Starodub-on-the-Klyazma

Starodub on the Klyazma stood on a high bank east of Vladimir, guarding the river route through the Vladimir-Suzdal lands. It was the seat of the princes of Starodub, whose territory included villages on both sides of the Klyazma. The town's churches and fortifications marked the centre of a principality that gave rise to several prominent Russian noble families.

The principality emerged in the thirteenth century and remained a distinct branch of the Vladimir princely house. Prince Andrey of Starodub fought at Kulikovo in 1380 under Dmitry of Moscow. By then Moscow's influence had grown, and the Starodub lands were increasingly divided among branches of the family, including the Pozharsky and Romodanovsky princes. The town lost much of its former importance, though its name survived in princely titles and local records.

During the Time of Troubles, forces under Aleksander Lisowski devastated the district in 1609. Churches still stood at Starodub in the seventeenth century, but the old princely capital gave way to a rural settlement on the Klyazma. Its history belongs to the fragmentation of the Vladimir lands and their gradual absorption into the growing Muscovite state. The river continued to link the neighbouring settlements to Vladimir and the Oka, even after the fortress ceased to be the seat of a separate principality.