The third type of law code brings the secular and the religious institutions together. Advice, admonition and penances could be meted out by the Church on its own authority, but the power to impose material sanctions could only be granted by the prince. A series of 'princely statutes' (ustavy) therefore specified the categories of person and behaviour that came under the Church's jurisdiction. The two most important statutes are attributed to Vladimir and Iaroslav respectively, although, like Russkaia pravda, these are cumulative documents preserved in later versions. In principle, however, the basic nature of each is clear. 'Vladimir's statute' serves as a kind of constitutional statement, allocating to the Church judicial power over specified categories of people (monks and nuns, the clergy and their families; but also 'displaced' persons such as widows, the lame and the blind) and over specified actions (such as divorce, domestic violence, abduction and rape, sorcery - which may include the use of herbal medicine - and heresy).[54] 'Iaroslav's statute' more closely resembles Russkaia pravda in its form: a list of offences and the penalties for each. It is notable for its social differentiation. There was no question of all being equal under the law: the rape or abduction of the daughter of a boyar merited compensation of 5 grivnas in gold and the same sum as a fine to the bishop; but only one grivna of gold was demanded for the rape or abduction of a daughter of 'lesser boyars', and smaller sums further down the social scale. There were fines of 40 grivnas of silver for bigamy, 100 for incest. Sometimes the offender incurred several types of penalty: a man who beat another man's wife had to pay 6 grivnas to the bishop, plus whatever may be due in [secular] law.[55]
Princely power and ecclesiastical authority complemented each other. Moreover, in some ways the Church was better equipped to disseminate and oversee the norms of written law than were the princes, for this was part of its prime mission and in the bishops and the clergy it had a network of trained personnel. Princely administration at this stage was still comparatively rudimentary. The introduction of written law did not, for example, imply the imposition of standard written bureaucratic procedures or the immediate creation of a class of civil administrators.[56] Differentiation of service functions was developing, but eleventh-century Rus' had nothing comparable to the administrative bureaucratic institutions either of contemporary Byzantium or indeed of sixteenth-century Muscovy. Over the period covered by the present chapter, the direction and momentum of change became well established, though the process still had a very long way to go.
Beyond the prince, his retinue and parts of the city, evidence for social or administrative structures becomes very sparse indeed. In other words, we know very little about the vast majority of the population. Lack of knowledge is, of course, no bar to historiographical speculation: just how many of the rural population were or were not 'dependent' or 'free', in which senses? At what stage is it or is it not legitimate to speak of 'feudal' structures and relations? Visions of early Rus' range from a cluster of 'city states' sustained partly by slave labour and partly by the surplus produce of a free peasantry, to a 'feudal' economy based on the growth of aristocratic manorial estates and a largely dependent peasantry.[57] In addition, the overall picture may have to accommodate wide regional differences. These are, of course, major issues, but the visible pieces of the jigsaw allow too many plausible but conflicting reconstructions to justify full confidence in any of them.
External relations
For most of the history of Rus' there was no such thing as a Rus' foreign policy. In those periods when political power in Rus' was relatively unitary, one can construe the actions of the prince of Kiev, or the agreed joint actions of senior princes, as the policy of Rus'. 'Sole rule' and joint action were more common during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries than at any subsequent period, but still the norm was for the regional princes to pursue their own interests in dealing with their neighbours. Collective diplomacy such as that which had led to the tenth-century trade agreements with Constantinople was increasingly implausible, if not yet wholly impossible.
Our tour of the regions begins in the north. Iaroslav's ties with Scandinavia were established during the decades he spent in Novgorod. He was married to Ingigerd, daughter of the king of Sweden, and in the battles of 1015-19 he may also have formed an alliance with the king of Denmark.[58] Scandinavian sagas speak warmly ofthe hospitality ofPrince Iarisleif of Holmgarthr (= Novgorod) and ofthe aid he provided to distinguished Vikings on their journeys along the East Way.[59] However, Iaroslav was the last significant Rus' prince to maintain such close traditional ties with Scandinavia. In part the abrupt decline from the mid-eleventh century was due to the strains of the relationship itself. The chronicle hints at antagonism between the mercenaries and the settled Nov- gorodian population, just as it hints that Vladimir himself had been pleased to offload Scandinavian warriors to Constantinople.[60] In part, however, the reduced intensity of direct political links with Scandinavia reflects the downgrading, in the second half of the eleventh century, of the autonomy of the Novgorod prince.
For much of the eleventh century the north-eastern settlements such as Rostov and Suzdal' were still remote outposts in the midst of often hostile peoples. A bishop sent in the 1070s was reportedly murdered, the Primary Chronicle tells of pagan-led uprisings, and Vladimir Monomakh in his autobiography indicates that a march 'through the Viatichi' (the tribe separating the middle Dnieper region from the north-eastern settlements) was particularly hazardous.[61] However, the region had obvious economic potential, with its vast reserves of valuable furs and its strategic position on the trade route between the Baltic and the middle Volga. Towards the end of the century there was already fierce competition among the southern princes of Kiev, Chernigov and Pereiaslavl' for tribute-collecting rights in the north-east. The Liubech agreement of 1097 was prompted in part by just such a conflict between Vladimir Monomakh and his cousin Oleg Sviatoslavich of Chernigov. Nevertheless, the relatively low status of Suzdal' is reflected in the fact that Monomakh allocated it to Iurii, the youngest of his many sons. The story of its transformation into a powerful principality under Iurii, later known as Dolgorukii ('Long Arm'), belongs to another chapter.
55
See
57
For a history of the debates in Russia see M. B. Sverdlov
58
See A. V Nazarenko, 'O russko-datskom soiuze v pervoi chetverti XI v.',
59
H. R. Ellis Davidson,
61