Vladimir of Novgorod

The final Rus'-Byzantine War is, in essence, an unsuccessful naval raid against Constantinople in 1043 instigated by Yaroslav I of Kiev and led by his eldest son, Vladimir of Novgorod.

The reasons for the war are disputed, as is its course.

Michael Psellos, an eyewitness of the battle, leaves a hyperbolic account detailing how the invading Kievan Rus' were annihilated by a superior imperial fleet with Greek fire off the Anatolian shore.

(According to the Slavonic chronicles, the Kievan fleet was destroyed by a tempest.)

The East Romans send a squadron of fiurteen ships to pursue the dispersed monoxylae of the Rus'.

They are sunk by the Kievan admiral Ivan Tvorimich, who also manages to rescue Prince Vladimir after the shipwreck.

A six thousand-strong Kievan contingent under the Novgorodan general Vyshata, which does not take part in naval action, is captured and deported to Constantinople.

Eight hundred of the Rus' prisoners are blinded.

Vyshata will be allowed to return to Kiev at the conclusion of the peace treaty three years later.

Under the terms of the peace settlement, Yaroslav's son Vsevolod I is to marry a daughter of Emperor Constantine Monomachus.

Their son will assume his maternal grandfather's name and become known as Vladimir Monomakh.

Yaroslav stages a naval raid against Constantinople in 1043, led by his son Vladimir of Novgorod and his general Vyshata.

Although the Rus' navy is defeated, Yaroslav manages to conclude the war with a favorable treaty and prestigious marriage of his son Vsevolod to the emperor's daughter.

It has been suggested that the peace with Constantinople was so advantageous to the Kievans because they had succeeded in taking a key imperial possession in Crimea, Chersonesos Taurica.

George Maniakes transfers his troops into the Balkans and is about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he is wounded and dies on the field near Thessaloniki, ending the crisis in 1043.

Constantine's extravagant punishment of the surviving rebels is to parade them in the Hippodrome, seated backwards on donkeys.

With his death, the rebellion ceases.

Harald Hardrada has become extremely rich during his time in the east, and had secured the wealth collected in Constantinople by shipments to Kievan Rus' for safekeeping (with Yaroslav the Wise acting as safekeeper for his fortune).

The sagas note that aside from the significant spoils of battle he had retained, he had participated three times in polutasvarf (loosely translated as "palace-plunder"), a term which implies either the pillaging of the palace exchequer on the death of the emperor, or perhaps the disbursement of funds to the Varangians by the new emperor in order to ensure their loyalty.

It is likely that the money Harald made while serving in Constantinople allowed him to fund his claim for the crown of Norway, which he will pursue in 1046.

If he participated in polutasvarf three times, these occasions must have been the deaths of Romanos III, Michael IV, and Michael V, in which Harald would have had opportunities, beyond his legitimate revenues, to carry off immense wealth.

After Zoe had been restored to the throne in June 1042 together with Constantine IX, Harald had requested to be allowed to return to Norway.

Although Zoe had refused to allow this, Harald had managed to escape into the Bosporus with two ships and some loyal followers.

Although the second ship had been destroyed by Constantinople’s cross-strait iron chains, Harald's ship had sailed safely into the Black Sea after successfully maneuvering over the barrier.

Despite this, Kekaumenos lauds the "loyalty and love" Harald had for the empire, which he reportedly maintained even after he returned to Norway and became king.

Following his escape from Constantinople, Harald had arrived back in Kievan Rus' later in 1042.

During his second stay there, he marries Elisabeth (referred to in Scandinavian sources as Ellisif), daughter of Yaroslav the Wise and granddaughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung.

Shortly after Harald's arrival in Kiev,and immediately after Constantine’s victory over Maniakes, Yaroslav attacks Constantinople, and it is considered likely that Harald provided him with valuable information about the state of the empire.

The Rus' fleet is defeated with the help of Greek fire.

Constantine in 1046 marries his daughter Anastasia to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

Novgorod’s thirty-eight-meter high, five-domed, stone cathedral had been built by Vladimir of Novgorod between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken thirteen-domed church built by Ioakim Korsunianin, the city’s first bishop, in or around 989 (making it the oldest church building in Russia proper and, with the exception of the Arkhyz and Shoana churches, the oldest building of any kind still in use in the country).

It is consecrated by Bishop Luka Zhidiata on September 14, in 1050 or 1052, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

(A fresco just inside the south entrance depicts Saints Constantine and Helena, who found the true cross in the fourth century; it is one of the oldest works of art in the cathedral and is thought to commemorate its dedication.)

While it is commonly known as St. Sophia's, it is not named for any of the female saints of that name (i.e., Sophia of Rome or Sophia the Martyr); rather, the name comes from the Greek for wisdom (whence we get words like philosophia or philosophy—"the love of wisdom"), and thus Novgorod's cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Wisdom of God, in imitation of the Hagia Sophia cathedral of Constantinople.

The cupolas are thought to have acquired their present helmet-like shape in the 1150s, when the cathedral is restored after a fire.