Siege of Novgorod (1170)

After the Iziaslavichi grand prince Mstislav II of Kiev had been ousted during the Sack of Kiev in March 1169 by a coalition of Rostislavichi (Smolensk), Yurievichi (Suzdalian), and Olgovichi of Chernigovian) princes, the dethroned grand prince's son Roman Mstislavich, prince of Novgorod, was beleaguered by another Yurievichi army sent from Suzdalia by Andrey Bogolyubsky. Unlike their victory at Kiev, the Suzdalians and their allies suffered a crushing defeat at Novgorodian hands. == The battle in history ==

The episode took place in 1169 when Andrei Bogolyubsky, Prince of Vladimir (on the Kliazma), besieged the city. His protégé in Novgorod, Prince Sviatoslav Rostislavich, had left Novgorod in 1167 upon the death of his father (Grand Prince Rostislav Mstislavich, who had also backed his reign in Novgorod). When the new Kievan grand prince, Mstislav Iziaslavich, sent his son, Roman, to be prince of Novgorod, Andrei fought to return Sviatoslav to the Novgorodian throne, sending his army to besiege Novgorod and force them to drive out Roman and take back Sviatoslav. The Novgorodians delivered a crushing defeat upon the Suzdalians and their allies. Bogolyubsky was, in fact, able to place his candidate on the Novgorodian throne the following year. The Novgorodians dismissed Sviatoslav in 1170. Bogolyubsky was, by then, the most powerful prince in Kievan Rus'. He had conquered Kiev and placed his candidate, Gleb, on the grand princely throne there. Andrei then remained the most powerful prince in Rus until his assassination in 1174. Thus, while the Novgorodians felt it had been miraculously delivered from Bogolyubsky's clutches in 1169, their policy of independence from him failed, and they gave in to his policies the following year. == Aftermath ==

Nevertheless, a subsequent Suzdalian economic blockade of the city prompted the Novgorodians to expel Roman Mstislavich in 1170, after which Andrey selected first Rurik Rostislavich of Smolensk (1170) and then his own son Yury Bogolyubsky of Suzdalia (1171) to become the next princes of Novgorod. Some time after the siege, a belief sprung up that Novgorod had been miraculously delivered, giving rise to a legend. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the episode became the basis for several hagiographic tales in the Russian church, as well as two large icons executed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (and now housed respectively in the Novgorod Museum and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.) ==References==