Hell Hath No Fury Like Princess Olga Of Kiev

In 945 CE, a Drevlian convoy of diplomatic envoys arrived at the palace of Olga, Grand Princess of Kyiv, to inform her that her ruler had tied her husband, Igor, to two trees and gradually separated her with ropes. had murdered him. He demanded much more in tribute. Instead of igniting a war, however, the Drevlyans offered Olga the option of marrying their prince Mal, which they felt would be especially kind, given that her son was only three years old and could not be found by any woman. had never ruled Kievan Rus before. To his delight, the princess accepted the offer and asked him to wait in his boat and make arrangements by coming back in the morning.

To their horror, however, it was no honor but a trap, as the princess had ordered her guards to spend the whole night raging the floor and digging a deep hole within the palace. The Russian guards threw Drevlyan into the hole and buried him alive, but this was not enough for Olga. In Hell to avenge her beloved late husband, she begins a chain of revenge, which is even more terrifying than the last.

Thereafter, she sent a message to the Drevlians that she had accepted the offer to marry Prince Mal and requested that he send his top advisers to make the necessary political arrangements for their union. Perhaps not the wisest ruler ever, Mal agreed. Upon their arrival, Olga offers the Drevlian advisors a bath to wash off the filth of their long journey, but they are met not by water but by fire as the doors of the bathhouse close behind them and the princess asks her men to cover the entire building. ordered to set. setting fire

Finally, she leaves for Iskorosten, the Drevlian town where Igor was murdered, after sending her final message instructing her to "prepare a large amount of mead in the town where you killed my husband." , that I may weep at his grave and perform a funeral feast for him.” When she arrived, she told Mal that her representatives would come the next day and that they should accompany the feast. Once her court was sufficiently drunk That was, Olga ordered her army to attack, and the local author estimated that around 5,000 Drevlians were killed.

Apparently, a major conflict broke out between the now warring factions, but the siege of Russia lasted more than a year. In the end, Olga offered to kneel down and pay tribute to him, and the relieved Drevlyans accepted and were even glad that the tribute was only six birds, three pigeons and three sparrows per house. However, by then, they should have learned that nothing would satisfy the princess, who returned her flying tribute with a little sulfur on her feet. When they landed on their nests or on their terraces, they were ablaze, and the whole city was reduced to ashes. Those who made it alive from the flames were captured and killed outside the city, although Olga is said to have allowed the elderly and children to live if the latter were to be sold into slavery. . She became a popular ruler, even defending Kyiv from siege again in 968, not abdicating her regency until her son was old enough to take the throne.