Daniel of Galicia or Danylo Romanovych (; Old Ruthenian: Данило Романовичъ, Danylo Romanovyčъ; ; 1201 – 1264) was a King of Ruthenia, Prince (Kniaz) of Galicia (Halych) (1205–1255), Peremyshl (1211), and Volodymyr (1212–1231). He was crowned by a papal archbishop in Dorohochyn in 1253 as the first King of Ruthenia (Rus') (1253–1264).
Biography
In 1205, after the death of his father, Roman II Mstyslavich, the ruler of Galicia–Volhynia, the boyars of Galicia forced the four-year-old Daniel into exile with his mother Anna of Byzantium and brother Vasylko Romanovich. After the boyars proclaimed one of their own as prince in 1213, the Poles and Hungarians invaded the principality, ostensibly to support the claims of young Daniel and Vasylko, and divided it between themselves. In 1219, he renounced his claims to Galicia in favor of his father-in-law Mstislav the Bold.
In 1221, Daniel re-established his rule over Volhynia, where the boyars and populace had remained loyal to his dynasty. In 1234, he defeated Alexander Vsevolodovich, taking the Duchy of Belz. By 1238, he had defeated former Dobrzyń Knights at Drohiczyn (Dorohochyn), and regained most of Galicia, including the capital Halych. While the Prussians were under pressure from the Teutonic Order, Daniel attempted to conquer related Yatvingians.
Mongol invasion
The following year, with the advancing Mongols, Michael, Grand Prince of Kyiv, who was married to Daniel's sister, ran out of Kyiv and asked Daniel for help. Daniel dispatch his voivode, Dmytro, to defend the city. However, after a long siege, its walls were breached and, despite fierce fighting within the city, Kyiv fell on 6 December 1240 and was largely destroyed. A year later, the Mongols passed through Galicia and Volhynia while campaigning against the Poles and Hungarians, destroying Galicia.
On 17 August 1245, Daniel defeated a combined force of the Prince of Chernigov, disaffected boyars, and Hungarian and Polish elements at Yaroslav and finally took the remainder of Galicia, thus reconstituting his father's holdings. He made his brother Vasylko ruler of Volhynia and retained the Galician title for himself, though he continued to exercise real powers in both places.
Daniel's domestic policies focused on stability and economic growth. During his rule, German, Polish, and Rus' merchants and artisans were invited into Galicia, and numbers of Armenians and Jews established themselves in the towns and cities. Daniel founded the towns of Lviv (1256) (naming the former for his son) and Kholm, and fortified many others. He appointed officials to protect the peasantry from aristocratic exploitation and formed peasant-based heavy infantry units.
Yet Daniel's successes and his failed defense of Kyiv attracted the further attention of the Mongols. In 1246, he was summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde at Sarai on the Volga River and was forced to accept Mongol overlordship. According to the Ukrainian historian Orest Subtelny, Daniel was handed a cup of fermented mare's milk by the Mongol khan Batu and told to get used to it, as "you are one of ours now." They exchanged hostages whereby 100 families of Keraites were re-settled in Carpathian Galicia. According to James Chambers, the following dialogue took place between Batu and Daniel of Galicia: At a banquet Batu asked if he drank kumiz like the Mongols and Daniel answered: "Until now I did not, but now I do as you command and I drink it." To which Batu replied: "You are now one of ours," and since he was more used to it ordered that Daniel be given a goblet of wine. This was due to Daniel's notorious love of wine.