The Prince of Polotsk ruled the Principality of Polotsk within the realm of Kievan Rus' or within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the mid-9th century to 1307.

History

Rogvold, a non-Rurikid Varangian, was the first Prince of Polotsk. When Vladimir the Great returned from exile in Scandinavia in 980 to try to claim the Kievan throne that his brother, Yaropolk, held, he sought an alliance with Rogvolod through a marriage with his daughter, Rogneda. When she refused, calling Vladimir the "son of a slave," he attacked Polotsk, killed Rogvold and his son, and took Rogneda by force to be his wife. Polotsk was then granted to Vladimir's son, Izyaslav, around the time of Christianization (988), and when Izyaslav predeceased his father in 1001, the throne of Polotsk was passed on to Izyaslav's son, Briacheslav, and the Polotsk line (the senior branch of Vladimir's sons) became izgoi and was not legally allowed to succeed to the Kievan throne, although Bryacheslav's son, Vseslav, held briefly the Kievan throne in 1068–1069, after it was granted to him by the veche following the Kiev Uprising.

List of princes

First rulers of Polotsk

Kievan Rus' and its Belarusian feuds (862-1362)

Rurikids

The Rurikids were descendants of Rurik (Ukrainian: Рюрик) (Hrørekr), a Varangian pagan konung or chieftain, who according to the Primary Chronicle was invited to rule Novgorod in 862 and who came to become the ruler of the Northern Slavic tribes of the (Krivchians and Slovene) as well as the Finnish tribes (Meria, Chud and Ves). Later his son or grandson, Prince Ihor, became the Prince of separate Kyivan territories to the south beginning the rule of the Riurykide dynasty of Kyivan Rus. The existence of Rurik is a point of contention for historians, P. Kovaletsky and Omeljan Pritsak believe that Rurik was the same person as Hroereckr (Rorik), the 9th century Norse king of Jutland and Frisia and that pervasive myths and legends about him formed the basis for the primary chroniclers. Alternatively, Alexsei Shakmatov accepts the Primary Chronicle's account as factual and Rurik is a historic being.

Partitions of Kievan Rus' in Belarusian territory under Rurik dynasty

Table of rulers

(Note: As many princes ruled at different times in many places, the numbering of the princes is restricted to the Kievan Rus'/Kyiv and the Principality of Polotsk)

In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Principality of Polotsk escaped the Mongol invasion of Rus' in 1237–1239. However, pagan Lithuanians began consolidating lands of the principality, and in 1240 Polotsk became a vassal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It officially became part of Lithuania in 1307, though it retained some degree of local autonomy until the 1390s. Then the principality was abolished and became part of the Połock Voivodeship. Other principalities had the same fate in the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, such as Minsk or Vitebsk.

Lithuanian princes at Polotsk

Gediminids

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire

The Lublin Union of 1569 constituted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and the largest multinational state in Europe. While Ukraine and Podlaskie became subjects to the Polish Crown, present-day Belarus territory was still regarded as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The new polity was dominated by densely populated Poland, which had 134 representatives in the Sejm as compared to 46 representatives from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However Lithuania retained much autonomy, and was governed by a separate code of laws called the Lithuanian Statutes. Mogilyov was the largest urban centre of the territory of present-day Belarus, followed by Vitebsk, Polotsk, Pinsk, Slutsk, and Brest, whose population exceeded 10,000. Eventually by 1795 Poland was partitioned by its neighbors. Thus a new period in Belarusian history started, with all its lands annexed by the Russian Empire, in a continuing endeavor of Russian tsars of "gathering the Rus lands" started after the liberation from the Tatar yoke by Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia.