THE HLYNSKY PRINCES: ORIGIN OF THE GENUS, HLYNSKY PRINCIPLE, OWNERSHIP IN THE SIVER LAND

The article is devoted to the early history of the family of princes Hlynsky, as well as the composition of their possessions in the late XIV – early XV centuries. In particular, the following issues are being investigated: 1) the origin of the Hlynsky; 2) the territory of the Hlynsky principality and its main centers; 3) Hlynsky possessions in Siver land, received by them from Grand Duke Vitovt. In the existing historiography, these questions are clearly not studied. Hlynsky were one of the few princely families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who had a Tatar origin. According to the «Genuine Genealogy of the Glinsky Princes,» compiled in Moscow in the first half of the 1520s, they were descended from famous Mamai, the de facto ruler of the western part of Ulus Juchi in the 1360–1370s. Mamai belonged to the Mongol tribe of princes Kyiatov, who were the closest relatives of the ruling dynasty of Chingizids. Information «genuine genealogy» should be recognized as quite reliable. In particular, they are confirmed by the letter of Khan Shikh-Akhmat to Hlynsky in 1502. The first fully authentic representative of the clan was Prince Ivan Hlynsky (late 14th – first half of 15th centuries). The Hlynsky principality, although very sparsely populated, occupied a vast territory along the middle and lower flow of the Vorskla, Psel and Sula rivers. Its main centers were the towns of Hlynsk and Poltava on the Vorskla river, as well as Hlynnitsa on the Sula. Around 1400, the Grand Duke Vitovt granted Hlynsky possessions in Siver land, the center of which was the town of Khorobor on the Desna river. That town existed in the place of the modern Makoshino town, Chernigov region. «Principality» of Khorobor occupied a strip of the territory along the river Desna about 100 km long. It consisted of, or separated from it, the same small «principality» of Mena (Mena – the regional center of the Chernigov region). Prince Urustay Mensky, mentioned in 1408, most likely was one of the first Hlynsky or their close relative