tium through his marriage to Anne, daughter of the Emperor, which event he brought about by the most adroit maneuverings. He again restored and rebuilt Kiev into the most beautiful and the wealthiest capitol in Europe.
With so much conquered territory the Kingdom of Kiev came into command of all the land from the Viking to the “Greek”, as the Dnieper was called in those days. Sviatopolk, son of Volodimir succeeded his father to the throne. The first clash between Ukrainians and the Poles came during his rule. During his short reign he murdered his brothers fearing their rivalry as pretenders to the throne, for he was of illegitimate birth. Yaroslav (1019-1064), the compiler of laws, restored the prosperous days of Volodimir. Volodimir II “Monomachos” (1112-1125) was the last ruler in the Golden Era. He was married to Gytha, daughter of Harold, king of the Anglo-Saxons. (Many English historians recognize a Celtic strain in Ukrainians). He made treaties with the barbarians who pressed upon the frontiers of the Kingdom. At one time he took three hundred princes of various Mongolian tribes of Polovetzians prisoners. After “Monomachos” death the Steppe became the highway of the westward march of the nomad Tatar hordes of whom nothing was heard until then. Ukraine, unprotected by nature on her eastern frontier, suffered ceaseless invasion. Every effort was made at that time by the existing Ukrainian kings to stop this invasion, even though other problems became sadly neglected.
With the strength of the controlling government concentrated upon stopping invasions by the Tatar tribes, provincial ambitions rose within the empire, weakening the state so that soon the whole degenerated into an insecure zone and the center of national life was transferred to the better protected parts of Western Ukraine.
Kiev was thus deprived of its great prestige. Instead, the Viceroys of Galicia and Lodomeria demanded that the country
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