PRINCE DANYLO ROMANOVYCH AND HUNGARIAN KINGS 1205–1235. PART 2

Abstract

The actual material is devoted to the second half of the discussion initiated in 2019 by Lviv professor Volodymyr Alexandrovych about the nature of the relationship between Prince Danylo Romanovych and the Hungarian kings Andrew II and Béla IV. This article concerns the participation of the Volhynian Prince in the coronation of Béla, which took place in Alba Regia (the modern Hungarian town Székesfehérvár) on October 14, 1235. Using the comparative analysis to the descriptions of the coronation of the Hungarian rulers during the 13^th–15^th centuries, the authors came to the conclusion that the role, assigned to Danylo, wasn’t fully reproduced in the Posonian Chronicle. It is impossible to reconstruct all details of the Béla’s coronation ceremony (especially, the status of the Rus’ian Prince) only on the basis of mentioned laconic fragment. However, the comparative analysis of the written sources, field studies, make it possible to clearly state the following:

Church) during the day at various locations prepared for it; 2) the Officium stratoris gesture recorded for the first time during the ceremony, in the presence of the people of Emperor Frederick II meant, in our opinion, an example of imitation of the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire with an unambiguous meaning understood by all participants of the coronation; 3) the participation of Prince Danylo in the coronation on October 14, 1235 was not considered worthy of the family memory, perhaps humiliating for the Romanids, and therefore, unlike many other famous events of his time, we cannot read about it on the pages of the chronicle ordered at their court (the so-called Galician-Volhynian litopys); 4) the gesture of leading the horse of Béla IV by the Volhynian Prince became a necessary for the regulating of his relations with the Árpáds after the death at the beginning of 1234 (in Halych, besieged by the troops of Danylo) of the son of Andrew II, Duke Andrew, later on September 21, 1235 – the king of Hungary himself, and hence – the support of the Hungarian royal family in the city above the Dniester river of Mykhailo Vsevolodovych and his son Rostislav. The Mongol invasion to Hungary in 1241– 1242, the defeat of the troops of Rostislav Mykhailovych and ban Fila in the battle of Yaroslav on August 17, 1245, as well as the return of the elder Romanovych alive in April – May 1246 after a visit to Batu-khan radically changed the inter-dynastic relations. Now, Prince Danilo’s dependence on Bela IV, declared on October 14, 1235 by the Officium stratoris gesture, gave way to the urgent need for joint partnership actions against the nomads, even by the concluding a matrimonial union with the Romanids, which was unequal from the point of view of the Árpáds.

1) Danylo Romanovych led the royal horse throughout the ceremony (and not only to the St. Peter and Paul