[2] Unlike their victory at Kiev, the Suzdalians and their allies suffered a crushing defeat at Novgorodian hands.

When the new Kievan grand prince, Mstislav Iziaslavich, sent his son, Roman, to be prince of Novgorod, Andrei fought to return Sviatoslav to the Novgorodian throne, sending his army to besiege Novgorod and force them to drive out Roman and take back Sviatoslav.

[4] Nevertheless, a subsequent Suzdalian economic blockade of the city prompted the Novgorodians to expel Roman Mstislavich in 1170, after which Andrey selected first Rurik Rostislavich of Smolensk (1170) and then his own son Yury Bogolyubsky of Suzdalia (1171) to become the next princes of Novgorod.

[2] Some time after the siege, a belief sprung up that Novgorod had been miraculously delivered, giving rise to a legend.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the episode became the basis for several hagiographic tales in the Russian church,[5] as well as two large icons executed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (and now housed respectively in the Novgorod Museum and the Russian Museum in St.