Rurik tried to reason with Roman, and explain their relations: “I gave thee those places, and when the Prince of Vladimir complained that I did not show him due honor, I declared all his words to thee. Thou didst agree to relinquish those places. As is known to thee, we cannot work against the Vladimir prince. We, Monomach’s descendants, made him the elder. Thou wilt have regions equal to those given to him.”
But Roman was simply feigning offense when he reproached [[147]]Rurik. In fact he was seeking reproaches, and had no wish at all to agree with him. When at last Rurik learned that his son-in-law had kissed the cross with Yaroslav of Chernigoff to occupy Kief, he sent envoys to cast his written oath at the feet of the traitor. He wrote then to Big Nest, explaining Roman’s treason—and a general war was soon in preparation.
Roman, alarmed at Rurik’s act in casting down the oath papers, and fearing that prince’s powerful ally, Vsevolod of Vladimir, not to lose time by negotiation, took his military following and marched straight to Cracow, where he had a few time-serving friends and some temporary allies. Kazimir the Just, Roman’s uncle, had died in 1194. His widow, Yelena, the daughter of Vsevolod, Roman’s brother, and her children, the heirs of the late king, rejoiced at his coming, but instead of giving aid they begged aid of Roman against Mechislav, who would not recognize Kazimir’s son, Leshko, as king, though he had been placed on the throne by all the estates.
“We should be glad to assist thee,” said Leshko, “but we cannot while Mechislav, my uncle, attacks me. Give aid against him, and when we have conquered, we will go as one man to assist thee.” This plan of giving all Poland to Leshko, and then, with its aid, to win primacy in Russia seemed pleasing to Roman. “I will get my mind’s wish now,” thought he.
Mechislav did not desire war with Roman, and begged that prince, through envoys, to mediate between him and Leshko. Roman’s Russian intimates advised compliance with this request, but, listening neither to them nor the envoys, he attacked Mechislav with his own men and those of his nephew. His thought: “I will get my mind’s wish,” was not realized this time, however, for Mechislav gained a great victory. Roman, so severely wounded that he could not sit on a horse, was borne back to Cracow on a litter, and thence to Volynia in the same way.
Thus ended at that time the great plans of Roman. When leaving Cracow, he urged his Polish relatives not to be cast down in spirit, and promised to help them as soon as he had assembled his forces. Knowing his father-in-law’s weakness, he sent him a message of penitence and implored the metropolitan Nikifor to speak for him. Rurik was delighted. “Since Roman is sorry and repents,” said he, “I will let him kiss the cross again, and give [[148]]him provinces. He will honor me now as a father, I will call him my son again, I have wished him well at all times.”
In fact Roman received new lands. Rurik, in pacifying his son-in-law in this way, wished to ward off Chernigoff princes roused against him by Roman. In treating of this matter, Big Nest and Rurik sent a message to the descendants of Oleg in the name of all the descendants of Monomach, as follows: “Kiss the cross to us that ye will not seek to take from us, or our descendants, or any descendant of Monomach, our Kief inheritance and Smolensk.” Referring to the ancient ordinance which left to the ancestor of all the descendants of Oleg the Chernigoff region as far west as the Dnieper, they added: “Ye do not need Kief.”
The descendants of Oleg met in counsel, and sent this answer to the Prince of Vladimir: “We adhere to our agreement, which was that we would not try to take Kief from you, or your relatives. But if we are to lose Kief forever, we answer that we are not Poles or Hungarians, but grandsons of one grandfather. During thy life we will not strive for Kief, but after thy death, let it go to whom God will give it.”
Such a decided reply troubled Big Nest considerably, and brought Rurik to confusion. He begged the Vladimir prince insistently to make war on Chernigoff. Big Nest promised “to mount his horse,” and commanded his warriors to assemble. Even Novgorod took the field at his order. But at the same time he received with pleasure envoys from Chernigoff, who declared that they had no thought to offend him. Big Nest dismounted, and commanded the Novgorod men to return to their city. We can understand easily this action of Big Nest. The demand made on Chernigoff, not only to abstain from seeking Kief, but also from entering Smolensk lands, showed the cause of the fear which disturbed Rurik, and concerned even Big Nest, though he considered it without direct interest. This question touched Drutsk, Vitebsk and neighboring places which, because they were near Chernigoff borders, were seized frequently by Smolensk princes. If the Chernigoff princes could not get these lands themselves, they preferred that the Polotsk princes should have them. The great point was that Smolensk should not get them. Now David, Rurik’s son, had seized Vitebsk, and therefore was in open enmity with Yaroslav of Chernigoff. To end this quarrel, Rurik promised to [[149]]discuss the question with his brother. He laid down the condition that Chernigoff should not take arms till negotiations were finished. But the Chernigoff princes, who had prepared for war some months earlier, being roused now by Roman, were unwilling to wait for the end of negotiations between Smolensk and Kief, and began war that same winter to win the Smolensk border, where it touched their possessions on the Polotsk side.
Yaroslav of Chernigoff sent forward Oleg, his nephew, and the Polotsk princes helped him. David, Rurik’s brother, sent against them his nephew, Mystislav, son-in-law of Big Nest. The first battle came out very strangely. The Chernigoff princes were thrown into confusion, and their banners were trampled by Smolensk. When Oleg’s son, David, was pursued by Mystislav of Smolensk, and Oleg was growing weak from attacks of the enemy, the Smolensk men were put to flight by a Polotsk onset. Since Smolensk was now beaten by Chernigoff, the Polotsk warriors ceased to pursue other Smolensk men, and turning, fell on the rear of Mystislav’s regiment and trampled it. Mystislav himself was following one of Oleg’s divisions. When he turned, after stopping pursuit, he thought that he would see his own men, that Chernigoff was conquered, but, to his amazement, he found not his men, but Polotsk warriors in front of him. They recognized him, and he was seized at once. Others, returning from the pursuit of Oleg of Chernigoff, beheld from afar the Polotsk triumph, and fled, as did all the men of Smolensk.