ALEXANDER NEVSKY, SAINT (1220-1263), grand-duke of Vladimir,
was the second son of the grand-duke Yaroslav. His childhood
and youth were spent at Great Novgorod, whither his father
sent him to rule (1228) with some guardian boyars. In 1239
he married Alexandra, daughter of Prince Bryachislav of
Polotsk. At an early age he distinguished himself in
constant warfare with the Germans, Swedes and Lithuanians,
who tried to wrest Novgorod and Pskov from Russia while she
was still suffering from the effects of the terrible Tatar
invasion. The most notable of these battles, whereby he
won his honorific epithet of Nevsky (i.e. of the Neva),
was fought on the banks of the Neva (July 15 1240) against
the famous Swedish statesman, Birger Jarl, whom he utterly
defeated, besides wounding him with his lance. In the following
year the Teutonic Order, in conjunction with the Order of the
Sword, succeeded in capturing Pskov; but Alexander recovered
it in 1242, advanced into Livonia, and on the 5th of April
defeated the knights on the ice of Lake Peipus and compelled
them in the ensuing peace to renounce all their conquests.
He also prevented the Swedes (in 1256) from settling in South
Finland. On the death of his father (1246) Alexander and
his younger brother Andrew went on a two years' journey
into Mongolia to obtain their yarluiki, or letters of
investiture, from the Grand Khan, who then disposed of the
fate of all the Russian princes. He returned (1250) as
grand-duke of Kiev and Novgorod, while to Andrew was given
the far more important grand- duchy of Vladimir. In 1252,
however, the Tatars themselves expelled Andrew and placed
Alexander on the throne of Vladimir. Alexander henceforth
did his best for his country by humbling himself before the
Tatars so as to give them no pretext for ravaging the land
again. Most of his spare money he devoted to the ransoming
of the numerous Russian captives detained at the Golden
Horde. But the men of Novgorod, in their semi-independent
republic, continued (1255-1257) to give the grand-duke
trouble, their chief grievance being the imposition of a Tatar
tribute, which they only submitted to in 1259 on the rumour
of an impending Tatar invasion. In 1262 the Tatar tribute
was felt so grievously all over Russia that preparations
were made for a general insurrection, and Alexander, who knew
that an abortive rebellion would make the yoke heavier, was
obliged to go to the Horde in person to prevent the Tatars
from again attacking Russia. He stayed at Sarai, their Volgan
capital, all the Winter, and not only succeeded in obtaining
a mitigation of the tribute, but also the abolition of the
military service previously rendered by the Russians to the
Tatars. This was his last service to his country. He died
on his way home from the Horde, and in the words of his
contemporary, the metropolitan Cyril, "with him the sun
of Russia set." The Orthodox Church has canonized the
ruler who gave his whole life for Russia and the Orthodox
faith. His relics, discovered in 1380, were in 1724
translated by Peter the Great from Vladimir to St Petersburg.
See Sergyei Mikhailovich Solovev, History of Russia
(Rus., 2nd ed., St Petersburg, 1897, vol. 3). (R. N. B.)
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
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