Monument to King Daniel in modern
Lviv.
or
Danylo Romanovych (, Danylo Halytskyi), (1201-1264)
King of
Galicia (
Galich or
Halych) (1205-1206, 1211-1212, 1229-1231, 1233-1235, 1238-1255),
Peremyshl (1211), and
Volodymyr (1212-1231). He was crowned by a papal
archbishop in
Dorohychyn 1253 as the 1st
King of
Ruthenia (1253-1264).
Biography
In 1205, after the death of his father,
Roman Mstyslavich, the ruler of
Galicia-Volhynia, the
boyars of Galicia forced the four-year-old Daniel into exile with his mother
Anna of Byzantium and brother
Vasylko Romanovich. After the boyars proclaimed one of their own as prince in 1213, the
Poles and
Hungarians invaded the principality, ostensibly to support the claims of young Daniel and Vasylko, and divided it between themselves. In 1219 he renounced his claims to
Halych in favor of his father-in-law
Mstyslav the Bold.
In 1221 Daniel re-established his rule over Volhynia, where the boyars and populace had remained loyal to his dynasty. By 1238, he had defeated the
Dobrzyń Knights, and regained most of Galicia, including the capital at Halych. While the
Prussians were under pressure from the
Teutonic Order, Daniel attempted to conquer the related
Yatvingians.
The following year, Daniel acquired
Kiev, the traditional capital of the defunct state of
Kievan Rus'. Faced with the
Mongol menace, he sent his commander
Dmytro to defend the city. However, after a long siege its walls were breached and despite fierce fighting within the city, Kiev fell on December 6, 1240 and was largely destroyed. A year later, the Mongols passed through Galicia and Volhynia while campaigning against the
Poles and
Hungarians, destroying Halych. On August 17, 1245, Daniel defeated a combined force of the Prince of
Chernihiv, disaffected boyars, and
Hungarian and
Polish (see also
Order of Dobrin) elements at Yaroslav and finally took the remainder of Galicia, thus reconstituting his father's holdings. He made his brother Vasylko ruler of Volhynia and retained the Galician title for himself, though he continued to exercise real powers in both places.
Daniel's domestic policies focused on stability and economic growth. During his rule,
German,
Polish, and
Rus' merchants and artisans were invited into Galicia, and numbers of
Armenians and
Jews established themselves in the towns and cities. Daniel founded the towns of
Lviv (1256) and
Kholm (naming the former for his son), and fortified many others. He appointed officials to protect the peasantry from aristocratic exploitation and formed peasant-based heavy infantry units.
Yet Daniel's successes and his failed defense of
Kiev attracted the further attention of the Mongols. In 1246, he was summoned to the capital of the
Golden Horde at
Sarai on the
Volga River and was forced to accept Mongol overlordship. According to the Ukrainian historian
Orest Subtelny, Daniel was handed a cup of fermented mare's milk by the Mongol
khan Batu and told to get used to it, as "you are one of ours now."
While formally accepting the Mongols as overlords, and supplying them with soldiers as required, Daniel built a foreign policy around opposition to the Golden Horde. He established cordial relations with the rulers of
Poland and
Hungary, and requested aid from
Pope Innocent IV in the form of a
crusade. In return for papal assistance, Daniel offered to place his lands under the ecclesiastical authority of
Rome, a pledge never realized. Wooed by the prospect of extending his authority, the pope encouraged Daniel's resistance to the Mongols and his Western orientation, and in 1253, had a papal representative crown Daniel at
Dorohochyn on the
Bug River. The following year, Daniel repelled Mongol assaults led by
Kuremsa on Ponyzia and Volhynia and dispatched an expedition with the aim of taking Kiev. Despite initial successes, in 1259, a Mongol force under
Burundai and
Nogai Khan entered Galicia and Volhynia and offered an ultimatum: Daniel was to destroy his fortifications or Burundai would assault the towns. Daniel complied and pulled down the city walls.
In the last years of his reign, Daniel engaged in dynastic politics, marrying a son and a daughter to the offspring of
Mindaugas of
Lithuania and acquiring territorial concessions in Poland from the latter. Another his daughter, Ustynia, was married to Prince
Andrey Yaroslavich of
Vladimir-Suzdal. He also arranged for the marriage of his son Roman to Gertrude, the
Babenberg heiress, but was unsuccessful in his bid to have him placed on the ducal throne of
Austria.
By his death in 1264, Daniel had reconstructed and expanded the territories held by his father, held off the expansionist threats of Poland and Hungary, minimized Mongol influence on Western Ukraine, and raised the economic and social standards of his domains. He was succeeded in Galicia by his son
Lev.
Family
MotherFatherWivesBrotherSistersSonsDaughtersSee also
