Battle of the Alta River | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Cuman army | Kievan Rus' | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Khan Sharukan | Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev Prince Sviatoslav of Chernigov Prince Vsevolod of Periaslavl | ||||||
The Battle of Alta River was a 1068 [1] clash on the Alta River between Cuman army on the one hand and Kievan Rus' forces of Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev, Prince Sviatoslav of Chernigov, and Prince Vsevolod of Periaslavl on the other in which the Rus' forces were routed and fled back to Kiev and Chernigov in some disarray. [2] The battle led to an uprising in Kiev that briefly deposed Grand Prince Iziaslav. That incident supposedly shows the power of the Kiev veche and how common people gathering influenced princely politics in Kievan Rus' (particularly in Kiev as well as in the Novgorod the Great).
The Cumans/Polovtsy/Kipchaks were first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle as Polovtsy sometime around 1055, when Prince Vsevolod drew up a peace treaty with them. In spite of the treaty, in 1061, Kipchaks supposedly breached the earthworks and palisades constructed by Princes Vladimir (d. 1015) and Yaroslav (d. 1054) and defeated an army led by Prince Vsevolod that had marched out to intercept them. Following the unsuccessful Battle on the Alta River near the city of Pereiaslavl, Iziaslav and Vsevolod fled back to Kiev and their unwillingness to arm the general populace to march out and fight the raiders led to an uprising in the city. A veche (public assembly) was convened on unknown initiative in the marketplace and the people there demanded arms to fight the Kipchaks. When these were not forthcoming, they ransacked the house of voivode Konstantin. [3] The Kievans freed Prince Vseslav of Polotsk, who had been imprisoned earlier by Iziaslav, Vsevolod, and Sviatoslav, and placed him on the Kievan throne in hopes that he could stop Kipchaks. Iziaslav, for his part, fled to his father-in-law, Boleslaw II of Poland, who provided him a military support with which Iziaslav returned to Kiev the following May (1069) and took back the throne.
In Iziaslav's absence, Prince Sviatoslav managed to defeat a much larger Cuman army on November 1, 1068 and stem the tide of Cuman raids. A small skirmish in 1071 was the only disturbance by the Cumans for the next two decades. [2] Thus, while the Battle of Alta River was a disgrace for Kievan Rus', Sviatoslav's victory the following year relieved the Cumans' threat to Kiev and Chernigov for a considerable period.
Year 1068 (MLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Vsevolod I Yaroslavych, ruled as Grand Prince of Kyiv from 1078 until his death.
Yuri I Vladimirovich, commonly known as Yuri Dolgorukiy or the Long Arm was a Rurikid prince. Noted for successfully curbing the privileges of the landowning boyar class in Rostov-Suzdal and his ambitious building programme, Yuri transformed this principality into the independent power that would evolve into early modern Muscovy.
Iziaslav Yaroslavich was a Kniaz' (Prince) of Turov and Veliki Kniaz.
Sviatoslav II Iaroslavich or Sviatoslav II Yaroslavich was Grand Prince of Kiev between 1073 and 1076. He was born as a younger son of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise. His baptismal name was Nicholas.
Sviatopolk II Iziaslavich was supreme ruler of the Kievan Rus for 20 years, from 1093 to 1113. He was not a popular prince, and his reign was marked by incessant rivalry with his cousin Vladimir Monomakh.
Yaropolk II Vladimirovich Monomakh, Prince of Pereyaslav (1114–1132), Velikiy Kniaz of Kiev, son of Vladimir II Monomakh and Gytha of Wessex. He fought in several campaigns against the Polovtsy (Cumans), once in 1103 and again in 1116.
Mstislav II Izyaslavich was the prince of Pereiaslav and Volodymyr and the grand prince of Kiev.
Igor II Olgovych , Prince of Chernigov and Grand Prince of Kiev. Son of Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigov.
Vseslav of Polotsk or Vseslav Bryachislavich, also known as Vseslav the Sorcerer or Vseslav the Seer, was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069. Together with Rostislav Vladimirovich and voivode Vyshata, they created a coalition against the Yaroslaviches' triumvirate. Polotsk's Cathedral of Holy Wisdom is one of the most enduring monuments on the lands of modern Belarus and dates to his 57-year reign.
Rurik Rostislavich, Prince of Novgorod (1170–1171), Belgorod Kievsky, Grand Prince of Kiev, Prince of Chernigov (1210–1214).
Saint Michael of Chernigov or Mikhail Vsevolodovich was a Rus' prince. He was grand prince of Kiev ; and he was also prince of Pereyaslavl (1206), of Novgorod-Seversk (1219–1226), of Chernigov, of Novgorod, and of Halych (1235–1236).
Oleg Svyatoslavich was a Rurikid prince whose equivocal adventures ignited political unrest in Kievan Rus' at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries.
Mstislav Mstislavich the Daring prince of Tmutarakan and Chernigov, was one of the most popular and active princes of Kievan Rus' in the decades preceding the Mongol invasion of Rus'. He was the maternal grandfather of Prince Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev and Grand Prince of Vladimir. He also was the maternal grandfather of prince Leo of Galicia, who became Grand Prince of Kiev.
Boris Vyacheslavich was Prince of Chernigov for eight days in 1077. He was the son of Vyacheslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Smolensk. Following his father's death in 1057, the child Boris was debarred from his inheritance. He died fighting against his uncles—Vsevolod Yaroslavich, Prince of Chernigov and Izyaslav Yaroslavich, Grand Prince of Kiev—on 3 October 1078.
The inner Principality of Kiev was a medieval East Slavic state, situated in central regions of modern Ukraine around the city of Kiev (Kyiv).
The Kiev uprising of 1068 was a revolt against Grand Prince Iziaslav Yaroslavich of Kiev in the aftermath of a Kievan Rus’ defeat at the hands of the Cumans at Battle of the Alta River near the city of Pereiaslavl, southeast of Kiev.
Yaropolk Izyaslavich was a Knyaz (prince) during the eleventh-century in the Kievan Rus' kingdom and was the King of Rus (1076–1087). The son of Grand Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich by a Polish princess named Gertruda, he is visible in papal sources by the early 1070s but largely absent in contemporary Rus sources until his father's death in 1078. During his father's exile in the 1070s, Yaropolk can be found acting on his father's behalf in an attempt to gain the favor of the German emperors and the papal court of Pope Gregory VII. His father returned to Kiev in 1077 and Yaropolk followed.
Mstislav II Svyatoslavich was a Rus' prince. His baptismal name was Panteleymon. He was probably prince of Kozelsk (1194–1223), of Novgorod-Seversk (1206–1219), and of Chernigov (1215/1220–1223). He was killed in the Battle of the Kalka River.
Roman Svyatoslavich or Roman the Handsome was prince of Tmutarakan in Kievan Rus'. The starting year of his reign is uncertain, but he reigned his principality from around 1073 or 1077. His former allies, the Cumans killed him after their unsuccessful joint campaign against his uncle, Vsevolod I of Kiev.