Ukrainian nationalists raise him on a shield and glorify the “westernizers,” praising Danylo Halytskyi as the only prince who did not submit to Mongol invaders, and as the first Russian king. He is cursed by the “patriots” who call Danylo Romanovych a European lackey and a traitor to his own people—someone who fled Batu’s invasion to the borderlands with the Khazars and the Poles. Indeed, in the history of Ancient Rus’ it’s hard to find a more disputed, contradictory, and ambiguous figure.
Danylo Halytskyi accepted the crown from the Pope—but never became a Catholic. He was the first among the Rus’ princes to defeat the Tatars and drive them out of his lands—yet only a few years later he obediently dismantled the fortifications of Volhynian cities at the request of the tamer Burundai. He spilled rivers of not only Tatar blood, but also Rus’ blood, mercilessly betraying those who resisted—by fire and sword…
Read the new book by the bestselling author of “Vladimir the Red Sun,” “Dmytro Donskoy,” and “Princess Olga”—a gripping novel about the life, deeds, and sins of Danylo Halytskyi, the first Rex Russiae—the “King of Rus’.”