Restoration of the Principality and Military Reforms of Daniil Galitsky
The same tournament on the eve of the Yaroslavl battle
The situation when the owner was not in the house, and the cabinets were actively emptying the robbers, could not but cause a revival of old problems and increased centrifugal forces. The Galician boyar opposition, which did not come under the blow of the steppes and once again decided to stand apart from the Romanovichs, gained strength again. Returning with their personal squads, the boyars took control of the deserted city and all local crafts, including salt, which brought considerable profit. Behind weapon the Balkhovites took, who began to raid the Principality of Galicia-Volyn in order to rob everything that the Mongols did not have time to take with them. Rostislav Mikhailovich, the son of Mikhail Chernigovsky, entered into an alliance with them: he stayed with the Galician prince for months, if not weeks, but already made claims on the city, and at the very height of the Mongol invasion made an unsuccessful campaign against Bakota, and later another, already successful. The crusaders in the north again took control of the city of Dorogochin (Drogichin) with the surrounding area. And this was far from the end: the rebellion raised Bishop Przemysl, the Chernigov boyars settled in Ponizye, local boyars of a number of lands also showed their disobedience, believing that the Romanovich’s strength was over.
It would be so if the Mongols did the same with the Galicia-Volyn principality as with the other principalities of Russia. Meanwhile, Daniel and Vasilka still had a fully combat-ready army, control over important cities and communications, and most importantly - sympathy from the majority of important city communities that survived the invasion. After all the ruins and troubles suffered at the beginning of 1241, the prince was ready to take the most drastic measures to punish the traitors, and the people forgave him cruelty, perhaps unnecessary. Two boyars, who mutilated the water in Ponisie, Dobroslav and Grigory Vasilievich, were summoned to negotiations in Galich, put in chains and soon died. The foci of separatism were suppressed by force, severe punishment awaited the guilty. After several attempts, the Crusaders were expelled from Dorogochin by force, and the townspeople, who opened the city gates to them and did not feel any special sympathy for the Romanovichs, were rather severely punished: they were evicted to other lands, and the city was again settled by refugees and migrants from other lands controlled by the Romanovichs.
Having dealt with the internal enemy, Daniel took up the external enemy. These were Prince Rostislav Mikhailovich and his allies, Bokhovtsy. Together, during the second campaign, they were able to occupy Przemysl and Galich, having entered into an alliance with the local boyars and clergy, but with the news that Daniel and Vasilko were already on the way, and with all his considerable army, the prince fled to Hungary. At the same time, Rostislav was very unlucky, in the process of fleeing, he came across the Mongols returning from a European campaign, who gave him an additional bashing. Having dealt with his remaining supporters, the Romanovichs took up the Balkhovites. They have long interfered with the Principality of Galicia-Volyn, acting as a small but constantly hostile neighbor. In 1241-42, the Bolokhov issue was resolved once and for all: this land was devastated, people were taken to pieces and handed out to the boyars loyal to Daniel in Volyn and in Galicia, and refugees from other Russian and Polish lands that had previously been saved under Romanovich defense against the Mongols. The arbitrariness of the Bolokhov land was over, it was divided between the Romanovichs and the Kiev princes and ceased to be a constant problem for the central government.
The end of the struggle for Galich
The events connected with Rostislav Mikhailovich reminded the Romanovichs that the Mongol-Tatars (Tatar-Mongols?) Can come to the Russian land as much as they want with war, but the strife will continue until all the applicants have been arranged with an exemplary flogging . It was this flogging that the Romanovichs took up after the elimination of the boyar riots and the consequences of the Batu invasion.
Rostislav Mikhailovich did not restrain himself and continued to lay claim to Galich while in Hungary. The Hungarians, like the Poles, for some time could not participate in hostilities, trying to recover after the visit of Batu Khan with his nukers, but they did not stop supporting Rostislav. A coalition was formed with the participation of the prince, the boyars who remained loyal to him, who fled from the Romanovich repressions to Hungary, the Krakow prince Boleslaw V Shy, the Hungarian king Bela IV and the discontented communities of Przemysl land, which remained opposed to the power of Daniel and Vasilka. In 1243, Rostislav, who became a close person for the Hungarian king, married his daughter Anna, which already clearly hinted at a future campaign for the Carpathians to the east.
Romanovich did not wait for the war to come to them, and the first to strike. The goal was Boleslav the Shy, who fought at that time against Konrad Mazowiecki. Daniel supported the latter, and in 1243-1244 he made two campaigns, trying to weaken the Polish prince. This was only partially successful: Lublin was captured, who for a short time entered the Romanovich state. I also had to twice repel the raids of the Lithuanians, but here again my “brother and my enemy” relations showed themselves, which more than once showed Lithuanian-Russian relations: after fighting for some time and not achieving success, the parties entered into an alliance and at the crucial moment supported each other against the Poles, Hungarians and crusaders.
In 1244, Rostislav, gathering his strength, invaded the Galicia-Volyn state and captured Przemysl. However, he did not retain control of the city for long: Daniel soon recaptured it, and the prince fled to Hungary. After a quick regrouping and the gathering of all forces in 1245, Rostislav's supporters led by him, as well as Hungarians and Poles, again invaded there for the same purpose, just capturing Przemysl and moving further, besieging the city of Yaroslavl. Daniel, enlisting the support of the Polovtsians, came forward to meet the allied army. This year was supposed to solve everything.
During the siege, Rostislav Mikhailovich boasted that he was ready to defeat Daniel and Vasilka with only a dozen people, their strength was so insignificant. On the eve of the battle, he even organized a jousting tournament (one of the few documented tournaments in Russia), where he dislocated his shoulder and could not fight as skillfully as usual in the upcoming battle (and Rostislav was famous for his skillful and capable warrior). Many perceived this as a bad sign. In the battle that unfolded on August 17, 1245 near Yaroslavl, the allied army of Rostislav, Hungarians, Poles and rebellious boyars was crushed to pieces. During the battle, the results of the military reforms of Daniel and his son Leo were noticeably affected for the first time: the infantry steadily kept the blow, and the army itself actively and accurately maneuvered, which ensured the victory.
Many rebellious boyars were captured and executed. After the demonstration of the strength of the Romanovichs, who defeated the Union army even without their allies, the Prince of Mazovia and the Lithuanians of Mindovg, the Poles and Hungarians chose to reconcile. Rostislav Mikhailovich, despite the bravado, barely escaped from the battlefield and was forced to abandon claims to Galich. The Principality of Galicia and Volyn triumphed and, after decades of strife and struggle, finally completed its formation as a single and independent state with strong centralized prince power and considerable authority among the surrounding states.
Military reforms of Daniel Romanovich
This is what the Galician-Volyn equestrian combatant of the "new model" looked like
Almost all his life, Daniel Romanovich fought. Most often, he won victories, but defeats also occurred. The Mongol invasion of his state and the need to combat such a serious opponent turned out to be large-scale and painful for him. Fortunately, this prince was pragmatic and enterprising enough to become a good student in military matters. Moreover, he was able to benefit from his own experience of resistance to the Mongols. Favorable factors turned out to be the military talents of Lev Danilovich, the heir to Daniel, and although it suffered, but generally preserved wealth of the Galician-Volyn land. As a result of this, already in 1241, large-scale military reforms began in the Galicia-Volyn principality, which will continue during the reign of Leo and will form a very effective and advanced army by the standards of their time, which will become the pride of the Romanovichi until the very end of their existence.
The old army of the Galicia-Volyn principality was not entirely bad, but in the new conditions it simply was not enough. It was based by the 1240s on the totality of princely squads and militias. The squad was maintained at the expense of the prince, consisted mainly of heavy cavalry, was his most faithful warriors, but remained very small, reaching several hundred. As a rule, a boyar militia was added to it: each boyar, like the European feudal lord, at the call of the prince brought with him an armed servant, foot and horse, who formed the "spear". In total, before the invasion of Batu, Daniel had about 2,5-3 thousand standing troops (up to 300-400 combatants, the rest were the boyar militia). This was enough to solve small problems, but in the case of large wars, the Zemstvo militia was also called on, i.e. urban regiments and rural community warriors. The strength of the Romanovich army by 1240, with the full mobilization of forces and means, is estimated by modern historians at about 30 thousand, but this is subject to the short-term convocation, and far from brilliant training and equipment of a significant part of such an army, which is why in fact such an army was never called up . In most battles for his father’s inheritance, Daniel hardly had more than 6-8 thousand people.
In the new conditions, as already mentioned above, such a military was not enough. It was required to put in the field as many warriors as possible, on foot and horseback. At the same time, the old system for the first time gave a major malfunction: due to conflicts between the prince and the boyars, the latter increasingly refused to come at the call with their “spears," as a result of which the army not only did not grow, but also decreased. At the same time, the prince remained faithful to the petty boyars, who were relatively poor and unable to independently provide for their military needs. The situation was saved by the fact that Daniel had a lot of land: even during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the crown lands, former princes, after some reduction represented more than 50% of the land fund of the voivodships of the former Galicia-Volyn principality. The course of action was obvious, besides, something similar was already used in neighboring Poland, and therefore, from the beginning of the 1240s, a local army began to form at a rapid pace in the Romanovich state, which made it possible to put in the field a large and well-trained cavalry faithful to the prince. After joining Poland, it is these local boyars who serve in exchange for the right to use the crown land and peasants who will harmoniously pour into the Polish gentry, having close to it history, socio-economic and political role in the state. True, this was not yet called a local army, but it turned out to be so close in character to what was created in the Moscow principality in the XNUMXth century, that this term can be used for simplification.
The infantry was also changed. Previously, only city regiments and squads provided more or less combat-ready pawns. By the standards of some Western European countries, this was a lot, but in the realities of Eastern Europe in the middle of the XIII century this was already not enough. Numerous infantry was required, capable of withstanding the blow of the Mongolian steppe, and perhaps European knightly cavalry — in general, such infantry that would appear among the masses in Europe (with the exception of Scandinavia, there was a special case) after 100-200 years. And such an infantry was created! It was based on community relations, multiplied by constant training: militia units gathered more or less regularly for exercises, which the princely treasury spent a huge amount of resources on. Militias were recruited from both well-connected urban communities and less organized rural ones (in the latter case, recruiting took place in geographically close villages, as a result of which the militias were usually either personally acquainted, or at least had mutual acquaintances because of their close proximity) . After preparation, such detachments showed, though not outstanding, but sufficient combat readiness, discipline and stamina on the battlefield, so that together with the city regiments they would represent great strength on the battlefield. The resulting infantry could already hold the cavalry strike, as happened in 1257 in the battle of Vladimir-Volynsky. It has not yet become the main force on the battlefield, but at the same time it allowed the cavalry to be completely freed, which became a tool for delivering clear, well-aimed attacks at the right time and in the right place, while the infantrymen could keep the bulk of the enemy army in front of them by tying him in a fight.
The real revolution took place in the field of personal protection. Here, Daniel and Leo adopted the Chinese and Mongolian experience, thanks to which the steppes managed to create massive, cheap and quite effective armor. The heavy cavalry began to defend themselves with stronger types of chain mail, as well as to use flake and plate armor more massively, which required the significant development of the Galician-Volyn forge and workshops. The armor acquired high collars, developed plate bracers and a large chain mail length, which became better to protect the riders' legs. Local cavalry, as a rule, provided itself with armor itself, while pawns received protection at the expense of the princely treasury. For infantry, the armor was even simpler and cheaper, in fact, boiling down to quilts, various “Khatag Degel” (speaking roughly and simplistically, this is the Mongolian analogue of quilting with a maximum warrior protection area) and helmets, not always iron. By the standards of past times, it was an ersatz, but most soldiers were protected by it, and such protection left very little open surface of the human body, which provided sufficient protection from the Mongol arrows and chopping blows. This played an important role in enhancing the resilience of the infantry. However, horsemen who could not afford expensive board armor or chain mail of new designs could not disdain such protection. Horses received protection: under Daniel, partial, and under Leo - already complete, while before that the horses received any serious protection quite rarely.
Offensive weapons developed rapidly. First of all, this concerned the gunshots: realizing their benefit in the defense of fortresses, the Romanovichs began to arm the field armies with them, which allowed the infantry to snarl rather painfully against the well-protected heavy cavalry of the steppes or even Hungarians with Poles. Throwing artillery, previously undeveloped, received significant development: Rusichs from Southwest Russia quickly adopted and improved both heavy siege stone-throwers and light throwing machines designed for field battles.
The organization of troops as a whole has grown markedly, making it possible to divide them into separate (independent) units and maneuver them in battle. For the first time, division into wings and reserve during battles became widely used. The Mongols copied the method of carrying out lightning marches: during conflicts with the Poles, the Galician-Volyn army once 50 days traveled XNUMX kilometers along with light throwing artillery, causing the enemy to be horrified by such agility.
Enormous progress was observed in fortification: the old wooden fortifications were rapidly replaced by mixed or entirely stone, which were too tough for the Mongols in 1241. In the strengthening of the Rusich cities, such fanaticism came that even the neighboring Poles and Hungarians soon began to characterize the Galician-Volyn land as a very protected, real country of fortresses (directly Castilla de la Rus!). In addition to cities, separate “pillars” began to appear: stone towers designed to protect road junctions, approaches to cities, etc. In peacetime, they were points of protection of roads and customs, in wartime - they turned into real fortresses. After the departure of the Mongols, they began to be built in large numbers, although information has not been preserved about all of them, but in general, we can now observe only two such towers. In the event of an enemy invasion (including the Tatar hordes), such towers, also built on a hill, could be completely impregnable for siege artillery, which made any attack on the lands of the principality very difficult.
Of course, all these reforms were worth a lot of effort and a significant waste of resources. The Romanovich state at that time literally lived in war; providing troops with new weapons and armor required a whole revolution in handicraft production, which, on the one hand, required enormous exertion of forces, and on the other, led to a significant increase in all craft in South-Western Russia at a time when it was most often in the rest of Russia was in decline. It was necessary to conduct the maximum concentration of all resources and income in the princely treasury, which sharply led to the fall of the role of independent boyars, which lost control of most places of “feeding” and henceforth became a serving estate, entirely dependent on the prince. The treasury of the Romanovichs at this time rarely allowed itself any excesses, the list of third-party expenses was minimized; everything was spent on the maintenance of the strongest troops in Eastern Europe. Thanks to all the measures taken, it was possible to increase the overall combat effectiveness of the troops and, if necessary, to convene a huge number of soldiers. True, most often Daniel and Leo continued to wage war with limited forces, but at the same time they constantly maintained significant reserves and “rear” in case of unexpected visits of guests to their native lands, while before, during large campaigns, the patrimony remained poorly protected.
The Galician-Volyn army radically changed and was a very serious force on the battlefield, able to withstand even much richer Hungary. The very appearance of the army has changed: due to the active use of armor of the steppe type in 1253, when Daniel invaded Czech territory, the local population mistook the Russian army for the Mongols; the Mongols were also called the squad of the king of Russia in 1260, when she fought with the Austrians on the side of the Hungarians. There was nothing wrong with that at that time: the organic fusion of the military traditions of the steppes, China and Russia proved to be extremely effective. Already at the beginning of the XIV century, Vladislav Lokotok, king of Poland, will write to Pope John XXIII that the Galician-Volyn army is the invincible shield of Europe on the path of the Tatar hordes and should not be underestimated. Given the fact that only it stood between the lands of Lokotka itself and the steppes, these words deserve attention, and even trust.
It is such a large and effective army that will allow the Romanovichs after the invasion of Batu to survive in the difficult political situation that will develop in Eastern Europe after 1241.
To be continued ...
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