Appanage Russia

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Appanage Russia, also known as the period of appanages or the appanage period, and sometimes referred to as the period of fragmentation, was a period of Russian history spanning the 12th to 15th centuries. Following the disintegration of Kievan Rus', over a dozen independent principalities emerged due to feudal fragmentation. Those principalities in turn fragmented further due to the custom of princes dividing their territories into appanages, which led to the proliferation of smaller appanage principalities. The Grand Principality of Vladimir, for instance, fragmented into over a dozen appanage principalities by the end of the 13th century. These polities, known collectively as the Russian principalities, or as the Russian lands, were ruled by princes from the Rurikid dynasty. From this point on, medieval Russia constituted a loose conglomerate of principalities, alongside two city-republics: Novgorod and Pskov. Although republican institutions developed in Novgorod and Pskov, the head...

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