Although Vladimir’s son, Yaroslav the Wise (978-1054), waged frequent military campaigns, he also perceived dynastic marriages as a preferred way to maintain good relationships with other European countries. Three of his daughters became queens of Western European states (France, Norway, and Hungary). Of his sons, three married German princesses and the other one a Byzantine princess, while he himself was the son-in-law of the King of Sweden, and brother-in-law to the King of Poland. The UK historian Ronald Hingley dryly notes that for equally intricate Russian dynastic involvements with western Europe, one has to wait for the nineteenth century Romanov emperors. Upon Yaroslav’s death in 1054, however, his sons divided the state into warring factions, and the city of Kiev lost its preeminence.