Vsevolod the Big Nest

On his return from the Byzantine Empire to Rus' in 1170, Vsevolod supposedly visited Tbilisi, as a local chronicle records that that year the Georgian king entertained his nephew from Constantinople and married him to his relative, an Ossetian princess.

Ransomed a year later, Vsevolod took his brother Mikhalko's side in his struggle against the powerful boyars of Rostov and Suzdal.

He installed puppet rulers on the throne of Novgorod and married his daughters to princes of Chernigov and Kiev.

His Ossetian wife, Maria Shvarnovna, who devoted herself to works of piety and founded several convents, was glorified by the Russian church as a saint.

[citation needed] Before his death, grand prince Vsevolod divided his territories between his sons, with the second-oldest Yuri receiving the largest share.

[citation needed] Immediately after Vsevolod's death, the Vladimir-Suzdal war of succession (1212–1216) broke out between his sons, who each sought a larger share of his inheritance for themselves.