Principality of Jersika

The principality of Jersika (Latin: Gerzika, terra Lettia, German: Gerzika, Zargrad, Russian: Ерсика, Герцике; also known as Лотыголa) was an early medieval principality in eastern modern Latvia. The capital of Jersika was located on a hill fort 165 km (103 mi) southeast of Riga.

History

Jersika was established in the 10th century as an outpost of the principality of Polotsk on the old "trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks". It was ruled by Orthodox Christan princes from the Latgalian-Polotsk branch of the Rurik Dynasty.

In 1209 Visvaldis, the prince of Jersika, was militarily defeated by bishop Albert of Riga and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, and his Lithuanian wife taken prisoner. He was forced to submit his kingdom to Albert as a grant to the Bishopric of Riga, and received back only a portion of it as a fief. Visvaldis' feudal charter is the oldest such document surviving in Latvia, and in this charter Visvaldis is called "the king of Jersika" ("Vissewalde, rex de Gercike", in another document also "Wiscewolodus rex de Berzika").