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Vsevolodovich). Finally, on occasion, princes succeeded one another peace­fully (e.g. Mstislav Vladimirovich after Vladimir Monomakh; Vsevolod the Red after Riurik Rostislavich; Vladimir Riurikovich after Mstislav Romanovich).

During these years the inner circle created by Iaroslav the Wise evolved into one forged by political realities. Vladimir Monomakh debarred the dynasties of Turov and Chernigov thus making his heirs the only rightful claimants to Kiev. When, however, his younger sons and grandsons (Mstislavichi) both championed their right of succession, they divided the dynasty into two lines of rival contenders. By usurping Kiev from the House of Monomakh, Vsevolod Ol'govich also won the right of succession for his heirs. He therewith raised to three the number of dynasties with legitimate claims. The number increased to four when the Mstislavichi bifurcated into the Volyn' and Smolensk lines. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, only two dynasties remained as viable candidates, namely, those of Smolensk (Mstislav Romanovich and Vladimir Riurikovich) and Chernigov (Mikhail Vsevolodovich). The princes of Volyn' had become debarred because they had fallen too low on the genealog­ical ladder of seniority, and the princes of Suzdalia had found the hostility of the Kievans and the distance that separated them from Kiev to be too great. Finally, in the 1240s, the Tatars terminated the established order of succession to Kiev.

His authority, like that of Monomakh and Mstislav, was supreme. He appropriated Turov and Vladimir-in-Volynia. He sent his brother Sviatoslav to Novgorod where the latter issued a statute (ustav) regulating the rela­tionship between the prince and the Church.16 After the Novgorodians expelled Sviatoslav, Vsevolod replaced him with Mstislav's son Sviatopolk, one of his brothers-in-law. To another, Iziaslav, he gave Pereiaslavl'. Except for Volodimerko of Galich, who attempted to seize Vladimir-in-Volynia, Vsevolod encountered no serious opposition. (For Volodimerko, see Table 5.2: The House of Galicia.) On one occasion he reconciled his disgruntled brothers and cousins by asking his cousin Sviatosha Davidovich, who had become a monk in the Caves monastery and would later be canonised, to mediate on his behalf. He patronised the Church by building the monastery of St Cyril in Kiev and the church of St George in Kanev.

Before he died on 1 August 1146,17 Vsevolod also took a page out of Mono- makh's book by attempting to make Kiev the patrimony of the Ol'govichi.

16 DanielH. Kaiser, TheGrowthoftheLawinMedievalRussia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 58-9.

17 PSRL, vol. 11, cols. 320-1.

Pereiaslavl', Boris to Turov, and Vasil'ko to the River Ros' region. (See Table 5.3: The House of Suzdalia.) He also returned to Sviatoslav the Ol'govichi domains that Iziaslav had appropriated. Moreover, he permitted Sviatoslav to translate Igor''s body to Chernigov where the latter was canonised.27 Iurii's reign, how­ever, was short-lived because the Kievans despised him. On I5 May II57 he died after evidently being poisoned at a feast.28

After the prince of Kiev died, his allies lost the towns he had allocated to them from the Kievan lands or from debarred families. The towns were seized either by his replacement in Kiev or by the rightful owners. This happened with Turov. Vladimir Monomakh had seized the domain from the sons of Sviatopolk Iziaslavich (d. 1113) and made it the possession of the prince of Kiev. Following the death of Iurii Dolgorukii, however, Sviatopolk's descendant Iurii Iaroslavich recaptured it.29 After that Turov's politically insignificant princes came increasingly under the influence of Volyn', Galicia and the Lithuanians.

27 PSRL, vol. ii, col. 408.

28 PSRL, vol. ii, col. 489.

29 PSRL, vol. xxv, p. 63. For Sviatopolk's family, see Baumgarten, Genealogies et manages, table II, 3.

51 For Roman Glebovich, see N. de Baumgarten, Genealogies des branches regnantes des Rurikides du XIIIe au XVIe siecle (Orientalia Christiana) (Rome: Pont. Institutum Oriental- ium Studiorum, 1934), vol. 35, no. 94, table xiv, 11.

52 PSRL, vol. II, cols. 618-20.