Miloslav Vladimirovich

"...As the Seljuks weakened and lost control over Greece and westernmost Anatolia, border principalities were re-founded. One of them was headed by Miloslav Monomach, heir to the Despot of Constantinople. This talented and consummate warrior would learn much from his youth on the tough Turkish frontier and apply it in action in the largest-ever campaign the Empire ever fought in Rus. After initiating extensive army reform, he methodically tested it in battle against the Baltic tribes, the Venetians and the Northern Crusaders, recovering the great cities of Chernigov, Kiev, Polotsk and Pskov. However, it is not his conquests that historians and laymen chiefly remember him by; his Russian sobriquet, “Nemilostiviy” – Unmerciful – attests to him executing three of his five sons, and assassinating another, for various slights ranging from open rebellion to imagined conspiracy to perceived incompetence. Nor was his rule kinder to his new territorial acquisitions. In a significant break with the traditions of Rus druzhina warfare he often slaughtered the opposition, with no chance to surrender or change sides. This bred resentment for him in Rus, especially among the more tradition-minded Princes – something that his half-brother Theodore fully capitalized on after his death. He was succeeded by his lone surviving son Konstantine, once a talented administrator but visibly losing sanity towards his latter years. Seeing their chance, the Mouzakioi Emperors finally started a campaign against the new Despot in order to reunite the resurgent Empire..."