Prince of Galicia-Volynia from 1205, a key figure in Pope Innocent IV’s attempts to bring Russian princes into the crusading movement against the Mongols.
A western Russian principality bordering on Hungary and Poland, Galicia-Volynia was overwhelmed by the Mongols in 1240 along with the rest of Russia, but after their withdrawal in 1242, Daniel was able to attain a semi-independent position. In 1245 Innocent’s envoy John of Plano Carpini visited Daniel, proposing that he should enter into union with the Roman church. After Daniel’s acceptance, Innocent in 1248 circulated letters to Daniel, his brother, and the Russian prince Alexander Yaroslavich (Nevskii), urging them to explore whether the Mongols were planning attacks on Christianity and to join together against them. In the following years Daniel tried to widen this transconfessional alliance by marrying his daughter to Alexander Nevskii’s brother, Grand Prince Andrei.
When Andrei rebelled against the Mongols a year later and was defeated, the alliance began to dissolve. Yet while Alexander Nevskii was forced to accept Mongol rule, Daniel stuck to the alliance, which Innocent IV tried to reinforce in 1253 by offering royal crowns to Daniel and the Lithuanian grand duke, Mindaugas, who at the same time concluded a marital alliance. When Daniel turned against the Mongols in 1256, however, he received no help, and he was forced to accept Mongol supremacy in 1260.
-John H. Lind
Bibliography
Jensen, Carsten Selch, Kurt Villads Jensen, and John H. Lind, “Communicating Crusades and Crusading Communication in the Baltic Region,” Scandinavian Economic Historical Review 49 (2001), 5-25.
Lind, John H., “Russian Echoes of the Crusading Movement 1147-1478: Impulses and Responses,” Middelalderforum: Tverrfaglig tidsskrift for middelalderstudier 3 (2003), 210-235.
World History
