[1] The gathering of honey and wax from the combs of wild bees formed an important industry among the Polish and Russian Slavs.

[2] S. Solov’ev, Istoriya Rossie.

[3] S. Solov’ev.

[4] Ralston, Early Russian History.

[5] Gibbon.

[6] Chronicle of Nestor.

[7] S. Solov’ev, Istoriya Rossie. Karamzin, Histoire de Russie. Chronique de Nestor. Schiemann, Russland, Polen, und Livland. N. P. Barsov, Otcherke Rousskoy istoritcheskoy Geografie. V. Thomsen, The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia.

[8] Kiev was subsequently invested with a past of respectable antiquity, the consecration of its site being attributed to the Apostle Andrew; it makes its entry on the pages of the Chronicle, however, simply as a gorodok, or townlet.

[9] Chronicle of Nestor.

[10] Schiemann, Russland, Polen, und Livland.

[11] Members of war council.

[12] Kniaz, Prince; velikie-Kniaz, Grand Prince.

[13] Now Iskorosk, on the Usha.

[14] Solov’ev.

[15] Karamzin.

[16] Old Ladoga.

[17] Old Skandinavian name for Russia.

[18] See genealogical table.

[19] Chronique de Nestor.

[20] Although loth to introduce a fresh spelling for a word which has already been rendered in some dozen or more forms by English, French, and German historians, I have thought it best to follow the Russian orthography of this Slavonic title.

[21] Karamzin, Solov’ev, Schiemann, Rambaud, Chronique de Nestor.

[22] See Table I. for Grand Princes of Kiev.

[23] The affix vitch signifies son of: Sviatoslavitch—son of Sviatoslav.

[24] Vseslav Briatcheslavitch.

[25] “The Song of the Expedition of Igor.”

[26] Georg Pray.

[27] N. G. Riesenkampff, Der Deutsche Hof zu Nowgorod.

[28] Rambaud, History of Russia.

[29] See Table III. for house of Souzdal.

[30] Stribog was the Slavonic wind-god.

[31] Rendered into English partly from H. von Paucker’s German translation, Das Lied von der Heerfahrt Igor’s FÜrsten von Seversk, and partly from a modernised Russian reproduction of the Slavonic text.

[32] Kadlubek, Origine et rebus gestis Polonorum.

[33] S. Solov’ev.

[34] Karamzin; S. Solov’ev; Schiemann; Kostomarov, Sieverno Rousskiya Narodopravstva, Chronique de Nestor.

[35] Sir H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols.

[36] Howorth sees in the recurring devastations of such men as Jingis, Attila, Timur, Bonaparte, and their ilk, the hand of “Providence” operating to purge the world of “the diseased and the decaying, the weak and the false, the worn out and the biased, the fool and the knave.” The Mongol massacres were so thorough and indiscriminate that it is hard to say what classes of human beings came safest out of the ordeal, but in the wars of Napoleon it would certainly not be a survival of the fittest; the weak, the cowardly, the frivolous would be least likely to perish; the strong, the brave, the patriotic would be those who “foremost fighting fell.”

[37] Riesenkampff, Der Deutsche Hof zu Nowgorod.

[38] Both Von Hammer-Purgstall (Geschichte der Goldenen Horde) and Howorth allude to Poppon as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, a post held at that date by Konrad of Thuringen; also both include him among the slain, though the former has a note to the effect that this could not have been Poppon “of Osterino,” who died much later. Poppon of Osterna was at this date Provincial or Land-master in Prussia, and lived to be elected Grand Master in 1253.

[39] Howorth, following Wolff, discredits the widely-accepted story of a Bohemian victory over the Mongols at Olmutz, and refers the event to a success over the Hungarians and Kumans twelve years later.

[40] Von Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte der Goldenen Horde.

[41] Laszlo Szalay, Geschichte Ungarns.

[42] Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

[43] A. M. H. J. Stockvis, Manuel d’histoire, de gÉnÉalogie, etc.

[44] Colonel Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo.

[45] Karamzin.

[46] S. Solov’ev, Istoriya Rossie. Karamzin.

[47] N. P. Dashkevitch, Knazenie Daniela Galitznago.

[48] E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe.

[49] S. Solov’ev, Istoriya Rossie.

[50] Commander of a thousand men.

[51] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen. Karamzin. S. Solov’ev.

[52] Karamzin.

[53] S. Solov’ev.

[54] Vladuika—a title of respect given to the highest clergy.

[55] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[56] V. B. Antonovitch, Otcherk istorie Velikago Kniajhestva Litovskago. Th. Schiemann, Russland, Polen, u. Livland. A. Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, etc.

[57] V. B. Antonovitch.

[58] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[59] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[60] V. B. Antonovitch. Th. Schiemann.

[61] V. B. Antonovitch.

[62] Chaucer.

[63] The firman issued by the Khans to the prince of their selection.

[64] K. Waliszewski: Peter the Great.

[65] M’Kenzie Wallace: Russia.

[66] V. B. Antonovitch.

[67] N. Kostomarov, Sieverno Rousskiya Narodopravstva. S. Solov’ev.

[68] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[69] S. Solov’ev. N. Kostomarov.

[70] S. Solov’ev.

[71] Karamzin.

[72] S. Solov’ev.

[73] Th. Schiemann.

[74] A Russian expression for the dead.

[75] S. Solov’ev.

[76] Monastery of the Trinity near Moskva.

[77] A. Rambaud, History of Russia.

[78] Schiemann.

[79] Karamzin.

[80] S. Solov’ev.

[81] Histoire de l’Ordre Teutonique.

[82] S. Solov’ev; Th. Schiemann; Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[83] Rambaud.

[84] Reproduced by Schiemann from copy in Rath archives of Revel.

[85] “From over the sea.”

[86] Schiemann; S. Solov’ev; Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen; Histoire de l’Ordre Teutonique; L. Ranke, Preussische Geschichte.

[87] Rambaud, S. Solov’ev.

[88] Karamzin.

[89] New guard, corrupted into Janissaries.

[90] Von Hammer-Purgstall, Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman. J. W. Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reich in Europa. E. A. Freeman, Ottoman Power in Europe.

[91] Rambaud.

[92] Rosebery, Pitt.

[93] Mistress of a Kniaz of Galitz, and burned alive by his boyarins.

[94] Le pÈre Pierling, La Russie et l’Orient.

[95] Iz Istorie Moskvui.

[96] S. Solov’ev. Karamzin. Pierling.

[97] Unlike their compeers in Western Europe, who attached high importance to matters heraldic, the Russian princes were somewhat “fancy-free” in the employment of armorial bearings, and their devices took more the nature of barbaric totems than of feudal blazonry. Only in the reign of Vasili the Darkened had the S. George-the-Conqueror and dragon become the fixed stamp on the seals and coins of Moskva; an earlier form of this was a simple mounted figure, similar to that borne by the Grand Dukes of Lit’uania. The coins of Dimitri Donskoi are adorned in some cases with the image of a cock, above which is portrayed a small animal, which might represent a fox, beaver, or marten. Previous to this the tokens were usually stamped with a rude representation of the reigning prince or of a local saint.

[98] Le pÈre Pierling, La Russie et l’Orient.

[99] Gennad Karpov, Istoriya Bor’bui Moskovskago Gosoudarstva s’ Pol’sko-Litovskim, 1462-1508.

[100] The title Tzar, formerly reproduced in West European spelling as Czar, was, on the strength of a surface resemblance, assumed to be derived from Caesar, and given the equivalent value of the German Kaiser. With the Russians Tzar simply meant king or ruler, and was indiscriminately used for the Greek Emperors, the Tartar Khans, and the Syrian and Jewish potentates mentioned in the writings of the Old Testament; Caesar was rendered Kessar. The word korol, which also signifies king in their language, was perhaps borrowed from the Magyar kiraly, the Kings of Hungary being for a long time the only monarchs so designated with whom they had any dealings. The double-headed eagle, adopted at almost the same time as the title of Tzar, although the recognised symbol of “empire,” was not originally used with that significance in Russia; the device was employed (in the same way that the lilies of France were incorporated with the English arms) to show that the Prince of Moskva had married the heiress of the eastern empire, and for a long time the eagle occupied a secondary position to the S. George and dragon cognisance of Moskva on the seals and coins of the Grand Princes. The imperial idea was a plant of foreign conception and growth, and, indeed, at the time when the title Tzar first crept into use, the style of Emperor of all the Russias might have been borne with almost as much reason by the King of Poland as by the Prince of Moskva.

[101] Schiemann, Russland, Polen, u. Livland.

[102] Karamzin.

[103] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen; Sartorius, Geschichte des Hanseatischen Bundes; S. Solov’ev, Istoriya Rossie.

[104] A spiked iron ball attached by a flexible thong to a short staff.

[105] The wolves. S. George occupies the delicate position of patron-saint of the wolves as well as of flocks and herds.

[106] Karpov, Istoriya Bor’bui, etc.

[107] A.E.I.O.U.

Alles Erdreich ist Oesterreich unterthan.
Austria est imperare orbi universo.

[108] Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, Rerum Moscoviticorum commentarii.

[109] It is hardly necessary to state that these remarks do not apply to the Russian soldier of modern history, who has displayed his best qualities under adverse circumstances.

[110] Schiemann.

[111] Schiemann, Karpov.

[112] S. Solov’ev.

[113] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[114] Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[115] Herberstein.

[116] Karamzin.

[117] S. Solov’ev; Karamzin.

[118] Karamzin gives the date as 8th of October. The day is fixed by Sigismund’s letter to Leo X., written on 18th September, in which he mentions the battle as taking place on “die natali beatissime virginis Marie, que erat VIII. Septembris.”

[119] Acta Tomiciana, tom. III.

[120] Much that appeared eastern or barbarous to outsiders was in fact only a survival of customs and costumes that had long died out in the west. Russia, cut off by many causes, already set forth, from the march of progress in occidental Europe, retained many things which had there been cast aside.

[121] Herberstein.

[122] Johannes Voigt, Geschichte Preussens.

[123] Herberstein.

[124] Herberstein.

[125] Voigt.

[126] Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe.

[127] Schiemann; Voigt; Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

Note.—The German branch of the Order elected a new Grand-Master after the defection of Albrecht, and continued, at Mergentheim in Franconia, its existence as a religious organisation, till the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the Napoleonic maelstrom swept it away in common with many other worn-out institutions.

[128] Karamzin.

[129] Herberstein.

[130] Herberstein; Karamzin.

[131] Karamzin.

[132] V. Bronevskago, Istoriya Donskago Voyska.

[133] Schiemann.

[134] Moskva in the reign of Ivan IV. consisted of four principal divisions—the twin centres of the Kreml and Kitai-gorod, the enclosing crescent of the Biel-gorod or White-town, and the large outer husk “enclosing the faubourgs, gardens, woods, lakes, and vast unbuilt-on spaces.” Between the houses in the Kitai-gorod and the east wall of the Kreml was the Red Place, or city square, which was the centre of Moskovite public life; “red” in Russian being synonymous with “beautiful.” Afterwards the name gained a grimmer significance.

[135] Herberstein.

[136] S. Solov’ev.

[137] E. A. Solov’ev, Ivan IV. Groznie.

[138] Karamzin. Schiemann. Austen Pember, Ivan the Terrible.

[139] E. A. Solov’ev.

[140] Anastasia Romanova, daughter of Roman, hence the name by which the family was afterwards distinguished—Romanov.

[141] Karamzin.

[142] Rambaud.

[143] In Byzantine writings of that period it is sometimes styled “Sea of the Russians.”

[144] Schiemann.

[145] Quoted by Schiemann.

[146] Schiemann.

[147] Schiemann; S. Solov’ev; Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen.

[148] E. A. Solov’ev, Ivan IV. Groznie.

[149] N. A. Polevoi, Tzarstvovanie Ioanna Groznago.

[150] According to Pember “christened Dmitri, like his first-born.” Karamzin and Polevoi designate him Vasili.

[151] A. N. Murav’ev, History of the Russian Church.

[152] Skasaniya kniazya Kourbskago, edit. by N. Ustryalov; Karamzin.

[153] Pember.

[154] Schiemann, Karamzin, E. A. Solov’ev, Polevoi.

[155] Karamzin, S. Solov’ev.

[156] E. A. Solov’ev.

[157] E. A. Solov’ev, Polevoi, S. Solov’ev.

[158] Karamzin, E. A. Solov’ev.

[159] Karamzin.

[160] Sir Ierome Horsey’s Observations in seventeene yeeres travels and experience in Rvssia, and other countries adioyning.

[161] Karamzin, E. A. Solov’ev, Schiemann.

[162] Horsey.

[163] Schiemann, Karamzin.

[164] Giles Fletcher, the Elder, Of the Russe Common Wealth.

[165] Karamzin, Polevoi.

[166] Vulcob, French ambassador at Wien; quoted by the Marquis de Noailles in Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572.

[167] De Noailles, Henri de Valois, etc.

[168] De Noailles.

[169] S. Solov’ev, Karamzin.

[170] W. R. Morfill, Poland.

[171] Karamzin.

[172] Pronounced Fedor; the Russian letter corresponding to the Greek Theta in form has been rendered Th (in the proper names Thedor, Martha, etc.) to distinguish it from the Slavonic F, but it has the same pronouncing value as the latter letter.

[173] Pember.

[174] Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[175] N. Kostomarov, Rousskaya Istoriya, etc.

[176] Karamzin distinguishes the first as Ivan Petrovitch Shouyskie, Kostomarov as Petr Ivanovitch Shouyskie, while Solov’ev gives an alternative of Ivan Petrovitch or Thedor Shouyskie.

[177] According to Karamzin 900,000 roubles.

[178] S. Solov’ev; N. Kostomarov, Rousskaya Istoriya v’ jhizneopisaniyakh eya glavnieyshikh dieyatelen.

[179] S. Solov’ev, Karamzin.

[180] Rambaud.

[181] S. Solov’ev, Kostomarov.

[182] K. Waliszewski, Peter the Great.

[183] Kto bull pervie Ljhedimitrie? S. Petersburg, 1864.

[184] A. Karzinkina, O medalyakh Tzarya Dimitriya Ioannovitcha (Ljhedimitriya I.) Moskva, 1889.

[185] S. Solov’ev, Karamzin.

[186] Le pÈre Pierling, Rome et Demetrius.

[187] S. Solov’ev; Kostomarov; Le pÈre Pierling; V. N., Iz Istorie Moskvui.

[188] Karamzin.

[189] Kostomarov.

[190] S. Solov’ev.

[191] Kostomarov.

[192] S. Solov’ev.

[193] Istoritcheskoe Opisanie sviatotroitzkiya Sergievui Lavrui.

[194] Kostomarov.

[195] S. Solov’ev.

[196] Iz Istorie Moskvui.

[197] Kostomarov.

[198] Answering to the Saxon reeve; in towns mayor or baillie, of lesser importance than a posadnik.

[199] S. Solov’ev, Kostomarov.

[200] King’s son, a convenient designation scarcely reproduced in English by the somewhat vague “Prince”; “Crown Prince,” with reference to an elective monarchy, being of course inadmissible.

[201] Or Saygadatchnuiy; Solov’ev uses both spellings.

[202] S. Solov’ev; De Koch and Schoell, Histoire abrÉgÉe des TraitÉs de Paix.