Prince Andrew

Abstract

The author of this article first analyzes the material of some Old Russian Chronicles to find the first mention of Tatars in Russia. He corrects the usual attitude in this field and claims that this mention can be located much earlier. This material is also important for the reconstruction of King’s Andrew biography which is the main purpose of the author’s investigation. Medieval Hungary by the 11th century had intensive relations with Rus’, especially Southern Rus’, where Hungarian political interests arose relatively early. A kind of “peak” of Hungarian aspirations in the South Rus’ is in the early 13th century, when Hungarian kings had already declared themselves titular monarchs of Galich and Vladimir. About increasing “national” and religious ambitions in a broad sense, about the ambitious Eastern policy of Hungary, one can know from the expedition that was sent after 1230 to the East in search of the Eastern Hungarians. One of the most colorful characters in the 1220–1230s, who personified the Eastern policy of Hungary, was Prince Andrew, the son of Hungarian king Andrew II. The article discusses his life according the famous Hungarian and old Russian sources and explains the general historical background of this time. The work of this historical character is known primarily from the Galician-Volhynian chronicle, in Hungary only fragmentary data survived about him, which is due not only to a possible loss of the documents, but presumably to a kind of ‘deliberate forgetfulness’. Refs 25.