As the latter divided his conquered territories among his twelve sons, their dissensions gave Boleslaus the Great, king of Poland, an opportunity of avenging those tribes or nations that had been invaded by the Russians; and of this opportunity he availed himself the more readily, as they had been allies of Poland. Sviatopelk, a Russic duke, and step-son of King Boleslaus, driven out of Kiow by Jaroslav his nephew, sought refuge in Poland. Jaroslav not contented with having dispossessed him of his possessions, invaded Poland. Boleslaus marched to oppose him; and, after having twice defeated him, and re-established Sviatopelk in his ancient possessions, made his triumphal entry into the city of Kiow, in the year 1018.* He returned into his own states with an immense booty. Some time after this, Boleslaus the Bold, great grandson of Boleslaus the Great, being attacked by the Russic princes, defeated them, reduced the Ukraine into subjection, and took the city of Kiow; but, indulging in the most shameful excesses, he lost the fruits of his victories, and having committed great cruelties, amongst them the murder of the bishop Szczepanoski, he was dethroned and excommunicated, and died a miserable death in a foreign land.
At the time when the Polish scimitar was menacing the power of the Russic dukes, a power which was not yet firmly established, there appeared in the Steppes of the Ukraine, some tribes of Polovcians (Polovcy), springing, like the Hungarians and Turks, from the race of the Huns. In 1060, these Polovcians made themselves masters of the town of Pereaslaw, in Lesser Bulgaria; and taking advantage of the dissensions of the Russic dukes, established- themselves in the Ukraine. The calamities which weighed heavily upon these territories, were succeeded by others still more terrible; when the hordes of the Tatars, at first led by Genkiscan, and subsequently by other chiefs, commenced the struggle, which lasted five centuries, between barbarism and civilisation, between Europe and Asia — that dreadful struggle during which Poland alone preserved the other powers from destruction, otherwise inevitable, and which, at a later period, was the principal cause of her ruin.
The Russic power, weakened as it was by the Polish and Tatar arms, still thought itself sufficiently strong to make an attack upon the Lithuanian possessions. The grand duke of Lithuania, Guedymin, already famous by the victories he had gained over the Teutonics, placed himself at the head of an army, traversed Volhynia, 34 DESCRIPTIOX OF overtook twelve Kussic dukes near the river Pierna, gave them battle, defeated them, made himself master of the whole Ukraine, took possession of Kiow in 1320, established a governor-general in the conquered territories, and returned into Lithuania. His son, the Grand Duke Olgierd, inheriting the high qualities of his father, attacked the Tatars in Podolia (which was still groaning under the yoke), near Sine Wody, totally defeated them, and united, in 1331, the two provinces to Lithuania, which formerly extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
The Tatars, subdued by Olgierd, having rebelled, the Grand Duke Vitold, son of Keystut, and nephew of the above mentioned Olgierd, marched against them at the head of an army, attacked them several times on the bank of the Don, and made them feel the weight of his sword. Vitold, ere long, penetrated the confines of Asia; and powerful princes sought his alliance and protection. One of the Tatar princes, Tacktamisz, being twice beaten, and then driven from his states by Timur* Kutluk, of the horde of Kapchake, one of the lieutenants of Tamerlan, solicited Vitold to protect him against his enemy. Vitold kindly received the illustrious exile, granted him a residence in the town of Kiow, promised to reinstate him in his domains, and to punish Timur-Kutluk the usurper. Although many of Vitold's friends advised him to abstain from taking any part in the measures required to effect these objects, warning him of the immense numerical superiority of S5 the Tatars, and reminding him of the military experience and valour they had derived from their wars with Tamerlan; Vitold, unshaken in his decision and nothing daunted, assembled an army composed of Tatars and the Russia dukes, his tributaries, as well as of Lithuanians and Poles, under experienced leaders: ambitious of glory, panting for conquest, and hating repose, he led his forces against Timur-Kutluk.
The latter, having learned that Vitold was advancing at the head of a hostile army, sent to him an envoy with a message, couched in the following words: —
*' Valiant prince, deliver into our hands Takhtamysz, formerly a powerful chief, now an exile and our enemy: such is the will of the khan, my master."