Introduction
Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), Prince of Novgorod, is a saint of the Russian Church, and one of the country’s greatest heroes. He put into practice the advice attributed by Shakespeare to King Henry V, showing humility to keep peace with the Tartars, but growing tigerish when more actively threatened by the West.
WHILE Baty* was conquering the more southerly portions of Russia, Novgorod was reigned over by Alexander,* a son of Yaroslav of Suzdal,* and was engaged in war with the Swedes, who at the request of the Pope wished to convert Novgorod to the Roman Catholic faith.*
They sailed up the Neva, but were met by Alexander at the point where the Izhora falls into it. There is a legend that on the eve of the battle the captain of Alexander’s guard had a vision in which he saw the saints Boris and Gleb hastening in a galley to help Alexander.* He told the prince of his dream, and so inspired Alexander that next day* he led his men with such daring that he gained a complete victory and saved Novgorod from the Swedes. After this battle Alexander adopted the surname of Nevski.
Soon after this Alexander was involved in a war with the German ‘Knights of the Sword’,* who had settled on the shores of the Baltic, originally an order of militant monks who had penetrated into the country to introduce Christianity.
Batu Khan (1205–1255), Anglicised to Baty, was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. A Mongol chieftain, Batu founded the Golden Horde that ruled Rus’ and vast areas of modern-day Russia for two and a half centuries. Under his command, the Horde destroyed Vladimir in 1238, and Kiev fell two years later; Batu then devastated Poland and Hungary and planned to take Austria, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire in Germany, but drew off in 1242 on the death of his uncle Ögedei Khan, the supreme Mongol ruler.
Alexander ‘Nevsky’ (1221-1263) was Prince of Novgorod from 1236 to 1256 and again in 1258-59, Grand Prince of Kiev from 1236 to 1252, and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1252 to his death in 1263. During this time, most of Rus’ was controlled by the Horde and Alexander held his titles by their courtesy.
Yaroslav II (1191-1246) was Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1238 to 1246. Cazalet names him ‘of Suzdal’ because in 1125 Yury Dolgoruky made Suzdal the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, and then in 1157 Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the capital from Suzdal to Vladimir; the principality thereafter is known as Vladimir-Suzdal.
In 1237, Pope Gregory IX urged the Archbishop of Uppsala to launch a Crusade against pagans in Finland. Mission-creep resulted in Crusaders trying to force Roman authority onto Eastern Christians, not for the first time.
Boris and Gleb were favourite sons of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, whose conversion in 988 brought Christianity to all Rus’: see The Conversion of Vladimir the Great. They were murdered during the in-fighting that followed Vladimir’s death, and are regarded as Russia’s first martyrs.
The Battle of the Neva was fought on July 15th, 1240, which as the mediaeval Novgorod Chronicle notes was not only the anniversary of Vladimir’s baptism in 988, but also the Sunday of the Fathers of Chalcedon, a key Church synod held in 451. The Chronicle attributes the victory not to Boris and Gleb but to ‘the power of St Sophia’ (i.e. Christ as Holy Wisdom, to whom Novgorod’s cathedral is dedicated), to the Virgin Mary, and to the day’s saints, three-year-old Cyricus (Quiricus) and his mother Julitta, of Tarsus, who were martyred in the last year of the persecution under Diocletian (284-305).
The Livonian Brothers of the Sword, a Roman Catholic order of ‘warrior monks’ established in Riga in 1202, and re-established by Pope Innocent III two years later as part of the ‘Northern Crusades’, organised to convert pagans around the Gulf of Riga in what is now Estonia.
Précis
Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod in the thirteenth century, won his surname by defeating Scandinavian Crusaders who attacked his city at the Battle of the Neva in 1240 in the hope of forcing his people to submit to the Roman Church. He was soon required to face another attempt, this time from the direction of modern-day Estonia and Germany. (59 / 60 words)
Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod in the thirteenth century, won his surname by defeating Scandinavian Crusaders who attacked his city at the Battle of the Neva in 1240 in the hope of forcing his people to submit to the Roman Church. He was soon required to face another attempt, this time from the direction of modern-day Estonia and Germany.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, despite, just, not, or, since, unless, until.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Scandinavians attack Novgorod in 1240?
Suggestion
To convert the city to Roman Catholicism. (7 words)
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A soldier saw a vision of Boris and Gleb. He told Alexander. Alexander was encouraged.