IZJASLAV INGVAREVYCH
I love reading family history via the DNA site “23 and me”. There are many times of great violence.
Prince Izjaslav Ingvarevych also known as Izjaslav Ingvarevich (born around 1180 and died 1223) was the son of Ingvar of Kiev and was a 13th-century AD Prince of Dorogobuzh in the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, the historical Kievan Rus area that largely corresponds to parts of Ukraine and Russia and its surrounding areas.
He died pursuing the Mongols in a calvalry charge.
He is a descendant of the Iziaslavichi branch of Rurikid dynasty, a prominent ruling family in Eastern Europe. His great, great-grandfather was Mstislav the Great, a significant figure in the Kievan Rus Rurik dynasty.
A little religious history:
Izjaslav Ingvarevych was a Christian and a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
As a 13th-century prince of Dorogobuzh in the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, part of the Kievan Rus’, he belonged to the Rurikid dynasty, which had adopted Orthodox Christianity following the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ by Vladimir the Great in 988 CE.
The Kievan Rus’ was predominantly Eastern Orthodox, and as a member of the ruling family, Izjaslav would have been raised and governed within this religious tradition. His burial in a church within Lutsk Castle further supports his adherence to Orthodox Christianity, as such burials were typical for Orthodox Christian nobility of the time.
As an aside:
My wife Laura has some Varangian ancestry and hasn’t done a deep dive into it yet. She jokes about her dairy maiden past. I am braising myself for the reality that’s there!