PART TWENTY-SIX: The Senatorial Kiev Experience (1357-1358)
Tsar Yaroslav of the Kievan-Byzantine personal union which arose after the deaths of the Orthodox Monarchs, Tsar Sudislav the Great of Yaroslavl’ and Empress Gabrielia Komnene of Byzantium, certainly had his impact on the historical record, and we’ll get to that. But it’s one thing to read a Wikipedia page, an academic journal, or even primary sources, and quite another thing toexperience it. Yaroslav considered personal experience of the utmost importance. He spent much of his tenure as Tsar traveling his lands, and continued after his crowning as the Tsar of Kiev-Byzantium at the Hagia Sophia in 1357. What’s more, he asked that the New Senate of Kiev-Byzantium join him on the road!
The hardships they endured traveling the backroads of Kiev and the Byzantine Empire are, in many ways, unknowable to us. But try to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine that you’re part of the New Senate.
Think about what they experienced.
: I am pleased that the Phanariote Committee, recognizing that wisdom is something not always found between the covers of a book, proposed the Senatorial Kiev-Experience Act. You now are responsible for the welfare of lands you have scarcely even thought of, much less seen for yourselves.
In deference to the Phanariote Committee, I have placed the education of my heir, the Princess Dobrava Yaroslavovna, in the hands of one of the foremost theologians I found milling around Constantinople without anything better to do.
Ah, but it is not enough for you to learn of my country. I must acquaint myself with the lands of my new empire! And so should you. How can you think to rule an empire that stretches from Lombardy to Antioch, Belgorod to Alexandria, all cooped up in the chambers of the Senate in Constantinople, looking down on the world like the audience of a play?
It is the tradition of my dear mother’s family to survey the lands secured for Christianity by Valeria the Apostle. I request that you accompany me.
Logistics? We routinely send tens of thousands of soldiers and knights from one end of the empire to another! I think we can manage and entourage of a few hundred pampered senators!
You might have to rough it a bit. But be grateful that you have warm beds! In my journeys in Kiev, I’ve had nothing but the cold earth to sleep on, with only a rock for a pillow.
Wait, what’s that?
Ha, a snake! Perhaps this gentle land of yours does have some bite!
You are all rich men and women. I trust your wealth is simply so that you can better work for the betterment of Kiev-Byzantium? You can start proving that true right now.
And, ah, somehow amidst your luxuries you’ve accomplished incredible feats of military prowess! In Kiev, we have only our wits and our muscles to face the Mongol hordes. Such glories have you won in battle!
Antioch’s a bit of a dump, isn’t it? From the way you people talk about the place, one would think it was still enjoying the glories of Roman Syria! Perhaps you’d have known better if you’d ever left Constantinople.
I shall have to make the improvement of Antioch’s meager circumstances a priority. But for now, to Kiev!
What’s that, Senator? You aren’t happy with your roadside accommodations? The innkeepers of the north are not accustomed to hundreds of Senators fanning out across the region and filling every tavern, inn, and waystation in miles! Your room smells like a stable? Be grateful you’re not sleeping in a stable.
Oh, no, I see. He was literally burying manure beneath his inn. And you Byzantines call us uncivilized! This seems like a sure way to attract miasma and plague. For the sake of public health, I shall sentence this wretch to death.
By the way, don’t worry about the affairs of state. The Imperial Post of Kiev-Byzantium is unequalled. I can easily run the empire as well from here as I can enthroned in Byzantion. Better, even.
Ah, this is more like it! A homey and commodious inn if I’ve ever seen one! Now that we’ve crossed the border into honest Kiev, you’ll see what hospitality really means!
——
Yaroslav Sudislavovich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yaroslav Sudislavovich (1327-1358) was Tsar of Kiev from 1355 and emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 1357 until his death in 1358. He is noted for his dissolution of the traditional factions of the old Komnenos Senate of Constantinople, and for founding the Yaroslavovich dynasty.
After his death, he was succeeded by his son Yuiry Yaroslavovich as Grand Duke of Kiev and his daughter Dobrava Yaroslavovna as ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
Regnal Titles
Preceded by: Sudislav III the Great | Tsar of Kiev (1355-1358) | Succeeded by: Yuiry I (as Grand Duke)
Preceded by: Gabrielia I Komnene | Emperor of Byzantium (1357-1358) | Succeeded by: Dobrava I
