Rostislav of Tmutarakan

Who was Rostislav of Tmutarakan?

Rostislav Vladimirovich was a landless prince from the Rurikid dynasty of Kievan Rus’. He was baptized as Mikhail. According to the Russian genealogist Nikolai Baumgarten, the mother of Rostislav was Oda of Stade, a daughter of the Stade Count Leopold. That claim is also supported by other historians.

At his younger age, Rostislav ruled Rostov in the land of the Merya. His father Vladimir of Novgorod was the eldest son of Yaroslav I of Kiev. If Vladimir had not predeceased his father, he would have succeeded to the Kievan throne. Under the East Slavic house law, the early death of Rostislav's father made his descendants forfeit all claims to Kiev.

For five years after his father's death, Rostislav who was about 14 years old had no appanage. Finally, his uncles gave him Volhynia and Halych, where he stayed from 1057 and 1064, guarding the western frontier of the Rus' lands. According to Vasily Tatischev, it was there that he married Anna Lanke, the daughter of King Béla I of Hungary.