Son of Davyd Rostyslavych, Prince of Novgorod (1154–1155) and Smolensk (1180–1197), representative of the Smolensk branch of the Monomakh dynasty. In 1184, in order to get military support from the Polovtsians, married a daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tolgui. Followed his father’s policy of strengthening the principality and expansion of its influence on other lands and consolidation of the Smolensk branch of the Monomakh dynasty in Novgorod. Was buried in Kyiv in the family vault of the Monomakh dynasty at St. Theodore’s Monastery.
