In 1229 some of the Galitch men, faithful to the people, secretly invited Daniel to come and rule in their land. At his approach, boyars favorable to Hungary closed the gates of the city, burned the bridge on the Dniester, and used every possible means to oppose him. But the people from Ushitsa, Bobrok and Pruth regions marched in from all quarters to meet the prince “born to them,” and no party had sufficient power to check them.
Daniel, forgetting the king’s opposition, and remembering only his personal kindness, did no harm to Prince Bela, who was Mystislav’s son-in-law. He allowed him to go back to Hungary, and even went with him to the Dniester. The intriguing boyars bowed now before Daniel, and only one of them, Sudislav the Traitor, went with the king’s son. The people threw stones at this boyar, and shouted: “Be off, thou disturber, thou traitor!”
The next year, however, a new plot was formed against Daniel, and during the decade setting in with 1230 conspiracies and disturbances did not cease throughout Galitch. The boyars called Daniel prince, but seized for themselves everything in the country. A dissolution of all social bonds and a general decay of loyalty spread with rising rapidity. Formerly only boyars such as Sudislav or Volodislav, called Red Hair, were exalted, but now a great host broke in, boyars of whom no man had heard until that day; notorious were Voldrys and Klimyata, but no one knew of what stock they were. One Dobruslav seized the whole lower country, though he had no more right to it than a robber. At the same time a certain Grigory Vassilevitch took the upper part of Peremysl. A priest’s grandson, one Suditch, plundered actively on every side. Famous also were Lazar Domajiritch and Ivor Molibojitch, two lawless men of low origin. Such boyars “made great disturbance and robbed much,” says the chronicler. And these men were managing the fortunes of Galitch, treating now with Hungarians, now with Poles, and now with Russian princes. From one side they rushed to another, and again turned from that one with offers of service to him who could promise the profit at which they were grasping. In such a condition of Galitch Daniel now lost his heritage, not preserving one foot of land for himself in all that great region, and then again he returned to the throne of his father with apparent security.
The Hungarian king, at the advice of boyars, came sometimes [[228]]himself, and sometimes he sent his sons thither. Bailski, with his brethren, took the side of the boyars and rose up in arms against Daniel. Finally Michael of Chernigoff appeared to take vengeance on Daniel for harassing his land, but, besides this, Michael remembered the offense against his own kinsmen in Galitch, the vile death inflicted by boyars on Igor’s sons. There, on the spot where their blood had been shed in the city of Galitch, he felt it his duty to win back the honor of his family. Hence Galitch was torn into bits and was ruled at short intervals, now by its own men, and now by outsiders. More than once intriguing boyars fell at Daniel’s feet and begged mercy, for the common people adhered to him firmly at all times. At last Bailski ceased his scheming: “I see myself,” said he to Daniel, “that I can be with no one but thee.” And then the Poles made peace with Daniel. Next the Hungarian king, Bela IV, made peace.
But each success gained by Daniel was followed by the treason of boyars. Now they conspired to burn him and his brother in their palace; now to assassinate them at table while feasting. And again they roused Bailski against Daniel.
Then they summoned in Daniel’s enemies from other regions of Russia, to be followed by renewed inroads of Poles and Hungarians. Michael of Chernigoff once more entered into greater friendship with Hungary than with Daniel. He arranged a marriage of his son, Rostislav, to one of Bela’s many daughters, and maintained a continual alliance with Poland. Such was the state of affairs during the dreadful ten years which succeeded 1230.
Yaroslav, son of Big Nest, held Kief as prince in 1237. We know not from whom he received it, but the place fell to him without a struggle. There were two princes then who might have claimed the throne, each insignificant,—Vladimir, son of Rurik, who was still in debt for a part of his ransom to the Polovtsi, and Izyaslav. It may be that Yaroslav took Kief from these men. He left it on hearing that the city of Vladimir was destroyed by the Mongols.
Michael of Chernigoff now took Kief, and put his son in Galitch, but in 1239 he left Kief because the Mongols had ruined Pereyaslavl and Chernigoff on the Alta, and were moving against the ancient capital. The Mongols sent envoys to Michael demanding surrender. The Kief people seized those envoys and slew them. [[229]]Michael fled straightway. Now from Smolensk came Rostislav, son of Mystislav, but he was driven out immediately by Daniel, who had at last won Galitch and mastered it thoroughly. But though Daniel had Kief, he himself did not enter it, but he sent Dmitri, his boyar, to hold the place.
Daniel had completely overcome his opponents on every side. He now surpassed all southern princes, and was stronger than his father had ever been, for he had Kief in addition to Galitch and Volynia, but this was in 1239, when the dreadful hour was approaching, and it was too late to enjoy any fruit from the battles and toils which he had passed through. The very next year Kief was turned into “corpses, and ruins and ashes,” and Daniel was soon to receive the Mongol command: “Yield Galitch, and level thy walls in Volynia.”
It is remarkable that the Mongol tempest was preceded not only by countless wars and mad quarrels, which produced immense suffering and anguish, but by the appearance of such omens in the sky and such marvels on all sides that ceaseless terror was born of them everywhere.