When was Andrey Bogolyubsky born and who were his parents?
Andrey I Yuryevich Bogolyubsky was born in 1111 to Yuri Vladimirovich and an unnamed Cuman princess. His parents married on the 12th of January 1108 as part of a peace agreement between the Rus' and the Cumans.
What major political changes did Andrey Bogolyubsky implement after his father died in 1157?
After his father died in 1157, Andrey Bogolyubsky ousted his younger brothers Mikhail and Vsevolod from Rostov and Suzdal in 1162. He expelled four brothers to the Byzantine Empire along with their mother to unite his father's patrimony under sole rule.
How did Andrey Bogolyubsky change the religious status of Vladimir during his reign?
Andrey Bogolyubsky moved the Icon of the Blessed Mother of God from Vyshgorod to Vladimir in 1155. He sent an embassy to Constantinople in 1162 or 1164 to lobby for a separate metropolitan see in Vladimir though the patriarch overruled them.
Why were conspirators motivated to murder Andrey Bogolyubsky on the night of the 28th to the 29th of June 1174?
Conspirators murdered Andrey Bogolyubsky because his conflicts with the upper nobility drove them to violence. The defeat of his second coalition at Vyshgorod fueled this conspiracy leading twenty men to burst into his chambers and slay him in bed.
What physical evidence supports the historical accounts of how Andrey Bogolyubsky died?
An autopsy conducted in 1965 found cut marks on the left humerus and forearm bones of Andrey Bogolyubsky. Russian historian A.V. Artcikhovsky confirmed these observations in a 2009 study while texts claim his right hand was cut off by an assailant named Peter.