CHAPTER XIV

[Contents]CHAPTER XIVIVAN KALITÁIn 1319, Yuri returned from the Horde with the Khan’s patent making him Grand Prince. According to old Russian rules, he was equal to the sons of Prince Michael. If they were superior through inheritance from a father who had held the position of Grand Prince, a position which Yuri’s father had never held, he surpassed them through his grandfather Nevski, who was senior to their grandfather, Yaroslav. In descent, men might hold them equal. But Yuri surpassed the Tver prince in wealth, and in the number of his warriors, and with the patent of the Khan he became chief, and all yielded.Yuri hastened to Vladimir and took the throne, merely making a short halt at Moscow, to leave there Michael’s son Constantine, with his father’s boyars and servants. Yuri had taken Constantine from the Horde, partly as a relative, partly as a prisoner; the boyars were really prisoners. No one in Tver knew exactly what had taken place; all were in doubt and anxiety, and when Yuri’s return was reported, men were sent to Vladimir to discover the truth. They brought tidings to Tver that Prince Michael was dead and his body had been taken to Moscow and buried.As soon as Yuri appeared in Vladimir, Dmitri, Michael’s eldest son, took possession of Tver in accordance with the will of his father. Then he sent his younger brother, Alexander, to Yuri, to ask for the body of his father. Yuri refused at first to deliver it, but he at last consented, and the body was taken back to Tver.Boris, Yuri’s brother, died in Moscow soon after this, as did also Afanasi, whom Yuri had settled in Novgorod, so that of Daniel’s sons only Yuri and Ivan were living. When Yuri returned from the Horde as Grand Prince, he gave his inherited lands, as it seems, to Ivan. In 1320, Ivan went to do homage to Uzbek; till[309]that time he had never seen him. In that year Tver had three marriages of princes: Alexander and Constantine found brides among Russians, but Dmitri took a daughter of Gedimin, the Lithuanian Grand Prince. This connection with Gedimin brought Dmitri into intimate relations with an enemy of Russia, and made it more difficult still for Tver to be friendly with Vladimir. Dmitri did not wish to see Yuri, or approach him, or even hear his name mentioned. Outspoken and direct, irrepressible and passionate the name Terrible Eyes had been given Dmitri, and it describedhim clearly.Yuri’s first move as Grand Prince was a quarrel with Ryazan, undertaken to punish one of its princes. That labor finished, he moved on Dmitri. The task was “to take his honor,” as the phrase ran in those days.Expeditions were made then, as they had been made earlier, to impose peace “with dread and trembling.” Minor princes performed certain acts at the coronation of a Grand Prince. If not to show submission, at least to recognize that he was their superior. The Grand Prince made a treaty with each minor prince, causing him at the same time to kiss the cross to observe it. When the Khan gave a patent to an important prince, minor princes led his horse in the ceremony of installation.Yuri, of course, was not seeking a service of this kind, but as Dmitri had not ranged himself with princes who acknowledged his headship, Yuri now led his warriors to attack Tver. When Dmitri heard of this campaign against him, he made no move, but begged his friend Varsonofi, the bishop, to save him from every discussion with Yuri. He agreed to all terms in advance, so as to avoid meeting him. The bishop persuaded the Grand Prince to withdraw from the country, after receiving a solemn declaration from Dmitri that he would not strive to be Grand Prince.The chief mark of subjection in a minor prince at that time was to pay the Khan’s tribute, not at the Horde, but to the Grand Prince. Yuri insisted on this, and if negotiations with the bishop were protracted, it was only because of discussions on that subject; but Dmitri in the end agreed to that also, and promised to send to Yuri two thousand grievens, which he had collected from Tver as a tribute. Dmitri sent this money to Yuri that year (1321). The following year he went to the Horde for confirmation as senior[310]heir to the Tver principality. He took gifts to the Khan and rendered homage as usual; then, unable to restrain himself, he told the Khan all that was troubling his spirit. Disregarding the ceremony which was binding on every one, he explained to Uzbek how Kavgady and Yuri had calumniated his father, condemned him, and killed him in his innocence. The Terrible-Eyed Dmitri explained everything with respect and submission. Moreover, his coming to the Horde was a mark of his faithfulness. He might refer to this, and, of course, he was not silent; he said that he submitted to the will of the Khan; that he acknowledged the primacy of Yuri, the proof of which was that he had given him the tribute of Tver, those two thousand grievens which Yuri had not paid at the Horde, as was shown when officials sought for an account of them.Yuri perhaps had no thought of withholding this tribute; circumstances may have prevented his going immediately to the Horde with it, for soon after he received the money he was forced to hasten to Novgorod, and farther, since at that time he was fighting fiercely against the Swedes and the Germans of Riga, and he had not yet returned from that distant campaigning. Still, as was thought at the Horde, it was not the right way to act, and command was given straightway to summon Yuri. To Dmitri Uzbek was more gracious than he had ever been to any prince. Surprised by his daring speech, the Khan gave him honor. Mongol magnates, in view of this, were full of respect for him, and his success was immediate. Yuri was summoned once more to the Horde. Dmitri received his patent, not as Prince of Tver, but as Grand Prince, and the Khan sent his envoy, Svinche Buga, and a Mongol detachment of warriors toinstallthe new favorite. Such double rule under Mongol direction was not a new thing.From the winter of 1322 to that of 1324, no man among the Russians knew positively whether Yuri or Dmitri was Grand Prince. Both ruled in the Khan’s name, and each held his patent. Yuri, meanwhile, was defending Novgorod against Swedes, and meeting also Tver regiments led against him by Alexander, a brother of the Terrible-Eyed Dmitri. Yuri defeated the Swedes at that point where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga, and made a “permanent peace” with them. When he had finished with the Swedes, he prepared to assuage the Khan’s anger. Some time before he had begged his brother, Ivan, to defend him at the[311]Horde. No man was better fitted to do this than Ivan, and he succeeded. It is true that when he came home to Moscow the Khan’s envoy came also to confirm the summons to Yuri, but in every case Yuri’s safety at the Horde seemed more than likely.Though satisfied by the news which Ivan brought, Yuri still hesitated over the risks of the journey. He made repeated inquiries of friends at the Horde as to what might await him, and learned that he could go with good chances of security. He did not go empty-handed, moreover, knowing well that success at Sarai was connected at all times with an abundance of silver and gold. He went at the same time with envoys from Novgorod. Dmitri had beset all the roads to the Volga; he was determined to prevent Yuri’s visit to the Horde. Hence the Grand Prince was forced to go by Vyatka to Perm, thence down the Kama to the Volga, and thus he reached Sarai finally.In 1325, when most men knew not what had happened to Yuri, news came that he was in good health at the court of his brother-in-law. Dmitri, astonished that his enemy had escaped unpunished, set out for the Horde to work against him. All were now waiting in Russia to see which of the two men would come back as Grand Prince; neither came. First Yuri’s corpse was brought to Moscow November 21, 1325, and it was learned that Dmitri and Yuri, having been summoned to Uzbek’s presence, had met in his palace. Dmitri could not restrain himself. He drew his sword instantly, and Yuri fell, slain by the avenging hand of Michael’s son. “A deed like this done near the eyes of the Khan, and almost in his presence, is not to be pardoned!” cried the Mongols. Uzbek ordered all to be silent. When news of this order came to Russia, men thought that Yuri’s death had been pleasing to Uzbek. But when they learned later that it had happened without the Khan’s desire or knowledge, Dmitri’s friends were greatly troubled.During more than nine months the Khan’s will in this case was not uttered, and some had good hopes for Dmitri, but on September 15, 1326, Dmitri was executed, and the body of the Tver prince was taken to his native city, where they placed it at the side of Prince Michael, his father.Though Uzbek had ordered the execution of Dmitri, Alexander, Dmitri’s brother, was made Grand Prince. But Alexander’s[312]power was not lasting. Before twelve months had passed it had ended.In 1327, Uzbek sent Cholkhan, his cousin, to Tver. With him came warriors, princes and merchants. Cholkhan occupied Alexander’s palace, and his warriors were quartered on the people. They committed violence, as was usual on every such occasion, and there was much feeling against them in Tver. It was reported among Russians that the Mongols intended to kill the Tver prince, his friends, and his family, and clear the throne for Cholkhan, who would at once put Mongol princes in every part of Russia, and force his religion on Christians.Early one morning a deacon was leading to water a young mare in good flesh; some Mongols rushed to take the beast from him,—they wished to kill, cook, and eat her. The deacon struggled and shouted; people ran up to help him; more Mongols hurried to the spot, and a fight began which developed and extended till it filled the city. Church bells were tolled. Cholkhan was roused and rushed forth to the battle. At sunrise all Tver was raging in a desperate conflict. The Grand Prince himself took part, and pushed into the thickest of the struggle. Both sides fought all day fiercely, and only toward evening did Alexander force Cholkhan and his men to the palace, where the Mongols quickly barred every entrance. But Alexander did not spare his father’s palace; he fired it with his own hands, and Cholkhan and his Mongols were burned to death in it. All Mongol merchants were slain; the Tver men spared not one of them; even those who had lived a long time in the city received neither quarter nor mercy. They were burned in their houses, or drowned in the river.Such was the punishment inflicted on Cholkhan, Uzbek’s cousin. When Uzbek heard of this massacre, his anger blazed up furiously against the rebels, and in grief over Cholkhan. He sent at once for the Prince of Moscow. Ivan delayed not. It seems that his obedience and ready arrival at Sarai surprised even the Khan. Ivan found every one in great alarm. The Mongols thought that all Russia had risen in revolt and refused further obedience. When the true condition was explained, Uzbek gave the Moscow prince a part of his army to punish the insolent Tver men. He sent with him also Mongol princes and five commanders, each leading ten thousand warriors. In fact he gave an army[313]sufficient to conquer a kingdom. His order was to destroy the Tver principality.No man had ever seen Uzbek in such convulsions of anger. He roared like a lion. Not a Tver prince was to be left alive. The whole Russian land must be harassed. Ivan was to slaughter his own countrymen to avenge Mongols. Vassili, a Ryazan prince summoned recently for judgment, was beheaded at once. Later on, when Mongol warriors were at work, the head of another prince fell at the Khan’s capital. During the summer of 1328, there was great bloodshed throughout all Vladimir. The legions which came with Ivan, led by Turlyak, were so numerous that no Russian power could withstand them. Tver and other towns were leveled. All people who did not flee were either slain or taken captive. Alexander and his brothers fled to Novgorod, but Novgorod, greatly alarmed, would not allow them to remain in the city, and they fled to Pskoff. When the Khan’s warriors approached Novgorod, Ivan sent envoys from himself and Turlyak. The Novgorod men showed the envoys all honor, paid tribute and made presents. The city sent then an embassy to Uzbek, and implored Ivan to conduct it. “Go thou to the Horde,” begged they, “and declare the obedience of Novgorod.” The prince consented. Constantine of Tver, Ivan’s cousin, joined the embassy, for Ivan had promised to intercede in his favor.It would be difficult to estimate what suffering that outbreak in Tver brought on Russia; how much torture and anguish that desperate affair cost the people. The Khan was waiting for news with impatience; when it came, it was so terrible that he was satisfied. The smoking ruins of Tver towns and settlements seemed to him a splendid reminder and a hint strong enough to keep down the disobedient. Tver, Kashin, and all towns in Torjok and the Tver principality were turned into ashes. People had been destroyed or taken captive wherever hands or weapons could reach them. Only those who fled to gloomy forests, where they hid among wild beasts, survived that dreadful visitation. In time they came back to their places, and began to work anew, but all were in dire need and poverty, for their lands were as a desert.The campaign successfully ended, the Mongols went home with much wealth and many captives. They not only seized cattle,[314]horses, and property, but took the wives and daughters of Russians, and the men who were able to labor. They took everything that pleased them, wherever they found it. Those who complained or resisted were cut to pieces immediately. But Moscow and all its lands were free from Mongol rapacity and massacre.In the autumn of 1328, Ivan went to the Horde to report that the Khan’s demand was accomplished. With him were the Novgorod envoys and Feodor Kolenitsa, their chief man, also Constantine, the Tver prince. Uzbek met all very graciously, and received Ivan with much honor. He gave him the Grand Principality, adding lands also to Moscow, and granting everything that the prince asked for; he gratified Kolenitsa as well. But he commanded them all to the last man to seek out Alexander and bring him to the Horde to receive the Khan’s sentence.After the countless quarrels between princes, and the Mongol raids which did not cease for even one year during five decades after the death of Alexander Nevski, the peace which now began, when Nevski’s grandson, Ivan, became Grand Prince of Vladimir, must have seemed a miracle. And for many a day it remained in the minds of the people as a wonderful benefaction. This lasting peace was the great event of Ivan’s reign. All knew that he had Uzbek’s confidence. Russian princes saw that the Khan granted whatever Ivan asked of him. They saw this even before, but when Constantine, brother of the fugitive Alexander, was confirmed in Tver through Ivan’s influence, all were convinced of Uzbek’s friendship for him, none more firmly than the Novgorod envoys, who had visited the Horde with the Grand Prince.In 1328, upon his return from Sarai, Ivan and the other princes met in Novgorod, for they had to find Alexander. They decided to send envoys to that prince, and say, “The Khan summons thee to judgment; wilt thou suffer for the Russian land like a warrior of Christ, or survive alone, and give the whole Russian land to destruction?” The envoys returned with the declaration that the Pskoff men would not yield Alexander. They had agreed and kissed the cross not to forsake him. He and they would stand or fall in one company. The princes moved now on Pskoff with strong forces. Besides Ivan’s army, he commanded Tver troops with the troops of other princes, and men of Novgorod also. Wishing no harm to Pskoff, he pitched his camp at some distance[315]and negotiated. He sent the Novgorod bishop with the Novgorod commander to the prince, and strove to act with kindness. Alexander was moved to tears and answered that he was willing to stand before Uzbek, but the Pskoff men swore that they would not allow him to go from their city. Alexander sent this message from himself: “It is better that I die for all, than that all should perish for me. But ye might defend your own brothers and not yield them to pagans. Ye do just the opposite, and with you ye bring Mongols.”“It is impossible to take the prince from Pskoff or drive him from the city.” These words were current in the camp of the allies. Ivan knew much more of the true state of affairs than could be gathered from camp reports, or the words of Alexander. He knew that Pskoff hoped to be independent of Novgorod, that it wished for its own prince, and thought that it had one now in Alexander. He knew also that Livonia supported the city in secret, understanding well that if alone it would be weaker and more easily subjected, while Lithuania supported Pskoff openly and roused the city to resistance. Alexander, consciously or not, was the helper of Gedimin. Ivan knew, perhaps, of a treaty made by Pskoff and Alexander with Livonia. “The Germans are near them, and they expect aid from them,” said Ivan in council. It was difficult for him to act. In those straits he remembered that when Yuri, his brother, was struggling with Tver, Maxim, the metropolitan, made peace at the outset. There was still another case, even more memorable. At the time when Dmitri of the Terrible Eyes, intending to war against Yuri, was leading his troops to Nizni, and had reached Vladimir, Pyotr, the bishop, stopped him by refusing to give him his blessing, and Dmitri, after waiting three weeks, returned home without meeting Yuri. Ivan turned now to Feognost, the metropolitan, and begged for his assistance.Feognost consented immediately, and was ready to utter a curse on the Pskoff prince if he would not stand before Uzbek, and on all the Pskoff people unless they surrendered him. Envoys were sent to the city declaring that unless they submitted an interdict would be issued, and services stopped in the churches. All people would be excommunicated.“Brothers and friends,” said Alexander to the people, on hearing[316]this message, “let your oath to me, and my oath to you lose their value. I will go from your city so that no harm may strike you. I will find refuge with the Germans or in Lithuania,” and he departed. Pskoff then informed Ivan that Alexander was no longer with them, and added: “Pskoff pays thee homage as its Grand Prince.”Thus Ivan was the first Moscow prince who gave peace to Pskoff in the old fashion, as he would to his own principality. The metropolitan blessed the Pskoff people, and Ivan marched homeward with the princes. After Ivan had reached Moscow, Gedimin proposed that Novgorod should take as prince his son Narimont, and give him Oraihovo and Ladoga, with a part of Karelia, as inheritance. Moscow learned then for the first time that since Ivan had left Pskoff, Alexander had returned, and was prince there, supported by Gedimin. It was not this return alone which roused Novgorod, but the treason of the Pskoff men. The city had accepted Alexander as prince from Lithuania, and were striving now for church separation. When Vassili, the new archbishop, went from Novgorod for ordination, Gedimin of Lithuania and Alexander of Pskoff sent envoys to Feognost, Metropolitan of Russia, then in Volynia. These envoys took with them Arseni to be bishop in Pskoff. Gedimin had given Pskoff a prince in Alexander, and would now give a bishop. Feognost ordained Vassili as Archbishop of Novgorod, but refused to ordain Arseni, and Alexander’s envoys returned without a bishop. Gedimin, enraged by the Novgorod success, and the failure of Arseni, sent men to seize Vassili, but, warned by a messenger from Feognost, he escaped the Lithuanians, and returned in safety to Novgorod.Alexander managed Pskoff for ten years, while Constantine and Vassili, his brothers, ruled the Tver region,—the first in Tver, the chief city, the second in Kashin in the northern part of the Tver principality. Ivan had reconciled the Tver princes with Uzbek, and as they were friendly and obedient their position was easy. Ivan asked of them only to leave the road free between Moscow and Novgorod,—Tver held the way between those two cities. Vladimir, the capital of the principality, was occupied by Alexander, the Suzdal prince, not as a capital, but as a possession. Ivan lived at all times in Moscow, which had become the real capital of Russia. Uzbek, as stated already, gave him many[317]lands in addition, giving Vladimir meanwhile to the Suzdal prince.Several princes found themselves tied to Ivan through relationship. He gave one of his daughters to Vassili, Prince of Yaroslavl, another to Constantine of Rostoff. Those princes, fearing to disobey their father-in-law, had worked with him loyally thus far.Besides having the Khan’s confidence, Ivan was strong through the tribute. No other Grand Prince had given the Khan such an income; and no prince held such uncontrolled management of tribute. This gave Ivan unique power and position. Of all princes in that day he was the only one, or at least the only one known to us, who had a fixed object. He took no part in local quarrels in favor of one or another region. He strove for Russia, and when prince only in Moscow he saw all Russia far in the future. This was clearly shown in his every act, not merely in the title which he assumed, “Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia,” but in his relations with other princes and with Novgorod, and even with Uzbek. To preserve the Russian land in its integrity was, by the very working of fate, to preserve the Khan’s lordship, and support it for a season. There is no doubt that Ivan explained always to Uzbek the harmful growth of Lithuania, and as he himself warred with that power, so he roused Uzbek to war with it. He showed the Khan, too, the immense wealth of Novgorod in the distant lands of the East and the Pechora, to which Novgorod admitted no Grand Prince. Uzbek rewarded and honored his untiring assistant, and Ivan all the more easily reached his object, calling himself with deep reason Grand Prince, not of Moscow alone, but of all Russia.Throughout his whole reign, Ivan had no personal quarrels; he deprived no prince of his inheritance, he made war on no rival. Still he kept all in obedience. At that epoch Alexander, the Tver prince, was beyond doubt the most important of the princes. Owing to Ivan’s non-interference, Alexander reigned ten years in Pskoff without annoyance; neither with arms nor with words did Ivan disturb him, but he watched Alexander’s connections with Gedimin and with Livonia, and forgot no intrigue of his.Novgorod, fearing the power of Ivan, sought his good-will, offered friendship, and did not refuse to send Moscow more tribute than it had sent Vladimir. As Prince of Novgorod he might have been satisfied with the tribute, and the honor with[318]which Novgorod strove to placate him, but as chief of all Russia he was not content with this; he demanded what the city owed to all Russia. Ivan would never yield to Novgorod when it claimed single ownership of regions beyond the Volok, nor would he pardon its boyars for threatening to favor Lithuania. On those points he warred with the city at all times. During his reign he made Novgorod feel very clearly that he did not ask an extra thousand of grievens to build up Moscow, but that the boundaries fixed from the days of Yuri Dolgoruki, Andrei Bogolyubski, and Big Nest must be given to Vladimir. Besides he showed the Novgorod men that not to their city alone, but to all Russia, was open the road to the whole northern country. And the region beyond the Ural Mountains, the Kamen, as it was then called (beyond the Kamen meant Siberia) was, as Ivan considered it, the property, not of Novgorod alone, but of all Russia. Novgorod, however, insisted most stubbornly that those regions belonged to her exclusively. The Moscow prince would not concede this claim, and watched with the utmost care those relations which then began between Novgorod and Lithuania.The boyars of Novgorod not only considered that they had a right to invite a prince from Lithuania, but apparently they were ready to place Novgorod under Lithuanian protection, if thus they could keep independent of other princes, and preserve to their city those rich, boundless lands on the north and the east.Ivan would not admit for a moment that they had the right to call in a foreign prince, or owned exclusively those lands which they claimed for their own.In 1332, when returning from the Horde, Ivan made a demand in the name of the Khan to which the people of Novgorod gave a stern refusal. He insisted, and to make sure of their compliance he seized the Upper Baijets and Torjok immediately. From that began a long quarrel. At times Novgorod seemed to yield, and the quarrel apparently ceased; again it would blaze up on the city’s renewed refusal. Thus the dispute continued during Ivan’s reign.The main cause of the dispute was the silver beyond the Ural Mountains. Ivan demanded from Novgorod an income from places claimed by the city, no part of which income should go to any prince ruling in Novgorod. He wished to extend taxes over all Novgorod possessions to the boundaries of Siberia.[319]In proportion as Novgorod quarreled with Ivan, it tried to be intimate with Pskoff. Vassili, the archbishop, having added stone walls to the Kremlin of Novgorod, found it proper to visit Pskoff and give the people his blessing, withheld since his installation, at which time he had opposed Pskoff’s efforts to separate from the diocese. A son had just been born to Alexander. The bishop baptized him, and was one of the godfathers of this little prince, named for his grandfather, Michael.At that time Novgorod had entered into friendship with Lithuania, and Narimont, son of Gedimin, had arrived in the city. Novgorod received him with gladness, and gave him Ladoga with Oraihova and Karelia in part as a portion. In view of these acts Ivan went to Sarai, and when he came back it was stated that he had been shown great honor, and had gained large accessions of power while with Uzbek. This alarmed Novgorod. During Ivan’s absence the Novgorod archbishop had gone on a visit to Moscow, bearing gifts from the city to the metropolitan, who had just come from Tsargrad. The archbishop begged the metropolitan to speak with Ivan about Novgorod. This intercession succeeded, for when envoys arrived in Moscow and invited Ivan to Novgorod, he set aside his dislike for the city, entered Novgorod February 16, 1335, and was received there in triumph. They offered to add all their forces to his, and fall upon Pskoff if he so ordered. But he would not attack Pskoff at that period; he accepted their service, however, and marched on Lithuania. His forces, and those of the city, took towns in good number, and though this Lithuanian campaign was not the most important in conquest, it was in agreement.Meanwhile Gedimin’s son had not justified Novgorod’s hopes in him, and he went back at last to his father. This freed Ivan’s hands, for he had been gracious to Novgorod partly because of this young prince’s presence at Ladoga. At this time Novgorod yielded in many, if not in all things to Ivan. He bought lands where he liked in Novgorod regions, and founded villages in them, a thing which Novgorod had never permitted to any prince. Still he yielded no claim touching Russia. The great contention as to what belonged to Novgorod, and what was all Russia’s dominion was still undecided. Novgorod now sought again the Pskoff friendship. But the Pskoff men knew well that Novgorod’s desire[320]for friendship came from dread of Ivan, Prince of Moscow. They knew also that a little while earlier Novgorod had offered aid against Pskoff, if Ivan wished to have it. There was no quarrel or hatred on either side at the time of the offer, and it had been made purely from policy; passion had had nothing to do with the matter.If Ivan, as Grand Prince of all Russia, preferred his demands against Novgorod so insistently, we may understand very well that he was not tender with princes of small strength. Attendants and boyars of small princes went to serve him by preference, Moscow’s success was desired by all people who toiled and produced, because order and quietness came from it. No prince could rival Ivan in power and in resources. He surpassed not only each Russian prince separately, but he was stronger than any combination which might be made among them. For long years Ivan had worked at winning wealth and power. He had worked successfully and with great diligence. Then Uzbek gave him lands in addition to Moscow, and gave him perfect control of all tribute from other princes. This made his position unequaled. Ivan now held the purse. He kept such firm order that merchants felt safe to expose their goods everywhere. New markets on the Volga and elsewhere were opened. In Northern Russia Yaroslavl, near the mouth of the Mologa, a river which enters the Volga, was a place where German, Persian, Greek and Italian merchants met and sold goods during summer. The revenue from transactions was large. Boats covered the Volga, and till the sixteenth century this market was an important one in Russia.Ivan purchased from poor princes not only villages, but towns such as Uglitch, Bailozersk, and Galitch beyond the Volga, and thus increased his inheritance unceasingly. He also bought from boyars and monasteries, and exchanged with them. He received presents of land and property through wills of friends and relatives. With the wealth which belonged to him personally, and that which pertained to his office, he was able to meet all possible demands.Responsible to the Khan for Russian tribute, and paying this tribute at regular intervals, he frequently had to pay for princes who lacked ready money. Of these some grew insolvent and paid him with land. All, in greater or less degree, were dependent upon him; all in fact needed his protection. Without regard to the[321]murmurs of Novgorod boyars, he bought towns and villages in Novgorod regions continually. So, extending power from his capital always with the rights of a Grand Prince, to which he knew how to give proper emphasis, he was strong at all points, and for many reasons. Consequently boyars and warriors of weakening principalities went gladly to the service of Moscow.Alexander, Prince of Pskoff for about ten years, was disturbed by no one. It was quite impossible that the Khan did not know what Alexander was doing, or had forgotten that Cholkhan, his favorite cousin, had been killed by him. At last Alexander left Pskoff of his own accord. Lest his son might lose Tver through his father’s exile, he resolved to appear at the Horde and hear the Khan’s sentence. It was thirteen years since his first visit, and now he was ten years in disobedience. To the astonishment of Mongol magnates, and of the Khan himself, Alexander stood before him, not only without trembling, but with a clear eye; and all were astounded at the words which he uttered:“Supreme Sovereign,” said he, “though I have committed much evil, and am guilty before thee, I have come hither of my own will, and am ready to receive life or death, as God shall announce to thee. If, for the sake of God, through thy greatness thou give me pardon, I will thank God and thy grace; if thou give me death, I am worthy of death.” At this he bowed down, and added, “My head is at thy disposal.”For a moment Uzbek was dumb from astonishment, and all present wondered. Alexander was kneeling with bowed head, and in silence. “See ye,” said Uzbek at last, “how with obedient wisdom Alexander has saved himself.” The Khan pardoned him straightway, gave him back the Tver principality, and sent him home without injury.But Alexander from the first had an ominous feeling, a presentiment that evil days were approaching. When the Khan’s officials had installed him, and Abdul, the chief envoy, was returning to Sarai, “to show the Khan favor,” he took to the Golden Horde Alexander’s son, Feodor. Soon news came from this prince of fifteen years that for some unknown reason the Khan was very angry, and would not dismiss him. Alexander understood then that his son had been taken as a hostage.The return of Alexander to Tver signified a return to the old[322]quarrels with Moscow. It meant trouble also in governing. Alexander brought with him to Tver new boyars and warriors, partly strangers. The chief of these boyars was a German from Livonia. The Tver boyars were not pleased with this man, or with the return of Alexander. The Moscow prince, of course, could not expect such relations with Alexander as with Constantine. The old rivalry was remembered, and with Alexander were renewed the claims of the Tver principality not to depend on the Prince of all Russia, but to be quite apart from him and separate. Through this example and also through advice from Alexander, other princes showed the same tendencies. As soon as Tver had left that position which for some years it had held toward Ivan, a similar movement appeared in other places, especially in Yaroslavl, where David, Ivan’s son-in-law, showed clear disobedience. Unpleasant reports came from Lithuania. It seemed as though Ivan had lost in one moment, and fatally, all that he had gained step by step for a decade. Was he now to be Grand Prince of Russia, or was the old rivalry between Moscow and Tver to begin again? Alexander felt the need of explaining relations with Moscow, but Ivan avoided discussions of all sorts. Envoys came at last to Ivan from Alexander, but Ivan would not talk upon any subject with the Tver prince, hence there was no result from the action of the envoys.Ivan went now to the Horde. This visit of his to Uzbek produced on all a peculiar impression. He took with him his eldest and second sons, Simeon and Ivan; the youngest, Andrei, he sent to Novgorod. This sending of a son to Novgorod was not without special meaning. Ivan had remained two years, not in peace, not in war with the city. Lord Novgorod had not met his demands, and he had not dropped them. By sending Andrei to the city at this juncture, Ivan reminded Novgorod men once again that he looked on their capital as his inheritance.At Novgorod the usual disorders were active. Gedimin’s son, who had been absent for a time in Lithuania, had returned, but there was great dissatisfaction with him, for he did not show sufficient energy in defending their borders against the Swedes.Ivan came back from the Horde with added power and new honor. All princes were placed under his hand still more firmly. It became known very quickly that, owing to Ivan’s suggestion,[323]the princes were summoned to Sarai to receive the Khan’s commands.Alexander knew that now he must go, and that he would never again see Tver. He sent quickly to his son for any information which he might have regarding the affair. The tidings which came back were woeful and he hesitated. An envoy now came to Alexander from the Khan promising him favor, but at the same time reminding him that his son was held as hostage. If a year before the Tver prince had hastened to the Horde when he himself was in danger, he hastened all the more now when Feodor was threatened.Meanwhile Ivan had gone to Sarai still a second time, and taken with him his three sons. Before Alexander’s arrival at the Horde Ivan was back in Moscow, but his sons had wished to remain with the Khan.With Alexander went the princes of Bailozero and Yaroslavl. When the Tver prince approached the Khan’s capital, his son came to meet him, and with tearful eyes told of Uzbek’s dreadful anger. “God’s will be done,” said Alexander. “If I do not die now, I shall die on some other day.” In accord with Mongol custom, he presented rich gifts to the Khan and his magnates, but the gifts were received in gloomy silence. His offenses were not declared, nor were questions asked him. It was announced that the Khan had commanded to give him to death without trial. But till his last day, October 28, 1339, he enjoyed freedom. That morning he sent to one of the Khan’s wives, who had been kind toFeodor, to learn his fate; then he mounted a horse to make the inquiry in person. She did not conceal from the prince that his last sun had risen.Returning to his tent, Alexander embraced Feodor, and took farewell of his attendants. He kissed his boyars, asking pardon of all, then he and his son with the boyars took holy communion. Soon after that they heard the executioners approaching, and Alexander and Feodor went forth to meet them. The men stripped the clothes from the two princes, tied their hands, and led them toward Tablubey, the Khan’s magnate, who was present on horseback. “Kill them!” commanded Tablubey. The executioners hurled the prince and his son to the earth, beat both with fists, and then, after trampling them to death, cut their heads off. Alexander’s attendants carried the bodies to Tver.[324]That winter Ivan’s three sons were sent home in high favor. By command of “the Godless Uzbek,” adds the chronicler, “the following princes were put to death during that winter: Feodor of Starodub, Ivan and Vassili of Ryazan, and Alexander Novosilski.”The position acquired by Ivan through the favor of Uzbek was evident to all other princes. They knew, moreover, that after his death no change would be made. Every measure had been taken to give primacy to his family, and not to another.Six months had not passed after the death of Alexander and his son, when Ivan died, March 31, 1340, being about fifty years of age. He died before his time, and perhaps unexpectedly, but he was able to go to Spasski, his favorite monastery, and put on the monk’s habit. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral, his tomb being the first in that series of Moscow sovereigns, his descendants.Uzbek, besides appreciating Ivan as a servant who was faithful and who worked for him zealously, liked the man personally. He placed him above all the princes, honored him in sovereign style, and made him presents. Among those presents was a bag, the Mongol kalitá, destined to historic celebrity. Of Ivan it was said by those who praised him that to the poor he stretched a hand which was never empty; that whenever he went from his palace he filled his kalitá with coins and gave them to the poor whom he met in his progress. “Not precious the gift,” says the proverb, “but precious the love which goes with it,” and Ivan Kalitá, as people came to call him from the gift of the Khan which ever afterward he used so constantly, gave his coins affably, for he liked much to give to the needy. The kalitá which he had received from Uzbek’s own hands might be considered emblematic of his leading activity and methods. Though one use of this kalitá was to carry coins for the needy, Ivan’s purse had other uses. It was the clearing house of Russia in his day. Into it flowed the tribute and taxes; out of it went the sums for which account was imperative; with him remained for use in his struggle for supremacy all profits and remnants of every kind. One of the most important acts of Ivan’s life was the removal of the religious capital of Russia from Vladimir to Moscow. During his pastoral visits, Peter of Lithuania, at that time metropolitan, came to Moscow frequently, and conceived a friendship for Ivan. Later he spent all of his time in Moscow, where he died and was buried. His last words to Kalitá were: “If[325]you obey me, my son, you will build a church here and give repose to my bones in your city. You and your sons and your grandsons will thus gain more fame than all the other princes, and this place will be renowned. The pastors of the church will dwell in it, and it will be above all other cities.” The church was built. The succeeding metropolitan would not desert the house and tomb of the holy Peter, and Moscow became the center of religious administration.During 1340 died Ivan Kalitá, Gedimin, and Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde, three men who left profound traces in Russia.Before touching on Gedimin, we must give some account of his dynasty. In the district of Kovno, on the right bank of the Dubissa, is a place called Eiragola. In the thirteenth century there was a small wooden castle in Eiragola, and from that castle came the Lithuanian princes. The first noted man of this line was Mindog; the first great one was Gedimin. Mindog was sure of success in that place and epoch. He was a man for whom all means were equally good, if equally effective. He had only one way of judging an action,—might it be of use to him, and had he power to commit it?When Batu had conquered Eastern Russia, the Lithuanian princes fell to raiding the west of that country, but in 1246, while returning from a raid, they were overtaken near Pinsk and scattered by Daniel of Galitch and his brother, Vassilko. The next year, another such party was crushed by those same princes.In 1252, Mindog sent Vykint, his uncle, and two nephews, Tovtivil and Edivil, to attack Smolensk places, and to ravage the country. “Let each of you keep what he wins,” said he at parting. But these words were used simply to mislead and deceive his three relatives. As soon as they had gone, Mindog seized their possessions, and sent warriors to follow and kill them. They heard of this treachery in season, and took refuge quickly with Daniel, who had married the sister of Tovtivil and Edivil. Mindog sent at once to Daniel, asking him not to assist them, but Daniel paid no heed to this message; first through regard for his wife’s brothers and her uncle, and second because he wished to weaken Mindog and his people. After counseling with Vassilko, Daniel formed a plan. He sent to Polish princes this message: “It is time for us to fall upon pagans, since they are warring against one another.” He sent similar messages to the Yatvyags, to Jmud, and to the Germans in Riga.[326]Vykint, Daniel’s envoy, roused the Yatvyags, and half the Jmud region. The Germans sent this answer to Daniel: “Though Vykint, thy relative, has killed many of our men, we have made peace with him, and will assist you.” The brothers now set out to make war in earnest. Daniel sent Vassilko to Volkovisk, his son to Slonim, and then marched to Zditov. They captured many towns and returned to Galitch well satisfied. After that, he sent Tovtivil with Russians and Polovtsi against Mindog. The Germans made no move whatever, until Tovtivil went to Riga, where he received baptism from them; then they made ready for action.Mindog saw that he could not meet two foes in one conflict. He could not war with the Germans and Daniel of Galitch at the same time. Hence he sent secretly rich gifts to the Grand Master Von Schtükland, and the following proposal: “If thou kill Tovtivil or expel him, thou wilt get still greater gifts from me.” Von Schtükland replied that he felt immense friendship for Mindog, but could give no aid till baptism had changed him. Mindog asked for a meeting, which was granted, and he settled the question while feasting with Von Schtükland. The Lithuanian prince was to be baptized. On hearing this news, the Pope was delighted, and wrote to the bishop that no one should offend the new convert. The Bishop of Culm was to crown him.But Mindog was forced to Christianity under the sword-blade, just as the Prussians had been forced to it earlier, and had gone back to the faith of their fathers whenever the chance came. Mindog, however, escaped all the dangers which threatened him from the Order. Tovtivil fled to Vykint, his uncle. He assembled warriors from the Yatvyags and Jmud, and, aided by warriors from Daniel, marched against Mindog assisted now by the Germans.During 1252, the war was not marked by notable action, but in 1253 Daniel took part in it personally, and with such success that Mindog asked for peace. He offered his daughter to Daniel’s son, Svaromir, and found still other means of persuasion.Tovtivil declared now that Mindog had bribed the Yatvyags, who refused to assist Daniel longer. Daniel was enraged at the Yatvyags, but that could not serve him. Two years passed. In 1255, there was peace between Daniel of Galitch and Mindog’s son, Voishelk. Voishelk was a man greatly noted, even in that[327]time of bloodshed. Mindog was cruel and terrible, but Voishelk surpassed him, if the annalist is truthful. Voishelk shed blood from his youth up. “Every day he killed three or four men for amusement. When his time passed without bloodshed, he was sad, and when he had killed a man, good feeling returned to him.”All at once news came of Voishelk’s baptism; nay, more, it was said that he had left ruling, and had put on a monk’s habit. This man now appeared as a peacemaker between Daniel and Mindog. The conditions seemed so favorable that Daniel did not reject them. Daniel’s son, Svaromir (familiarly Shvarn), was to marry Mindog’s daughter; Shvarn’s elder brother, Roman, was to have Novgrodek from Mindog, and Daniel was to get Slonim and Volkovisk from Voishelk, on condition of recognizing Mindog as his superior in those places.Mindog had promised the Order to accept its religion for himself and all the people under him. He was to receive the friendship of the Order, and the kingly office as a reward. In exchange, he was to give the Order various places in Jmud, those same places where there had been such terrible bloodshed because of newcomers fleeing from Prussia. The friendship seemed to be made for the ages, and a speedy union of the two lands appeared imminent. In case that he had no heir, Mindog agreed to give his kingdom to Livonia, now of one faith with him.The Bishop of Culm came with priests and monks; the Grand Master with knights of the Order. Mindog was christened, anointed, and crowned at Novgrodek. Pope Innocent IV in 1255 blessed the new convert to war against Russia and its inhabitants who were schismatic, and confirmed in advance to him all regions which he might join to his kingdom.“The God-Crowned King,” as he was entitled, freed himself gradually from every one. From Tovtivil he freed himself by perfidy; from the Yatvyags by money, from Daniel through marriage and lands, from Poland by victories. One Polish prince was slain in battle, another was captured. Then the Knights of Livonia discovered what kind of man their good friend and new convert was. Mindog turned on them and fought like a hero. He sent a message stating that he dropped them and their baptism. He roused Jmud to the struggle, and those people whom he had so recently surrendered to the Order rose up against it in pitiless[328]warfare. To one who did not understand Mindog’s keen policy, it might seem strange that he should show such hatred for his godfathers, and should openly irritate the Order. The Germans, however, knew from the first that his conversion was feigned for the purpose of obtaining aid.He did not cease to observe the ancient rites of his people; he made sacrifices to their deities, but for him that was not sufficient. He was a shrewd leader of men; he had also learned the policy of Germans. It was necessary to fire the hearts of his people, and to purify himself perfectly from any taint of German religion, hence before Lithuanians he ridiculed his own pretended conversion.The Germans made war on him promptly, but were defeated. Mindog, in celebrating his victory, made a great sacrifice. It was not enough for him to burn bulls and horses; he took one of the knights whom he had captured and burned him on horseback in complete battle armor, as an offering.After the marriage of his daughter to Daniel’s son, Mindog sustained friendly relations with Russia. He made more than one campaign with Daniel and Vassilko against the Yatvyags and disobedient Lithuanians, and against the Poles, and princes of Northern Russia. He went against the Livonian Knights to fight Riga. When Daniel became a widower, he married a niece of Mindog. Mindog had power now, but he had become too important for his family. His relatives were enraged at his haughtiness; they would not permit him to so exalt himself, and though he was the single ruler of all Lithuania, they ceased not to plan his death. At last personal hatred subdued the man.Mindog’s wife died in 1262, and he grieved much. To her sister, the wife of Prince Dovmont, he sent this message: “Thy sister is dead; come to see us.” When she came, Mindog said: “When dying, thy sister commanded me to marry thee, that her children might not be tormented.” And he took his sister-in-law as wife.Dovmont, in deep anger, planned to kill Mindog. Seeking an ally, he found one in Trenyat, the Jmud prince. In 1263, Mindog sent all his troops against Roman of Bryansk, who ruled east of the Dnieper. Dovmont was in that expedition. While on the road he declared to the leaders that a wizard had warned him[329]not to advance farther, and leaving the army, he returned straightway to Mindog’s castle, where he killed him and his two sons.Trenyat, very likely through a bargain with Dovmont, began to reign in Lithuania in place of Mindog, and also in Jmud, and sent to Tovtivil of Polotsk, his brother, saying: “Come at once; we will seize the whole land and all Mindog’s substance.”The division caused a quarrel. Tovtivil began to think how to kill Trenyat, and Trenyat how to be rid of his brother. Tovtivil’s boyar informed Trenyat of the prince’s designs. Trenyat, being quicker than Tovtivil, killed him and reigned unassisted, but his reign was not long. Four of Mindog’s equerries, to avenge their late prince, murdered Trenyat.Voishelk, when he learned of his father’s death, went to Minsk, but when he heard that Trenyat had been assassinated, he set out with Pinsk forces for Novgrodek, and from there, taking more warriors, he went to Lithuania, where his father’s adherents received him most joyfully. He began to reign, and as if to make men forget that he had ever worn a monk’s habit, he fell to slaying his enemies wherever he found them. In his new rôle of avenger he surpassed himself. Along the Nieman and all the Jmud boundaries Voishelk shed blood for the death of his father. When he had restored what had been taken from Mindog’s possessions, and extended them, and had almost exterminated his father’s enemies, he yielded all to his brother-in-law. He wished to be a monk and retire to Mount Athos. No matter how Shvarn begged, he would not remain, he would have no earthly dominion. “I have sinned much before God and man,” replied Voishelk. “Do thou rule; the land is in peace now.”This was the year that Daniel of Galitch died, and shortly before his decease Voishelk asked him for a safe-conduct to Mount Athos. But as there was war in Bulgaria, the would-be monk was forced to turn back without seeing the holy mountain. He settled then in Volynia, built a monastery, and passed the remainder of his life in seclusion.Voishelk and Dovmont are considered as cousins. The fate of the two is remarkable; one became a monk, the other a warrior. Dovmont fled from civil war in Lithuania, taking his troops with him. He was baptized in Pskoff and married the daughter of Prince Dmitri, son of Nevski. He became a great favorite of his[330]father-in-law. Pskoff was thereafter safe, not only from Lithuanian raids, but from the Knights of Livonia, whom he drove from the walls of the city and followed into the depths of the forests. Though Dovmont fought many battles he never lost one, and he governed the Pskoff people with firmness and wisdom. Voishelk assumed the monk’s habit, but the habit and the building of a monastery were accounted as nothing to Voishelk, while Dovmont’s sword is held sacred in Pskoff, even to our day.Lithuania fell back into anarchy. There were continual struggles between the descendants of Mindog and other princes, who would not accept their supremacy, and no distinguished man appeared until Gedimin. In 1315 Gedimin replaced Viten, and about this time died Yuri Lvovitch, the grandson of Daniel and the last prince of both Galitch and Volynia.In 1316 Andrei and Lev, the two sons of Yuri, divided Volynia and Galitch between them. But the great Roman’s inheritance was of small use to those, his weak and last male descendants. Those two sons of Yuri Lvovitch had each a daughter, one of whom married the Mazovian prince, Troiden; the other married Lyubart, a son of Gedimin. Lyubart received Volynia with his princess and laid claim to Galitch. So the Lithuania of Gedimin’s day was increased by almost the whole of South Russia.Rome, meanwhile, did not cease to consider Lithuania as one of its bishoprics. The churches of Livonia and Lithuania were spoken of as neighboring churches, and the Pope acted in Lithuania through Livonia. But about the time Gedimin began to rule, a dispute was raging between the knights and the Bishop of Riga. The bishop complained to the Pope that the knights, by their greed, love of power, and savage treatment, turned people away from Christianity. The knights declared that the bishops, in dealing with conquered people, influenced them against the knights and encouraged them in paganism. They proved to the Pope that the Bishop of Riga had invited the people more than once to act against the Order; that the bishops negotiated in secret with Lithuanian princes and extended their influence over the people; that they acted in spite of the Order, and used the Order only when they had need of its services. In view of such contradictory statements, the Pope took sometimes the side of the bishop, and sometimes the side of the Order, not hindering either side,[331]however, in continuing the “sacred work” of converting the infidels.Through the Bishop of Riga the Pope received in 1323 a message from Gedimin stating that he was ready for baptism, as were all people under him. He asked that the knights be prevented from making war on Lithuania, and declared that the Order had stopped him from having relations directly with the Curia; that they helped in no way to Christianize people.At the same time letters went to the Franciscans and Dominicans in Riga, requesting that monks be sent to Lithuania. Letters were sent also to Germany with offers of free trade, and asking for colonists. The Pope was delighted with the letter from Gedimin, and commanded the Order to stop warlike action in view of Lithuania’s conversion. The Archbishop of Riga made a friendly alliance with Gedimin, and the Order was forced to join also.In due time envoys appeared from Rome, and when they had confirmed all agreements between Lithuania and Livonia, they set out to find Gedimin and establish the Catholic faith in his capital and elsewhere. They intended to baptize and crown the Lithuanian prince, and then baptize all his subjects, but this they were unable to do.In Vilna they found things very different from what they had expected. They found great hatred for the German religion; they found, to their astonishment, Orthodox churches; they found also that the heathen Lithuanians not only threatened to hurl Gedimin from power if he tried to baptize them, but to exterminate his whole family. They saw that all Jmud and the Prussians would rise if Gedimin endeavored to bring in the German religion. Besides this, Gedimin’s Russian Orthodox subjects formed three-fourths of the whole population; they also threatened loudly. Thus opposed on two sides, his position would have been difficult had he really wished to introduce the German religion. Gedimin had been christened in the Orthodox faith, whether through conviction or policy we may not determine at this day, but his motives must have been overwhelming, either to remain pagan or become Orthodox. He sent the legates away. They went back enraged and indignant at the faith-breaking ruler. But Gedimin found no fault in himself; he found it on the other side. Each side accused the other, but it was difficult to tell which was the more perfidious.[332]Illiterate Lithuania carried on its home correspondence in Russian, but with Rome and the West the Livonian Germans helped Gedimin in Latin, and he had monks for that purpose from Vilna. It proved that those zealous aids, in their Latin letters sent to Rome by the way of Riga, had written much over Gedimin’s name which he would not acknowledge. In every case, when thunders struck him from the Vatican, and throughout Western Europe men called him a preternatural deceiver and liar, a forerunner of Antichrist, who trampled on laws divine and human, Gedimin justified himself, saying that the Latin writers had not correctly translated his words; he had never uttered the words which they had written.The German now became more troublesome than ever. Gedimin was forced to perpetual conflict with his neighbors. The knights, warring continually on the banks of the Niemen, made their attacks in the form of excursions, which they called “journeys.” Men came in large numbers from every part of the Holy Roman Empire to join those excursions. In 1336 there came of simple knights about two hundred counts and princes, and the Grand Master formed for their amusement what might be called a great pagan hunt.Like the founder of Riga, his successor, the Grand Master did not cease to baptize pagan people, who later on complained to all Europe in these words: “Listen to us, O princes spiritual and secular! The knights are not seeking our souls for God; they are seeking our land for their own use. They have brought us to this,—that we must either beg or be robbers if we are to save the lives in us. The knights are worse than the Mongols. All that the land gives, or that bees gather in they take. They do not let us kill a beast, or catch a fish, or trade with our neighbors. They take our children as hostages, our elders they hunt off to Prussia and imprison; our sisters and daughters they take for themselves. And still those men wear the cross of Christ on their mantles! Have pity on us. We too are men, and not wild beasts. We would take Christianity, and be baptized not in blood, but in sacred water.”When the knights did not cease visiting their “godchildren,” the latter greeted them with these words: “What place will ye rob now, for everything is taken by your prelates[333]and priests,—all wool, honey, and milk. They teach Christianity poorly.”The Grand Master, for the amusement of his guests, made an “excursion” to the island of Pillene, where four thousand people of Jmud, men, women, and children, together with their elders, had entrenched themselves strongly. In vain did the Germans fill the ditches, attack and cut down people; they could not take the place. At last they hurled in burning arrows wrapped with a blazing substance, and the fortress took fire on all sides.The besieged resolved to perish. They built up a great pile of wood, and threw on to it all that they held of most value. That done, they slew one another; fathers killed their children, husbands their wives, and put the bodies on the pile. The few who remained arranged themselves in pairs and stabbed one another; those who died first were placed on the pile by those who died later. The elder of the people stood apart and watched everything to the end. When all the others were dead he killed his wife, put her on the pile, and set fire to it, then he mounted the blazing wood, killed himself, and burned with his people. When the knights broke in they found no one to finish, and had merely to tell in their annals of the dreadful tragedy in which they had played the part both of actors and of audience.Gedimin declared entire liberty to the Orthodox Church, and before his countrymen he announced himself a defender of that pagan faith to which they adhered so devotedly. In Vilna the znitch (sacred fire) was maintained without dying, and every rite of that interesting Lithuanian religion was supported in its primitive vigor. For this he was denounced, and the Livonian Knights began war for that cross the symbol of which, together with a sword, they wore embroidered on their mantles.Gedimin went out to meet them, and this was his last encounter with Germans. On the right bank of the Niemen in that Jmud land was a strong fortress, Velona, a defense against Germans, almost on the edge of that district which the Knights of the Cross and Livonia had conquered. Thus far they had not been able to take Velona, and even now they did not venture to storm it. They determined to destroy the stronghold in another way. They built a fortress at each side of it, and set about starving out the garrison.Gedimin came to the rescue of his people, and was soon besieging[334]the Germans in their two fortresses. Firearms had become known in the West only a short time before, and the Germans were now using guns, which later on were called “squealers.” During the conflict, Gedimin was killed by a ball. He was taken to Vilna and seated on his favorite horse. By him were placed his faithful armor-bearer, his hunting-dogs and falcons, and he and they were then burned according to the primitive ritual of the Lithuanians. With him were burned three German knights in full armor, and much booty taken from Germans.Gedimin had married twice, each time a Russian princess. Five of his sons were Orthodox and belong entirely to Russian history. Of five daughters, four received Orthodox baptism, and two—Maria, the widow of Dmitri of Tver, surnamed Terrible Eyes, and Augusta, the first wife of IvanKalitá’sson—died nuns. Gedimin left a domain extending from the Niemen to the Lower Dnieper and the Dniester, including Kief, the ancient capital. This state, by special structure, population and religion, was for the greater part Russian, especially in language.Of Gedimin’s sons who survived him, seven are mentioned. Of these the ablest and most important was Olgerd, with whom his brother, Keistut, was associated closely. Olgerd’s first wife was a daughter of the Vitebsk prince who left no sons, and through this wife Olgerd inherited her father’s possessions. Soon after Gedimin’s death, Olgerd seized power over all his brothers, took Vilna and became the one ruler of Lithuania. This meant at that time Kief and the best part of Russia.Russian chronicles, without praising Olgerd, give him full justice. His self-restraint was unparalleled. He refrained from vain things most carefully, from sports and amusements of all kinds. He drank no wine, beer or mead. He was temperate in every way; from this, he acquired clear reason and great keenness. His mind was ever working; he toiled day and night at extending his dominion; he won many countries and lands; he subjected cities with all the broad regions under them; he increased his possessions untiringly. Olgerd was equally at home in Lithuania and Russia. He spoke with the Jmud men like a neighbor; Russian was his language fromchildhood. With the Knights of the Cross he could speak in German, and he knew something of Latin.[335]With Lithuanian princes love of war was inborn, but Olgerd surpassed all men in the cunning of his sudden attacks, and the subtle concealment of his purpose. There was no man more unsparing and ruthless than Olgerd. He warred with the Mongols near Kief, and hunted them out of Podolia. He inflicted bloody defeat on the Germans near the Niemen, while helping Lyubart, his brother. He drove the Poles from Volynia and Galitch, and fought with them in their own places; he threatened also the Hungarians. Olgerd’s sword was the most terrible ever wielded by a man of his dynasty; while defending Polotsk from Livonia it defended Volynia and Kief from Polish inroads.But that which might satisfy Mindog or Gedimin could not satisfy Olgerd. To be prince of Lithuania and one half of Russia was not his ambition; he was striving for more than that, striving for power over Smolensk, Tver, Pskoff, Novgorod, and Moscow. He aspired to be ruler of all Russia. The Moscow princes had in him a dangerous enemy. Hence the Grand Prince of Moscow, in struggling to consolidate Russia, and put himself at the head of it, had a problem of the utmost complication and difficulty.[336]

[Contents]CHAPTER XIVIVAN KALITÁIn 1319, Yuri returned from the Horde with the Khan’s patent making him Grand Prince. According to old Russian rules, he was equal to the sons of Prince Michael. If they were superior through inheritance from a father who had held the position of Grand Prince, a position which Yuri’s father had never held, he surpassed them through his grandfather Nevski, who was senior to their grandfather, Yaroslav. In descent, men might hold them equal. But Yuri surpassed the Tver prince in wealth, and in the number of his warriors, and with the patent of the Khan he became chief, and all yielded.Yuri hastened to Vladimir and took the throne, merely making a short halt at Moscow, to leave there Michael’s son Constantine, with his father’s boyars and servants. Yuri had taken Constantine from the Horde, partly as a relative, partly as a prisoner; the boyars were really prisoners. No one in Tver knew exactly what had taken place; all were in doubt and anxiety, and when Yuri’s return was reported, men were sent to Vladimir to discover the truth. They brought tidings to Tver that Prince Michael was dead and his body had been taken to Moscow and buried.As soon as Yuri appeared in Vladimir, Dmitri, Michael’s eldest son, took possession of Tver in accordance with the will of his father. Then he sent his younger brother, Alexander, to Yuri, to ask for the body of his father. Yuri refused at first to deliver it, but he at last consented, and the body was taken back to Tver.Boris, Yuri’s brother, died in Moscow soon after this, as did also Afanasi, whom Yuri had settled in Novgorod, so that of Daniel’s sons only Yuri and Ivan were living. When Yuri returned from the Horde as Grand Prince, he gave his inherited lands, as it seems, to Ivan. In 1320, Ivan went to do homage to Uzbek; till[309]that time he had never seen him. In that year Tver had three marriages of princes: Alexander and Constantine found brides among Russians, but Dmitri took a daughter of Gedimin, the Lithuanian Grand Prince. This connection with Gedimin brought Dmitri into intimate relations with an enemy of Russia, and made it more difficult still for Tver to be friendly with Vladimir. Dmitri did not wish to see Yuri, or approach him, or even hear his name mentioned. Outspoken and direct, irrepressible and passionate the name Terrible Eyes had been given Dmitri, and it describedhim clearly.Yuri’s first move as Grand Prince was a quarrel with Ryazan, undertaken to punish one of its princes. That labor finished, he moved on Dmitri. The task was “to take his honor,” as the phrase ran in those days.Expeditions were made then, as they had been made earlier, to impose peace “with dread and trembling.” Minor princes performed certain acts at the coronation of a Grand Prince. If not to show submission, at least to recognize that he was their superior. The Grand Prince made a treaty with each minor prince, causing him at the same time to kiss the cross to observe it. When the Khan gave a patent to an important prince, minor princes led his horse in the ceremony of installation.Yuri, of course, was not seeking a service of this kind, but as Dmitri had not ranged himself with princes who acknowledged his headship, Yuri now led his warriors to attack Tver. When Dmitri heard of this campaign against him, he made no move, but begged his friend Varsonofi, the bishop, to save him from every discussion with Yuri. He agreed to all terms in advance, so as to avoid meeting him. The bishop persuaded the Grand Prince to withdraw from the country, after receiving a solemn declaration from Dmitri that he would not strive to be Grand Prince.The chief mark of subjection in a minor prince at that time was to pay the Khan’s tribute, not at the Horde, but to the Grand Prince. Yuri insisted on this, and if negotiations with the bishop were protracted, it was only because of discussions on that subject; but Dmitri in the end agreed to that also, and promised to send to Yuri two thousand grievens, which he had collected from Tver as a tribute. Dmitri sent this money to Yuri that year (1321). The following year he went to the Horde for confirmation as senior[310]heir to the Tver principality. He took gifts to the Khan and rendered homage as usual; then, unable to restrain himself, he told the Khan all that was troubling his spirit. Disregarding the ceremony which was binding on every one, he explained to Uzbek how Kavgady and Yuri had calumniated his father, condemned him, and killed him in his innocence. The Terrible-Eyed Dmitri explained everything with respect and submission. Moreover, his coming to the Horde was a mark of his faithfulness. He might refer to this, and, of course, he was not silent; he said that he submitted to the will of the Khan; that he acknowledged the primacy of Yuri, the proof of which was that he had given him the tribute of Tver, those two thousand grievens which Yuri had not paid at the Horde, as was shown when officials sought for an account of them.Yuri perhaps had no thought of withholding this tribute; circumstances may have prevented his going immediately to the Horde with it, for soon after he received the money he was forced to hasten to Novgorod, and farther, since at that time he was fighting fiercely against the Swedes and the Germans of Riga, and he had not yet returned from that distant campaigning. Still, as was thought at the Horde, it was not the right way to act, and command was given straightway to summon Yuri. To Dmitri Uzbek was more gracious than he had ever been to any prince. Surprised by his daring speech, the Khan gave him honor. Mongol magnates, in view of this, were full of respect for him, and his success was immediate. Yuri was summoned once more to the Horde. Dmitri received his patent, not as Prince of Tver, but as Grand Prince, and the Khan sent his envoy, Svinche Buga, and a Mongol detachment of warriors toinstallthe new favorite. Such double rule under Mongol direction was not a new thing.From the winter of 1322 to that of 1324, no man among the Russians knew positively whether Yuri or Dmitri was Grand Prince. Both ruled in the Khan’s name, and each held his patent. Yuri, meanwhile, was defending Novgorod against Swedes, and meeting also Tver regiments led against him by Alexander, a brother of the Terrible-Eyed Dmitri. Yuri defeated the Swedes at that point where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga, and made a “permanent peace” with them. When he had finished with the Swedes, he prepared to assuage the Khan’s anger. Some time before he had begged his brother, Ivan, to defend him at the[311]Horde. No man was better fitted to do this than Ivan, and he succeeded. It is true that when he came home to Moscow the Khan’s envoy came also to confirm the summons to Yuri, but in every case Yuri’s safety at the Horde seemed more than likely.Though satisfied by the news which Ivan brought, Yuri still hesitated over the risks of the journey. He made repeated inquiries of friends at the Horde as to what might await him, and learned that he could go with good chances of security. He did not go empty-handed, moreover, knowing well that success at Sarai was connected at all times with an abundance of silver and gold. He went at the same time with envoys from Novgorod. Dmitri had beset all the roads to the Volga; he was determined to prevent Yuri’s visit to the Horde. Hence the Grand Prince was forced to go by Vyatka to Perm, thence down the Kama to the Volga, and thus he reached Sarai finally.In 1325, when most men knew not what had happened to Yuri, news came that he was in good health at the court of his brother-in-law. Dmitri, astonished that his enemy had escaped unpunished, set out for the Horde to work against him. All were now waiting in Russia to see which of the two men would come back as Grand Prince; neither came. First Yuri’s corpse was brought to Moscow November 21, 1325, and it was learned that Dmitri and Yuri, having been summoned to Uzbek’s presence, had met in his palace. Dmitri could not restrain himself. He drew his sword instantly, and Yuri fell, slain by the avenging hand of Michael’s son. “A deed like this done near the eyes of the Khan, and almost in his presence, is not to be pardoned!” cried the Mongols. Uzbek ordered all to be silent. When news of this order came to Russia, men thought that Yuri’s death had been pleasing to Uzbek. But when they learned later that it had happened without the Khan’s desire or knowledge, Dmitri’s friends were greatly troubled.During more than nine months the Khan’s will in this case was not uttered, and some had good hopes for Dmitri, but on September 15, 1326, Dmitri was executed, and the body of the Tver prince was taken to his native city, where they placed it at the side of Prince Michael, his father.Though Uzbek had ordered the execution of Dmitri, Alexander, Dmitri’s brother, was made Grand Prince. But Alexander’s[312]power was not lasting. Before twelve months had passed it had ended.In 1327, Uzbek sent Cholkhan, his cousin, to Tver. With him came warriors, princes and merchants. Cholkhan occupied Alexander’s palace, and his warriors were quartered on the people. They committed violence, as was usual on every such occasion, and there was much feeling against them in Tver. It was reported among Russians that the Mongols intended to kill the Tver prince, his friends, and his family, and clear the throne for Cholkhan, who would at once put Mongol princes in every part of Russia, and force his religion on Christians.Early one morning a deacon was leading to water a young mare in good flesh; some Mongols rushed to take the beast from him,—they wished to kill, cook, and eat her. The deacon struggled and shouted; people ran up to help him; more Mongols hurried to the spot, and a fight began which developed and extended till it filled the city. Church bells were tolled. Cholkhan was roused and rushed forth to the battle. At sunrise all Tver was raging in a desperate conflict. The Grand Prince himself took part, and pushed into the thickest of the struggle. Both sides fought all day fiercely, and only toward evening did Alexander force Cholkhan and his men to the palace, where the Mongols quickly barred every entrance. But Alexander did not spare his father’s palace; he fired it with his own hands, and Cholkhan and his Mongols were burned to death in it. All Mongol merchants were slain; the Tver men spared not one of them; even those who had lived a long time in the city received neither quarter nor mercy. They were burned in their houses, or drowned in the river.Such was the punishment inflicted on Cholkhan, Uzbek’s cousin. When Uzbek heard of this massacre, his anger blazed up furiously against the rebels, and in grief over Cholkhan. He sent at once for the Prince of Moscow. Ivan delayed not. It seems that his obedience and ready arrival at Sarai surprised even the Khan. Ivan found every one in great alarm. The Mongols thought that all Russia had risen in revolt and refused further obedience. When the true condition was explained, Uzbek gave the Moscow prince a part of his army to punish the insolent Tver men. He sent with him also Mongol princes and five commanders, each leading ten thousand warriors. In fact he gave an army[313]sufficient to conquer a kingdom. His order was to destroy the Tver principality.No man had ever seen Uzbek in such convulsions of anger. He roared like a lion. Not a Tver prince was to be left alive. The whole Russian land must be harassed. Ivan was to slaughter his own countrymen to avenge Mongols. Vassili, a Ryazan prince summoned recently for judgment, was beheaded at once. Later on, when Mongol warriors were at work, the head of another prince fell at the Khan’s capital. During the summer of 1328, there was great bloodshed throughout all Vladimir. The legions which came with Ivan, led by Turlyak, were so numerous that no Russian power could withstand them. Tver and other towns were leveled. All people who did not flee were either slain or taken captive. Alexander and his brothers fled to Novgorod, but Novgorod, greatly alarmed, would not allow them to remain in the city, and they fled to Pskoff. When the Khan’s warriors approached Novgorod, Ivan sent envoys from himself and Turlyak. The Novgorod men showed the envoys all honor, paid tribute and made presents. The city sent then an embassy to Uzbek, and implored Ivan to conduct it. “Go thou to the Horde,” begged they, “and declare the obedience of Novgorod.” The prince consented. Constantine of Tver, Ivan’s cousin, joined the embassy, for Ivan had promised to intercede in his favor.It would be difficult to estimate what suffering that outbreak in Tver brought on Russia; how much torture and anguish that desperate affair cost the people. The Khan was waiting for news with impatience; when it came, it was so terrible that he was satisfied. The smoking ruins of Tver towns and settlements seemed to him a splendid reminder and a hint strong enough to keep down the disobedient. Tver, Kashin, and all towns in Torjok and the Tver principality were turned into ashes. People had been destroyed or taken captive wherever hands or weapons could reach them. Only those who fled to gloomy forests, where they hid among wild beasts, survived that dreadful visitation. In time they came back to their places, and began to work anew, but all were in dire need and poverty, for their lands were as a desert.The campaign successfully ended, the Mongols went home with much wealth and many captives. They not only seized cattle,[314]horses, and property, but took the wives and daughters of Russians, and the men who were able to labor. They took everything that pleased them, wherever they found it. Those who complained or resisted were cut to pieces immediately. But Moscow and all its lands were free from Mongol rapacity and massacre.In the autumn of 1328, Ivan went to the Horde to report that the Khan’s demand was accomplished. With him were the Novgorod envoys and Feodor Kolenitsa, their chief man, also Constantine, the Tver prince. Uzbek met all very graciously, and received Ivan with much honor. He gave him the Grand Principality, adding lands also to Moscow, and granting everything that the prince asked for; he gratified Kolenitsa as well. But he commanded them all to the last man to seek out Alexander and bring him to the Horde to receive the Khan’s sentence.After the countless quarrels between princes, and the Mongol raids which did not cease for even one year during five decades after the death of Alexander Nevski, the peace which now began, when Nevski’s grandson, Ivan, became Grand Prince of Vladimir, must have seemed a miracle. And for many a day it remained in the minds of the people as a wonderful benefaction. This lasting peace was the great event of Ivan’s reign. All knew that he had Uzbek’s confidence. Russian princes saw that the Khan granted whatever Ivan asked of him. They saw this even before, but when Constantine, brother of the fugitive Alexander, was confirmed in Tver through Ivan’s influence, all were convinced of Uzbek’s friendship for him, none more firmly than the Novgorod envoys, who had visited the Horde with the Grand Prince.In 1328, upon his return from Sarai, Ivan and the other princes met in Novgorod, for they had to find Alexander. They decided to send envoys to that prince, and say, “The Khan summons thee to judgment; wilt thou suffer for the Russian land like a warrior of Christ, or survive alone, and give the whole Russian land to destruction?” The envoys returned with the declaration that the Pskoff men would not yield Alexander. They had agreed and kissed the cross not to forsake him. He and they would stand or fall in one company. The princes moved now on Pskoff with strong forces. Besides Ivan’s army, he commanded Tver troops with the troops of other princes, and men of Novgorod also. Wishing no harm to Pskoff, he pitched his camp at some distance[315]and negotiated. He sent the Novgorod bishop with the Novgorod commander to the prince, and strove to act with kindness. Alexander was moved to tears and answered that he was willing to stand before Uzbek, but the Pskoff men swore that they would not allow him to go from their city. Alexander sent this message from himself: “It is better that I die for all, than that all should perish for me. But ye might defend your own brothers and not yield them to pagans. Ye do just the opposite, and with you ye bring Mongols.”“It is impossible to take the prince from Pskoff or drive him from the city.” These words were current in the camp of the allies. Ivan knew much more of the true state of affairs than could be gathered from camp reports, or the words of Alexander. He knew that Pskoff hoped to be independent of Novgorod, that it wished for its own prince, and thought that it had one now in Alexander. He knew also that Livonia supported the city in secret, understanding well that if alone it would be weaker and more easily subjected, while Lithuania supported Pskoff openly and roused the city to resistance. Alexander, consciously or not, was the helper of Gedimin. Ivan knew, perhaps, of a treaty made by Pskoff and Alexander with Livonia. “The Germans are near them, and they expect aid from them,” said Ivan in council. It was difficult for him to act. In those straits he remembered that when Yuri, his brother, was struggling with Tver, Maxim, the metropolitan, made peace at the outset. There was still another case, even more memorable. At the time when Dmitri of the Terrible Eyes, intending to war against Yuri, was leading his troops to Nizni, and had reached Vladimir, Pyotr, the bishop, stopped him by refusing to give him his blessing, and Dmitri, after waiting three weeks, returned home without meeting Yuri. Ivan turned now to Feognost, the metropolitan, and begged for his assistance.Feognost consented immediately, and was ready to utter a curse on the Pskoff prince if he would not stand before Uzbek, and on all the Pskoff people unless they surrendered him. Envoys were sent to the city declaring that unless they submitted an interdict would be issued, and services stopped in the churches. All people would be excommunicated.“Brothers and friends,” said Alexander to the people, on hearing[316]this message, “let your oath to me, and my oath to you lose their value. I will go from your city so that no harm may strike you. I will find refuge with the Germans or in Lithuania,” and he departed. Pskoff then informed Ivan that Alexander was no longer with them, and added: “Pskoff pays thee homage as its Grand Prince.”Thus Ivan was the first Moscow prince who gave peace to Pskoff in the old fashion, as he would to his own principality. The metropolitan blessed the Pskoff people, and Ivan marched homeward with the princes. After Ivan had reached Moscow, Gedimin proposed that Novgorod should take as prince his son Narimont, and give him Oraihovo and Ladoga, with a part of Karelia, as inheritance. Moscow learned then for the first time that since Ivan had left Pskoff, Alexander had returned, and was prince there, supported by Gedimin. It was not this return alone which roused Novgorod, but the treason of the Pskoff men. The city had accepted Alexander as prince from Lithuania, and were striving now for church separation. When Vassili, the new archbishop, went from Novgorod for ordination, Gedimin of Lithuania and Alexander of Pskoff sent envoys to Feognost, Metropolitan of Russia, then in Volynia. These envoys took with them Arseni to be bishop in Pskoff. Gedimin had given Pskoff a prince in Alexander, and would now give a bishop. Feognost ordained Vassili as Archbishop of Novgorod, but refused to ordain Arseni, and Alexander’s envoys returned without a bishop. Gedimin, enraged by the Novgorod success, and the failure of Arseni, sent men to seize Vassili, but, warned by a messenger from Feognost, he escaped the Lithuanians, and returned in safety to Novgorod.Alexander managed Pskoff for ten years, while Constantine and Vassili, his brothers, ruled the Tver region,—the first in Tver, the chief city, the second in Kashin in the northern part of the Tver principality. Ivan had reconciled the Tver princes with Uzbek, and as they were friendly and obedient their position was easy. Ivan asked of them only to leave the road free between Moscow and Novgorod,—Tver held the way between those two cities. Vladimir, the capital of the principality, was occupied by Alexander, the Suzdal prince, not as a capital, but as a possession. Ivan lived at all times in Moscow, which had become the real capital of Russia. Uzbek, as stated already, gave him many[317]lands in addition, giving Vladimir meanwhile to the Suzdal prince.Several princes found themselves tied to Ivan through relationship. He gave one of his daughters to Vassili, Prince of Yaroslavl, another to Constantine of Rostoff. Those princes, fearing to disobey their father-in-law, had worked with him loyally thus far.Besides having the Khan’s confidence, Ivan was strong through the tribute. No other Grand Prince had given the Khan such an income; and no prince held such uncontrolled management of tribute. This gave Ivan unique power and position. Of all princes in that day he was the only one, or at least the only one known to us, who had a fixed object. He took no part in local quarrels in favor of one or another region. He strove for Russia, and when prince only in Moscow he saw all Russia far in the future. This was clearly shown in his every act, not merely in the title which he assumed, “Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia,” but in his relations with other princes and with Novgorod, and even with Uzbek. To preserve the Russian land in its integrity was, by the very working of fate, to preserve the Khan’s lordship, and support it for a season. There is no doubt that Ivan explained always to Uzbek the harmful growth of Lithuania, and as he himself warred with that power, so he roused Uzbek to war with it. He showed the Khan, too, the immense wealth of Novgorod in the distant lands of the East and the Pechora, to which Novgorod admitted no Grand Prince. Uzbek rewarded and honored his untiring assistant, and Ivan all the more easily reached his object, calling himself with deep reason Grand Prince, not of Moscow alone, but of all Russia.Throughout his whole reign, Ivan had no personal quarrels; he deprived no prince of his inheritance, he made war on no rival. Still he kept all in obedience. At that epoch Alexander, the Tver prince, was beyond doubt the most important of the princes. Owing to Ivan’s non-interference, Alexander reigned ten years in Pskoff without annoyance; neither with arms nor with words did Ivan disturb him, but he watched Alexander’s connections with Gedimin and with Livonia, and forgot no intrigue of his.Novgorod, fearing the power of Ivan, sought his good-will, offered friendship, and did not refuse to send Moscow more tribute than it had sent Vladimir. As Prince of Novgorod he might have been satisfied with the tribute, and the honor with[318]which Novgorod strove to placate him, but as chief of all Russia he was not content with this; he demanded what the city owed to all Russia. Ivan would never yield to Novgorod when it claimed single ownership of regions beyond the Volok, nor would he pardon its boyars for threatening to favor Lithuania. On those points he warred with the city at all times. During his reign he made Novgorod feel very clearly that he did not ask an extra thousand of grievens to build up Moscow, but that the boundaries fixed from the days of Yuri Dolgoruki, Andrei Bogolyubski, and Big Nest must be given to Vladimir. Besides he showed the Novgorod men that not to their city alone, but to all Russia, was open the road to the whole northern country. And the region beyond the Ural Mountains, the Kamen, as it was then called (beyond the Kamen meant Siberia) was, as Ivan considered it, the property, not of Novgorod alone, but of all Russia. Novgorod, however, insisted most stubbornly that those regions belonged to her exclusively. The Moscow prince would not concede this claim, and watched with the utmost care those relations which then began between Novgorod and Lithuania.The boyars of Novgorod not only considered that they had a right to invite a prince from Lithuania, but apparently they were ready to place Novgorod under Lithuanian protection, if thus they could keep independent of other princes, and preserve to their city those rich, boundless lands on the north and the east.Ivan would not admit for a moment that they had the right to call in a foreign prince, or owned exclusively those lands which they claimed for their own.In 1332, when returning from the Horde, Ivan made a demand in the name of the Khan to which the people of Novgorod gave a stern refusal. He insisted, and to make sure of their compliance he seized the Upper Baijets and Torjok immediately. From that began a long quarrel. At times Novgorod seemed to yield, and the quarrel apparently ceased; again it would blaze up on the city’s renewed refusal. Thus the dispute continued during Ivan’s reign.The main cause of the dispute was the silver beyond the Ural Mountains. Ivan demanded from Novgorod an income from places claimed by the city, no part of which income should go to any prince ruling in Novgorod. He wished to extend taxes over all Novgorod possessions to the boundaries of Siberia.[319]In proportion as Novgorod quarreled with Ivan, it tried to be intimate with Pskoff. Vassili, the archbishop, having added stone walls to the Kremlin of Novgorod, found it proper to visit Pskoff and give the people his blessing, withheld since his installation, at which time he had opposed Pskoff’s efforts to separate from the diocese. A son had just been born to Alexander. The bishop baptized him, and was one of the godfathers of this little prince, named for his grandfather, Michael.At that time Novgorod had entered into friendship with Lithuania, and Narimont, son of Gedimin, had arrived in the city. Novgorod received him with gladness, and gave him Ladoga with Oraihova and Karelia in part as a portion. In view of these acts Ivan went to Sarai, and when he came back it was stated that he had been shown great honor, and had gained large accessions of power while with Uzbek. This alarmed Novgorod. During Ivan’s absence the Novgorod archbishop had gone on a visit to Moscow, bearing gifts from the city to the metropolitan, who had just come from Tsargrad. The archbishop begged the metropolitan to speak with Ivan about Novgorod. This intercession succeeded, for when envoys arrived in Moscow and invited Ivan to Novgorod, he set aside his dislike for the city, entered Novgorod February 16, 1335, and was received there in triumph. They offered to add all their forces to his, and fall upon Pskoff if he so ordered. But he would not attack Pskoff at that period; he accepted their service, however, and marched on Lithuania. His forces, and those of the city, took towns in good number, and though this Lithuanian campaign was not the most important in conquest, it was in agreement.Meanwhile Gedimin’s son had not justified Novgorod’s hopes in him, and he went back at last to his father. This freed Ivan’s hands, for he had been gracious to Novgorod partly because of this young prince’s presence at Ladoga. At this time Novgorod yielded in many, if not in all things to Ivan. He bought lands where he liked in Novgorod regions, and founded villages in them, a thing which Novgorod had never permitted to any prince. Still he yielded no claim touching Russia. The great contention as to what belonged to Novgorod, and what was all Russia’s dominion was still undecided. Novgorod now sought again the Pskoff friendship. But the Pskoff men knew well that Novgorod’s desire[320]for friendship came from dread of Ivan, Prince of Moscow. They knew also that a little while earlier Novgorod had offered aid against Pskoff, if Ivan wished to have it. There was no quarrel or hatred on either side at the time of the offer, and it had been made purely from policy; passion had had nothing to do with the matter.If Ivan, as Grand Prince of all Russia, preferred his demands against Novgorod so insistently, we may understand very well that he was not tender with princes of small strength. Attendants and boyars of small princes went to serve him by preference, Moscow’s success was desired by all people who toiled and produced, because order and quietness came from it. No prince could rival Ivan in power and in resources. He surpassed not only each Russian prince separately, but he was stronger than any combination which might be made among them. For long years Ivan had worked at winning wealth and power. He had worked successfully and with great diligence. Then Uzbek gave him lands in addition to Moscow, and gave him perfect control of all tribute from other princes. This made his position unequaled. Ivan now held the purse. He kept such firm order that merchants felt safe to expose their goods everywhere. New markets on the Volga and elsewhere were opened. In Northern Russia Yaroslavl, near the mouth of the Mologa, a river which enters the Volga, was a place where German, Persian, Greek and Italian merchants met and sold goods during summer. The revenue from transactions was large. Boats covered the Volga, and till the sixteenth century this market was an important one in Russia.Ivan purchased from poor princes not only villages, but towns such as Uglitch, Bailozersk, and Galitch beyond the Volga, and thus increased his inheritance unceasingly. He also bought from boyars and monasteries, and exchanged with them. He received presents of land and property through wills of friends and relatives. With the wealth which belonged to him personally, and that which pertained to his office, he was able to meet all possible demands.Responsible to the Khan for Russian tribute, and paying this tribute at regular intervals, he frequently had to pay for princes who lacked ready money. Of these some grew insolvent and paid him with land. All, in greater or less degree, were dependent upon him; all in fact needed his protection. Without regard to the[321]murmurs of Novgorod boyars, he bought towns and villages in Novgorod regions continually. So, extending power from his capital always with the rights of a Grand Prince, to which he knew how to give proper emphasis, he was strong at all points, and for many reasons. Consequently boyars and warriors of weakening principalities went gladly to the service of Moscow.Alexander, Prince of Pskoff for about ten years, was disturbed by no one. It was quite impossible that the Khan did not know what Alexander was doing, or had forgotten that Cholkhan, his favorite cousin, had been killed by him. At last Alexander left Pskoff of his own accord. Lest his son might lose Tver through his father’s exile, he resolved to appear at the Horde and hear the Khan’s sentence. It was thirteen years since his first visit, and now he was ten years in disobedience. To the astonishment of Mongol magnates, and of the Khan himself, Alexander stood before him, not only without trembling, but with a clear eye; and all were astounded at the words which he uttered:“Supreme Sovereign,” said he, “though I have committed much evil, and am guilty before thee, I have come hither of my own will, and am ready to receive life or death, as God shall announce to thee. If, for the sake of God, through thy greatness thou give me pardon, I will thank God and thy grace; if thou give me death, I am worthy of death.” At this he bowed down, and added, “My head is at thy disposal.”For a moment Uzbek was dumb from astonishment, and all present wondered. Alexander was kneeling with bowed head, and in silence. “See ye,” said Uzbek at last, “how with obedient wisdom Alexander has saved himself.” The Khan pardoned him straightway, gave him back the Tver principality, and sent him home without injury.But Alexander from the first had an ominous feeling, a presentiment that evil days were approaching. When the Khan’s officials had installed him, and Abdul, the chief envoy, was returning to Sarai, “to show the Khan favor,” he took to the Golden Horde Alexander’s son, Feodor. Soon news came from this prince of fifteen years that for some unknown reason the Khan was very angry, and would not dismiss him. Alexander understood then that his son had been taken as a hostage.The return of Alexander to Tver signified a return to the old[322]quarrels with Moscow. It meant trouble also in governing. Alexander brought with him to Tver new boyars and warriors, partly strangers. The chief of these boyars was a German from Livonia. The Tver boyars were not pleased with this man, or with the return of Alexander. The Moscow prince, of course, could not expect such relations with Alexander as with Constantine. The old rivalry was remembered, and with Alexander were renewed the claims of the Tver principality not to depend on the Prince of all Russia, but to be quite apart from him and separate. Through this example and also through advice from Alexander, other princes showed the same tendencies. As soon as Tver had left that position which for some years it had held toward Ivan, a similar movement appeared in other places, especially in Yaroslavl, where David, Ivan’s son-in-law, showed clear disobedience. Unpleasant reports came from Lithuania. It seemed as though Ivan had lost in one moment, and fatally, all that he had gained step by step for a decade. Was he now to be Grand Prince of Russia, or was the old rivalry between Moscow and Tver to begin again? Alexander felt the need of explaining relations with Moscow, but Ivan avoided discussions of all sorts. Envoys came at last to Ivan from Alexander, but Ivan would not talk upon any subject with the Tver prince, hence there was no result from the action of the envoys.Ivan went now to the Horde. This visit of his to Uzbek produced on all a peculiar impression. He took with him his eldest and second sons, Simeon and Ivan; the youngest, Andrei, he sent to Novgorod. This sending of a son to Novgorod was not without special meaning. Ivan had remained two years, not in peace, not in war with the city. Lord Novgorod had not met his demands, and he had not dropped them. By sending Andrei to the city at this juncture, Ivan reminded Novgorod men once again that he looked on their capital as his inheritance.At Novgorod the usual disorders were active. Gedimin’s son, who had been absent for a time in Lithuania, had returned, but there was great dissatisfaction with him, for he did not show sufficient energy in defending their borders against the Swedes.Ivan came back from the Horde with added power and new honor. All princes were placed under his hand still more firmly. It became known very quickly that, owing to Ivan’s suggestion,[323]the princes were summoned to Sarai to receive the Khan’s commands.Alexander knew that now he must go, and that he would never again see Tver. He sent quickly to his son for any information which he might have regarding the affair. The tidings which came back were woeful and he hesitated. An envoy now came to Alexander from the Khan promising him favor, but at the same time reminding him that his son was held as hostage. If a year before the Tver prince had hastened to the Horde when he himself was in danger, he hastened all the more now when Feodor was threatened.Meanwhile Ivan had gone to Sarai still a second time, and taken with him his three sons. Before Alexander’s arrival at the Horde Ivan was back in Moscow, but his sons had wished to remain with the Khan.With Alexander went the princes of Bailozero and Yaroslavl. When the Tver prince approached the Khan’s capital, his son came to meet him, and with tearful eyes told of Uzbek’s dreadful anger. “God’s will be done,” said Alexander. “If I do not die now, I shall die on some other day.” In accord with Mongol custom, he presented rich gifts to the Khan and his magnates, but the gifts were received in gloomy silence. His offenses were not declared, nor were questions asked him. It was announced that the Khan had commanded to give him to death without trial. But till his last day, October 28, 1339, he enjoyed freedom. That morning he sent to one of the Khan’s wives, who had been kind toFeodor, to learn his fate; then he mounted a horse to make the inquiry in person. She did not conceal from the prince that his last sun had risen.Returning to his tent, Alexander embraced Feodor, and took farewell of his attendants. He kissed his boyars, asking pardon of all, then he and his son with the boyars took holy communion. Soon after that they heard the executioners approaching, and Alexander and Feodor went forth to meet them. The men stripped the clothes from the two princes, tied their hands, and led them toward Tablubey, the Khan’s magnate, who was present on horseback. “Kill them!” commanded Tablubey. The executioners hurled the prince and his son to the earth, beat both with fists, and then, after trampling them to death, cut their heads off. Alexander’s attendants carried the bodies to Tver.[324]That winter Ivan’s three sons were sent home in high favor. By command of “the Godless Uzbek,” adds the chronicler, “the following princes were put to death during that winter: Feodor of Starodub, Ivan and Vassili of Ryazan, and Alexander Novosilski.”The position acquired by Ivan through the favor of Uzbek was evident to all other princes. They knew, moreover, that after his death no change would be made. Every measure had been taken to give primacy to his family, and not to another.Six months had not passed after the death of Alexander and his son, when Ivan died, March 31, 1340, being about fifty years of age. He died before his time, and perhaps unexpectedly, but he was able to go to Spasski, his favorite monastery, and put on the monk’s habit. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral, his tomb being the first in that series of Moscow sovereigns, his descendants.Uzbek, besides appreciating Ivan as a servant who was faithful and who worked for him zealously, liked the man personally. He placed him above all the princes, honored him in sovereign style, and made him presents. Among those presents was a bag, the Mongol kalitá, destined to historic celebrity. Of Ivan it was said by those who praised him that to the poor he stretched a hand which was never empty; that whenever he went from his palace he filled his kalitá with coins and gave them to the poor whom he met in his progress. “Not precious the gift,” says the proverb, “but precious the love which goes with it,” and Ivan Kalitá, as people came to call him from the gift of the Khan which ever afterward he used so constantly, gave his coins affably, for he liked much to give to the needy. The kalitá which he had received from Uzbek’s own hands might be considered emblematic of his leading activity and methods. Though one use of this kalitá was to carry coins for the needy, Ivan’s purse had other uses. It was the clearing house of Russia in his day. Into it flowed the tribute and taxes; out of it went the sums for which account was imperative; with him remained for use in his struggle for supremacy all profits and remnants of every kind. One of the most important acts of Ivan’s life was the removal of the religious capital of Russia from Vladimir to Moscow. During his pastoral visits, Peter of Lithuania, at that time metropolitan, came to Moscow frequently, and conceived a friendship for Ivan. Later he spent all of his time in Moscow, where he died and was buried. His last words to Kalitá were: “If[325]you obey me, my son, you will build a church here and give repose to my bones in your city. You and your sons and your grandsons will thus gain more fame than all the other princes, and this place will be renowned. The pastors of the church will dwell in it, and it will be above all other cities.” The church was built. The succeeding metropolitan would not desert the house and tomb of the holy Peter, and Moscow became the center of religious administration.During 1340 died Ivan Kalitá, Gedimin, and Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde, three men who left profound traces in Russia.Before touching on Gedimin, we must give some account of his dynasty. In the district of Kovno, on the right bank of the Dubissa, is a place called Eiragola. In the thirteenth century there was a small wooden castle in Eiragola, and from that castle came the Lithuanian princes. The first noted man of this line was Mindog; the first great one was Gedimin. Mindog was sure of success in that place and epoch. He was a man for whom all means were equally good, if equally effective. He had only one way of judging an action,—might it be of use to him, and had he power to commit it?When Batu had conquered Eastern Russia, the Lithuanian princes fell to raiding the west of that country, but in 1246, while returning from a raid, they were overtaken near Pinsk and scattered by Daniel of Galitch and his brother, Vassilko. The next year, another such party was crushed by those same princes.In 1252, Mindog sent Vykint, his uncle, and two nephews, Tovtivil and Edivil, to attack Smolensk places, and to ravage the country. “Let each of you keep what he wins,” said he at parting. But these words were used simply to mislead and deceive his three relatives. As soon as they had gone, Mindog seized their possessions, and sent warriors to follow and kill them. They heard of this treachery in season, and took refuge quickly with Daniel, who had married the sister of Tovtivil and Edivil. Mindog sent at once to Daniel, asking him not to assist them, but Daniel paid no heed to this message; first through regard for his wife’s brothers and her uncle, and second because he wished to weaken Mindog and his people. After counseling with Vassilko, Daniel formed a plan. He sent to Polish princes this message: “It is time for us to fall upon pagans, since they are warring against one another.” He sent similar messages to the Yatvyags, to Jmud, and to the Germans in Riga.[326]Vykint, Daniel’s envoy, roused the Yatvyags, and half the Jmud region. The Germans sent this answer to Daniel: “Though Vykint, thy relative, has killed many of our men, we have made peace with him, and will assist you.” The brothers now set out to make war in earnest. Daniel sent Vassilko to Volkovisk, his son to Slonim, and then marched to Zditov. They captured many towns and returned to Galitch well satisfied. After that, he sent Tovtivil with Russians and Polovtsi against Mindog. The Germans made no move whatever, until Tovtivil went to Riga, where he received baptism from them; then they made ready for action.Mindog saw that he could not meet two foes in one conflict. He could not war with the Germans and Daniel of Galitch at the same time. Hence he sent secretly rich gifts to the Grand Master Von Schtükland, and the following proposal: “If thou kill Tovtivil or expel him, thou wilt get still greater gifts from me.” Von Schtükland replied that he felt immense friendship for Mindog, but could give no aid till baptism had changed him. Mindog asked for a meeting, which was granted, and he settled the question while feasting with Von Schtükland. The Lithuanian prince was to be baptized. On hearing this news, the Pope was delighted, and wrote to the bishop that no one should offend the new convert. The Bishop of Culm was to crown him.But Mindog was forced to Christianity under the sword-blade, just as the Prussians had been forced to it earlier, and had gone back to the faith of their fathers whenever the chance came. Mindog, however, escaped all the dangers which threatened him from the Order. Tovtivil fled to Vykint, his uncle. He assembled warriors from the Yatvyags and Jmud, and, aided by warriors from Daniel, marched against Mindog assisted now by the Germans.During 1252, the war was not marked by notable action, but in 1253 Daniel took part in it personally, and with such success that Mindog asked for peace. He offered his daughter to Daniel’s son, Svaromir, and found still other means of persuasion.Tovtivil declared now that Mindog had bribed the Yatvyags, who refused to assist Daniel longer. Daniel was enraged at the Yatvyags, but that could not serve him. Two years passed. In 1255, there was peace between Daniel of Galitch and Mindog’s son, Voishelk. Voishelk was a man greatly noted, even in that[327]time of bloodshed. Mindog was cruel and terrible, but Voishelk surpassed him, if the annalist is truthful. Voishelk shed blood from his youth up. “Every day he killed three or four men for amusement. When his time passed without bloodshed, he was sad, and when he had killed a man, good feeling returned to him.”All at once news came of Voishelk’s baptism; nay, more, it was said that he had left ruling, and had put on a monk’s habit. This man now appeared as a peacemaker between Daniel and Mindog. The conditions seemed so favorable that Daniel did not reject them. Daniel’s son, Svaromir (familiarly Shvarn), was to marry Mindog’s daughter; Shvarn’s elder brother, Roman, was to have Novgrodek from Mindog, and Daniel was to get Slonim and Volkovisk from Voishelk, on condition of recognizing Mindog as his superior in those places.Mindog had promised the Order to accept its religion for himself and all the people under him. He was to receive the friendship of the Order, and the kingly office as a reward. In exchange, he was to give the Order various places in Jmud, those same places where there had been such terrible bloodshed because of newcomers fleeing from Prussia. The friendship seemed to be made for the ages, and a speedy union of the two lands appeared imminent. In case that he had no heir, Mindog agreed to give his kingdom to Livonia, now of one faith with him.The Bishop of Culm came with priests and monks; the Grand Master with knights of the Order. Mindog was christened, anointed, and crowned at Novgrodek. Pope Innocent IV in 1255 blessed the new convert to war against Russia and its inhabitants who were schismatic, and confirmed in advance to him all regions which he might join to his kingdom.“The God-Crowned King,” as he was entitled, freed himself gradually from every one. From Tovtivil he freed himself by perfidy; from the Yatvyags by money, from Daniel through marriage and lands, from Poland by victories. One Polish prince was slain in battle, another was captured. Then the Knights of Livonia discovered what kind of man their good friend and new convert was. Mindog turned on them and fought like a hero. He sent a message stating that he dropped them and their baptism. He roused Jmud to the struggle, and those people whom he had so recently surrendered to the Order rose up against it in pitiless[328]warfare. To one who did not understand Mindog’s keen policy, it might seem strange that he should show such hatred for his godfathers, and should openly irritate the Order. The Germans, however, knew from the first that his conversion was feigned for the purpose of obtaining aid.He did not cease to observe the ancient rites of his people; he made sacrifices to their deities, but for him that was not sufficient. He was a shrewd leader of men; he had also learned the policy of Germans. It was necessary to fire the hearts of his people, and to purify himself perfectly from any taint of German religion, hence before Lithuanians he ridiculed his own pretended conversion.The Germans made war on him promptly, but were defeated. Mindog, in celebrating his victory, made a great sacrifice. It was not enough for him to burn bulls and horses; he took one of the knights whom he had captured and burned him on horseback in complete battle armor, as an offering.After the marriage of his daughter to Daniel’s son, Mindog sustained friendly relations with Russia. He made more than one campaign with Daniel and Vassilko against the Yatvyags and disobedient Lithuanians, and against the Poles, and princes of Northern Russia. He went against the Livonian Knights to fight Riga. When Daniel became a widower, he married a niece of Mindog. Mindog had power now, but he had become too important for his family. His relatives were enraged at his haughtiness; they would not permit him to so exalt himself, and though he was the single ruler of all Lithuania, they ceased not to plan his death. At last personal hatred subdued the man.Mindog’s wife died in 1262, and he grieved much. To her sister, the wife of Prince Dovmont, he sent this message: “Thy sister is dead; come to see us.” When she came, Mindog said: “When dying, thy sister commanded me to marry thee, that her children might not be tormented.” And he took his sister-in-law as wife.Dovmont, in deep anger, planned to kill Mindog. Seeking an ally, he found one in Trenyat, the Jmud prince. In 1263, Mindog sent all his troops against Roman of Bryansk, who ruled east of the Dnieper. Dovmont was in that expedition. While on the road he declared to the leaders that a wizard had warned him[329]not to advance farther, and leaving the army, he returned straightway to Mindog’s castle, where he killed him and his two sons.Trenyat, very likely through a bargain with Dovmont, began to reign in Lithuania in place of Mindog, and also in Jmud, and sent to Tovtivil of Polotsk, his brother, saying: “Come at once; we will seize the whole land and all Mindog’s substance.”The division caused a quarrel. Tovtivil began to think how to kill Trenyat, and Trenyat how to be rid of his brother. Tovtivil’s boyar informed Trenyat of the prince’s designs. Trenyat, being quicker than Tovtivil, killed him and reigned unassisted, but his reign was not long. Four of Mindog’s equerries, to avenge their late prince, murdered Trenyat.Voishelk, when he learned of his father’s death, went to Minsk, but when he heard that Trenyat had been assassinated, he set out with Pinsk forces for Novgrodek, and from there, taking more warriors, he went to Lithuania, where his father’s adherents received him most joyfully. He began to reign, and as if to make men forget that he had ever worn a monk’s habit, he fell to slaying his enemies wherever he found them. In his new rôle of avenger he surpassed himself. Along the Nieman and all the Jmud boundaries Voishelk shed blood for the death of his father. When he had restored what had been taken from Mindog’s possessions, and extended them, and had almost exterminated his father’s enemies, he yielded all to his brother-in-law. He wished to be a monk and retire to Mount Athos. No matter how Shvarn begged, he would not remain, he would have no earthly dominion. “I have sinned much before God and man,” replied Voishelk. “Do thou rule; the land is in peace now.”This was the year that Daniel of Galitch died, and shortly before his decease Voishelk asked him for a safe-conduct to Mount Athos. But as there was war in Bulgaria, the would-be monk was forced to turn back without seeing the holy mountain. He settled then in Volynia, built a monastery, and passed the remainder of his life in seclusion.Voishelk and Dovmont are considered as cousins. The fate of the two is remarkable; one became a monk, the other a warrior. Dovmont fled from civil war in Lithuania, taking his troops with him. He was baptized in Pskoff and married the daughter of Prince Dmitri, son of Nevski. He became a great favorite of his[330]father-in-law. Pskoff was thereafter safe, not only from Lithuanian raids, but from the Knights of Livonia, whom he drove from the walls of the city and followed into the depths of the forests. Though Dovmont fought many battles he never lost one, and he governed the Pskoff people with firmness and wisdom. Voishelk assumed the monk’s habit, but the habit and the building of a monastery were accounted as nothing to Voishelk, while Dovmont’s sword is held sacred in Pskoff, even to our day.Lithuania fell back into anarchy. There were continual struggles between the descendants of Mindog and other princes, who would not accept their supremacy, and no distinguished man appeared until Gedimin. In 1315 Gedimin replaced Viten, and about this time died Yuri Lvovitch, the grandson of Daniel and the last prince of both Galitch and Volynia.In 1316 Andrei and Lev, the two sons of Yuri, divided Volynia and Galitch between them. But the great Roman’s inheritance was of small use to those, his weak and last male descendants. Those two sons of Yuri Lvovitch had each a daughter, one of whom married the Mazovian prince, Troiden; the other married Lyubart, a son of Gedimin. Lyubart received Volynia with his princess and laid claim to Galitch. So the Lithuania of Gedimin’s day was increased by almost the whole of South Russia.Rome, meanwhile, did not cease to consider Lithuania as one of its bishoprics. The churches of Livonia and Lithuania were spoken of as neighboring churches, and the Pope acted in Lithuania through Livonia. But about the time Gedimin began to rule, a dispute was raging between the knights and the Bishop of Riga. The bishop complained to the Pope that the knights, by their greed, love of power, and savage treatment, turned people away from Christianity. The knights declared that the bishops, in dealing with conquered people, influenced them against the knights and encouraged them in paganism. They proved to the Pope that the Bishop of Riga had invited the people more than once to act against the Order; that the bishops negotiated in secret with Lithuanian princes and extended their influence over the people; that they acted in spite of the Order, and used the Order only when they had need of its services. In view of such contradictory statements, the Pope took sometimes the side of the bishop, and sometimes the side of the Order, not hindering either side,[331]however, in continuing the “sacred work” of converting the infidels.Through the Bishop of Riga the Pope received in 1323 a message from Gedimin stating that he was ready for baptism, as were all people under him. He asked that the knights be prevented from making war on Lithuania, and declared that the Order had stopped him from having relations directly with the Curia; that they helped in no way to Christianize people.At the same time letters went to the Franciscans and Dominicans in Riga, requesting that monks be sent to Lithuania. Letters were sent also to Germany with offers of free trade, and asking for colonists. The Pope was delighted with the letter from Gedimin, and commanded the Order to stop warlike action in view of Lithuania’s conversion. The Archbishop of Riga made a friendly alliance with Gedimin, and the Order was forced to join also.In due time envoys appeared from Rome, and when they had confirmed all agreements between Lithuania and Livonia, they set out to find Gedimin and establish the Catholic faith in his capital and elsewhere. They intended to baptize and crown the Lithuanian prince, and then baptize all his subjects, but this they were unable to do.In Vilna they found things very different from what they had expected. They found great hatred for the German religion; they found, to their astonishment, Orthodox churches; they found also that the heathen Lithuanians not only threatened to hurl Gedimin from power if he tried to baptize them, but to exterminate his whole family. They saw that all Jmud and the Prussians would rise if Gedimin endeavored to bring in the German religion. Besides this, Gedimin’s Russian Orthodox subjects formed three-fourths of the whole population; they also threatened loudly. Thus opposed on two sides, his position would have been difficult had he really wished to introduce the German religion. Gedimin had been christened in the Orthodox faith, whether through conviction or policy we may not determine at this day, but his motives must have been overwhelming, either to remain pagan or become Orthodox. He sent the legates away. They went back enraged and indignant at the faith-breaking ruler. But Gedimin found no fault in himself; he found it on the other side. Each side accused the other, but it was difficult to tell which was the more perfidious.[332]Illiterate Lithuania carried on its home correspondence in Russian, but with Rome and the West the Livonian Germans helped Gedimin in Latin, and he had monks for that purpose from Vilna. It proved that those zealous aids, in their Latin letters sent to Rome by the way of Riga, had written much over Gedimin’s name which he would not acknowledge. In every case, when thunders struck him from the Vatican, and throughout Western Europe men called him a preternatural deceiver and liar, a forerunner of Antichrist, who trampled on laws divine and human, Gedimin justified himself, saying that the Latin writers had not correctly translated his words; he had never uttered the words which they had written.The German now became more troublesome than ever. Gedimin was forced to perpetual conflict with his neighbors. The knights, warring continually on the banks of the Niemen, made their attacks in the form of excursions, which they called “journeys.” Men came in large numbers from every part of the Holy Roman Empire to join those excursions. In 1336 there came of simple knights about two hundred counts and princes, and the Grand Master formed for their amusement what might be called a great pagan hunt.Like the founder of Riga, his successor, the Grand Master did not cease to baptize pagan people, who later on complained to all Europe in these words: “Listen to us, O princes spiritual and secular! The knights are not seeking our souls for God; they are seeking our land for their own use. They have brought us to this,—that we must either beg or be robbers if we are to save the lives in us. The knights are worse than the Mongols. All that the land gives, or that bees gather in they take. They do not let us kill a beast, or catch a fish, or trade with our neighbors. They take our children as hostages, our elders they hunt off to Prussia and imprison; our sisters and daughters they take for themselves. And still those men wear the cross of Christ on their mantles! Have pity on us. We too are men, and not wild beasts. We would take Christianity, and be baptized not in blood, but in sacred water.”When the knights did not cease visiting their “godchildren,” the latter greeted them with these words: “What place will ye rob now, for everything is taken by your prelates[333]and priests,—all wool, honey, and milk. They teach Christianity poorly.”The Grand Master, for the amusement of his guests, made an “excursion” to the island of Pillene, where four thousand people of Jmud, men, women, and children, together with their elders, had entrenched themselves strongly. In vain did the Germans fill the ditches, attack and cut down people; they could not take the place. At last they hurled in burning arrows wrapped with a blazing substance, and the fortress took fire on all sides.The besieged resolved to perish. They built up a great pile of wood, and threw on to it all that they held of most value. That done, they slew one another; fathers killed their children, husbands their wives, and put the bodies on the pile. The few who remained arranged themselves in pairs and stabbed one another; those who died first were placed on the pile by those who died later. The elder of the people stood apart and watched everything to the end. When all the others were dead he killed his wife, put her on the pile, and set fire to it, then he mounted the blazing wood, killed himself, and burned with his people. When the knights broke in they found no one to finish, and had merely to tell in their annals of the dreadful tragedy in which they had played the part both of actors and of audience.Gedimin declared entire liberty to the Orthodox Church, and before his countrymen he announced himself a defender of that pagan faith to which they adhered so devotedly. In Vilna the znitch (sacred fire) was maintained without dying, and every rite of that interesting Lithuanian religion was supported in its primitive vigor. For this he was denounced, and the Livonian Knights began war for that cross the symbol of which, together with a sword, they wore embroidered on their mantles.Gedimin went out to meet them, and this was his last encounter with Germans. On the right bank of the Niemen in that Jmud land was a strong fortress, Velona, a defense against Germans, almost on the edge of that district which the Knights of the Cross and Livonia had conquered. Thus far they had not been able to take Velona, and even now they did not venture to storm it. They determined to destroy the stronghold in another way. They built a fortress at each side of it, and set about starving out the garrison.Gedimin came to the rescue of his people, and was soon besieging[334]the Germans in their two fortresses. Firearms had become known in the West only a short time before, and the Germans were now using guns, which later on were called “squealers.” During the conflict, Gedimin was killed by a ball. He was taken to Vilna and seated on his favorite horse. By him were placed his faithful armor-bearer, his hunting-dogs and falcons, and he and they were then burned according to the primitive ritual of the Lithuanians. With him were burned three German knights in full armor, and much booty taken from Germans.Gedimin had married twice, each time a Russian princess. Five of his sons were Orthodox and belong entirely to Russian history. Of five daughters, four received Orthodox baptism, and two—Maria, the widow of Dmitri of Tver, surnamed Terrible Eyes, and Augusta, the first wife of IvanKalitá’sson—died nuns. Gedimin left a domain extending from the Niemen to the Lower Dnieper and the Dniester, including Kief, the ancient capital. This state, by special structure, population and religion, was for the greater part Russian, especially in language.Of Gedimin’s sons who survived him, seven are mentioned. Of these the ablest and most important was Olgerd, with whom his brother, Keistut, was associated closely. Olgerd’s first wife was a daughter of the Vitebsk prince who left no sons, and through this wife Olgerd inherited her father’s possessions. Soon after Gedimin’s death, Olgerd seized power over all his brothers, took Vilna and became the one ruler of Lithuania. This meant at that time Kief and the best part of Russia.Russian chronicles, without praising Olgerd, give him full justice. His self-restraint was unparalleled. He refrained from vain things most carefully, from sports and amusements of all kinds. He drank no wine, beer or mead. He was temperate in every way; from this, he acquired clear reason and great keenness. His mind was ever working; he toiled day and night at extending his dominion; he won many countries and lands; he subjected cities with all the broad regions under them; he increased his possessions untiringly. Olgerd was equally at home in Lithuania and Russia. He spoke with the Jmud men like a neighbor; Russian was his language fromchildhood. With the Knights of the Cross he could speak in German, and he knew something of Latin.[335]With Lithuanian princes love of war was inborn, but Olgerd surpassed all men in the cunning of his sudden attacks, and the subtle concealment of his purpose. There was no man more unsparing and ruthless than Olgerd. He warred with the Mongols near Kief, and hunted them out of Podolia. He inflicted bloody defeat on the Germans near the Niemen, while helping Lyubart, his brother. He drove the Poles from Volynia and Galitch, and fought with them in their own places; he threatened also the Hungarians. Olgerd’s sword was the most terrible ever wielded by a man of his dynasty; while defending Polotsk from Livonia it defended Volynia and Kief from Polish inroads.But that which might satisfy Mindog or Gedimin could not satisfy Olgerd. To be prince of Lithuania and one half of Russia was not his ambition; he was striving for more than that, striving for power over Smolensk, Tver, Pskoff, Novgorod, and Moscow. He aspired to be ruler of all Russia. The Moscow princes had in him a dangerous enemy. Hence the Grand Prince of Moscow, in struggling to consolidate Russia, and put himself at the head of it, had a problem of the utmost complication and difficulty.[336]

CHAPTER XIVIVAN KALITÁ

In 1319, Yuri returned from the Horde with the Khan’s patent making him Grand Prince. According to old Russian rules, he was equal to the sons of Prince Michael. If they were superior through inheritance from a father who had held the position of Grand Prince, a position which Yuri’s father had never held, he surpassed them through his grandfather Nevski, who was senior to their grandfather, Yaroslav. In descent, men might hold them equal. But Yuri surpassed the Tver prince in wealth, and in the number of his warriors, and with the patent of the Khan he became chief, and all yielded.Yuri hastened to Vladimir and took the throne, merely making a short halt at Moscow, to leave there Michael’s son Constantine, with his father’s boyars and servants. Yuri had taken Constantine from the Horde, partly as a relative, partly as a prisoner; the boyars were really prisoners. No one in Tver knew exactly what had taken place; all were in doubt and anxiety, and when Yuri’s return was reported, men were sent to Vladimir to discover the truth. They brought tidings to Tver that Prince Michael was dead and his body had been taken to Moscow and buried.As soon as Yuri appeared in Vladimir, Dmitri, Michael’s eldest son, took possession of Tver in accordance with the will of his father. Then he sent his younger brother, Alexander, to Yuri, to ask for the body of his father. Yuri refused at first to deliver it, but he at last consented, and the body was taken back to Tver.Boris, Yuri’s brother, died in Moscow soon after this, as did also Afanasi, whom Yuri had settled in Novgorod, so that of Daniel’s sons only Yuri and Ivan were living. When Yuri returned from the Horde as Grand Prince, he gave his inherited lands, as it seems, to Ivan. In 1320, Ivan went to do homage to Uzbek; till[309]that time he had never seen him. In that year Tver had three marriages of princes: Alexander and Constantine found brides among Russians, but Dmitri took a daughter of Gedimin, the Lithuanian Grand Prince. This connection with Gedimin brought Dmitri into intimate relations with an enemy of Russia, and made it more difficult still for Tver to be friendly with Vladimir. Dmitri did not wish to see Yuri, or approach him, or even hear his name mentioned. Outspoken and direct, irrepressible and passionate the name Terrible Eyes had been given Dmitri, and it describedhim clearly.Yuri’s first move as Grand Prince was a quarrel with Ryazan, undertaken to punish one of its princes. That labor finished, he moved on Dmitri. The task was “to take his honor,” as the phrase ran in those days.Expeditions were made then, as they had been made earlier, to impose peace “with dread and trembling.” Minor princes performed certain acts at the coronation of a Grand Prince. If not to show submission, at least to recognize that he was their superior. The Grand Prince made a treaty with each minor prince, causing him at the same time to kiss the cross to observe it. When the Khan gave a patent to an important prince, minor princes led his horse in the ceremony of installation.Yuri, of course, was not seeking a service of this kind, but as Dmitri had not ranged himself with princes who acknowledged his headship, Yuri now led his warriors to attack Tver. When Dmitri heard of this campaign against him, he made no move, but begged his friend Varsonofi, the bishop, to save him from every discussion with Yuri. He agreed to all terms in advance, so as to avoid meeting him. The bishop persuaded the Grand Prince to withdraw from the country, after receiving a solemn declaration from Dmitri that he would not strive to be Grand Prince.The chief mark of subjection in a minor prince at that time was to pay the Khan’s tribute, not at the Horde, but to the Grand Prince. Yuri insisted on this, and if negotiations with the bishop were protracted, it was only because of discussions on that subject; but Dmitri in the end agreed to that also, and promised to send to Yuri two thousand grievens, which he had collected from Tver as a tribute. Dmitri sent this money to Yuri that year (1321). The following year he went to the Horde for confirmation as senior[310]heir to the Tver principality. He took gifts to the Khan and rendered homage as usual; then, unable to restrain himself, he told the Khan all that was troubling his spirit. Disregarding the ceremony which was binding on every one, he explained to Uzbek how Kavgady and Yuri had calumniated his father, condemned him, and killed him in his innocence. The Terrible-Eyed Dmitri explained everything with respect and submission. Moreover, his coming to the Horde was a mark of his faithfulness. He might refer to this, and, of course, he was not silent; he said that he submitted to the will of the Khan; that he acknowledged the primacy of Yuri, the proof of which was that he had given him the tribute of Tver, those two thousand grievens which Yuri had not paid at the Horde, as was shown when officials sought for an account of them.Yuri perhaps had no thought of withholding this tribute; circumstances may have prevented his going immediately to the Horde with it, for soon after he received the money he was forced to hasten to Novgorod, and farther, since at that time he was fighting fiercely against the Swedes and the Germans of Riga, and he had not yet returned from that distant campaigning. Still, as was thought at the Horde, it was not the right way to act, and command was given straightway to summon Yuri. To Dmitri Uzbek was more gracious than he had ever been to any prince. Surprised by his daring speech, the Khan gave him honor. Mongol magnates, in view of this, were full of respect for him, and his success was immediate. Yuri was summoned once more to the Horde. Dmitri received his patent, not as Prince of Tver, but as Grand Prince, and the Khan sent his envoy, Svinche Buga, and a Mongol detachment of warriors toinstallthe new favorite. Such double rule under Mongol direction was not a new thing.From the winter of 1322 to that of 1324, no man among the Russians knew positively whether Yuri or Dmitri was Grand Prince. Both ruled in the Khan’s name, and each held his patent. Yuri, meanwhile, was defending Novgorod against Swedes, and meeting also Tver regiments led against him by Alexander, a brother of the Terrible-Eyed Dmitri. Yuri defeated the Swedes at that point where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga, and made a “permanent peace” with them. When he had finished with the Swedes, he prepared to assuage the Khan’s anger. Some time before he had begged his brother, Ivan, to defend him at the[311]Horde. No man was better fitted to do this than Ivan, and he succeeded. It is true that when he came home to Moscow the Khan’s envoy came also to confirm the summons to Yuri, but in every case Yuri’s safety at the Horde seemed more than likely.Though satisfied by the news which Ivan brought, Yuri still hesitated over the risks of the journey. He made repeated inquiries of friends at the Horde as to what might await him, and learned that he could go with good chances of security. He did not go empty-handed, moreover, knowing well that success at Sarai was connected at all times with an abundance of silver and gold. He went at the same time with envoys from Novgorod. Dmitri had beset all the roads to the Volga; he was determined to prevent Yuri’s visit to the Horde. Hence the Grand Prince was forced to go by Vyatka to Perm, thence down the Kama to the Volga, and thus he reached Sarai finally.In 1325, when most men knew not what had happened to Yuri, news came that he was in good health at the court of his brother-in-law. Dmitri, astonished that his enemy had escaped unpunished, set out for the Horde to work against him. All were now waiting in Russia to see which of the two men would come back as Grand Prince; neither came. First Yuri’s corpse was brought to Moscow November 21, 1325, and it was learned that Dmitri and Yuri, having been summoned to Uzbek’s presence, had met in his palace. Dmitri could not restrain himself. He drew his sword instantly, and Yuri fell, slain by the avenging hand of Michael’s son. “A deed like this done near the eyes of the Khan, and almost in his presence, is not to be pardoned!” cried the Mongols. Uzbek ordered all to be silent. When news of this order came to Russia, men thought that Yuri’s death had been pleasing to Uzbek. But when they learned later that it had happened without the Khan’s desire or knowledge, Dmitri’s friends were greatly troubled.During more than nine months the Khan’s will in this case was not uttered, and some had good hopes for Dmitri, but on September 15, 1326, Dmitri was executed, and the body of the Tver prince was taken to his native city, where they placed it at the side of Prince Michael, his father.Though Uzbek had ordered the execution of Dmitri, Alexander, Dmitri’s brother, was made Grand Prince. But Alexander’s[312]power was not lasting. Before twelve months had passed it had ended.In 1327, Uzbek sent Cholkhan, his cousin, to Tver. With him came warriors, princes and merchants. Cholkhan occupied Alexander’s palace, and his warriors were quartered on the people. They committed violence, as was usual on every such occasion, and there was much feeling against them in Tver. It was reported among Russians that the Mongols intended to kill the Tver prince, his friends, and his family, and clear the throne for Cholkhan, who would at once put Mongol princes in every part of Russia, and force his religion on Christians.Early one morning a deacon was leading to water a young mare in good flesh; some Mongols rushed to take the beast from him,—they wished to kill, cook, and eat her. The deacon struggled and shouted; people ran up to help him; more Mongols hurried to the spot, and a fight began which developed and extended till it filled the city. Church bells were tolled. Cholkhan was roused and rushed forth to the battle. At sunrise all Tver was raging in a desperate conflict. The Grand Prince himself took part, and pushed into the thickest of the struggle. Both sides fought all day fiercely, and only toward evening did Alexander force Cholkhan and his men to the palace, where the Mongols quickly barred every entrance. But Alexander did not spare his father’s palace; he fired it with his own hands, and Cholkhan and his Mongols were burned to death in it. All Mongol merchants were slain; the Tver men spared not one of them; even those who had lived a long time in the city received neither quarter nor mercy. They were burned in their houses, or drowned in the river.Such was the punishment inflicted on Cholkhan, Uzbek’s cousin. When Uzbek heard of this massacre, his anger blazed up furiously against the rebels, and in grief over Cholkhan. He sent at once for the Prince of Moscow. Ivan delayed not. It seems that his obedience and ready arrival at Sarai surprised even the Khan. Ivan found every one in great alarm. The Mongols thought that all Russia had risen in revolt and refused further obedience. When the true condition was explained, Uzbek gave the Moscow prince a part of his army to punish the insolent Tver men. He sent with him also Mongol princes and five commanders, each leading ten thousand warriors. In fact he gave an army[313]sufficient to conquer a kingdom. His order was to destroy the Tver principality.No man had ever seen Uzbek in such convulsions of anger. He roared like a lion. Not a Tver prince was to be left alive. The whole Russian land must be harassed. Ivan was to slaughter his own countrymen to avenge Mongols. Vassili, a Ryazan prince summoned recently for judgment, was beheaded at once. Later on, when Mongol warriors were at work, the head of another prince fell at the Khan’s capital. During the summer of 1328, there was great bloodshed throughout all Vladimir. The legions which came with Ivan, led by Turlyak, were so numerous that no Russian power could withstand them. Tver and other towns were leveled. All people who did not flee were either slain or taken captive. Alexander and his brothers fled to Novgorod, but Novgorod, greatly alarmed, would not allow them to remain in the city, and they fled to Pskoff. When the Khan’s warriors approached Novgorod, Ivan sent envoys from himself and Turlyak. The Novgorod men showed the envoys all honor, paid tribute and made presents. The city sent then an embassy to Uzbek, and implored Ivan to conduct it. “Go thou to the Horde,” begged they, “and declare the obedience of Novgorod.” The prince consented. Constantine of Tver, Ivan’s cousin, joined the embassy, for Ivan had promised to intercede in his favor.It would be difficult to estimate what suffering that outbreak in Tver brought on Russia; how much torture and anguish that desperate affair cost the people. The Khan was waiting for news with impatience; when it came, it was so terrible that he was satisfied. The smoking ruins of Tver towns and settlements seemed to him a splendid reminder and a hint strong enough to keep down the disobedient. Tver, Kashin, and all towns in Torjok and the Tver principality were turned into ashes. People had been destroyed or taken captive wherever hands or weapons could reach them. Only those who fled to gloomy forests, where they hid among wild beasts, survived that dreadful visitation. In time they came back to their places, and began to work anew, but all were in dire need and poverty, for their lands were as a desert.The campaign successfully ended, the Mongols went home with much wealth and many captives. They not only seized cattle,[314]horses, and property, but took the wives and daughters of Russians, and the men who were able to labor. They took everything that pleased them, wherever they found it. Those who complained or resisted were cut to pieces immediately. But Moscow and all its lands were free from Mongol rapacity and massacre.In the autumn of 1328, Ivan went to the Horde to report that the Khan’s demand was accomplished. With him were the Novgorod envoys and Feodor Kolenitsa, their chief man, also Constantine, the Tver prince. Uzbek met all very graciously, and received Ivan with much honor. He gave him the Grand Principality, adding lands also to Moscow, and granting everything that the prince asked for; he gratified Kolenitsa as well. But he commanded them all to the last man to seek out Alexander and bring him to the Horde to receive the Khan’s sentence.After the countless quarrels between princes, and the Mongol raids which did not cease for even one year during five decades after the death of Alexander Nevski, the peace which now began, when Nevski’s grandson, Ivan, became Grand Prince of Vladimir, must have seemed a miracle. And for many a day it remained in the minds of the people as a wonderful benefaction. This lasting peace was the great event of Ivan’s reign. All knew that he had Uzbek’s confidence. Russian princes saw that the Khan granted whatever Ivan asked of him. They saw this even before, but when Constantine, brother of the fugitive Alexander, was confirmed in Tver through Ivan’s influence, all were convinced of Uzbek’s friendship for him, none more firmly than the Novgorod envoys, who had visited the Horde with the Grand Prince.In 1328, upon his return from Sarai, Ivan and the other princes met in Novgorod, for they had to find Alexander. They decided to send envoys to that prince, and say, “The Khan summons thee to judgment; wilt thou suffer for the Russian land like a warrior of Christ, or survive alone, and give the whole Russian land to destruction?” The envoys returned with the declaration that the Pskoff men would not yield Alexander. They had agreed and kissed the cross not to forsake him. He and they would stand or fall in one company. The princes moved now on Pskoff with strong forces. Besides Ivan’s army, he commanded Tver troops with the troops of other princes, and men of Novgorod also. Wishing no harm to Pskoff, he pitched his camp at some distance[315]and negotiated. He sent the Novgorod bishop with the Novgorod commander to the prince, and strove to act with kindness. Alexander was moved to tears and answered that he was willing to stand before Uzbek, but the Pskoff men swore that they would not allow him to go from their city. Alexander sent this message from himself: “It is better that I die for all, than that all should perish for me. But ye might defend your own brothers and not yield them to pagans. Ye do just the opposite, and with you ye bring Mongols.”“It is impossible to take the prince from Pskoff or drive him from the city.” These words were current in the camp of the allies. Ivan knew much more of the true state of affairs than could be gathered from camp reports, or the words of Alexander. He knew that Pskoff hoped to be independent of Novgorod, that it wished for its own prince, and thought that it had one now in Alexander. He knew also that Livonia supported the city in secret, understanding well that if alone it would be weaker and more easily subjected, while Lithuania supported Pskoff openly and roused the city to resistance. Alexander, consciously or not, was the helper of Gedimin. Ivan knew, perhaps, of a treaty made by Pskoff and Alexander with Livonia. “The Germans are near them, and they expect aid from them,” said Ivan in council. It was difficult for him to act. In those straits he remembered that when Yuri, his brother, was struggling with Tver, Maxim, the metropolitan, made peace at the outset. There was still another case, even more memorable. At the time when Dmitri of the Terrible Eyes, intending to war against Yuri, was leading his troops to Nizni, and had reached Vladimir, Pyotr, the bishop, stopped him by refusing to give him his blessing, and Dmitri, after waiting three weeks, returned home without meeting Yuri. Ivan turned now to Feognost, the metropolitan, and begged for his assistance.Feognost consented immediately, and was ready to utter a curse on the Pskoff prince if he would not stand before Uzbek, and on all the Pskoff people unless they surrendered him. Envoys were sent to the city declaring that unless they submitted an interdict would be issued, and services stopped in the churches. All people would be excommunicated.“Brothers and friends,” said Alexander to the people, on hearing[316]this message, “let your oath to me, and my oath to you lose their value. I will go from your city so that no harm may strike you. I will find refuge with the Germans or in Lithuania,” and he departed. Pskoff then informed Ivan that Alexander was no longer with them, and added: “Pskoff pays thee homage as its Grand Prince.”Thus Ivan was the first Moscow prince who gave peace to Pskoff in the old fashion, as he would to his own principality. The metropolitan blessed the Pskoff people, and Ivan marched homeward with the princes. After Ivan had reached Moscow, Gedimin proposed that Novgorod should take as prince his son Narimont, and give him Oraihovo and Ladoga, with a part of Karelia, as inheritance. Moscow learned then for the first time that since Ivan had left Pskoff, Alexander had returned, and was prince there, supported by Gedimin. It was not this return alone which roused Novgorod, but the treason of the Pskoff men. The city had accepted Alexander as prince from Lithuania, and were striving now for church separation. When Vassili, the new archbishop, went from Novgorod for ordination, Gedimin of Lithuania and Alexander of Pskoff sent envoys to Feognost, Metropolitan of Russia, then in Volynia. These envoys took with them Arseni to be bishop in Pskoff. Gedimin had given Pskoff a prince in Alexander, and would now give a bishop. Feognost ordained Vassili as Archbishop of Novgorod, but refused to ordain Arseni, and Alexander’s envoys returned without a bishop. Gedimin, enraged by the Novgorod success, and the failure of Arseni, sent men to seize Vassili, but, warned by a messenger from Feognost, he escaped the Lithuanians, and returned in safety to Novgorod.Alexander managed Pskoff for ten years, while Constantine and Vassili, his brothers, ruled the Tver region,—the first in Tver, the chief city, the second in Kashin in the northern part of the Tver principality. Ivan had reconciled the Tver princes with Uzbek, and as they were friendly and obedient their position was easy. Ivan asked of them only to leave the road free between Moscow and Novgorod,—Tver held the way between those two cities. Vladimir, the capital of the principality, was occupied by Alexander, the Suzdal prince, not as a capital, but as a possession. Ivan lived at all times in Moscow, which had become the real capital of Russia. Uzbek, as stated already, gave him many[317]lands in addition, giving Vladimir meanwhile to the Suzdal prince.Several princes found themselves tied to Ivan through relationship. He gave one of his daughters to Vassili, Prince of Yaroslavl, another to Constantine of Rostoff. Those princes, fearing to disobey their father-in-law, had worked with him loyally thus far.Besides having the Khan’s confidence, Ivan was strong through the tribute. No other Grand Prince had given the Khan such an income; and no prince held such uncontrolled management of tribute. This gave Ivan unique power and position. Of all princes in that day he was the only one, or at least the only one known to us, who had a fixed object. He took no part in local quarrels in favor of one or another region. He strove for Russia, and when prince only in Moscow he saw all Russia far in the future. This was clearly shown in his every act, not merely in the title which he assumed, “Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia,” but in his relations with other princes and with Novgorod, and even with Uzbek. To preserve the Russian land in its integrity was, by the very working of fate, to preserve the Khan’s lordship, and support it for a season. There is no doubt that Ivan explained always to Uzbek the harmful growth of Lithuania, and as he himself warred with that power, so he roused Uzbek to war with it. He showed the Khan, too, the immense wealth of Novgorod in the distant lands of the East and the Pechora, to which Novgorod admitted no Grand Prince. Uzbek rewarded and honored his untiring assistant, and Ivan all the more easily reached his object, calling himself with deep reason Grand Prince, not of Moscow alone, but of all Russia.Throughout his whole reign, Ivan had no personal quarrels; he deprived no prince of his inheritance, he made war on no rival. Still he kept all in obedience. At that epoch Alexander, the Tver prince, was beyond doubt the most important of the princes. Owing to Ivan’s non-interference, Alexander reigned ten years in Pskoff without annoyance; neither with arms nor with words did Ivan disturb him, but he watched Alexander’s connections with Gedimin and with Livonia, and forgot no intrigue of his.Novgorod, fearing the power of Ivan, sought his good-will, offered friendship, and did not refuse to send Moscow more tribute than it had sent Vladimir. As Prince of Novgorod he might have been satisfied with the tribute, and the honor with[318]which Novgorod strove to placate him, but as chief of all Russia he was not content with this; he demanded what the city owed to all Russia. Ivan would never yield to Novgorod when it claimed single ownership of regions beyond the Volok, nor would he pardon its boyars for threatening to favor Lithuania. On those points he warred with the city at all times. During his reign he made Novgorod feel very clearly that he did not ask an extra thousand of grievens to build up Moscow, but that the boundaries fixed from the days of Yuri Dolgoruki, Andrei Bogolyubski, and Big Nest must be given to Vladimir. Besides he showed the Novgorod men that not to their city alone, but to all Russia, was open the road to the whole northern country. And the region beyond the Ural Mountains, the Kamen, as it was then called (beyond the Kamen meant Siberia) was, as Ivan considered it, the property, not of Novgorod alone, but of all Russia. Novgorod, however, insisted most stubbornly that those regions belonged to her exclusively. The Moscow prince would not concede this claim, and watched with the utmost care those relations which then began between Novgorod and Lithuania.The boyars of Novgorod not only considered that they had a right to invite a prince from Lithuania, but apparently they were ready to place Novgorod under Lithuanian protection, if thus they could keep independent of other princes, and preserve to their city those rich, boundless lands on the north and the east.Ivan would not admit for a moment that they had the right to call in a foreign prince, or owned exclusively those lands which they claimed for their own.In 1332, when returning from the Horde, Ivan made a demand in the name of the Khan to which the people of Novgorod gave a stern refusal. He insisted, and to make sure of their compliance he seized the Upper Baijets and Torjok immediately. From that began a long quarrel. At times Novgorod seemed to yield, and the quarrel apparently ceased; again it would blaze up on the city’s renewed refusal. Thus the dispute continued during Ivan’s reign.The main cause of the dispute was the silver beyond the Ural Mountains. Ivan demanded from Novgorod an income from places claimed by the city, no part of which income should go to any prince ruling in Novgorod. He wished to extend taxes over all Novgorod possessions to the boundaries of Siberia.[319]In proportion as Novgorod quarreled with Ivan, it tried to be intimate with Pskoff. Vassili, the archbishop, having added stone walls to the Kremlin of Novgorod, found it proper to visit Pskoff and give the people his blessing, withheld since his installation, at which time he had opposed Pskoff’s efforts to separate from the diocese. A son had just been born to Alexander. The bishop baptized him, and was one of the godfathers of this little prince, named for his grandfather, Michael.At that time Novgorod had entered into friendship with Lithuania, and Narimont, son of Gedimin, had arrived in the city. Novgorod received him with gladness, and gave him Ladoga with Oraihova and Karelia in part as a portion. In view of these acts Ivan went to Sarai, and when he came back it was stated that he had been shown great honor, and had gained large accessions of power while with Uzbek. This alarmed Novgorod. During Ivan’s absence the Novgorod archbishop had gone on a visit to Moscow, bearing gifts from the city to the metropolitan, who had just come from Tsargrad. The archbishop begged the metropolitan to speak with Ivan about Novgorod. This intercession succeeded, for when envoys arrived in Moscow and invited Ivan to Novgorod, he set aside his dislike for the city, entered Novgorod February 16, 1335, and was received there in triumph. They offered to add all their forces to his, and fall upon Pskoff if he so ordered. But he would not attack Pskoff at that period; he accepted their service, however, and marched on Lithuania. His forces, and those of the city, took towns in good number, and though this Lithuanian campaign was not the most important in conquest, it was in agreement.Meanwhile Gedimin’s son had not justified Novgorod’s hopes in him, and he went back at last to his father. This freed Ivan’s hands, for he had been gracious to Novgorod partly because of this young prince’s presence at Ladoga. At this time Novgorod yielded in many, if not in all things to Ivan. He bought lands where he liked in Novgorod regions, and founded villages in them, a thing which Novgorod had never permitted to any prince. Still he yielded no claim touching Russia. The great contention as to what belonged to Novgorod, and what was all Russia’s dominion was still undecided. Novgorod now sought again the Pskoff friendship. But the Pskoff men knew well that Novgorod’s desire[320]for friendship came from dread of Ivan, Prince of Moscow. They knew also that a little while earlier Novgorod had offered aid against Pskoff, if Ivan wished to have it. There was no quarrel or hatred on either side at the time of the offer, and it had been made purely from policy; passion had had nothing to do with the matter.If Ivan, as Grand Prince of all Russia, preferred his demands against Novgorod so insistently, we may understand very well that he was not tender with princes of small strength. Attendants and boyars of small princes went to serve him by preference, Moscow’s success was desired by all people who toiled and produced, because order and quietness came from it. No prince could rival Ivan in power and in resources. He surpassed not only each Russian prince separately, but he was stronger than any combination which might be made among them. For long years Ivan had worked at winning wealth and power. He had worked successfully and with great diligence. Then Uzbek gave him lands in addition to Moscow, and gave him perfect control of all tribute from other princes. This made his position unequaled. Ivan now held the purse. He kept such firm order that merchants felt safe to expose their goods everywhere. New markets on the Volga and elsewhere were opened. In Northern Russia Yaroslavl, near the mouth of the Mologa, a river which enters the Volga, was a place where German, Persian, Greek and Italian merchants met and sold goods during summer. The revenue from transactions was large. Boats covered the Volga, and till the sixteenth century this market was an important one in Russia.Ivan purchased from poor princes not only villages, but towns such as Uglitch, Bailozersk, and Galitch beyond the Volga, and thus increased his inheritance unceasingly. He also bought from boyars and monasteries, and exchanged with them. He received presents of land and property through wills of friends and relatives. With the wealth which belonged to him personally, and that which pertained to his office, he was able to meet all possible demands.Responsible to the Khan for Russian tribute, and paying this tribute at regular intervals, he frequently had to pay for princes who lacked ready money. Of these some grew insolvent and paid him with land. All, in greater or less degree, were dependent upon him; all in fact needed his protection. Without regard to the[321]murmurs of Novgorod boyars, he bought towns and villages in Novgorod regions continually. So, extending power from his capital always with the rights of a Grand Prince, to which he knew how to give proper emphasis, he was strong at all points, and for many reasons. Consequently boyars and warriors of weakening principalities went gladly to the service of Moscow.Alexander, Prince of Pskoff for about ten years, was disturbed by no one. It was quite impossible that the Khan did not know what Alexander was doing, or had forgotten that Cholkhan, his favorite cousin, had been killed by him. At last Alexander left Pskoff of his own accord. Lest his son might lose Tver through his father’s exile, he resolved to appear at the Horde and hear the Khan’s sentence. It was thirteen years since his first visit, and now he was ten years in disobedience. To the astonishment of Mongol magnates, and of the Khan himself, Alexander stood before him, not only without trembling, but with a clear eye; and all were astounded at the words which he uttered:“Supreme Sovereign,” said he, “though I have committed much evil, and am guilty before thee, I have come hither of my own will, and am ready to receive life or death, as God shall announce to thee. If, for the sake of God, through thy greatness thou give me pardon, I will thank God and thy grace; if thou give me death, I am worthy of death.” At this he bowed down, and added, “My head is at thy disposal.”For a moment Uzbek was dumb from astonishment, and all present wondered. Alexander was kneeling with bowed head, and in silence. “See ye,” said Uzbek at last, “how with obedient wisdom Alexander has saved himself.” The Khan pardoned him straightway, gave him back the Tver principality, and sent him home without injury.But Alexander from the first had an ominous feeling, a presentiment that evil days were approaching. When the Khan’s officials had installed him, and Abdul, the chief envoy, was returning to Sarai, “to show the Khan favor,” he took to the Golden Horde Alexander’s son, Feodor. Soon news came from this prince of fifteen years that for some unknown reason the Khan was very angry, and would not dismiss him. Alexander understood then that his son had been taken as a hostage.The return of Alexander to Tver signified a return to the old[322]quarrels with Moscow. It meant trouble also in governing. Alexander brought with him to Tver new boyars and warriors, partly strangers. The chief of these boyars was a German from Livonia. The Tver boyars were not pleased with this man, or with the return of Alexander. The Moscow prince, of course, could not expect such relations with Alexander as with Constantine. The old rivalry was remembered, and with Alexander were renewed the claims of the Tver principality not to depend on the Prince of all Russia, but to be quite apart from him and separate. Through this example and also through advice from Alexander, other princes showed the same tendencies. As soon as Tver had left that position which for some years it had held toward Ivan, a similar movement appeared in other places, especially in Yaroslavl, where David, Ivan’s son-in-law, showed clear disobedience. Unpleasant reports came from Lithuania. It seemed as though Ivan had lost in one moment, and fatally, all that he had gained step by step for a decade. Was he now to be Grand Prince of Russia, or was the old rivalry between Moscow and Tver to begin again? Alexander felt the need of explaining relations with Moscow, but Ivan avoided discussions of all sorts. Envoys came at last to Ivan from Alexander, but Ivan would not talk upon any subject with the Tver prince, hence there was no result from the action of the envoys.Ivan went now to the Horde. This visit of his to Uzbek produced on all a peculiar impression. He took with him his eldest and second sons, Simeon and Ivan; the youngest, Andrei, he sent to Novgorod. This sending of a son to Novgorod was not without special meaning. Ivan had remained two years, not in peace, not in war with the city. Lord Novgorod had not met his demands, and he had not dropped them. By sending Andrei to the city at this juncture, Ivan reminded Novgorod men once again that he looked on their capital as his inheritance.At Novgorod the usual disorders were active. Gedimin’s son, who had been absent for a time in Lithuania, had returned, but there was great dissatisfaction with him, for he did not show sufficient energy in defending their borders against the Swedes.Ivan came back from the Horde with added power and new honor. All princes were placed under his hand still more firmly. It became known very quickly that, owing to Ivan’s suggestion,[323]the princes were summoned to Sarai to receive the Khan’s commands.Alexander knew that now he must go, and that he would never again see Tver. He sent quickly to his son for any information which he might have regarding the affair. The tidings which came back were woeful and he hesitated. An envoy now came to Alexander from the Khan promising him favor, but at the same time reminding him that his son was held as hostage. If a year before the Tver prince had hastened to the Horde when he himself was in danger, he hastened all the more now when Feodor was threatened.Meanwhile Ivan had gone to Sarai still a second time, and taken with him his three sons. Before Alexander’s arrival at the Horde Ivan was back in Moscow, but his sons had wished to remain with the Khan.With Alexander went the princes of Bailozero and Yaroslavl. When the Tver prince approached the Khan’s capital, his son came to meet him, and with tearful eyes told of Uzbek’s dreadful anger. “God’s will be done,” said Alexander. “If I do not die now, I shall die on some other day.” In accord with Mongol custom, he presented rich gifts to the Khan and his magnates, but the gifts were received in gloomy silence. His offenses were not declared, nor were questions asked him. It was announced that the Khan had commanded to give him to death without trial. But till his last day, October 28, 1339, he enjoyed freedom. That morning he sent to one of the Khan’s wives, who had been kind toFeodor, to learn his fate; then he mounted a horse to make the inquiry in person. She did not conceal from the prince that his last sun had risen.Returning to his tent, Alexander embraced Feodor, and took farewell of his attendants. He kissed his boyars, asking pardon of all, then he and his son with the boyars took holy communion. Soon after that they heard the executioners approaching, and Alexander and Feodor went forth to meet them. The men stripped the clothes from the two princes, tied their hands, and led them toward Tablubey, the Khan’s magnate, who was present on horseback. “Kill them!” commanded Tablubey. The executioners hurled the prince and his son to the earth, beat both with fists, and then, after trampling them to death, cut their heads off. Alexander’s attendants carried the bodies to Tver.[324]That winter Ivan’s three sons were sent home in high favor. By command of “the Godless Uzbek,” adds the chronicler, “the following princes were put to death during that winter: Feodor of Starodub, Ivan and Vassili of Ryazan, and Alexander Novosilski.”The position acquired by Ivan through the favor of Uzbek was evident to all other princes. They knew, moreover, that after his death no change would be made. Every measure had been taken to give primacy to his family, and not to another.Six months had not passed after the death of Alexander and his son, when Ivan died, March 31, 1340, being about fifty years of age. He died before his time, and perhaps unexpectedly, but he was able to go to Spasski, his favorite monastery, and put on the monk’s habit. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral, his tomb being the first in that series of Moscow sovereigns, his descendants.Uzbek, besides appreciating Ivan as a servant who was faithful and who worked for him zealously, liked the man personally. He placed him above all the princes, honored him in sovereign style, and made him presents. Among those presents was a bag, the Mongol kalitá, destined to historic celebrity. Of Ivan it was said by those who praised him that to the poor he stretched a hand which was never empty; that whenever he went from his palace he filled his kalitá with coins and gave them to the poor whom he met in his progress. “Not precious the gift,” says the proverb, “but precious the love which goes with it,” and Ivan Kalitá, as people came to call him from the gift of the Khan which ever afterward he used so constantly, gave his coins affably, for he liked much to give to the needy. The kalitá which he had received from Uzbek’s own hands might be considered emblematic of his leading activity and methods. Though one use of this kalitá was to carry coins for the needy, Ivan’s purse had other uses. It was the clearing house of Russia in his day. Into it flowed the tribute and taxes; out of it went the sums for which account was imperative; with him remained for use in his struggle for supremacy all profits and remnants of every kind. One of the most important acts of Ivan’s life was the removal of the religious capital of Russia from Vladimir to Moscow. During his pastoral visits, Peter of Lithuania, at that time metropolitan, came to Moscow frequently, and conceived a friendship for Ivan. Later he spent all of his time in Moscow, where he died and was buried. His last words to Kalitá were: “If[325]you obey me, my son, you will build a church here and give repose to my bones in your city. You and your sons and your grandsons will thus gain more fame than all the other princes, and this place will be renowned. The pastors of the church will dwell in it, and it will be above all other cities.” The church was built. The succeeding metropolitan would not desert the house and tomb of the holy Peter, and Moscow became the center of religious administration.During 1340 died Ivan Kalitá, Gedimin, and Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde, three men who left profound traces in Russia.Before touching on Gedimin, we must give some account of his dynasty. In the district of Kovno, on the right bank of the Dubissa, is a place called Eiragola. In the thirteenth century there was a small wooden castle in Eiragola, and from that castle came the Lithuanian princes. The first noted man of this line was Mindog; the first great one was Gedimin. Mindog was sure of success in that place and epoch. He was a man for whom all means were equally good, if equally effective. He had only one way of judging an action,—might it be of use to him, and had he power to commit it?When Batu had conquered Eastern Russia, the Lithuanian princes fell to raiding the west of that country, but in 1246, while returning from a raid, they were overtaken near Pinsk and scattered by Daniel of Galitch and his brother, Vassilko. The next year, another such party was crushed by those same princes.In 1252, Mindog sent Vykint, his uncle, and two nephews, Tovtivil and Edivil, to attack Smolensk places, and to ravage the country. “Let each of you keep what he wins,” said he at parting. But these words were used simply to mislead and deceive his three relatives. As soon as they had gone, Mindog seized their possessions, and sent warriors to follow and kill them. They heard of this treachery in season, and took refuge quickly with Daniel, who had married the sister of Tovtivil and Edivil. Mindog sent at once to Daniel, asking him not to assist them, but Daniel paid no heed to this message; first through regard for his wife’s brothers and her uncle, and second because he wished to weaken Mindog and his people. After counseling with Vassilko, Daniel formed a plan. He sent to Polish princes this message: “It is time for us to fall upon pagans, since they are warring against one another.” He sent similar messages to the Yatvyags, to Jmud, and to the Germans in Riga.[326]Vykint, Daniel’s envoy, roused the Yatvyags, and half the Jmud region. The Germans sent this answer to Daniel: “Though Vykint, thy relative, has killed many of our men, we have made peace with him, and will assist you.” The brothers now set out to make war in earnest. Daniel sent Vassilko to Volkovisk, his son to Slonim, and then marched to Zditov. They captured many towns and returned to Galitch well satisfied. After that, he sent Tovtivil with Russians and Polovtsi against Mindog. The Germans made no move whatever, until Tovtivil went to Riga, where he received baptism from them; then they made ready for action.Mindog saw that he could not meet two foes in one conflict. He could not war with the Germans and Daniel of Galitch at the same time. Hence he sent secretly rich gifts to the Grand Master Von Schtükland, and the following proposal: “If thou kill Tovtivil or expel him, thou wilt get still greater gifts from me.” Von Schtükland replied that he felt immense friendship for Mindog, but could give no aid till baptism had changed him. Mindog asked for a meeting, which was granted, and he settled the question while feasting with Von Schtükland. The Lithuanian prince was to be baptized. On hearing this news, the Pope was delighted, and wrote to the bishop that no one should offend the new convert. The Bishop of Culm was to crown him.But Mindog was forced to Christianity under the sword-blade, just as the Prussians had been forced to it earlier, and had gone back to the faith of their fathers whenever the chance came. Mindog, however, escaped all the dangers which threatened him from the Order. Tovtivil fled to Vykint, his uncle. He assembled warriors from the Yatvyags and Jmud, and, aided by warriors from Daniel, marched against Mindog assisted now by the Germans.During 1252, the war was not marked by notable action, but in 1253 Daniel took part in it personally, and with such success that Mindog asked for peace. He offered his daughter to Daniel’s son, Svaromir, and found still other means of persuasion.Tovtivil declared now that Mindog had bribed the Yatvyags, who refused to assist Daniel longer. Daniel was enraged at the Yatvyags, but that could not serve him. Two years passed. In 1255, there was peace between Daniel of Galitch and Mindog’s son, Voishelk. Voishelk was a man greatly noted, even in that[327]time of bloodshed. Mindog was cruel and terrible, but Voishelk surpassed him, if the annalist is truthful. Voishelk shed blood from his youth up. “Every day he killed three or four men for amusement. When his time passed without bloodshed, he was sad, and when he had killed a man, good feeling returned to him.”All at once news came of Voishelk’s baptism; nay, more, it was said that he had left ruling, and had put on a monk’s habit. This man now appeared as a peacemaker between Daniel and Mindog. The conditions seemed so favorable that Daniel did not reject them. Daniel’s son, Svaromir (familiarly Shvarn), was to marry Mindog’s daughter; Shvarn’s elder brother, Roman, was to have Novgrodek from Mindog, and Daniel was to get Slonim and Volkovisk from Voishelk, on condition of recognizing Mindog as his superior in those places.Mindog had promised the Order to accept its religion for himself and all the people under him. He was to receive the friendship of the Order, and the kingly office as a reward. In exchange, he was to give the Order various places in Jmud, those same places where there had been such terrible bloodshed because of newcomers fleeing from Prussia. The friendship seemed to be made for the ages, and a speedy union of the two lands appeared imminent. In case that he had no heir, Mindog agreed to give his kingdom to Livonia, now of one faith with him.The Bishop of Culm came with priests and monks; the Grand Master with knights of the Order. Mindog was christened, anointed, and crowned at Novgrodek. Pope Innocent IV in 1255 blessed the new convert to war against Russia and its inhabitants who were schismatic, and confirmed in advance to him all regions which he might join to his kingdom.“The God-Crowned King,” as he was entitled, freed himself gradually from every one. From Tovtivil he freed himself by perfidy; from the Yatvyags by money, from Daniel through marriage and lands, from Poland by victories. One Polish prince was slain in battle, another was captured. Then the Knights of Livonia discovered what kind of man their good friend and new convert was. Mindog turned on them and fought like a hero. He sent a message stating that he dropped them and their baptism. He roused Jmud to the struggle, and those people whom he had so recently surrendered to the Order rose up against it in pitiless[328]warfare. To one who did not understand Mindog’s keen policy, it might seem strange that he should show such hatred for his godfathers, and should openly irritate the Order. The Germans, however, knew from the first that his conversion was feigned for the purpose of obtaining aid.He did not cease to observe the ancient rites of his people; he made sacrifices to their deities, but for him that was not sufficient. He was a shrewd leader of men; he had also learned the policy of Germans. It was necessary to fire the hearts of his people, and to purify himself perfectly from any taint of German religion, hence before Lithuanians he ridiculed his own pretended conversion.The Germans made war on him promptly, but were defeated. Mindog, in celebrating his victory, made a great sacrifice. It was not enough for him to burn bulls and horses; he took one of the knights whom he had captured and burned him on horseback in complete battle armor, as an offering.After the marriage of his daughter to Daniel’s son, Mindog sustained friendly relations with Russia. He made more than one campaign with Daniel and Vassilko against the Yatvyags and disobedient Lithuanians, and against the Poles, and princes of Northern Russia. He went against the Livonian Knights to fight Riga. When Daniel became a widower, he married a niece of Mindog. Mindog had power now, but he had become too important for his family. His relatives were enraged at his haughtiness; they would not permit him to so exalt himself, and though he was the single ruler of all Lithuania, they ceased not to plan his death. At last personal hatred subdued the man.Mindog’s wife died in 1262, and he grieved much. To her sister, the wife of Prince Dovmont, he sent this message: “Thy sister is dead; come to see us.” When she came, Mindog said: “When dying, thy sister commanded me to marry thee, that her children might not be tormented.” And he took his sister-in-law as wife.Dovmont, in deep anger, planned to kill Mindog. Seeking an ally, he found one in Trenyat, the Jmud prince. In 1263, Mindog sent all his troops against Roman of Bryansk, who ruled east of the Dnieper. Dovmont was in that expedition. While on the road he declared to the leaders that a wizard had warned him[329]not to advance farther, and leaving the army, he returned straightway to Mindog’s castle, where he killed him and his two sons.Trenyat, very likely through a bargain with Dovmont, began to reign in Lithuania in place of Mindog, and also in Jmud, and sent to Tovtivil of Polotsk, his brother, saying: “Come at once; we will seize the whole land and all Mindog’s substance.”The division caused a quarrel. Tovtivil began to think how to kill Trenyat, and Trenyat how to be rid of his brother. Tovtivil’s boyar informed Trenyat of the prince’s designs. Trenyat, being quicker than Tovtivil, killed him and reigned unassisted, but his reign was not long. Four of Mindog’s equerries, to avenge their late prince, murdered Trenyat.Voishelk, when he learned of his father’s death, went to Minsk, but when he heard that Trenyat had been assassinated, he set out with Pinsk forces for Novgrodek, and from there, taking more warriors, he went to Lithuania, where his father’s adherents received him most joyfully. He began to reign, and as if to make men forget that he had ever worn a monk’s habit, he fell to slaying his enemies wherever he found them. In his new rôle of avenger he surpassed himself. Along the Nieman and all the Jmud boundaries Voishelk shed blood for the death of his father. When he had restored what had been taken from Mindog’s possessions, and extended them, and had almost exterminated his father’s enemies, he yielded all to his brother-in-law. He wished to be a monk and retire to Mount Athos. No matter how Shvarn begged, he would not remain, he would have no earthly dominion. “I have sinned much before God and man,” replied Voishelk. “Do thou rule; the land is in peace now.”This was the year that Daniel of Galitch died, and shortly before his decease Voishelk asked him for a safe-conduct to Mount Athos. But as there was war in Bulgaria, the would-be monk was forced to turn back without seeing the holy mountain. He settled then in Volynia, built a monastery, and passed the remainder of his life in seclusion.Voishelk and Dovmont are considered as cousins. The fate of the two is remarkable; one became a monk, the other a warrior. Dovmont fled from civil war in Lithuania, taking his troops with him. He was baptized in Pskoff and married the daughter of Prince Dmitri, son of Nevski. He became a great favorite of his[330]father-in-law. Pskoff was thereafter safe, not only from Lithuanian raids, but from the Knights of Livonia, whom he drove from the walls of the city and followed into the depths of the forests. Though Dovmont fought many battles he never lost one, and he governed the Pskoff people with firmness and wisdom. Voishelk assumed the monk’s habit, but the habit and the building of a monastery were accounted as nothing to Voishelk, while Dovmont’s sword is held sacred in Pskoff, even to our day.Lithuania fell back into anarchy. There were continual struggles between the descendants of Mindog and other princes, who would not accept their supremacy, and no distinguished man appeared until Gedimin. In 1315 Gedimin replaced Viten, and about this time died Yuri Lvovitch, the grandson of Daniel and the last prince of both Galitch and Volynia.In 1316 Andrei and Lev, the two sons of Yuri, divided Volynia and Galitch between them. But the great Roman’s inheritance was of small use to those, his weak and last male descendants. Those two sons of Yuri Lvovitch had each a daughter, one of whom married the Mazovian prince, Troiden; the other married Lyubart, a son of Gedimin. Lyubart received Volynia with his princess and laid claim to Galitch. So the Lithuania of Gedimin’s day was increased by almost the whole of South Russia.Rome, meanwhile, did not cease to consider Lithuania as one of its bishoprics. The churches of Livonia and Lithuania were spoken of as neighboring churches, and the Pope acted in Lithuania through Livonia. But about the time Gedimin began to rule, a dispute was raging between the knights and the Bishop of Riga. The bishop complained to the Pope that the knights, by their greed, love of power, and savage treatment, turned people away from Christianity. The knights declared that the bishops, in dealing with conquered people, influenced them against the knights and encouraged them in paganism. They proved to the Pope that the Bishop of Riga had invited the people more than once to act against the Order; that the bishops negotiated in secret with Lithuanian princes and extended their influence over the people; that they acted in spite of the Order, and used the Order only when they had need of its services. In view of such contradictory statements, the Pope took sometimes the side of the bishop, and sometimes the side of the Order, not hindering either side,[331]however, in continuing the “sacred work” of converting the infidels.Through the Bishop of Riga the Pope received in 1323 a message from Gedimin stating that he was ready for baptism, as were all people under him. He asked that the knights be prevented from making war on Lithuania, and declared that the Order had stopped him from having relations directly with the Curia; that they helped in no way to Christianize people.At the same time letters went to the Franciscans and Dominicans in Riga, requesting that monks be sent to Lithuania. Letters were sent also to Germany with offers of free trade, and asking for colonists. The Pope was delighted with the letter from Gedimin, and commanded the Order to stop warlike action in view of Lithuania’s conversion. The Archbishop of Riga made a friendly alliance with Gedimin, and the Order was forced to join also.In due time envoys appeared from Rome, and when they had confirmed all agreements between Lithuania and Livonia, they set out to find Gedimin and establish the Catholic faith in his capital and elsewhere. They intended to baptize and crown the Lithuanian prince, and then baptize all his subjects, but this they were unable to do.In Vilna they found things very different from what they had expected. They found great hatred for the German religion; they found, to their astonishment, Orthodox churches; they found also that the heathen Lithuanians not only threatened to hurl Gedimin from power if he tried to baptize them, but to exterminate his whole family. They saw that all Jmud and the Prussians would rise if Gedimin endeavored to bring in the German religion. Besides this, Gedimin’s Russian Orthodox subjects formed three-fourths of the whole population; they also threatened loudly. Thus opposed on two sides, his position would have been difficult had he really wished to introduce the German religion. Gedimin had been christened in the Orthodox faith, whether through conviction or policy we may not determine at this day, but his motives must have been overwhelming, either to remain pagan or become Orthodox. He sent the legates away. They went back enraged and indignant at the faith-breaking ruler. But Gedimin found no fault in himself; he found it on the other side. Each side accused the other, but it was difficult to tell which was the more perfidious.[332]Illiterate Lithuania carried on its home correspondence in Russian, but with Rome and the West the Livonian Germans helped Gedimin in Latin, and he had monks for that purpose from Vilna. It proved that those zealous aids, in their Latin letters sent to Rome by the way of Riga, had written much over Gedimin’s name which he would not acknowledge. In every case, when thunders struck him from the Vatican, and throughout Western Europe men called him a preternatural deceiver and liar, a forerunner of Antichrist, who trampled on laws divine and human, Gedimin justified himself, saying that the Latin writers had not correctly translated his words; he had never uttered the words which they had written.The German now became more troublesome than ever. Gedimin was forced to perpetual conflict with his neighbors. The knights, warring continually on the banks of the Niemen, made their attacks in the form of excursions, which they called “journeys.” Men came in large numbers from every part of the Holy Roman Empire to join those excursions. In 1336 there came of simple knights about two hundred counts and princes, and the Grand Master formed for their amusement what might be called a great pagan hunt.Like the founder of Riga, his successor, the Grand Master did not cease to baptize pagan people, who later on complained to all Europe in these words: “Listen to us, O princes spiritual and secular! The knights are not seeking our souls for God; they are seeking our land for their own use. They have brought us to this,—that we must either beg or be robbers if we are to save the lives in us. The knights are worse than the Mongols. All that the land gives, or that bees gather in they take. They do not let us kill a beast, or catch a fish, or trade with our neighbors. They take our children as hostages, our elders they hunt off to Prussia and imprison; our sisters and daughters they take for themselves. And still those men wear the cross of Christ on their mantles! Have pity on us. We too are men, and not wild beasts. We would take Christianity, and be baptized not in blood, but in sacred water.”When the knights did not cease visiting their “godchildren,” the latter greeted them with these words: “What place will ye rob now, for everything is taken by your prelates[333]and priests,—all wool, honey, and milk. They teach Christianity poorly.”The Grand Master, for the amusement of his guests, made an “excursion” to the island of Pillene, where four thousand people of Jmud, men, women, and children, together with their elders, had entrenched themselves strongly. In vain did the Germans fill the ditches, attack and cut down people; they could not take the place. At last they hurled in burning arrows wrapped with a blazing substance, and the fortress took fire on all sides.The besieged resolved to perish. They built up a great pile of wood, and threw on to it all that they held of most value. That done, they slew one another; fathers killed their children, husbands their wives, and put the bodies on the pile. The few who remained arranged themselves in pairs and stabbed one another; those who died first were placed on the pile by those who died later. The elder of the people stood apart and watched everything to the end. When all the others were dead he killed his wife, put her on the pile, and set fire to it, then he mounted the blazing wood, killed himself, and burned with his people. When the knights broke in they found no one to finish, and had merely to tell in their annals of the dreadful tragedy in which they had played the part both of actors and of audience.Gedimin declared entire liberty to the Orthodox Church, and before his countrymen he announced himself a defender of that pagan faith to which they adhered so devotedly. In Vilna the znitch (sacred fire) was maintained without dying, and every rite of that interesting Lithuanian religion was supported in its primitive vigor. For this he was denounced, and the Livonian Knights began war for that cross the symbol of which, together with a sword, they wore embroidered on their mantles.Gedimin went out to meet them, and this was his last encounter with Germans. On the right bank of the Niemen in that Jmud land was a strong fortress, Velona, a defense against Germans, almost on the edge of that district which the Knights of the Cross and Livonia had conquered. Thus far they had not been able to take Velona, and even now they did not venture to storm it. They determined to destroy the stronghold in another way. They built a fortress at each side of it, and set about starving out the garrison.Gedimin came to the rescue of his people, and was soon besieging[334]the Germans in their two fortresses. Firearms had become known in the West only a short time before, and the Germans were now using guns, which later on were called “squealers.” During the conflict, Gedimin was killed by a ball. He was taken to Vilna and seated on his favorite horse. By him were placed his faithful armor-bearer, his hunting-dogs and falcons, and he and they were then burned according to the primitive ritual of the Lithuanians. With him were burned three German knights in full armor, and much booty taken from Germans.Gedimin had married twice, each time a Russian princess. Five of his sons were Orthodox and belong entirely to Russian history. Of five daughters, four received Orthodox baptism, and two—Maria, the widow of Dmitri of Tver, surnamed Terrible Eyes, and Augusta, the first wife of IvanKalitá’sson—died nuns. Gedimin left a domain extending from the Niemen to the Lower Dnieper and the Dniester, including Kief, the ancient capital. This state, by special structure, population and religion, was for the greater part Russian, especially in language.Of Gedimin’s sons who survived him, seven are mentioned. Of these the ablest and most important was Olgerd, with whom his brother, Keistut, was associated closely. Olgerd’s first wife was a daughter of the Vitebsk prince who left no sons, and through this wife Olgerd inherited her father’s possessions. Soon after Gedimin’s death, Olgerd seized power over all his brothers, took Vilna and became the one ruler of Lithuania. This meant at that time Kief and the best part of Russia.Russian chronicles, without praising Olgerd, give him full justice. His self-restraint was unparalleled. He refrained from vain things most carefully, from sports and amusements of all kinds. He drank no wine, beer or mead. He was temperate in every way; from this, he acquired clear reason and great keenness. His mind was ever working; he toiled day and night at extending his dominion; he won many countries and lands; he subjected cities with all the broad regions under them; he increased his possessions untiringly. Olgerd was equally at home in Lithuania and Russia. He spoke with the Jmud men like a neighbor; Russian was his language fromchildhood. With the Knights of the Cross he could speak in German, and he knew something of Latin.[335]With Lithuanian princes love of war was inborn, but Olgerd surpassed all men in the cunning of his sudden attacks, and the subtle concealment of his purpose. There was no man more unsparing and ruthless than Olgerd. He warred with the Mongols near Kief, and hunted them out of Podolia. He inflicted bloody defeat on the Germans near the Niemen, while helping Lyubart, his brother. He drove the Poles from Volynia and Galitch, and fought with them in their own places; he threatened also the Hungarians. Olgerd’s sword was the most terrible ever wielded by a man of his dynasty; while defending Polotsk from Livonia it defended Volynia and Kief from Polish inroads.But that which might satisfy Mindog or Gedimin could not satisfy Olgerd. To be prince of Lithuania and one half of Russia was not his ambition; he was striving for more than that, striving for power over Smolensk, Tver, Pskoff, Novgorod, and Moscow. He aspired to be ruler of all Russia. The Moscow princes had in him a dangerous enemy. Hence the Grand Prince of Moscow, in struggling to consolidate Russia, and put himself at the head of it, had a problem of the utmost complication and difficulty.[336]

In 1319, Yuri returned from the Horde with the Khan’s patent making him Grand Prince. According to old Russian rules, he was equal to the sons of Prince Michael. If they were superior through inheritance from a father who had held the position of Grand Prince, a position which Yuri’s father had never held, he surpassed them through his grandfather Nevski, who was senior to their grandfather, Yaroslav. In descent, men might hold them equal. But Yuri surpassed the Tver prince in wealth, and in the number of his warriors, and with the patent of the Khan he became chief, and all yielded.

Yuri hastened to Vladimir and took the throne, merely making a short halt at Moscow, to leave there Michael’s son Constantine, with his father’s boyars and servants. Yuri had taken Constantine from the Horde, partly as a relative, partly as a prisoner; the boyars were really prisoners. No one in Tver knew exactly what had taken place; all were in doubt and anxiety, and when Yuri’s return was reported, men were sent to Vladimir to discover the truth. They brought tidings to Tver that Prince Michael was dead and his body had been taken to Moscow and buried.

As soon as Yuri appeared in Vladimir, Dmitri, Michael’s eldest son, took possession of Tver in accordance with the will of his father. Then he sent his younger brother, Alexander, to Yuri, to ask for the body of his father. Yuri refused at first to deliver it, but he at last consented, and the body was taken back to Tver.

Boris, Yuri’s brother, died in Moscow soon after this, as did also Afanasi, whom Yuri had settled in Novgorod, so that of Daniel’s sons only Yuri and Ivan were living. When Yuri returned from the Horde as Grand Prince, he gave his inherited lands, as it seems, to Ivan. In 1320, Ivan went to do homage to Uzbek; till[309]that time he had never seen him. In that year Tver had three marriages of princes: Alexander and Constantine found brides among Russians, but Dmitri took a daughter of Gedimin, the Lithuanian Grand Prince. This connection with Gedimin brought Dmitri into intimate relations with an enemy of Russia, and made it more difficult still for Tver to be friendly with Vladimir. Dmitri did not wish to see Yuri, or approach him, or even hear his name mentioned. Outspoken and direct, irrepressible and passionate the name Terrible Eyes had been given Dmitri, and it describedhim clearly.

Yuri’s first move as Grand Prince was a quarrel with Ryazan, undertaken to punish one of its princes. That labor finished, he moved on Dmitri. The task was “to take his honor,” as the phrase ran in those days.

Expeditions were made then, as they had been made earlier, to impose peace “with dread and trembling.” Minor princes performed certain acts at the coronation of a Grand Prince. If not to show submission, at least to recognize that he was their superior. The Grand Prince made a treaty with each minor prince, causing him at the same time to kiss the cross to observe it. When the Khan gave a patent to an important prince, minor princes led his horse in the ceremony of installation.

Yuri, of course, was not seeking a service of this kind, but as Dmitri had not ranged himself with princes who acknowledged his headship, Yuri now led his warriors to attack Tver. When Dmitri heard of this campaign against him, he made no move, but begged his friend Varsonofi, the bishop, to save him from every discussion with Yuri. He agreed to all terms in advance, so as to avoid meeting him. The bishop persuaded the Grand Prince to withdraw from the country, after receiving a solemn declaration from Dmitri that he would not strive to be Grand Prince.

The chief mark of subjection in a minor prince at that time was to pay the Khan’s tribute, not at the Horde, but to the Grand Prince. Yuri insisted on this, and if negotiations with the bishop were protracted, it was only because of discussions on that subject; but Dmitri in the end agreed to that also, and promised to send to Yuri two thousand grievens, which he had collected from Tver as a tribute. Dmitri sent this money to Yuri that year (1321). The following year he went to the Horde for confirmation as senior[310]heir to the Tver principality. He took gifts to the Khan and rendered homage as usual; then, unable to restrain himself, he told the Khan all that was troubling his spirit. Disregarding the ceremony which was binding on every one, he explained to Uzbek how Kavgady and Yuri had calumniated his father, condemned him, and killed him in his innocence. The Terrible-Eyed Dmitri explained everything with respect and submission. Moreover, his coming to the Horde was a mark of his faithfulness. He might refer to this, and, of course, he was not silent; he said that he submitted to the will of the Khan; that he acknowledged the primacy of Yuri, the proof of which was that he had given him the tribute of Tver, those two thousand grievens which Yuri had not paid at the Horde, as was shown when officials sought for an account of them.

Yuri perhaps had no thought of withholding this tribute; circumstances may have prevented his going immediately to the Horde with it, for soon after he received the money he was forced to hasten to Novgorod, and farther, since at that time he was fighting fiercely against the Swedes and the Germans of Riga, and he had not yet returned from that distant campaigning. Still, as was thought at the Horde, it was not the right way to act, and command was given straightway to summon Yuri. To Dmitri Uzbek was more gracious than he had ever been to any prince. Surprised by his daring speech, the Khan gave him honor. Mongol magnates, in view of this, were full of respect for him, and his success was immediate. Yuri was summoned once more to the Horde. Dmitri received his patent, not as Prince of Tver, but as Grand Prince, and the Khan sent his envoy, Svinche Buga, and a Mongol detachment of warriors toinstallthe new favorite. Such double rule under Mongol direction was not a new thing.

From the winter of 1322 to that of 1324, no man among the Russians knew positively whether Yuri or Dmitri was Grand Prince. Both ruled in the Khan’s name, and each held his patent. Yuri, meanwhile, was defending Novgorod against Swedes, and meeting also Tver regiments led against him by Alexander, a brother of the Terrible-Eyed Dmitri. Yuri defeated the Swedes at that point where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga, and made a “permanent peace” with them. When he had finished with the Swedes, he prepared to assuage the Khan’s anger. Some time before he had begged his brother, Ivan, to defend him at the[311]Horde. No man was better fitted to do this than Ivan, and he succeeded. It is true that when he came home to Moscow the Khan’s envoy came also to confirm the summons to Yuri, but in every case Yuri’s safety at the Horde seemed more than likely.

Though satisfied by the news which Ivan brought, Yuri still hesitated over the risks of the journey. He made repeated inquiries of friends at the Horde as to what might await him, and learned that he could go with good chances of security. He did not go empty-handed, moreover, knowing well that success at Sarai was connected at all times with an abundance of silver and gold. He went at the same time with envoys from Novgorod. Dmitri had beset all the roads to the Volga; he was determined to prevent Yuri’s visit to the Horde. Hence the Grand Prince was forced to go by Vyatka to Perm, thence down the Kama to the Volga, and thus he reached Sarai finally.

In 1325, when most men knew not what had happened to Yuri, news came that he was in good health at the court of his brother-in-law. Dmitri, astonished that his enemy had escaped unpunished, set out for the Horde to work against him. All were now waiting in Russia to see which of the two men would come back as Grand Prince; neither came. First Yuri’s corpse was brought to Moscow November 21, 1325, and it was learned that Dmitri and Yuri, having been summoned to Uzbek’s presence, had met in his palace. Dmitri could not restrain himself. He drew his sword instantly, and Yuri fell, slain by the avenging hand of Michael’s son. “A deed like this done near the eyes of the Khan, and almost in his presence, is not to be pardoned!” cried the Mongols. Uzbek ordered all to be silent. When news of this order came to Russia, men thought that Yuri’s death had been pleasing to Uzbek. But when they learned later that it had happened without the Khan’s desire or knowledge, Dmitri’s friends were greatly troubled.

During more than nine months the Khan’s will in this case was not uttered, and some had good hopes for Dmitri, but on September 15, 1326, Dmitri was executed, and the body of the Tver prince was taken to his native city, where they placed it at the side of Prince Michael, his father.

Though Uzbek had ordered the execution of Dmitri, Alexander, Dmitri’s brother, was made Grand Prince. But Alexander’s[312]power was not lasting. Before twelve months had passed it had ended.

In 1327, Uzbek sent Cholkhan, his cousin, to Tver. With him came warriors, princes and merchants. Cholkhan occupied Alexander’s palace, and his warriors were quartered on the people. They committed violence, as was usual on every such occasion, and there was much feeling against them in Tver. It was reported among Russians that the Mongols intended to kill the Tver prince, his friends, and his family, and clear the throne for Cholkhan, who would at once put Mongol princes in every part of Russia, and force his religion on Christians.

Early one morning a deacon was leading to water a young mare in good flesh; some Mongols rushed to take the beast from him,—they wished to kill, cook, and eat her. The deacon struggled and shouted; people ran up to help him; more Mongols hurried to the spot, and a fight began which developed and extended till it filled the city. Church bells were tolled. Cholkhan was roused and rushed forth to the battle. At sunrise all Tver was raging in a desperate conflict. The Grand Prince himself took part, and pushed into the thickest of the struggle. Both sides fought all day fiercely, and only toward evening did Alexander force Cholkhan and his men to the palace, where the Mongols quickly barred every entrance. But Alexander did not spare his father’s palace; he fired it with his own hands, and Cholkhan and his Mongols were burned to death in it. All Mongol merchants were slain; the Tver men spared not one of them; even those who had lived a long time in the city received neither quarter nor mercy. They were burned in their houses, or drowned in the river.

Such was the punishment inflicted on Cholkhan, Uzbek’s cousin. When Uzbek heard of this massacre, his anger blazed up furiously against the rebels, and in grief over Cholkhan. He sent at once for the Prince of Moscow. Ivan delayed not. It seems that his obedience and ready arrival at Sarai surprised even the Khan. Ivan found every one in great alarm. The Mongols thought that all Russia had risen in revolt and refused further obedience. When the true condition was explained, Uzbek gave the Moscow prince a part of his army to punish the insolent Tver men. He sent with him also Mongol princes and five commanders, each leading ten thousand warriors. In fact he gave an army[313]sufficient to conquer a kingdom. His order was to destroy the Tver principality.

No man had ever seen Uzbek in such convulsions of anger. He roared like a lion. Not a Tver prince was to be left alive. The whole Russian land must be harassed. Ivan was to slaughter his own countrymen to avenge Mongols. Vassili, a Ryazan prince summoned recently for judgment, was beheaded at once. Later on, when Mongol warriors were at work, the head of another prince fell at the Khan’s capital. During the summer of 1328, there was great bloodshed throughout all Vladimir. The legions which came with Ivan, led by Turlyak, were so numerous that no Russian power could withstand them. Tver and other towns were leveled. All people who did not flee were either slain or taken captive. Alexander and his brothers fled to Novgorod, but Novgorod, greatly alarmed, would not allow them to remain in the city, and they fled to Pskoff. When the Khan’s warriors approached Novgorod, Ivan sent envoys from himself and Turlyak. The Novgorod men showed the envoys all honor, paid tribute and made presents. The city sent then an embassy to Uzbek, and implored Ivan to conduct it. “Go thou to the Horde,” begged they, “and declare the obedience of Novgorod.” The prince consented. Constantine of Tver, Ivan’s cousin, joined the embassy, for Ivan had promised to intercede in his favor.

It would be difficult to estimate what suffering that outbreak in Tver brought on Russia; how much torture and anguish that desperate affair cost the people. The Khan was waiting for news with impatience; when it came, it was so terrible that he was satisfied. The smoking ruins of Tver towns and settlements seemed to him a splendid reminder and a hint strong enough to keep down the disobedient. Tver, Kashin, and all towns in Torjok and the Tver principality were turned into ashes. People had been destroyed or taken captive wherever hands or weapons could reach them. Only those who fled to gloomy forests, where they hid among wild beasts, survived that dreadful visitation. In time they came back to their places, and began to work anew, but all were in dire need and poverty, for their lands were as a desert.

The campaign successfully ended, the Mongols went home with much wealth and many captives. They not only seized cattle,[314]horses, and property, but took the wives and daughters of Russians, and the men who were able to labor. They took everything that pleased them, wherever they found it. Those who complained or resisted were cut to pieces immediately. But Moscow and all its lands were free from Mongol rapacity and massacre.

In the autumn of 1328, Ivan went to the Horde to report that the Khan’s demand was accomplished. With him were the Novgorod envoys and Feodor Kolenitsa, their chief man, also Constantine, the Tver prince. Uzbek met all very graciously, and received Ivan with much honor. He gave him the Grand Principality, adding lands also to Moscow, and granting everything that the prince asked for; he gratified Kolenitsa as well. But he commanded them all to the last man to seek out Alexander and bring him to the Horde to receive the Khan’s sentence.

After the countless quarrels between princes, and the Mongol raids which did not cease for even one year during five decades after the death of Alexander Nevski, the peace which now began, when Nevski’s grandson, Ivan, became Grand Prince of Vladimir, must have seemed a miracle. And for many a day it remained in the minds of the people as a wonderful benefaction. This lasting peace was the great event of Ivan’s reign. All knew that he had Uzbek’s confidence. Russian princes saw that the Khan granted whatever Ivan asked of him. They saw this even before, but when Constantine, brother of the fugitive Alexander, was confirmed in Tver through Ivan’s influence, all were convinced of Uzbek’s friendship for him, none more firmly than the Novgorod envoys, who had visited the Horde with the Grand Prince.

In 1328, upon his return from Sarai, Ivan and the other princes met in Novgorod, for they had to find Alexander. They decided to send envoys to that prince, and say, “The Khan summons thee to judgment; wilt thou suffer for the Russian land like a warrior of Christ, or survive alone, and give the whole Russian land to destruction?” The envoys returned with the declaration that the Pskoff men would not yield Alexander. They had agreed and kissed the cross not to forsake him. He and they would stand or fall in one company. The princes moved now on Pskoff with strong forces. Besides Ivan’s army, he commanded Tver troops with the troops of other princes, and men of Novgorod also. Wishing no harm to Pskoff, he pitched his camp at some distance[315]and negotiated. He sent the Novgorod bishop with the Novgorod commander to the prince, and strove to act with kindness. Alexander was moved to tears and answered that he was willing to stand before Uzbek, but the Pskoff men swore that they would not allow him to go from their city. Alexander sent this message from himself: “It is better that I die for all, than that all should perish for me. But ye might defend your own brothers and not yield them to pagans. Ye do just the opposite, and with you ye bring Mongols.”

“It is impossible to take the prince from Pskoff or drive him from the city.” These words were current in the camp of the allies. Ivan knew much more of the true state of affairs than could be gathered from camp reports, or the words of Alexander. He knew that Pskoff hoped to be independent of Novgorod, that it wished for its own prince, and thought that it had one now in Alexander. He knew also that Livonia supported the city in secret, understanding well that if alone it would be weaker and more easily subjected, while Lithuania supported Pskoff openly and roused the city to resistance. Alexander, consciously or not, was the helper of Gedimin. Ivan knew, perhaps, of a treaty made by Pskoff and Alexander with Livonia. “The Germans are near them, and they expect aid from them,” said Ivan in council. It was difficult for him to act. In those straits he remembered that when Yuri, his brother, was struggling with Tver, Maxim, the metropolitan, made peace at the outset. There was still another case, even more memorable. At the time when Dmitri of the Terrible Eyes, intending to war against Yuri, was leading his troops to Nizni, and had reached Vladimir, Pyotr, the bishop, stopped him by refusing to give him his blessing, and Dmitri, after waiting three weeks, returned home without meeting Yuri. Ivan turned now to Feognost, the metropolitan, and begged for his assistance.

Feognost consented immediately, and was ready to utter a curse on the Pskoff prince if he would not stand before Uzbek, and on all the Pskoff people unless they surrendered him. Envoys were sent to the city declaring that unless they submitted an interdict would be issued, and services stopped in the churches. All people would be excommunicated.

“Brothers and friends,” said Alexander to the people, on hearing[316]this message, “let your oath to me, and my oath to you lose their value. I will go from your city so that no harm may strike you. I will find refuge with the Germans or in Lithuania,” and he departed. Pskoff then informed Ivan that Alexander was no longer with them, and added: “Pskoff pays thee homage as its Grand Prince.”

Thus Ivan was the first Moscow prince who gave peace to Pskoff in the old fashion, as he would to his own principality. The metropolitan blessed the Pskoff people, and Ivan marched homeward with the princes. After Ivan had reached Moscow, Gedimin proposed that Novgorod should take as prince his son Narimont, and give him Oraihovo and Ladoga, with a part of Karelia, as inheritance. Moscow learned then for the first time that since Ivan had left Pskoff, Alexander had returned, and was prince there, supported by Gedimin. It was not this return alone which roused Novgorod, but the treason of the Pskoff men. The city had accepted Alexander as prince from Lithuania, and were striving now for church separation. When Vassili, the new archbishop, went from Novgorod for ordination, Gedimin of Lithuania and Alexander of Pskoff sent envoys to Feognost, Metropolitan of Russia, then in Volynia. These envoys took with them Arseni to be bishop in Pskoff. Gedimin had given Pskoff a prince in Alexander, and would now give a bishop. Feognost ordained Vassili as Archbishop of Novgorod, but refused to ordain Arseni, and Alexander’s envoys returned without a bishop. Gedimin, enraged by the Novgorod success, and the failure of Arseni, sent men to seize Vassili, but, warned by a messenger from Feognost, he escaped the Lithuanians, and returned in safety to Novgorod.

Alexander managed Pskoff for ten years, while Constantine and Vassili, his brothers, ruled the Tver region,—the first in Tver, the chief city, the second in Kashin in the northern part of the Tver principality. Ivan had reconciled the Tver princes with Uzbek, and as they were friendly and obedient their position was easy. Ivan asked of them only to leave the road free between Moscow and Novgorod,—Tver held the way between those two cities. Vladimir, the capital of the principality, was occupied by Alexander, the Suzdal prince, not as a capital, but as a possession. Ivan lived at all times in Moscow, which had become the real capital of Russia. Uzbek, as stated already, gave him many[317]lands in addition, giving Vladimir meanwhile to the Suzdal prince.

Several princes found themselves tied to Ivan through relationship. He gave one of his daughters to Vassili, Prince of Yaroslavl, another to Constantine of Rostoff. Those princes, fearing to disobey their father-in-law, had worked with him loyally thus far.

Besides having the Khan’s confidence, Ivan was strong through the tribute. No other Grand Prince had given the Khan such an income; and no prince held such uncontrolled management of tribute. This gave Ivan unique power and position. Of all princes in that day he was the only one, or at least the only one known to us, who had a fixed object. He took no part in local quarrels in favor of one or another region. He strove for Russia, and when prince only in Moscow he saw all Russia far in the future. This was clearly shown in his every act, not merely in the title which he assumed, “Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia,” but in his relations with other princes and with Novgorod, and even with Uzbek. To preserve the Russian land in its integrity was, by the very working of fate, to preserve the Khan’s lordship, and support it for a season. There is no doubt that Ivan explained always to Uzbek the harmful growth of Lithuania, and as he himself warred with that power, so he roused Uzbek to war with it. He showed the Khan, too, the immense wealth of Novgorod in the distant lands of the East and the Pechora, to which Novgorod admitted no Grand Prince. Uzbek rewarded and honored his untiring assistant, and Ivan all the more easily reached his object, calling himself with deep reason Grand Prince, not of Moscow alone, but of all Russia.

Throughout his whole reign, Ivan had no personal quarrels; he deprived no prince of his inheritance, he made war on no rival. Still he kept all in obedience. At that epoch Alexander, the Tver prince, was beyond doubt the most important of the princes. Owing to Ivan’s non-interference, Alexander reigned ten years in Pskoff without annoyance; neither with arms nor with words did Ivan disturb him, but he watched Alexander’s connections with Gedimin and with Livonia, and forgot no intrigue of his.

Novgorod, fearing the power of Ivan, sought his good-will, offered friendship, and did not refuse to send Moscow more tribute than it had sent Vladimir. As Prince of Novgorod he might have been satisfied with the tribute, and the honor with[318]which Novgorod strove to placate him, but as chief of all Russia he was not content with this; he demanded what the city owed to all Russia. Ivan would never yield to Novgorod when it claimed single ownership of regions beyond the Volok, nor would he pardon its boyars for threatening to favor Lithuania. On those points he warred with the city at all times. During his reign he made Novgorod feel very clearly that he did not ask an extra thousand of grievens to build up Moscow, but that the boundaries fixed from the days of Yuri Dolgoruki, Andrei Bogolyubski, and Big Nest must be given to Vladimir. Besides he showed the Novgorod men that not to their city alone, but to all Russia, was open the road to the whole northern country. And the region beyond the Ural Mountains, the Kamen, as it was then called (beyond the Kamen meant Siberia) was, as Ivan considered it, the property, not of Novgorod alone, but of all Russia. Novgorod, however, insisted most stubbornly that those regions belonged to her exclusively. The Moscow prince would not concede this claim, and watched with the utmost care those relations which then began between Novgorod and Lithuania.

The boyars of Novgorod not only considered that they had a right to invite a prince from Lithuania, but apparently they were ready to place Novgorod under Lithuanian protection, if thus they could keep independent of other princes, and preserve to their city those rich, boundless lands on the north and the east.

Ivan would not admit for a moment that they had the right to call in a foreign prince, or owned exclusively those lands which they claimed for their own.

In 1332, when returning from the Horde, Ivan made a demand in the name of the Khan to which the people of Novgorod gave a stern refusal. He insisted, and to make sure of their compliance he seized the Upper Baijets and Torjok immediately. From that began a long quarrel. At times Novgorod seemed to yield, and the quarrel apparently ceased; again it would blaze up on the city’s renewed refusal. Thus the dispute continued during Ivan’s reign.

The main cause of the dispute was the silver beyond the Ural Mountains. Ivan demanded from Novgorod an income from places claimed by the city, no part of which income should go to any prince ruling in Novgorod. He wished to extend taxes over all Novgorod possessions to the boundaries of Siberia.[319]

In proportion as Novgorod quarreled with Ivan, it tried to be intimate with Pskoff. Vassili, the archbishop, having added stone walls to the Kremlin of Novgorod, found it proper to visit Pskoff and give the people his blessing, withheld since his installation, at which time he had opposed Pskoff’s efforts to separate from the diocese. A son had just been born to Alexander. The bishop baptized him, and was one of the godfathers of this little prince, named for his grandfather, Michael.

At that time Novgorod had entered into friendship with Lithuania, and Narimont, son of Gedimin, had arrived in the city. Novgorod received him with gladness, and gave him Ladoga with Oraihova and Karelia in part as a portion. In view of these acts Ivan went to Sarai, and when he came back it was stated that he had been shown great honor, and had gained large accessions of power while with Uzbek. This alarmed Novgorod. During Ivan’s absence the Novgorod archbishop had gone on a visit to Moscow, bearing gifts from the city to the metropolitan, who had just come from Tsargrad. The archbishop begged the metropolitan to speak with Ivan about Novgorod. This intercession succeeded, for when envoys arrived in Moscow and invited Ivan to Novgorod, he set aside his dislike for the city, entered Novgorod February 16, 1335, and was received there in triumph. They offered to add all their forces to his, and fall upon Pskoff if he so ordered. But he would not attack Pskoff at that period; he accepted their service, however, and marched on Lithuania. His forces, and those of the city, took towns in good number, and though this Lithuanian campaign was not the most important in conquest, it was in agreement.

Meanwhile Gedimin’s son had not justified Novgorod’s hopes in him, and he went back at last to his father. This freed Ivan’s hands, for he had been gracious to Novgorod partly because of this young prince’s presence at Ladoga. At this time Novgorod yielded in many, if not in all things to Ivan. He bought lands where he liked in Novgorod regions, and founded villages in them, a thing which Novgorod had never permitted to any prince. Still he yielded no claim touching Russia. The great contention as to what belonged to Novgorod, and what was all Russia’s dominion was still undecided. Novgorod now sought again the Pskoff friendship. But the Pskoff men knew well that Novgorod’s desire[320]for friendship came from dread of Ivan, Prince of Moscow. They knew also that a little while earlier Novgorod had offered aid against Pskoff, if Ivan wished to have it. There was no quarrel or hatred on either side at the time of the offer, and it had been made purely from policy; passion had had nothing to do with the matter.

If Ivan, as Grand Prince of all Russia, preferred his demands against Novgorod so insistently, we may understand very well that he was not tender with princes of small strength. Attendants and boyars of small princes went to serve him by preference, Moscow’s success was desired by all people who toiled and produced, because order and quietness came from it. No prince could rival Ivan in power and in resources. He surpassed not only each Russian prince separately, but he was stronger than any combination which might be made among them. For long years Ivan had worked at winning wealth and power. He had worked successfully and with great diligence. Then Uzbek gave him lands in addition to Moscow, and gave him perfect control of all tribute from other princes. This made his position unequaled. Ivan now held the purse. He kept such firm order that merchants felt safe to expose their goods everywhere. New markets on the Volga and elsewhere were opened. In Northern Russia Yaroslavl, near the mouth of the Mologa, a river which enters the Volga, was a place where German, Persian, Greek and Italian merchants met and sold goods during summer. The revenue from transactions was large. Boats covered the Volga, and till the sixteenth century this market was an important one in Russia.

Ivan purchased from poor princes not only villages, but towns such as Uglitch, Bailozersk, and Galitch beyond the Volga, and thus increased his inheritance unceasingly. He also bought from boyars and monasteries, and exchanged with them. He received presents of land and property through wills of friends and relatives. With the wealth which belonged to him personally, and that which pertained to his office, he was able to meet all possible demands.

Responsible to the Khan for Russian tribute, and paying this tribute at regular intervals, he frequently had to pay for princes who lacked ready money. Of these some grew insolvent and paid him with land. All, in greater or less degree, were dependent upon him; all in fact needed his protection. Without regard to the[321]murmurs of Novgorod boyars, he bought towns and villages in Novgorod regions continually. So, extending power from his capital always with the rights of a Grand Prince, to which he knew how to give proper emphasis, he was strong at all points, and for many reasons. Consequently boyars and warriors of weakening principalities went gladly to the service of Moscow.

Alexander, Prince of Pskoff for about ten years, was disturbed by no one. It was quite impossible that the Khan did not know what Alexander was doing, or had forgotten that Cholkhan, his favorite cousin, had been killed by him. At last Alexander left Pskoff of his own accord. Lest his son might lose Tver through his father’s exile, he resolved to appear at the Horde and hear the Khan’s sentence. It was thirteen years since his first visit, and now he was ten years in disobedience. To the astonishment of Mongol magnates, and of the Khan himself, Alexander stood before him, not only without trembling, but with a clear eye; and all were astounded at the words which he uttered:

“Supreme Sovereign,” said he, “though I have committed much evil, and am guilty before thee, I have come hither of my own will, and am ready to receive life or death, as God shall announce to thee. If, for the sake of God, through thy greatness thou give me pardon, I will thank God and thy grace; if thou give me death, I am worthy of death.” At this he bowed down, and added, “My head is at thy disposal.”

For a moment Uzbek was dumb from astonishment, and all present wondered. Alexander was kneeling with bowed head, and in silence. “See ye,” said Uzbek at last, “how with obedient wisdom Alexander has saved himself.” The Khan pardoned him straightway, gave him back the Tver principality, and sent him home without injury.

But Alexander from the first had an ominous feeling, a presentiment that evil days were approaching. When the Khan’s officials had installed him, and Abdul, the chief envoy, was returning to Sarai, “to show the Khan favor,” he took to the Golden Horde Alexander’s son, Feodor. Soon news came from this prince of fifteen years that for some unknown reason the Khan was very angry, and would not dismiss him. Alexander understood then that his son had been taken as a hostage.

The return of Alexander to Tver signified a return to the old[322]quarrels with Moscow. It meant trouble also in governing. Alexander brought with him to Tver new boyars and warriors, partly strangers. The chief of these boyars was a German from Livonia. The Tver boyars were not pleased with this man, or with the return of Alexander. The Moscow prince, of course, could not expect such relations with Alexander as with Constantine. The old rivalry was remembered, and with Alexander were renewed the claims of the Tver principality not to depend on the Prince of all Russia, but to be quite apart from him and separate. Through this example and also through advice from Alexander, other princes showed the same tendencies. As soon as Tver had left that position which for some years it had held toward Ivan, a similar movement appeared in other places, especially in Yaroslavl, where David, Ivan’s son-in-law, showed clear disobedience. Unpleasant reports came from Lithuania. It seemed as though Ivan had lost in one moment, and fatally, all that he had gained step by step for a decade. Was he now to be Grand Prince of Russia, or was the old rivalry between Moscow and Tver to begin again? Alexander felt the need of explaining relations with Moscow, but Ivan avoided discussions of all sorts. Envoys came at last to Ivan from Alexander, but Ivan would not talk upon any subject with the Tver prince, hence there was no result from the action of the envoys.

Ivan went now to the Horde. This visit of his to Uzbek produced on all a peculiar impression. He took with him his eldest and second sons, Simeon and Ivan; the youngest, Andrei, he sent to Novgorod. This sending of a son to Novgorod was not without special meaning. Ivan had remained two years, not in peace, not in war with the city. Lord Novgorod had not met his demands, and he had not dropped them. By sending Andrei to the city at this juncture, Ivan reminded Novgorod men once again that he looked on their capital as his inheritance.

At Novgorod the usual disorders were active. Gedimin’s son, who had been absent for a time in Lithuania, had returned, but there was great dissatisfaction with him, for he did not show sufficient energy in defending their borders against the Swedes.

Ivan came back from the Horde with added power and new honor. All princes were placed under his hand still more firmly. It became known very quickly that, owing to Ivan’s suggestion,[323]the princes were summoned to Sarai to receive the Khan’s commands.

Alexander knew that now he must go, and that he would never again see Tver. He sent quickly to his son for any information which he might have regarding the affair. The tidings which came back were woeful and he hesitated. An envoy now came to Alexander from the Khan promising him favor, but at the same time reminding him that his son was held as hostage. If a year before the Tver prince had hastened to the Horde when he himself was in danger, he hastened all the more now when Feodor was threatened.

Meanwhile Ivan had gone to Sarai still a second time, and taken with him his three sons. Before Alexander’s arrival at the Horde Ivan was back in Moscow, but his sons had wished to remain with the Khan.

With Alexander went the princes of Bailozero and Yaroslavl. When the Tver prince approached the Khan’s capital, his son came to meet him, and with tearful eyes told of Uzbek’s dreadful anger. “God’s will be done,” said Alexander. “If I do not die now, I shall die on some other day.” In accord with Mongol custom, he presented rich gifts to the Khan and his magnates, but the gifts were received in gloomy silence. His offenses were not declared, nor were questions asked him. It was announced that the Khan had commanded to give him to death without trial. But till his last day, October 28, 1339, he enjoyed freedom. That morning he sent to one of the Khan’s wives, who had been kind toFeodor, to learn his fate; then he mounted a horse to make the inquiry in person. She did not conceal from the prince that his last sun had risen.

Returning to his tent, Alexander embraced Feodor, and took farewell of his attendants. He kissed his boyars, asking pardon of all, then he and his son with the boyars took holy communion. Soon after that they heard the executioners approaching, and Alexander and Feodor went forth to meet them. The men stripped the clothes from the two princes, tied their hands, and led them toward Tablubey, the Khan’s magnate, who was present on horseback. “Kill them!” commanded Tablubey. The executioners hurled the prince and his son to the earth, beat both with fists, and then, after trampling them to death, cut their heads off. Alexander’s attendants carried the bodies to Tver.[324]

That winter Ivan’s three sons were sent home in high favor. By command of “the Godless Uzbek,” adds the chronicler, “the following princes were put to death during that winter: Feodor of Starodub, Ivan and Vassili of Ryazan, and Alexander Novosilski.”

The position acquired by Ivan through the favor of Uzbek was evident to all other princes. They knew, moreover, that after his death no change would be made. Every measure had been taken to give primacy to his family, and not to another.

Six months had not passed after the death of Alexander and his son, when Ivan died, March 31, 1340, being about fifty years of age. He died before his time, and perhaps unexpectedly, but he was able to go to Spasski, his favorite monastery, and put on the monk’s habit. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral, his tomb being the first in that series of Moscow sovereigns, his descendants.

Uzbek, besides appreciating Ivan as a servant who was faithful and who worked for him zealously, liked the man personally. He placed him above all the princes, honored him in sovereign style, and made him presents. Among those presents was a bag, the Mongol kalitá, destined to historic celebrity. Of Ivan it was said by those who praised him that to the poor he stretched a hand which was never empty; that whenever he went from his palace he filled his kalitá with coins and gave them to the poor whom he met in his progress. “Not precious the gift,” says the proverb, “but precious the love which goes with it,” and Ivan Kalitá, as people came to call him from the gift of the Khan which ever afterward he used so constantly, gave his coins affably, for he liked much to give to the needy. The kalitá which he had received from Uzbek’s own hands might be considered emblematic of his leading activity and methods. Though one use of this kalitá was to carry coins for the needy, Ivan’s purse had other uses. It was the clearing house of Russia in his day. Into it flowed the tribute and taxes; out of it went the sums for which account was imperative; with him remained for use in his struggle for supremacy all profits and remnants of every kind. One of the most important acts of Ivan’s life was the removal of the religious capital of Russia from Vladimir to Moscow. During his pastoral visits, Peter of Lithuania, at that time metropolitan, came to Moscow frequently, and conceived a friendship for Ivan. Later he spent all of his time in Moscow, where he died and was buried. His last words to Kalitá were: “If[325]you obey me, my son, you will build a church here and give repose to my bones in your city. You and your sons and your grandsons will thus gain more fame than all the other princes, and this place will be renowned. The pastors of the church will dwell in it, and it will be above all other cities.” The church was built. The succeeding metropolitan would not desert the house and tomb of the holy Peter, and Moscow became the center of religious administration.

During 1340 died Ivan Kalitá, Gedimin, and Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde, three men who left profound traces in Russia.

Before touching on Gedimin, we must give some account of his dynasty. In the district of Kovno, on the right bank of the Dubissa, is a place called Eiragola. In the thirteenth century there was a small wooden castle in Eiragola, and from that castle came the Lithuanian princes. The first noted man of this line was Mindog; the first great one was Gedimin. Mindog was sure of success in that place and epoch. He was a man for whom all means were equally good, if equally effective. He had only one way of judging an action,—might it be of use to him, and had he power to commit it?

When Batu had conquered Eastern Russia, the Lithuanian princes fell to raiding the west of that country, but in 1246, while returning from a raid, they were overtaken near Pinsk and scattered by Daniel of Galitch and his brother, Vassilko. The next year, another such party was crushed by those same princes.

In 1252, Mindog sent Vykint, his uncle, and two nephews, Tovtivil and Edivil, to attack Smolensk places, and to ravage the country. “Let each of you keep what he wins,” said he at parting. But these words were used simply to mislead and deceive his three relatives. As soon as they had gone, Mindog seized their possessions, and sent warriors to follow and kill them. They heard of this treachery in season, and took refuge quickly with Daniel, who had married the sister of Tovtivil and Edivil. Mindog sent at once to Daniel, asking him not to assist them, but Daniel paid no heed to this message; first through regard for his wife’s brothers and her uncle, and second because he wished to weaken Mindog and his people. After counseling with Vassilko, Daniel formed a plan. He sent to Polish princes this message: “It is time for us to fall upon pagans, since they are warring against one another.” He sent similar messages to the Yatvyags, to Jmud, and to the Germans in Riga.[326]

Vykint, Daniel’s envoy, roused the Yatvyags, and half the Jmud region. The Germans sent this answer to Daniel: “Though Vykint, thy relative, has killed many of our men, we have made peace with him, and will assist you.” The brothers now set out to make war in earnest. Daniel sent Vassilko to Volkovisk, his son to Slonim, and then marched to Zditov. They captured many towns and returned to Galitch well satisfied. After that, he sent Tovtivil with Russians and Polovtsi against Mindog. The Germans made no move whatever, until Tovtivil went to Riga, where he received baptism from them; then they made ready for action.

Mindog saw that he could not meet two foes in one conflict. He could not war with the Germans and Daniel of Galitch at the same time. Hence he sent secretly rich gifts to the Grand Master Von Schtükland, and the following proposal: “If thou kill Tovtivil or expel him, thou wilt get still greater gifts from me.” Von Schtükland replied that he felt immense friendship for Mindog, but could give no aid till baptism had changed him. Mindog asked for a meeting, which was granted, and he settled the question while feasting with Von Schtükland. The Lithuanian prince was to be baptized. On hearing this news, the Pope was delighted, and wrote to the bishop that no one should offend the new convert. The Bishop of Culm was to crown him.

But Mindog was forced to Christianity under the sword-blade, just as the Prussians had been forced to it earlier, and had gone back to the faith of their fathers whenever the chance came. Mindog, however, escaped all the dangers which threatened him from the Order. Tovtivil fled to Vykint, his uncle. He assembled warriors from the Yatvyags and Jmud, and, aided by warriors from Daniel, marched against Mindog assisted now by the Germans.

During 1252, the war was not marked by notable action, but in 1253 Daniel took part in it personally, and with such success that Mindog asked for peace. He offered his daughter to Daniel’s son, Svaromir, and found still other means of persuasion.

Tovtivil declared now that Mindog had bribed the Yatvyags, who refused to assist Daniel longer. Daniel was enraged at the Yatvyags, but that could not serve him. Two years passed. In 1255, there was peace between Daniel of Galitch and Mindog’s son, Voishelk. Voishelk was a man greatly noted, even in that[327]time of bloodshed. Mindog was cruel and terrible, but Voishelk surpassed him, if the annalist is truthful. Voishelk shed blood from his youth up. “Every day he killed three or four men for amusement. When his time passed without bloodshed, he was sad, and when he had killed a man, good feeling returned to him.”

All at once news came of Voishelk’s baptism; nay, more, it was said that he had left ruling, and had put on a monk’s habit. This man now appeared as a peacemaker between Daniel and Mindog. The conditions seemed so favorable that Daniel did not reject them. Daniel’s son, Svaromir (familiarly Shvarn), was to marry Mindog’s daughter; Shvarn’s elder brother, Roman, was to have Novgrodek from Mindog, and Daniel was to get Slonim and Volkovisk from Voishelk, on condition of recognizing Mindog as his superior in those places.

Mindog had promised the Order to accept its religion for himself and all the people under him. He was to receive the friendship of the Order, and the kingly office as a reward. In exchange, he was to give the Order various places in Jmud, those same places where there had been such terrible bloodshed because of newcomers fleeing from Prussia. The friendship seemed to be made for the ages, and a speedy union of the two lands appeared imminent. In case that he had no heir, Mindog agreed to give his kingdom to Livonia, now of one faith with him.

The Bishop of Culm came with priests and monks; the Grand Master with knights of the Order. Mindog was christened, anointed, and crowned at Novgrodek. Pope Innocent IV in 1255 blessed the new convert to war against Russia and its inhabitants who were schismatic, and confirmed in advance to him all regions which he might join to his kingdom.

“The God-Crowned King,” as he was entitled, freed himself gradually from every one. From Tovtivil he freed himself by perfidy; from the Yatvyags by money, from Daniel through marriage and lands, from Poland by victories. One Polish prince was slain in battle, another was captured. Then the Knights of Livonia discovered what kind of man their good friend and new convert was. Mindog turned on them and fought like a hero. He sent a message stating that he dropped them and their baptism. He roused Jmud to the struggle, and those people whom he had so recently surrendered to the Order rose up against it in pitiless[328]warfare. To one who did not understand Mindog’s keen policy, it might seem strange that he should show such hatred for his godfathers, and should openly irritate the Order. The Germans, however, knew from the first that his conversion was feigned for the purpose of obtaining aid.

He did not cease to observe the ancient rites of his people; he made sacrifices to their deities, but for him that was not sufficient. He was a shrewd leader of men; he had also learned the policy of Germans. It was necessary to fire the hearts of his people, and to purify himself perfectly from any taint of German religion, hence before Lithuanians he ridiculed his own pretended conversion.

The Germans made war on him promptly, but were defeated. Mindog, in celebrating his victory, made a great sacrifice. It was not enough for him to burn bulls and horses; he took one of the knights whom he had captured and burned him on horseback in complete battle armor, as an offering.

After the marriage of his daughter to Daniel’s son, Mindog sustained friendly relations with Russia. He made more than one campaign with Daniel and Vassilko against the Yatvyags and disobedient Lithuanians, and against the Poles, and princes of Northern Russia. He went against the Livonian Knights to fight Riga. When Daniel became a widower, he married a niece of Mindog. Mindog had power now, but he had become too important for his family. His relatives were enraged at his haughtiness; they would not permit him to so exalt himself, and though he was the single ruler of all Lithuania, they ceased not to plan his death. At last personal hatred subdued the man.

Mindog’s wife died in 1262, and he grieved much. To her sister, the wife of Prince Dovmont, he sent this message: “Thy sister is dead; come to see us.” When she came, Mindog said: “When dying, thy sister commanded me to marry thee, that her children might not be tormented.” And he took his sister-in-law as wife.

Dovmont, in deep anger, planned to kill Mindog. Seeking an ally, he found one in Trenyat, the Jmud prince. In 1263, Mindog sent all his troops against Roman of Bryansk, who ruled east of the Dnieper. Dovmont was in that expedition. While on the road he declared to the leaders that a wizard had warned him[329]not to advance farther, and leaving the army, he returned straightway to Mindog’s castle, where he killed him and his two sons.

Trenyat, very likely through a bargain with Dovmont, began to reign in Lithuania in place of Mindog, and also in Jmud, and sent to Tovtivil of Polotsk, his brother, saying: “Come at once; we will seize the whole land and all Mindog’s substance.”

The division caused a quarrel. Tovtivil began to think how to kill Trenyat, and Trenyat how to be rid of his brother. Tovtivil’s boyar informed Trenyat of the prince’s designs. Trenyat, being quicker than Tovtivil, killed him and reigned unassisted, but his reign was not long. Four of Mindog’s equerries, to avenge their late prince, murdered Trenyat.

Voishelk, when he learned of his father’s death, went to Minsk, but when he heard that Trenyat had been assassinated, he set out with Pinsk forces for Novgrodek, and from there, taking more warriors, he went to Lithuania, where his father’s adherents received him most joyfully. He began to reign, and as if to make men forget that he had ever worn a monk’s habit, he fell to slaying his enemies wherever he found them. In his new rôle of avenger he surpassed himself. Along the Nieman and all the Jmud boundaries Voishelk shed blood for the death of his father. When he had restored what had been taken from Mindog’s possessions, and extended them, and had almost exterminated his father’s enemies, he yielded all to his brother-in-law. He wished to be a monk and retire to Mount Athos. No matter how Shvarn begged, he would not remain, he would have no earthly dominion. “I have sinned much before God and man,” replied Voishelk. “Do thou rule; the land is in peace now.”

This was the year that Daniel of Galitch died, and shortly before his decease Voishelk asked him for a safe-conduct to Mount Athos. But as there was war in Bulgaria, the would-be monk was forced to turn back without seeing the holy mountain. He settled then in Volynia, built a monastery, and passed the remainder of his life in seclusion.

Voishelk and Dovmont are considered as cousins. The fate of the two is remarkable; one became a monk, the other a warrior. Dovmont fled from civil war in Lithuania, taking his troops with him. He was baptized in Pskoff and married the daughter of Prince Dmitri, son of Nevski. He became a great favorite of his[330]father-in-law. Pskoff was thereafter safe, not only from Lithuanian raids, but from the Knights of Livonia, whom he drove from the walls of the city and followed into the depths of the forests. Though Dovmont fought many battles he never lost one, and he governed the Pskoff people with firmness and wisdom. Voishelk assumed the monk’s habit, but the habit and the building of a monastery were accounted as nothing to Voishelk, while Dovmont’s sword is held sacred in Pskoff, even to our day.

Lithuania fell back into anarchy. There were continual struggles between the descendants of Mindog and other princes, who would not accept their supremacy, and no distinguished man appeared until Gedimin. In 1315 Gedimin replaced Viten, and about this time died Yuri Lvovitch, the grandson of Daniel and the last prince of both Galitch and Volynia.

In 1316 Andrei and Lev, the two sons of Yuri, divided Volynia and Galitch between them. But the great Roman’s inheritance was of small use to those, his weak and last male descendants. Those two sons of Yuri Lvovitch had each a daughter, one of whom married the Mazovian prince, Troiden; the other married Lyubart, a son of Gedimin. Lyubart received Volynia with his princess and laid claim to Galitch. So the Lithuania of Gedimin’s day was increased by almost the whole of South Russia.

Rome, meanwhile, did not cease to consider Lithuania as one of its bishoprics. The churches of Livonia and Lithuania were spoken of as neighboring churches, and the Pope acted in Lithuania through Livonia. But about the time Gedimin began to rule, a dispute was raging between the knights and the Bishop of Riga. The bishop complained to the Pope that the knights, by their greed, love of power, and savage treatment, turned people away from Christianity. The knights declared that the bishops, in dealing with conquered people, influenced them against the knights and encouraged them in paganism. They proved to the Pope that the Bishop of Riga had invited the people more than once to act against the Order; that the bishops negotiated in secret with Lithuanian princes and extended their influence over the people; that they acted in spite of the Order, and used the Order only when they had need of its services. In view of such contradictory statements, the Pope took sometimes the side of the bishop, and sometimes the side of the Order, not hindering either side,[331]however, in continuing the “sacred work” of converting the infidels.

Through the Bishop of Riga the Pope received in 1323 a message from Gedimin stating that he was ready for baptism, as were all people under him. He asked that the knights be prevented from making war on Lithuania, and declared that the Order had stopped him from having relations directly with the Curia; that they helped in no way to Christianize people.

At the same time letters went to the Franciscans and Dominicans in Riga, requesting that monks be sent to Lithuania. Letters were sent also to Germany with offers of free trade, and asking for colonists. The Pope was delighted with the letter from Gedimin, and commanded the Order to stop warlike action in view of Lithuania’s conversion. The Archbishop of Riga made a friendly alliance with Gedimin, and the Order was forced to join also.

In due time envoys appeared from Rome, and when they had confirmed all agreements between Lithuania and Livonia, they set out to find Gedimin and establish the Catholic faith in his capital and elsewhere. They intended to baptize and crown the Lithuanian prince, and then baptize all his subjects, but this they were unable to do.

In Vilna they found things very different from what they had expected. They found great hatred for the German religion; they found, to their astonishment, Orthodox churches; they found also that the heathen Lithuanians not only threatened to hurl Gedimin from power if he tried to baptize them, but to exterminate his whole family. They saw that all Jmud and the Prussians would rise if Gedimin endeavored to bring in the German religion. Besides this, Gedimin’s Russian Orthodox subjects formed three-fourths of the whole population; they also threatened loudly. Thus opposed on two sides, his position would have been difficult had he really wished to introduce the German religion. Gedimin had been christened in the Orthodox faith, whether through conviction or policy we may not determine at this day, but his motives must have been overwhelming, either to remain pagan or become Orthodox. He sent the legates away. They went back enraged and indignant at the faith-breaking ruler. But Gedimin found no fault in himself; he found it on the other side. Each side accused the other, but it was difficult to tell which was the more perfidious.[332]Illiterate Lithuania carried on its home correspondence in Russian, but with Rome and the West the Livonian Germans helped Gedimin in Latin, and he had monks for that purpose from Vilna. It proved that those zealous aids, in their Latin letters sent to Rome by the way of Riga, had written much over Gedimin’s name which he would not acknowledge. In every case, when thunders struck him from the Vatican, and throughout Western Europe men called him a preternatural deceiver and liar, a forerunner of Antichrist, who trampled on laws divine and human, Gedimin justified himself, saying that the Latin writers had not correctly translated his words; he had never uttered the words which they had written.

The German now became more troublesome than ever. Gedimin was forced to perpetual conflict with his neighbors. The knights, warring continually on the banks of the Niemen, made their attacks in the form of excursions, which they called “journeys.” Men came in large numbers from every part of the Holy Roman Empire to join those excursions. In 1336 there came of simple knights about two hundred counts and princes, and the Grand Master formed for their amusement what might be called a great pagan hunt.

Like the founder of Riga, his successor, the Grand Master did not cease to baptize pagan people, who later on complained to all Europe in these words: “Listen to us, O princes spiritual and secular! The knights are not seeking our souls for God; they are seeking our land for their own use. They have brought us to this,—that we must either beg or be robbers if we are to save the lives in us. The knights are worse than the Mongols. All that the land gives, or that bees gather in they take. They do not let us kill a beast, or catch a fish, or trade with our neighbors. They take our children as hostages, our elders they hunt off to Prussia and imprison; our sisters and daughters they take for themselves. And still those men wear the cross of Christ on their mantles! Have pity on us. We too are men, and not wild beasts. We would take Christianity, and be baptized not in blood, but in sacred water.”

When the knights did not cease visiting their “godchildren,” the latter greeted them with these words: “What place will ye rob now, for everything is taken by your prelates[333]and priests,—all wool, honey, and milk. They teach Christianity poorly.”

The Grand Master, for the amusement of his guests, made an “excursion” to the island of Pillene, where four thousand people of Jmud, men, women, and children, together with their elders, had entrenched themselves strongly. In vain did the Germans fill the ditches, attack and cut down people; they could not take the place. At last they hurled in burning arrows wrapped with a blazing substance, and the fortress took fire on all sides.

The besieged resolved to perish. They built up a great pile of wood, and threw on to it all that they held of most value. That done, they slew one another; fathers killed their children, husbands their wives, and put the bodies on the pile. The few who remained arranged themselves in pairs and stabbed one another; those who died first were placed on the pile by those who died later. The elder of the people stood apart and watched everything to the end. When all the others were dead he killed his wife, put her on the pile, and set fire to it, then he mounted the blazing wood, killed himself, and burned with his people. When the knights broke in they found no one to finish, and had merely to tell in their annals of the dreadful tragedy in which they had played the part both of actors and of audience.

Gedimin declared entire liberty to the Orthodox Church, and before his countrymen he announced himself a defender of that pagan faith to which they adhered so devotedly. In Vilna the znitch (sacred fire) was maintained without dying, and every rite of that interesting Lithuanian religion was supported in its primitive vigor. For this he was denounced, and the Livonian Knights began war for that cross the symbol of which, together with a sword, they wore embroidered on their mantles.

Gedimin went out to meet them, and this was his last encounter with Germans. On the right bank of the Niemen in that Jmud land was a strong fortress, Velona, a defense against Germans, almost on the edge of that district which the Knights of the Cross and Livonia had conquered. Thus far they had not been able to take Velona, and even now they did not venture to storm it. They determined to destroy the stronghold in another way. They built a fortress at each side of it, and set about starving out the garrison.

Gedimin came to the rescue of his people, and was soon besieging[334]the Germans in their two fortresses. Firearms had become known in the West only a short time before, and the Germans were now using guns, which later on were called “squealers.” During the conflict, Gedimin was killed by a ball. He was taken to Vilna and seated on his favorite horse. By him were placed his faithful armor-bearer, his hunting-dogs and falcons, and he and they were then burned according to the primitive ritual of the Lithuanians. With him were burned three German knights in full armor, and much booty taken from Germans.

Gedimin had married twice, each time a Russian princess. Five of his sons were Orthodox and belong entirely to Russian history. Of five daughters, four received Orthodox baptism, and two—Maria, the widow of Dmitri of Tver, surnamed Terrible Eyes, and Augusta, the first wife of IvanKalitá’sson—died nuns. Gedimin left a domain extending from the Niemen to the Lower Dnieper and the Dniester, including Kief, the ancient capital. This state, by special structure, population and religion, was for the greater part Russian, especially in language.

Of Gedimin’s sons who survived him, seven are mentioned. Of these the ablest and most important was Olgerd, with whom his brother, Keistut, was associated closely. Olgerd’s first wife was a daughter of the Vitebsk prince who left no sons, and through this wife Olgerd inherited her father’s possessions. Soon after Gedimin’s death, Olgerd seized power over all his brothers, took Vilna and became the one ruler of Lithuania. This meant at that time Kief and the best part of Russia.

Russian chronicles, without praising Olgerd, give him full justice. His self-restraint was unparalleled. He refrained from vain things most carefully, from sports and amusements of all kinds. He drank no wine, beer or mead. He was temperate in every way; from this, he acquired clear reason and great keenness. His mind was ever working; he toiled day and night at extending his dominion; he won many countries and lands; he subjected cities with all the broad regions under them; he increased his possessions untiringly. Olgerd was equally at home in Lithuania and Russia. He spoke with the Jmud men like a neighbor; Russian was his language fromchildhood. With the Knights of the Cross he could speak in German, and he knew something of Latin.[335]

With Lithuanian princes love of war was inborn, but Olgerd surpassed all men in the cunning of his sudden attacks, and the subtle concealment of his purpose. There was no man more unsparing and ruthless than Olgerd. He warred with the Mongols near Kief, and hunted them out of Podolia. He inflicted bloody defeat on the Germans near the Niemen, while helping Lyubart, his brother. He drove the Poles from Volynia and Galitch, and fought with them in their own places; he threatened also the Hungarians. Olgerd’s sword was the most terrible ever wielded by a man of his dynasty; while defending Polotsk from Livonia it defended Volynia and Kief from Polish inroads.

But that which might satisfy Mindog or Gedimin could not satisfy Olgerd. To be prince of Lithuania and one half of Russia was not his ambition; he was striving for more than that, striving for power over Smolensk, Tver, Pskoff, Novgorod, and Moscow. He aspired to be ruler of all Russia. The Moscow princes had in him a dangerous enemy. Hence the Grand Prince of Moscow, in struggling to consolidate Russia, and put himself at the head of it, had a problem of the utmost complication and difficulty.[336]

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