The Grand Prince of Kiev (sometimes grand duke) was the title of the ruler of
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
and the ruler of
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
from the 10th to 13th centuries. In the 13th century, Kiev became an
appanage
An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...
principality first of the
grand prince of Vladimir
The grand duke of Vladimir was the ruler of a principality during the era of Kievan Rus' and after its collapse. It ruled territory approximately bounded by three rivers, the Volga, the Oka and the Northern Dvina. From 1157 to 1238 its capital was ...
and the
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...
governors, and later was taken over by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
.
Princes of Kiev
Mythological rulers
According to
Slavophiles
Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...
,
Kyi
Kyi (, Kiy; Ukrainian: Кий, Kyi) was the legendary founder of Kyiv and the Kyi dynasty, and the Prince (Knyaz) of the Polans. He was one of four siblings ( brothers Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv, and sister Lybid), who, according to the Primar ...
ruled since 430, one of the dates attributed to the legendary founding of Kiev in 482, although that date relates to
Kovin
Kovin (, hu, Kevevára) is a town and municipality located in the South Banat District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 13,515, while the municipality has 33,722 inhabitants.
In Romanian, the tow ...
on the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
. Some historians speculate that Kyi was a Slavic prince of
eastern Polans in the 6th century. Kyi's legacy along with Shchek's is mentioned in the
Book of Veles
The Book of Veles (also: Veles Book, Vles book, ''Vles kniga'', Vlesbook, Isenbeck's Planks, , , , , , ) is a literary forgery purporting to be a text of ancient Slavic religion and history supposedly written on wooden planks.
It contains reli ...
, the authenticity of which, however, is disputed.
Oleg, an
apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l Kiev
voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
, probably of Danish or Swedish origin, ruled under the overlordship of the
Khazar Khaganate
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
.
Bravlin was a
Varangian
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
prince or chieftain, who led a Rus military expedition to devastate the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
, from
Kerch
Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...
to
Sugdaea, in the last years of the 8th century.
According to some Russian historians (i.e., Gleb S.
Lebedev Lebedev (russian: Ле́бедев), or Lebedeva (feminine; Ле́бедева) is a common Russian family name derived from the word лебедь (''lebed'', meaning " swan").
Geographical distribution
As of 2014, 83.5% of all known bearers of th ...
), Dir was a ''chacanus'' of Rhos (
Rus khagan).
[Duczko, Wladyslaw (2004). Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. ] Thomas Noonan asserts that one of the Rus "sea-kings", the "
High king", adopted the title khagan in the early 9th century.
Peter Benjamin Golden maintained that the Rus became a part of the Khazar federation, and that their ruler was officially accepted as a vassal khagan of the Khazar Khagan of Itil.
Some western historians (i.e.,
Kevin Alan Brook
Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ).
The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...
) suppose that Kiev was founded by
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
or
Magyars. Kiev is a Turkic place name (''Küi'' = riverbank + ''ev'' = settlement). At least during the 8th and 9th centuries Kiev functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire (a hill-fortress, called ''Sambat'', "high place" in
Old Turkic
Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürks, Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It ...
). According to
Omeljan Pritsak
Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Har ...
,
Constantine Zuckerman Constantin Zuckerman (; born 1957) is a French historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.
Biography
Academic rank: professor. Highest degree: doctorate. Job title: The Deputy Director of the Cen ...
and other scholars, Khazars lost Kiev at the beginning of the 10th century.
[Zuckerman, Constantine (2007). ''The Khazars and Byzantium – The First Encounter''. In ''The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives – Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium'', eds. Peter Benjamin Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai, and András Róna-Tas, pp. 399–432. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.]
Rurik Dynasty
The
Rurikids were descendants of
Rurik
Rurik (also Ryurik; orv, Рюрикъ, Rjurikŭ, from Old Norse '' Hrøríkʀ''; russian: Рюрик; died 879); be, Рурык, Ruryk was a semi-legendary Varangian chieftain of the Rus' who in the year 862 was invited to reign in Novgoro ...
(Rørikr), a
Varangian
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
(Viking) pagan chieftain.
Grand princes of Kiev
Rurik Dynasty
Princes of Kiev (Mongol invasion)
Due to the Mongol invasion of 1240, Michael of Chernigov left Kiev to seek military assistance from King
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father ...
. During that time, the prince of Smolensk, Rostislav, occupied Kiev, but was captured the same year by
Daniel of Galicia
Daniel of Galicia ( uk, Данило Романович (Галицький), Danylo Romanovych (Halytskyi); Old Ruthenian: Данило Романовичъ, ''Danylo Romanovyčъ''; pl, Daniel I Romanowicz Halicki; 1201 – 1264) was a King ...
who placed his voivode Dmytro to guard Kiev while the grand prince was away. Being unsuccessful in Hungary, Michael visited
Konrad I of Masovia
Konrad I of Masovia (ca. 1187/88 – 31 August 1247), from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kuyavia from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243.
Life
Konrad wa ...
. Receiving no results in Poland, he eventually asked Daniel of Galicia for asylum due to the Mongol invasion.
Alšėniškiai dynasty
Since the 14th century, the principality of Kiev started to fall under the influence of
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
. In 1299, the
Metropolitan of Kiev
Maximus
Maximus (Hellenised as Maximos) is the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest". In this connection it may refer to:
* Circus Maximus (disambiguation)
* Pontifex maximus, the highest priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome
People Roman h ...
moved his metropolitan see from Kiev to
Vladimir-on-Klyazma
Vladimir ( rus, Влади́мир, p=vlɐ'dʲimʲɪr, a=Ru-Владимир.ogg) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, east of Moscow. It is se ...
. In 1321, after the
battle on the Irpin River
The Battle on the Irpin River is a semi-legendary battle between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Principality of Kiev. According to the story, Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, conquered Volhynia before turning his attention ...
,
Gediminas
Gediminas ( la, Gedeminne, ; – December 1341) was the king or Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death. He is credited with founding this political entity and expanding its territory which later spanned the area ranging from t ...
installed Mindgaugas, one of his subjects from the house of
Olshanski Olshanski or Olshansky is a Ukrainian or Belorussian habitational name for someone from Olshana or Olshanka in Ukraine or Olshany in Belarus or a americanized form of Polish and Jewish (from Poland) Olszanski. Notable people with the name include: ...
, a descendant of the family of
Vseslav of Polotsk
Vseslav of Polotsk or Vseslav Bryachislavich ( 1029 – 24 April 1101), 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 Rostis ...
that was exiled to the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
.
Rurik dynasty
In 1331, Kiev was once again taken by a member of the Rurik dynasty (Olgovich branch), the prince of Putivl.
After the
Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Kiev and its surrounding areas were incorporated into the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
by Grand Duke
Algirdas
Algirdas ( be, Альгерд, Alhierd, uk, Ольгерд, Ольґерд, Olherd, Olgerd, pl, Olgierd; – May 1377) was the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He ruled the Lithuanians and Ruthenians from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his bro ...
.
Gediminids
Alšėniškiai
Gediminas
See also
*
Kiev Voivodeship
The Kiev Voivodeship ( pl, województwo kijowskie, la, Palatinatus Kioviensis, uk, Київське воєводство, ''Kyjivśke vojevodstvo'') was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
*
List of Hungarian monarchs
This is a list of Hungarian monarchs, that includes the grand princes (895–1000) and the kings and ruling queens of Hungary (1000–1918).
The Principality of Hungary established 895 or 896, following the 9th-century Hungarian conquest of the ...
*
List of Polish monarchs
Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...
*
List of rulers of Galicia and Volhynia
List of rulers of Halychyna and its sister principality Volhynia. They were basically separate principalities (rulers being closely related) until Roman the Great, Prince of Volhynia who conquered also Halych but immediately gave it to his son. ...
*
List of rulers of Lithuania
The article is a list of heads of state of Lithuania over historical Lithuanian state. The timeline includes all heads of state of Lithuania as a sovereign entity, legitimately part of a greater sovereign entity, a client state, or a Republics o ...
*
List of Russian monarchs
This is a list of all reigning monarchs in the history of Russia. It includes the princes of medieval Rus′ state (both centralised, known as Kievan Rus′ and feudal, when the political center moved northeast to Vladimir and finally to Mosco ...
*
List of Ukrainian rulers
This is a list that encompasses and includes all reigning leaders/rulers in the history of Ukraine.
This page includes the titles of the Grand Prince of Kyiv, Grand Prince of Chernigov, Grand Prince of Pereyaslavl, Grand Prince of Galicia ...
*
Symbols of the Rurikids
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Prince of Kiev
Kiev, Grand Prince of
Ukraine history-related lists
Grand Princes of Kiev
Pretenders to the Ukrainian throne
Noble titles of Kievan Rus
Heads of state of Russia
Political history of Russia
Russia history-related lists
Russia politics-related lists
Kyiv-related lists