This prince is called Vladimir the Great by his people, and his name 

 has been woven into the folklore, as a successor of the pagan divinities whom 

 he destroyed. 



Although the title of kniaz, which these rulers bore, is translated by 

 prince, we are entitled to interpret it as king, as it is practically derived from 

 the Scandinavian konung or king. 



One of Vladimir's descendants, worthy of the name of king, was Yaros- 

 lav the Wise, 1116-1 154. He edited the Code of Laws, rie occupied a 

 glorious place among the princes of his time. His sister Mary was married 

 to Casimir, King of Poland; his daughters also became the wives of kings; 

 Elizabeth of Harold the Brave, King of Norway; Anne of Henry I., King of 

 France; Anastasia of Andrew I., King of Hungary. 



Of his sons, Vladimir, the eldest, is said to have married Githa, daughter 

 of Harold, King of England; Isiaslav, a daughter of Micislas II., King of 

 Poland; Vseslav, a Greek princess, daughter of Constantine Monomachus ; 

 Viatcheslav and Igor, two German princesses. 



Yaroslav gave an asylum to the proscribed princes, Saint Olaf, King of 

 Norway, and his two sons; a prince of Sweden; Edwin and Edward, sons of 

 Edmund Ironside, King of England, expelled from their country by Knut 

 the Great. 



It is very important to note that the humane and mild element not only 

 characterizes the reign of Vladimir the Great, after his conversion, but this 

 spirit of mildness is also the chief trait of Yaroslav the Wise's legislation. 

 He is reputed to have published the first code of law known among trie an- 

 cestors of the Ruthenians, as the Ruskaya Prava (the Russian law). 



Capital punishment, death by refinements of cruelty, torture, even a pub- 

 lic prison were unknown. These are Scandinavian principles in all their 

 purity. 



The descendants and successors of Yaroslav the Wise were often con- 

 tending for power, and as there was no law in force for the succession to the 

 throne, the principality of a deceased king was divided into several parts, ac- 

 cording to the number of his sons. 



It is only the Mongolian conquest that partly put an end to these quar- 

 rels between the princes. The Tatar armies, numbering 500,000 warriors, 

 flooded the plains of Rus. The princes of the House of Ruric joined their 

 ranks to have a deciding battle with the terrible foe. Such a battle was fought 

 at the Kalka river, near the Azof sea, in 1 224. 



Danilo, who later on was crowned as King of Rus in 1253, had joined 

 t!he other Russian princes in the battle of Kalka. In it the princes of Rus 

 were defeated and this defeat resulted in two and a half centuries of humili- 

 ation of Ruric's descendants, when they became but vassals of the Mongolian 

 Khans. 



It was only in 1480 'that John III. emancipated Rus from the Mon- 

 golian yoke. 



King Danilo, of whom we spoke above, reiVned in Galicia and his sub- 

 jects were the ancestors of the Ruthenians of Galicia. 



9 



