Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/208

18 quered and killed, and burnt and plundered Vladimir, Moscow, and a considerable part of Russia.

From that time, namely in the year 6745 (1237), up to the present Grand Duke Vasiley, not only were nearly all the princes of Russia tributaries of the Tartars, but every principality was deferred to the will of the Tartars when Russians were making any interest to procure them. Moreover, although the Tartars took cognizance of, and decided in, the quarrels that arose among them on account of their successors and inheritances, nevertheless wars often arose between the Russians and Tartars. Between brothers also there were sundry tumults, expulsions, and exchanges of kingdoms and dukedoms; for the Duke Andrew Alexandrovich obtained the Grand Duchy, and when Dimitry had taken possession of it, his brother Andrew requested, and obtained, an army of Tartars, drove him away, and committed many infamous acts throughout Russia. So also the Duke Dimitry Michailovich killed the Duke George Danielovich while he was among the Tartars. Asbech, king of the Tartars, seized Dimitry, and subjected him to capital punishment. There was a contention respecting the Grand Duchy of Tver, which, when the Duke Simeon Ivanovich begged of Zanabech, king of the Tartars, he demanded an annual tribute of him; but which the nobles, bribed with a large sum, successfully interceded for him that he should not pay. Afterwards, in the year 6886 (1378), the Grand Duke Dimitry overcame in battle the great king of the Tartars, named Mamaii, and three years afterwards again routed him, and that with such a slaughter that the ground for more than thirteen miles was covered with dead bodies. In the second year after that conflict, Tachtamich, king of the Tartars, came over and routed Dimitrye, and besieged and took possession of Moscow; those who were slaughtered were redeemed for burial at the rate of eighty bodies per ruble, and the total sum was computed at three thousand rubles. The Grand Duke Vasiley, who