Andrei Bogolyubsky assassinated

1178

The prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, who had sacked Kiev seven years earlier and begun to build his northern Russian principality as the real center of Rus, was murdered by his own courtiers. His death stalled the northward shift of Russian political gravity by a generation. Andrei had attempted to rule as an autocrat in a political culture that expected princes to share power with their boyars, and the boyars took their revenge.