Indeed it was time to remember the promise given Daniel, and avenge the
shame wrought on them both by the Poles and Hungarians. If, when Roman
was forced to leave Galitch, the Latin Church made Galicia a bishopric,
it is easy to imagine what happened under Koloman and Salomeye. When
this youthful king and queen had been crowned in obedience to Rome, the
Latin Church triumphed directly. Latin priests were installed, while
the Bishop of Galitch and Orthodox priests were expelled from their
churches on all sides. Mystislav now assembled Russian princes and
roused them to this Galitch question. Mystislav, the Kief prince,
having lost the favor of Mystislav the Gallant, was unable to help him,
but his other cousin, Vladimir of Smolensk, promised aid very
willingly.
Mystislav then went to Khan Kotyan, his father-in-law, and obtained
warriors from him. Daniel, son of Roman, was delighted to help in
freeing Galitch.
But if Russian princes were preparing to fight for their Galitch
inheritance, the men who had seized that inheritance were preparing to
keep it. To Koloman came reinforcements from his father. Leshko,
dividing his army into two parts, sent one to defend his young daughter
in Galitch; the other he led to threaten Volynia. Depending on those
princes in Galitch who did whatever he asked of them, Leshko and
Bailski, his ally, threatened with these henchmen other princes, known
allies of Mystislav. Bailski looked on Daniel as Mystislav’s main ally.
Daniel and his brother would have moved at once to help Mystislav,
since they were threatened earliest, but their possessions, both on the
Polish and Russian side, were attacked by swift enemies. They were met
at every point by evil neighbors, “all men were against them,” as the
chronicler informs us. “Save from God they had no aid from any one.”
Mystislav waited for the Polovtsi; when they came he began action. His
faithful friend and ally, Prince Vladimir, brought with him the
promised warriors of Smolensk, and he and Mystislav then moved against
Galitch. But Daniel did not go with them. They received no word from
him, for he was greatly occupied elsewhere. Daniel would have been
troubled to count the toils and battles which he passed through at that
time. With whom and where had he not struggled? In recent days his
conflicts with Poles had increased. They roused the Yatvyags against
him and against those Lithuanians who were under him. Daniel, defending
these men, warred frequently in forests and wild regions belonging to
their enemy. He met the Poles themselves among his Lithuanian subjects,
whom the Polish princes tried to take from him through interference and
intrigues. The Poles also attacked Daniel on the Būg, where he was
forced to meet them, and through Bailz and Lutsk he met continual raids
from Russian princes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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