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Daniel of Galicia

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Daniel
Boyars swear an oath to Daniel, miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible (16th century)
King of Ruthenia
Reign1253–1264
SuccessorLeo I
Prince of Galicia
Reign1205–1207
PredecessorRoman Mstyslavych
SuccessorVladimir Igorevich
Reign1211–1212
PredecessorVladimir Igorevich
SuccessorMstislav Yaroslavich
Reign1230–1232
PredecessorAndrew of Hungary
SuccessorAndrew of Hungary
Reign1233–1234
PredecessorAndrew of Hungary
SuccessorMikhail Vsevolodovich
Reign1238–1264
PredecessorRostislav Mikhailovich
SuccessorLeo I
Prince of Volhynia
Reign1215–1238
PredecessorAlexander Vsevolodovich
SuccessorVasilko Romanovich
Born1201
Died1264 (aged 62–63)
Kholm
SpouseAnna Mstislavna of Novgorod
Niece of King Mindaugas
Issue
more...		Iraklii Danylovich
Lev I of Galicia
Roman Danylovich
Svarn
HouseRomanovichi branch of the Rurikids
FatherRoman Mstislavich
MotherAnna from Byzantium

Daniel Romanovich[a] (1201–1264)[5][6] was Prince of Galicia (1205–1207; 1211–1212; 1230–1232; 1233–1234; 1238–1264), Volhynia (1205–1208; 1215–1238), Grand Prince of Kiev (1240), and King of Ruthenia (1253–1264).[7]

Biography

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Early life and reign

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Further information: War of the Galician Succession (1205–1245)

Daniel's father, Roman Mstislavich, united the principalities of Galicia and Volhynia in 1199.[5] After his death in 1205, the boyars of Galicia forced the four-year-old Daniel into exile with his mother Anna of Byzantium and brother Vasylko Romanovich. After the boyars proclaimed one of their own as prince, the Poles and Hungarians invaded the principality, ostensibly to support the claims of young Daniel and Vasylko, and divided it between themselves. In 1219, he renounced his claims to Galicia in favor of his father-in-law, Mstislav the Bold.[8]

In 1221, Daniel re-established his rule over Volhynia, where the boyars and populace had reaffirmed their loyalty to his dynasty. In 1223 the young prince led his troops against the Mongols as part of the coalition of Rus' princes in the Battle of Kalka, which ended in destruction of the allied force. Wounded in the fighting, Daniel was able to escape encirclement by the enemy and survived. During his rule over Volhynia the prince gave his younger brother Vasylko the principality of Lutsk. The brothers fought tohether against Jotvingians, which raided his lands. Daniel's influence and his alliance with Polish duke Leszek the White made him a competitor to Volodymyr Rurikovich, Prince of Kyiv. After Leszek's assassination in 1228 Daniel and Vasylko allied with the deceased prince's brother Konrad of Masovia and campaigned tohether with him against Polish duke Władysław Spindleshanks. In 1230 Daniel was invited to take the throne of Halych for the second time and defeated Hungarian troops which besieged the city. However, the boyars once against plotted against the prince and helped Hungarian prince Andrew to recapture the city in 1232.[9] In 1234 Daniel defeated Alexander Vsevolodovich, taking the Duchy of Belz. By 1238, he had defeated former Dobrzyń Knights at Drohiczyn (Dorohochyn), and regained most of Galicia,[10] including the capital. While the Prussians were under pressure from the Teutonic Order, Daniel attempted to conquer their neighbours, the Jotvingians.[11]

Mongol invasions

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Further information: Batu's raid of 1240 in Ruthenia

In 1239, with the advancing Mongols, Michael of Chernigov, the grand prince of Kiev, who was married to Daniel's sister, quickly left Kiev and petitioned Daniel for help. Daniel dispatched his voivode, Dmytro, to defend the city. However, after a long siege, its walls were breached and, despite fierce fighting within the city, Kiev fell on 6 December 1240 and was largely destroyed. Early in the next year, April 1241, the Mongols passed through Galicia and Volhynia, destroying Halych and advancing on Poland and Hungary.[12] Daniel and Vasylko fled to Poland, and eventually moved their capital from Halych to Kholm (modern Chełm) in late 1240 or early 1241. In his absence, Daniel appointed boyar Dobroslav Suddych to distribute lands to fellow Galician boyars in Kolomyia, but when the latter in early 1241 began allotting them to Chernigov boyars instead (possibly in collaboration with the Olgovichi prince Rostislav Mikhailovich), Daniel summoned him to Kholm and imprisoned him in late 1241.[13]

Establishment of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia

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On 17 August 1245, Daniel defeated a combined force of the prince of Chernigov, disaffected boyars, and Hungarian and Polish elements at Yaroslav, and finally took the remainder of Galicia, thus reconstituting his father's holdings. He made his brother Vasylko the ruler of Volhynia and retained the Galician title for himself, though he continued to exercise real power in both places.[14]

Territorial boundaries of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia (1245–1349).

Daniel's domestic policies focused on stability and economic growth. During his rule, German, Polish, and Rus' merchants and artisans were invited into Galicia, and numbers of Armenians and Jews established themselves in the towns and cities. Daniel founded the towns of Lviv (1256) and Kholm, naming the former for his son, and fortified many others. He appointed officials to protect the peasantry from aristocratic exploitation and formed peasant-based heavy infantry units.[15]

Yet Daniel's successes and his failed defense of Kiev attracted the further attention of the Mongols. In 1246, he was summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde at Sarai on the Volga River and was forced to accept Mongol overlordship. According to Ukrainian historian Orest Subtelny, Daniel was handed a cup of fermented mare's milk by the Mongol khan, Batu, and told to get used to it, as "you are one of ours now". They exchanged hostages whereby 100 families of Karaites were re-settled in Carpathian Galicia. According to James Chambers,[16] the following dialogue took place between Batu and Daniel of Galicia: "At a banquet Batu asked if he drank kumiz like the Mongols and Daniel answered: 'Until now I did not, but now I do as you command and I drink it'. To which Batu replied: 'You are now one of ours,' and since he was more used to it ordered that Daniel be given a goblet of wine." This was due to Daniel's notorious love of wine.[17]

While formally accepting the Mongols as overlords, and supplying them with soldiers as required, Daniel built his foreign policy around opposition to the Golden Horde.[citation needed] Suffering from raids by Lithuanians and Jotvingians,[18] he simultaneously established cordial relations with the rulers of the Kingdom of Poland and Kingdom of Hungary, and requested aid from Pope Innocent IV in the form of a crusade. In return for papal assistance, Daniel offered to place his lands under the ecclesiastical authority of Rome, a pledge never realised.[19] Wooed by the prospect of extending his authority, the Pope encouraged Daniel's resistance to the Mongols and his Western orientation, and in 1253, had a papal representative crown Daniel as king at Dorohochyn, present-day Drohiczyn on the Bug River. However, Daniel wanted more than recognition, and commented bitterly that he expected an army when he received the crown.[20] From then on, Daniel was known as rex Russiae and sometimes by the title korol.[19]

The following year, Daniel repelled Mongol assaults led by Orda's son, Kuremsa, on Ponyzia and Volhynia and dispatched an expedition with the aim of taking Kiev. Despite initial successes, in 1259, a Mongol force under Burundai and Nogai Khan entered Galicia and Volhynia and offered an ultimatum: Daniel was to destroy his fortifications or Burundai would assault the towns. Daniel complied and pulled down the city walls.[14]

Depiction of the Battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260, in which Daniel's troops fought on the side of King Bela IV of Hungary

In the last years of his reign, Daniel engaged in dynastic politics, marrying a son and a daughter to the offspring of Mindaugas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and acquiring territorial concessions in Poland from the latter. Another daughter of his, Ustynia, was married to Andrey Yaroslavich of Vladimir-Suzdal. He also arranged for the marriage of his son Roman to Gertrude, the Babenberg heiress, but was unsuccessful in his bid to have him placed on the ducal throne of Austria.[citation needed]

By his death in 1264, Daniel had reconstructed and expanded the territories held by his father, held off the expansionist threats of Poland and Hungary, minimized Mongol influence in the territories of present-day western Ukraine, and raised the economic and social standards of his domains. He was succeeded in Galicia by his son Leo.[citation needed]

Legacy

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Mosaic of Daniel (1989) in the Zoloti Vorota station of the Kyiv Metro.

A monument to him was erected in 1998 in the city of Halych.[21] In 2001 an equestrian statue honouring Daniel was unveiled in Lviv to commemmorate 800 years from his birth.[22]

On 7 September 2011, the parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada) issued a resolution on "celebration of the 810th Anniversary of the birth of the first King of Ruthenia-Ukraine Daniel of Galicia".[23]

In 2012 the main airport in the city of Lviv was renamed in honour of the the prince as Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport.[24]

Family

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Wives

Sisters

Sons

Daughters

Ancestry

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ukrainian: Данило Романович, romanized: Danylo Romanovych;[1][2] also known as Daniel or Daniil of Galicia,[3] or Danylo of Halych[4] (Ukrainian: Данило Галицький, romanized: Danylo Halyts'kyi).

References

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  1. ^ Katchanovski et al. 2013, p. 197.
  2. ^ Magocsi 2010, p. 124–126.
  3. ^ Martin 2007, p. 178.
  4. ^ Plokhy 2017, p. 85.
  5. ^ a b Langer, Lawrence N. (15 September 2021). Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-5381-1942-6.
  6. ^ Biographical Index of the Middle Ages. Walter de Gruyter. 1 March 2011. p. 296. ISBN 978-3-11-091416-0.
  7. ^ Войтович, Леонтій Вікторович (1992). Генеалогія Рюриковичів і Гедиміновичів (in Ukrainian). Avtor. p. 87. ISBN 5-7702-0506-7.
  8. ^ Galician-Volhynian Chronicle, 1196-1223
  9. ^ Galician-Volhynian Chronicle, 1224-1244
  10. ^ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Daniel Romanovich". Encyclopedia Britannica
  11. ^ Synytsia, Yevhen. "YATVYAGI". The encyclopedia of the history of Ukraine.
  12. ^ Alexander, Maiorov (March 2015). "The Mongol conquest of Volhynia and Galicia: Controversial and unresolved issues". Research Gate.
  13. ^ Voloshchuk 2020, p. 44.
  14. ^ a b Kotliar, Mykola. "Daniel of Galicia". The encyclopedia of the history of Ukraine.
  15. ^ "Danilo Romanovich". The magical city of Zviagel.
  16. ^ Chambers, James. The Devil´s Horsemen. The Mongol Invasion of Europe. New York 1979. page 120
  17. ^ Galician-Volhynian Chronicle, 1245-1260
  18. ^ Galician-Volhynian Chronicle, 1245-1260
  19. ^ a b Oresko, Robert; Gibbs, G. C.; Scott, H. M. (30 January 1997). Royal and Republican Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Memory of Ragnhild Hatton. Cambridge University Press. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-521-41910-9.
  20. ^ John Joseph Saunders. (2001). The history of the Mongol conquests. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 101
  21. ^ "Пам'ятник королю Данилу Галицькому — Галич - Галицька міська рада". www.galych-rada.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  22. ^ "Monument to Daniel of Galicia or a monument for a birthday" (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  23. ^ Law of Ukraine. Official document.
  24. ^ "Lviv Airport receives officially received a new name" (in Ukrainian). 7 February 2012.

Bibliography

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Media related to Daniel of Galicia at Wikimedia Commons

Daniel of Galicia
Born: 1201 Died: 1264
New title King of Ruthenia
1253–1264 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prince of Galicia-Volhynia
1205–1264
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