- Yaroslav Osmomysl
Yaroslav Osmomysl ( _uk. Ярослав Осмомисл, "Yaroslav Volodymyrkovych Osmomysl") (b. ca.1135 - d.
1 October 1187 ), was the most famous Prince ofHalych (now in WesternUkraine ) from the first dynasty of its rulers, which descended from Yaroslav I's eldest son. Hissobriquet , meaning "Eight-Minded" in Old East Slavic, was granted to him in recognition of his wisdom. Some scholars even assert that Yaroslav was fluent in eight foreign languages.Biography
Son of
Volodymyrko of Halych by his wife, a daugther of KingColoman of Hungary , he assumed the throne in 1153. His foreign policy tended towards the alliance with the kings of Hungary and Poland, and against the Grand Princes ofKiev , who supported Yaroslav's cousin IvanBerlad nik in his attempts to take possession of several towns borderingVolynia . After many years of warfare, Yaroslav managed to ensure Berladnik's expulsion toByzantium .The latter part of his reign was beset by family troubles. He fell in love with one Halychian woman, named Anastasia (also called Nastasia), took her as a
concubine , repudiating his lawful wife Olga, the daughter ofYury Dolgoruky , in 1172. The powerful Halychianboyar s, who were reluctant to accept Anastasia as their queen, instigated a popular uprising, which resulted in Anastasia's being burnt at the stake. Yaroslav was constrained to deliver the oath to live with Olga in peace but in next year had her expelled to her nativeSuzdal with a son, Vladimirko. He bequeathed his throne to a natural son by Anastasia (Oleg, sardonically called Nastasyich by the populace), while the lawful heir Vladimirko had to content himself withPrzemyśl for the beginning. Very soon, the illegitimate brother Oleg was killed and Volodymyrko rose to the entire principality of Halych.The Tale of Igor's Campaign
Yaroslav's daughter Eufrosinia and her husband
Igor Svyatoslavich are central figures of the ancient "Tale of Igor's Campaign". Yaroslav is mentioned in the text as a powerful and respectable potentate::"Eight-minded Yaroslav of Halych! You sit high on your gold-forged throne; you have braced the Hungarian mountains with your iron troops; you have barred the [Hungarian] king's path; you have closed the
Danube 's gates, hurling weighty missiles over the clouds, spreading your courts to the Danube. Your thunders range over lands; you open Kiev's gates; from the paternal golden throne you shoot atsultan s beyond the lands."Reburial
Osmomysl's remains found their final resting place only recently after long period of disturbance. Originally, he was buried in the
Assumption Cathedral in ancientHalych (now the village of Krylos, inIvano-Frankivsk Oblast ,Ukraine ). In 1939 his stone sarcophagus was discovered by Ukrainian archaeologist Jaroslaw Pasternak, after his long search for the cathedral that was destroyed byMongol -Tatar hordes and never rebuilt later. It appeared that the burial was looted earlier and Yaroslav's bones were found mixed with bones of a young princess of unknown family. The sarcophagus is displayed in the History museum ofIvano-Frankivsk .Trying to secure his archaeological artifacts from ancient Halych and drawings of the cathedral in Krylos before the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine, Jaroslaw Pasternak hid them in an undisclosed location shortly after he emigrated to
Germany , where he died without disclosing the secret place. The purported remains were found for the second time in 1992, hidden in the crypt of St. George Cathedral inLviv , by archeologyst Yuriy Lukomskyy. After anthropological study, the remains were reburied at the Lviv Cathedral. As a result of study a reconstruction of Yaroslav Osmomysl's face was made.Issue
With his wife, Olga Yurievna of Suzdal (d.
14 July 1189 ), daughter of PrinceYury Dolgoruky he had four children:
* Vladimir(ko) (b. 1151 - d. 1199), Prince of Halicz (1188 and 1190-99), married to Boleslava (d. bef.1189), daughter of Great Prince Sviatoslav of Chernigov.
* Eufrosinia, famous for her song in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"; married in 1184 to PrinceIgor Svyatoslavich of Chernigov.
* Vyacheslava (d. aft. 1200), married in 1184 to PrinceOdon of Poznan .
* A daughter, married in 1167 with KingStephen III of Hungary , but he reputiated her one year later (1168).With his concubine Anastasia/Nastasia, he had one son:
*Oleg "Nastasyich" (b. aft.1161 - d. poisoned at Halicz, 1188), Prince of Halicz (1187-88).See also
*
List of rulers of Halych and Volhynia References
* Pasternak, Ya. "Ancient Halych". Krakov-Lviv, 1944 (in Ukrainian).
* Maiorov A.V. "Galitsko-Volynskaya Rus: Ocherki sotsialno-politicheskikh otnoshenii v domongolskii period. Knyaz, boyare i gorodskaya obschina." St Petersburg, 2001 (in Russian).
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