According to the
Primary Chronicle (PVL), Andrey's parents married on 12 January 1108, as part of a peace agreement between the Rus' and the Cumans (Polovtsi). Andrey's father was Yuri Vladimirovich (),
Prince of Rostov and Suzdal commonly known as
Yuri Dolgoruki (), a son of
Volodimer II Monomakh, progenitor of the
Monomakhovichi. Andrey's mother was an unnamed Cuman princess, a daughter of
Aepa son of Osen'. From this marriage, Andrey Bogolyubsky was born in 1111. Yuri proclaimed Andrey a prince in
Vyshgorod (near
Kiev).
Seizing power (1155–1162) Andrey left Vyshgorod in 1155 and moved to
Vladimir, a little town on the river Klyazma founded in 1108. In doing so, he removed the
Icon of the Blessed Mother of God from Vyshgorod to Vladimir (thereafter known as the "Virgin of Vladimir"), an action condemned as theft by the
Kievan Chronicle, while the
Suzdalian Chronicle made no judgement on it. In 1153 he was the Prince of
Murom-Ryazan. After his father's death in 1157, Andrey ousted his younger brothers
Mikhail "Mikhalko" Yurievich and
Vsevolod "the Big Nest" from
Rostov and
Suzdal in 1162, thus uniting his father's patrimony in
Vladimir-Suzdal under his sole rule (
samovlastets). He expelled his four brothers to the
Byzantine Empire together with their mother, Yuri's second wife. Andrey established for himself the right to receive tribute from the populations of the
Northern Dvina lands.
Construction works He commenced the construction of fortifications around the town of Vladimir in 1158 (completed in 1164), as well as the
Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir. In 1162 or 1164, Andrey sent an embassy to
Constantinople, lobbying for a separate metropolitan see in Vladimir, but he was overruled by the patriarch of Constantinople. Fortifications around Vladimir were completed in 1164. The same year Andrey attacked the
Volga Bolgars; he won a victory, but according to later traditions, a son was killed in battle, to whose memory he supposedly ordered the construction of the
Church of the Intercession on the Nerl in 1165.
Sack of Kiev and brief overlordship (1169–1171) In March 1169
Andrey's troops sacked Kiev, devastating it as never before. Andrey did not take part in the attack; he stayed in Vladimir-Suzdal while his troops sacked the capital. After plundering the city, stealing much religious artwork, many books and valuables and devastating houses and religious buildings alike, Andrew claimed the title of Grand Prince, although he kept his residence at Vladimir, and emphasized the Byzantine religious heritage of Vladimir to assert Vladimir's prestige and ecclesiastical independence from Kiev. Andrey had his brother Gleb appointed as prince of Kiev, in an attempt to create a position of overlordship for himself. This overlordship lasted for less than two years, ending with Gleb's death on 20 January 1171. Andrey's attempts to control other parts of Kievan Rus' were barely successful either; his
Siege of Novgorod (1170) was a failure, and the Suzdalians were defeated. Although he managed to later blackmail the Novgorodians by imposing a blockade on the trade hub, securing the princehood for his son
Yury Bogolyubsky in 1171, the Novgorodians immediately expelled him upon Andrey's death in June 1174.
1171–1173 Kievan succession crisis Gleb's death in 1171 caused
another Kievan succession crisis, and Andrey became embroiled in a two-year war to regain control over Kiev. When the Rostislavichi of Smolensk and Iziaslavichi of Volhynia jointly secured the throne of Kiev, Andrey assembled another coalition and
marched on Vyshhorod in 1173, where the Yurievichi–Olgovichi forces of Suzdalia and Chernigov were utterly defeated.
Death '' miniature, Andrey Bogolyubsky's left arm is cut off by his assassins, his "right hand" was cut off by an assailant called "Peter" (Петръ): •
Kievan Chronicle sub anno 6683 (1175 [sic]): •
Radziwiłł Chronicle sub anno 6683 (1175 [sic]): However, the
Radziwiłł Chronicles adjoining
miniature depicts his assailants cutting off his left arm. Moreover, when examined the exhumed body of Andrey Bogolyubsky in 1965, he "found a lot of cut marks on the left
humerus and
forearm bones". A 2009 special historical study by Russian historian A.V. Artcikhovsky (2009) would later confirm Rokhlin's observations. Andrey's death triggered the
1174–1177 Suzdalian war of succession. ==Descendants==