umble title of servants of the khan, and it was by this means
that they became powerful monarchs." An English writer[9] comes to the
following evident conclusion: "The first czars of Muscovy were the
political descendants, not of the Russian dukes, but of the Tartar
khans."

[Footnote 7: Planus Corpinius.]

[Footnote 8: Karamsin.]

[Footnote 9: Wallace.]

A gradual change came over the Golden Horde after the Tartars (p. 076)
departed from their nomadic life and settled in and about Sarai. They
lost their warlike habits, and with them much of their vigor. They
began to farm out the poll-tax, that is, they sold the right to
collect the tax to merchants of Khiva, whose oppression was so great
that the people of Souzdal revolted in 1262, Koursk in 1284, Kolomna
in 1318, and Tver in 1327. But the oppression was greater when the
dukes of Moscow farmed this tax, not only from their own subjects, but
also from neighboring dukedoms. They were absolutely pitiless in
collecting from the poor people as much as they could extort, and this
was the disgraceful foundation of their wealth and power. The
poll-tax, thereafter, was always a favorite source of revenue in
Russia.

Besides this tribute, the dukes were compelled to furnish soldiers to
their masters. Soon after the conquest, we read of Russian dukes
marching with the Tartars at the head of their drujinas, and of
supplying them with infantry. In 1276 Boris of Rostof and others,
followed Mangou Khan in the war against the tribes of the Caucasus,
and helped to sack the town of Dediakof in Daghestan. This was
excusable, because the enemy was an alien; but what can be thought of
Prince Andrew, the unworthy son of Alexander Nevski, who, in 1281,
induced the Tartars to aid him in pillaging Vladimir, Souzdal, Mourom,
Moscow, and Pereiaslaf, and led in profaning churches and convents? In
1284, when two descendants of Oleg were dukes of Koursk, one of them
put his brother to death for having insulted the khan, and Russian
historians blame not the murderer, but the victim, because he had
aroused the khan's anger! In 1327, the dukes of Moscow and Souzdal (p. 077)
marched against Tver at the command of their Asiatic master. Such was
the influence of the Tartar yoke.

The Russian dukes and their nobles lost not only the principle of
patriotism, but also that of personal honor. The unfortunate Russians
henceforth were to th