Yaroslav, the fourth son of the long-reigning Grand Prince of Vladimir, Vsevolod the Big Nest, and Maria Shvarnovna, had been sent by his father in 1200 to rule the town of Pereyaslav near the Kopchak steppes.
Six years later, he had been summoned by Halychian boyars to rule their city but could not effectively claim the throne.
Thereupon he was sent to take Ryazan, but the stubborn opposition of the inhabitants led to the city being burnt.
Vsevolod had sent Yaroslav to oppose Mstislav the Bold in Novgorod in 1209.
After several battles, the two princes made peace, whereby Yaroslav had married Mstislav's daughter.
Vsevolod, upon his deathbed in 1212, had bequeathed to his son Pereslavl-Zalessky.
In the conflict between his elder brothers Konstantin and Yuri, Yaroslav had supported the latter.
He had accepted the offer of the Novgorodians in 1215 to become their prince but, desiring revenge for their former treachery, had instead captured Torzhok and blocked its supplies of grain to Novgorod.
Several months later, he was defeated by his father-in-law on the Lipitsa River and had to retreat to Pereslavl (a helmet that he lost during the battle will be retrieved by archaeologists in 1808).
Finally enthroned in Novgorod, Yaroslav had in 1222 overrun all of Estonia and besieged its capital, Kolyvan.
He had devastated Finland four years later and forcibly converted Karelia to Christianity.
Yaroslav’s next ambition had been to subjugate Pskov, but the Novgorodians had refused to make war against its neighbor.
Yaroslav had departed in anger and seized the Novgorodian enclave of Volokolamsk.
In 1234, he had returned to Novgorod.
He follows Danylo of Halych's advice and moves from Novgorod to Kiev in 1236, leaving his son Alexander as his representative in the north.
