For two hundred years, during nearly all of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it is with difficulty we can discern any traces of the monarchy.

The history of Russia during this period is but a history of interminable battles between the grand princes, and petty, yet most cruel and bloody, conflicts between the minor princes.
The doctrine of the hereditary descent of the governing power was the cause of nearly all these conflicts.

A semi-idiot or a brutal ruffian was thus often found the ruler of millions of energetic men.

War and bloodshed were, of course, the inevitable result.

This absurdity was, perhaps, a necessary consequence of the ignorance and brutality of the times.