Rostislav Mikhailovich

Rostislav Mikhailovich (, Bulgarian and Russian: Ростислав Михайлович) (after 1210 / c. 1225 – 1262) was a Rus' prince (a member of the Olgovichi family), and a dignitary in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was prince of Novgorod (1230), of Halych (1236–1237, 1241–1242), of Lutsk (1240), and of Chernigov (1241–1242). When he could not strengthen his rule in Halych, he went to the court of King Béla IV of Hungary, and married the king's daughter, Anna. He was the Ban of Slavonia (1247–1248), and later he became the first Duke of Macsó (after 1248–1262), and thus he governed the southern parts of the kingdom. In 1257, he occupied Vidin and thenceforward he styled himself Tsar of Bulgaria. Early life Rostislav was the eldest son of Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich (who may have been either prince of Pereyaslavl or Chernigov when Rostislav was born) and his wife Elena Romanovna (or Maria Romanovna), a daughter of Roman Mstislavich, prince of Volhynia and Halych. The Russian annals mentioned him for the first time in 1229 when the Novgorodians invited his father to be their prince.