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Kievan Rus' Succession Struggle
After the death of Vladimir the Great in 1015, his sons fought a fierce civil war over the Kievan grand princely throne;…
Timeline
- 1015Kiev · KievAfter the death of Vladimir the Great, his eldest son Sviatopolk quickly seized control of Kiev, proclaimed himself grand prince, and began eliminating potential rivals, sparking an armed confrontation among the princes.
- 1015–1016The lands of Kievan Rus' · Kievan Rus'Boris and Gleb were successively murdered and venerated by the church as martyrs; Sviatoslav was also assassinated. Yaroslav assembled an army at Novgorod and marched south, fighting several pitched battles against Sviatopolk as the civil war erupted in full.
- 1019Kiev · KievWith foreign aid from Poland and others, Yaroslav defeated Sviatopolk in 1019; the latter fled into exile in Poland, where he died of illness, and Yaroslav took Kiev, ending the succession struggle through armed unification.
Sources
- Primary Chronicle (Tale of Bygone Years) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_Chronicle
- Dimnik, Martin. The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054–1146 — Martin Dimnik (2003)