. Then he hastened home to Chernigoff, avoiding the envoys of the Grand Prince. The Chernigoff bishop, it is clear, desired that Ryazan should remain bound to Chernigoff in church matters, and subjected, in some degree at least, to his own direction.
To Vladimir it was very important that Ryazan should not be under Chernigoff in any way. The Vladimir people blamed Porfiri, the Chernigoff bishop, for acting not as a man of God, but as a wily politician. They complained that peace with Ryazan [[129]]was not concluded on the conditions fixed in Vladimir. They wished Vsevolod to expose the man who had given information in a sense hostile to Vladimir, and then vanished. But Vsevolod did not find it proper to do what they demanded. Peace was concluded, and the princes, who had sworn to recognize Vsevolod of Vladimir “to the full extent of his will,” were bound over now to submission. Vsevolod, Roman’s brother, was reinstated in Pronsk, and he and his brother regained all the lands there, both ruling in common.
After that the princes of Ryazan without exception remained obedient to Vladimir. The troubles just described occurred in 1185–86, and so strong were the relations formed then that years later, when Constantine, son of Vsevolod, was crowned in Vladimir, all the Ryazan princes were present to render homage.
In 1184, being again friendly with Rurik of Bailgorod, and David of Smolensk, as well as with the Volynia princes and the Prince of Galitch, Sviatoslav of Kief invited all princes to join him in a war against their common enemy, the Polovtsi. The southern princes promised Sviatoslav aid, but in Chernigoff his brothers and cousins were more difficult to deal with than remoter relatives, because of questions touching land in Chernigoff. His sons needed territory in that region, and princes, when dividing lands, nearly always disputed. Still his brothers and cousins did not refuse directly. The campaign, they said, was arranged awkwardly for them. If he would change the plan they would go with him. But other princes had assembled, and with them warriors in sufficient number.
With the Kief prince marched his sons, Glaib and Mystislav, also the gallant Vladimir, son of Glaib, from Pereyaslavl on the Alta. From Volynia came Roman, son of Mystislav, who brought with him two cousins, and also princes less distinguished. From Smolensk came Izyaslav, son of David, and Rurik came from Bailgorod. Yaroslav Eight Minds sent a contingent also. The allies, under Sviatoslav, came upon the enemy near a river, now known as the Orel, but then called Erela by the Polovtsi, at a place where the Vorskla and the Erela, both tributaries of the Dnieper, flowing almost parallel and close to each other, form a long tongue of land bounded by the Dnieper and those two rivers on two sides and one end. At that time this place was called simply “The Corner.” In that corner was won a great victory.
When they were nearing the Polovtsi, the daring Vladimir, son [[130]]of Glaib, therefore grandson of Sviatoslav, begged for the first place. “Let me go against them, O my father,” implored he. “They have turned my lands into a desert. Let me go in advance with my men to attack them.” But the sons of the prince would not consent to be behind Vladimir in valor, hence Sviatoslav sent forward with his gallant grandson all the youngest princes of his guard, adding twenty-one hundred Cherkasi to strengthen their forces, but Vladimir led on with such swiftness that the princes going with him were left far behind, and he with his single command met the enemy in “The Corner.”