T.N. Jackson

Title: Buy the book "On the Scandinavian marriages of Yaroslav the Wise and his descendants": feed_id: 5296 pattern_id: 2266 book_author: Jaxon Tatyana book_name: About the Scandinavian marriages of Yaroslav the Wise and his descendants

(the work was carried out with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research)

Information from Old Scandinavian sources about the matrimonial ties of the Russian princely dynasty with the Scandinavian courts in the 11th – first half of the 12th centuries. unique in the sense that none of them is mentioned in ancient Russian sources. Marriage information

1) Yaroslav the Wise (Yaritsleiva sag) and Ingigerd, daughter of Olav of Sweden (1019),

2) their daughter Elizabeth (Ellisiv) and the Norwegian king Harald Sigurdarson (c. 1044),

3) grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, and Gita, daughter of Harald of England (c. 1074-1075),

4) the son of Monomakh, Mstislav (according to the sagas - Harald), and Christine (according to the First Novgorod Chronicle - Christening), daughter of Inga Steinkelsson, Swedish king (c. 1095),

5-6) the daughter of Mstislav, Mal(m)frid, and the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader (c. 1111), and then the Danish king Eirik Eimun (1133),

7) another daughter of Mstislav, Ingibjorg (or Engilborg), and the Danish king Knut Lavard (c. 1117),

8) their son, Valdemar of Denmark, and Sophia, daughter of the Minsk prince Volodar Glebovich (1154) is contained in a number of Icelandic royal sagas, as well as in the “Acts of the Archbishops of the Hamburg Church” by Adam of Bremen and in several medieval Danish sources (“Acts of the Danes "Saxo Grammar, Danish Bartolian Annals).

Valdamar the Old

Russian princes are known to Old Scandinavian sources, starting with “King Valdamar (Valdimar) the Old” - Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Grand Duke of Kyiv, who died in 1015. Noteworthy is the fact that the sagas, extremely attentive to genealogies, do not know the ancestors of “King Valdamar ”and they call him “Valdamar the Old” (cf.: “One Old One” - the progenitor of the Scandinavian gods).

Sons of Valdamar the Old

The sagas know the three sons of Valdamar - Buritslav, Vartilav and Yaritsleiv. The first two (not reflected in the above diagram) are known from “The Strand of Eymund”. Researchers traditionally identify King Buritslav with Svyatopolk Vladimirovich (Accursed), Prince of Turov, Grand Duke of Kyiv from 1015 to 1019. The dissimilarity of names is explained by the fact that in the struggle between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk, the Polish prince Boleslav I the Brave (992-1025), his father-in-law, played a significant role. A.I. Lyashchenko emphasizes that “the Russian chronicle, when describing these clashes, puts the name of Boleslav first,” and “in Yaroslav’s camp they speak primarily of the struggle with Boleslav” [Lyashchenko 1926: 1072]. The replacement is therefore understandable, especially since the name Buritslav often found in Old Norse literature.

Vartilav is traditionally identified by researchers with the Polotsk prince Bryachislav Izyaslavich (died in 1044), the nephew (and not the brother, as in “The Strand of Eymund”) of Yaroslav the Wise. A.I. Lyashchenko explains the transformation of Yaroslav’s nephew into his brother by the fact that “Russian princes of different degrees of kinship called themselves brothers both officially and in private conversations” [Lyashchenko 1926: 1086]. R. Cook rightly believes that the figure of Vartilav is a combination of two images - Bryachislav, from whose name the name “Vartilav” is derived and whose residence ( Palteschia- Polotsk) is mentioned in the text, and Mstislav Vladimirovich, Prince of Tmutarakan, who, like Vartilav in “The Strand,” concluded a peace treaty with Yaroslav, and after his death left his inheritance to Yaroslav.

Yaritsleiv (Yaritslav) Valdamarsson - Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise, Prince of Novgorod in 1010-1016, Grand Duke of Kiev in 1016-1018, 1019-1054. - better known than other rulers in Old Scandinavian sources. According to the sagas, the table of the supreme ruler Gardariki(Rus) is located in Holmgarde(Novgorod). L.M. Sukhotin believed that among foreign marriages, “Norman marriages are the least foreign for the Russian dynasty of Norman roots,” since he perceived Yaroslav as “Norman by blood, the sovereign of the Slavic land” [Sukhotin 1938: 179].

Marriage of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerd

The marriage of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerd, the daughter of the Swedish king Olav Eiriksson (who reigned from 995 to 1022) and, probably, the Vendian Astrid, is spoken of in a significant number of Old Scandinavian sources of the late XII - first third of the XIII century [Jackson 1994: 154-161]: in “Stories about the ancient Norwegian kings” by monk Theodric, in “Review of the sagas about the Norwegian kings” [Ágrip: 26], in “The Legendary Saga of Olaf the Holy”, in “Rotten Skin”, in “Beautiful Skin”, in “A Separate Saga of Olaf the Holy" and in Snorri Sturluson's "Earthly Circle" in the "Knüttling Saga", in the Icelandic annals, as well as in the chronicle of the Bremen canon Adam of Bremen.

From source to source, the motive acquires more details. If the monk Theodric reports only that Yaritslav “married Ingigerta, to whom ... [Olav] himself wooed, but could not marry”, without disclosing the reasons why the marriage did not take place, then the author of the “Review” already quite succinctly formulates that a version that will later be expounded at length by Snorri Sturluson: Ingigerd “was previously promised” to Olav Haraldsson, but “her father broke those promises due to anger.” Contrary to the previously concluded agreement, Olav of Sweden (Shetkonung) gave Ingigerd “to Jaritslav, king of Austrweg” [Ágrip: 26].

The most complete story of the marriage of Yaroslav and Ingigerd is recounted by Snorri Sturluson. Yaroslav's matchmaking, according to the saga, began in the summer or autumn of 1018. The following spring, ambassadors from King Jaritsleiv arrived in Sweden with the goal of verifying the promise that King Olav had made the previous summer: to give Ingigerd, his daughter, to King Jaritsleiv. King Olav started a conversation with Ingigerd and said that it was his desire that she marry King Yaritsleif. She replies: “If I marry King Yaritsleiv, then I want Aldeigyuborg (Ladoga) and the earlship that relates to it as a wedding gift.” The ambassadors agreed to this on behalf of their king. Then Ingigerd said: “If I go east to Gardariki, then I want to choose in Sweden the person who, I think, is most suitable to go with me. I also want to make it a condition that he there in the east has no lower title and no less rights and honor than he has here.” The king agreed to this, as did the ambassadors. The king swore this on his faith, and so did the ambassadors. Ingigerd chose her relative, Earl Rögnvald Ulvsson, as her guide. They all went east together in the summer to Gardariki. Then Ingigerd married King Yaritsleiv. Princess Ingigerd gave Earl Rögnvald Aldeigjuborg and the earlship that belonged to him; Rognvald was earl there for a long time, and he was a famous person.

The marriage of Yaroslav and Ingigerd was concluded in 1019: this date is called by the Icelandic annals (“1019. King Olav the Holy married Astrid, the daughter of King Olav of Sweden, and King Yaritsleif in Holmgard married Ingigerd”); it is also restored according to the chronology of the “Earthly Circle”.

Regarding Yaroslav's matchmaking with the Swedish princess Ingigerd, it was suggested in the scientific literature that one of the reasons that prompted him to enter into an alliance with Olav of Sweden was a military campaign along the Eastern Route, carried out by Earl Svein Hakonarson in 1015. Yaroslav allegedly went to this marriage to prevent possible aggressive actions in the future, which, as before (the attack on Ladoga by Earl Eirik Hakonarson in 997), were undertaken, if not by Olav himself, then by his friends and guests patronized by him [Rydzevskaya 1945: 56] . Noting the unstable situation in the southern Ladoga region at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, which negatively affected both the state of international trade and the security of Novgorod, the researchers also characterized the marriage between Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerd as an attempt to eliminate instability. The Ladoga jarlship as a result turned into a kind of buffer zone between Scandinavia and Russia: having become the possession of the Swede Ingigerd, this area was protected from attacks by the Swedes, and, having been transferred to Jarl Rögnvald, a friend of Olav of Norway, also from attacks by the Norwegians [Boguslavsky 1993: 152].

It seems to me that the reason here is much deeper. The period from 1018 to the mid-1020s was generally marked by the strengthening of Russian-Swedish, as well as Russian-Danish, ties, caused by Yaroslav’s desire to create an anti-Polish coalition in the process of fighting for the Kiev table [Nazarenko 1984: 13-19; Melnikova 1988: 47]. It is as a consequence of this policy that it is worth considering Yaroslav’s matchmaking with the daughter of Olav of Sweden and his subsequent marriage to her.

The transfer of Ladoga to a noble Scandinavian at the beginning of the 11th century is not recorded by any other sources except Snorri Sturluson’s “Saga of Saint Olaf” (in all its variants) and “The Strand of Eymund”. Nevertheless, most researchers recognize the authenticity of the presence of a Scandinavian ruler in Ladoga at that time. Probably the reason for such unanimity lies in the fact that “the information from the sagas about Ladoga agrees with our chronicle in the fact that this city with its adjacent territory does not have its own prince, in contrast to Novgorod, Polotsk and others” [Rydzevskaya 1945: 59].

There is very little information about the wife of Yaroslav Vladimirovich in ancient Russian sources. We find her name in the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion (1040s), where the future metropolitan addresses the late Prince Vladimir with the words: “See and your faithful daughter-in-law Erina (i.e. Irina. - T.D.)" [Cit. from: Moldovan 1984: 98]. Ingigerd is sometimes identified with Anna, since, according to the late Novgorod tradition, this was the name of Yaroslav's wife and Vladimir's mother. But this opinion is erroneous (for more details, see: [Nazarenko 1993 b: 193-196]). Confirmation of the fact that Yaroslav’s wife Ingigerd received the name in Rus' Irina, serves as a chronicle message from 1037 about the founding of the monasteries of St. by Yaroslav the Wise. George and St. Irina, for, as is known, Yaroslav himself was called George in baptism, and a Scandinavian princess could become Irina in Orthodox baptism [Yanin 1988: 138-139].

The only thing that is still known about Ingigerd is the date of her death. In the “Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 1050/1051 it is reported: “The wife of Yaroslavl, the princess, passed away” [PSRL. T. 1. L, 1927. Stlb. 155; T.2. St. Petersburg, 1908. Stlb. 143].

Children of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerd

As Snorri says, "their sons were Valdamar, Vissivald, Holti the Bold."

Valdamar Jaritsleivsson and Vissivald Jaritsleivsson can be identified with the sons of Yaroslav the Wise - Vladimir (1020-1052, Prince of Novgorod 1036 - Oct. 4, 1052) and Vsevolod (1030-1093, Grand Duke of Kiev in 1077, 10 78-1093 gg.). However, information about King Valdamar in the sagas is contradictory: on the one hand, he is the son of Yaritsleiv, i.e. Vladimir Yaroslavich, but on the other hand, he is the father of Harald/Mstislav, i.e. Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh (b. 1053 g., Grand Duke of Kiev in 1113-1125). Most of the sagas consider Vladimir Monomakh the son of Yaroslav the Wise.

The “silent” mention in the sagas of the name of Holti the Bold, son of Yaritsleiv, leads to a plurality of interpretations among historians: they saw Ilya, Izyaslav, and Svyatoslav in him; E.A. Rydzevskaya argued that Holti, “judging by some data, is the same Vsevolod” [Rydzevskaya 1940: 67]. Indeed, in the edition of Saga of Olav Tryggvason by the monk Odd (see: [Jackson 1993: 142, 146]) about King Valdamar (Vladimir Svyatoslavich) it is said that “this Valdamar was the father of Jaritsleif, father of Holti, father of Valdamar, father Harald, father of Ingibjorg, mother of Valdamar, king of the Danes" [Ó. s. Tr. Oddr: 24]. Besides the fact that in this news of one of the earliest sagas the Russian name of Holti, the son of Yaritsleiv, is revealed, for it can only be Vsevolod Yaroslavich, the father of Vladimir Monomakh, only here Vladimir Yaroslavich and Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh did not merge into one person, as in all the others sagas

In the above diagram, information from various sagas is contaminated, and therefore it contains Vissivald (Vsevolod), and Holti (Vsevolod), and Valdamar, the son of Yaritsleiv (Vladimir Yaroslavich), and Valdamar, his grandson (Vladimir Vsevolodovich).

Marriage of Elizabeth Yaroslavna and Harald the Severe Ruler

The daughter of the Russian prince Yaroslav the Wise, Elizabeth, is known only from the Icelandic sagas, where she bears the name Ellisiv (Ellisif) or Elisabeth (Elisabeth). In a number of royal sagas, records from the beginning of the 13th century. (See: [Jackson 2000]), in “Rotten Skin”, “Beautiful Skin”, “The Earthly Circle”, “The Saga of the Knüttlings”, as well as (without mentioning the name of the bride) in the “Acts of the Bishops of the Hamburg Church” by Adam of Bremen information about the marriage of Elizabeth and Harald the Severe Ruler (Norwegian king from 1046 to 1066).

The story of the marriage of Harald and Elizabeth, as described in the sagas, is very romantic. A year after the Battle of Stiklastadir (1030), in which the famous Norwegian king Olav Haraldsson died, his half-brother Harald Sigurdarson went, as Snorri Sturluson reports in The Earthly Circle, “to the east to Gardariki to King Jaritsleif ", i.e. to Rus' to Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Snorri goes on to say that “King Jaritsleif received Harald and his men well. Then Harald became chief of the king's people who guarded the country... Harald remained in Gardariki for several winters and traveled throughout Austrweg. Then he set out on a journey to Grickland, and he had a large army. He was then on his way to Miklagard."

The reason for Harald’s departure to Byzantium is explained in “Rotten Skin” and in the “Saga of Harald Sigurdarson the Severe Ruler”, which goes back to it, based on the 14th century manuscript “Hulda”. It says here that “Harald traveled throughout Austrweg and accomplished many feats, and for this the king highly valued him. King Yaritsleif and Princess Ingigerd had a daughter named Elizabeth, the Normans call her Ellisiv. Harald started a conversation with the king to see if he would be willing to give him the girl as a wife, saying that he was known by his relatives and ancestors, and also partly by his behavior.” Yaroslav said that he could not give his daughter to a stranger who did not have a state and was not rich enough to buy the bride, but did not reject his offer. It was after this conversation that Harald set off, reached Constantinople and spent about ten years there (c. 1034-1043) in the service of the Byzantine emperor [Vasilievsky 1908: 258-288].

Returning to Rus', Harald took the gold that he had sent from Miklagard for safekeeping to Yaritsleiv. In addition, in all the vaults it is reported that that winter “Yaritsleif gave his daughter to Harald as a wife.” These words of the saga are confirmed by a reference to the 4th stanza of “The Stuva Drape” (c. 1067) by the Icelandic skald Stuva the Blind: “The warlike king of Egda took for himself the wife he wanted. He got a lot of gold and the king’s daughter.” Neither the name of the king, nor the name of his young wife, nor “eastern” toponyms are listed. However, from “The Strand of Stuva” it is known that he was a warrior of King Harald Sigurdarson, so it was Harald who could be hiding under the nickname “warlike king of Egda.” Other skalds, for example, Thjodolf Arnarson and Valgard of Vella, also talk about the gold that “fell” to Harald. Adam of Bremen also speaks about the same marriage: “Harold, returning from Greece, married the daughter of King Rutia Herzlef.”

In the spring, the sagas report with reference to the skald Valgard from Vella (“You launched [the water] a ship with a beautiful cargo; honor fell to you; you took, indeed, gold from the east from Gard, Harald”), Harald set out from Holmgard through Aldeigjuborg to Sweden. In the Icelandic annals we read: “1044. Harald [Sigurdarson] arrived in Sweden." On this basis, we can conclude that the marriage of Harald and Elizabeth was concluded in the winter of 1043/44.

Not a single source, talking about Harald’s departure from Rus', says that Elizabeth was with him on this journey. True, this conclusion can be reached based on the absence in the sagas of indications that their two daughters (Maria and Ingigerd, unknown, like Elizabeth, to Russian sources, know “Rotten Skin”, “Beautiful Skin”, “Earthly Circle” and “Hulda”) were twins - otherwise Harald and Elizabeth, who, according to the sagas, spent one spring together between the wedding and Harald’s sailing, could have only had one daughter.

This is confirmed by the subsequent news of the sagas that after many years, leaving Norway in 1066, Harald took Elizabeth, Mary and Ingigerd with him. According to the “Earthly Circle” and “Hulda,” Harald left Elizabeth and his daughters on the Orkney Islands, and he himself sailed to England.

On “the same day and the same hour” when King Harald died in England, the sagas say, his daughter Maria died on the Orkney Islands. Elizabeth and Ingigerd, having spent the winter there, set off in the spring from the west. From this point on, Elizabeth is no longer mentioned in the sagas.

N.M. Karamzin’s opinion regarding the fate of Elizabeth remained unnoticed in historiography: he believed that shortly after the wedding, Elizabeth died, “leaving two daughters, Ingigerda and Maria,” the first of whom “married Philip, King of Sweden” [Karamzin 1842. Book . I. Note 41 to vol. II, ch. II]. G. Storm, however, wonders whether Ellisiv's early death was the reason for Harald's second marriage. As you can see, these opinions contradict the data in the sagas about the fate of Elizabeth. Moreover, Ingigerd was married to Olav Sveinsson, king of the Danes. There is a fairly widespread belief that after the death of Harald, Elizabeth Yaroslavna married the Danish king Sven Estridsen. However, this misconception, based on an incorrect interpretation of one piece of news from Adam of Bremen, can be considered successfully debunked [Nazarenko 1994: 187].

The marriage of Harald Sigurdarson and Elizabeth Yaroslavna strengthened Russian-Norwegian ties, which were friendly during the time of Olav Haraldsson - at least since 1022, i.e., from the death of Olav Sjötkonung, Yaroslav's father-in-law, and the coming to power in Sweden of Onund-Jacob, who soon entered into an alliance with Olav Haraldsson against Cnut the Great - and during the time of Magnus the Good (1035-1047), elevated to the Norwegian throne not without the participation of Yaroslav the Wise [Melnikova 1988]. In addition, this marriage led to a temporary alliance between Harald and the powerful Earl Svein Ulvsson, the future Danish king, better known by his maternal line as Sven Estridsen (1047-1074 or 1076). The collections of royal sagas and the “Knüttling Saga” emphasize that this alliance was based not only on the mutual claims of Harald and Svein to the lands subject to Magnus the Good - Norway and Denmark - but also on the family ties established through the marriage of Harald and Elizabeth (I note - very distant in the minds of modern man). (Cf.: S. Bagge on the importance of marriage ties in Norway for strengthening political alliances; the same by K. Hastrup on the situation in medieval Iceland.) “There [in Sweden. – T.D.] they met, Harald and Earl Svein, who fled from Denmark from King Magnus. And Svein suggested that they should enter into an alliance because of their misfortune, that both of them by birth have the right to those kingdoms that King Magnus captured, and declared his relationship with Harald. Svein was a relative of Ellisiv, the wife of Harald, the daughter of King Yaritsleif and Princess Ingigerd, the daughter of Olaf [Shetkonung. – T.D.]. Olaf's sister was Astrid, Svein's mother, because Sigrid the Cruel was the mother of both of them, King Olaf and Astrid."

According to G.V. Glazyrina, “the alliance with Russia did not produce the expected results, so Harald, after leaving Rus' around 1044, reoriented and began to rely in his struggle on the support of forces inside Norway, as evidenced by the establishment of family ties with the Norwegian nobility” [Glazyrina 1988: 16]. Similarly, S. Bagge believes that “Harald the Severe, having returned from abroad and, probably, feeling the absence of strong relatives - and relatives on the female side? - takes a very unusual step and marries Tora, the daughter of the Norwegian tycoon Thorberg Arnason." Both of these theses require, in my opinion, additional consideration and clarification.

Analysis of a large set of sources [Jackson 1999] suggests that the Torah was not purchased for mund(wedding gift) Harald's wife, and was his concubine. If, indeed, the goal of this union was to gain “strong relatives,” then, as S. Bagge revealed, “the concubines and illegitimate sons of the kings served to strengthen alliances no less than the institution of adoption.” The connection between Harald and Tora, however, in addition to political motives, could, as it seems to me, be provoked by the fact that Harald and Elizabeth did not have sons - successors of the family and contenders for the throne. The material of the sagas, despite its fragmentary and indirect nature, seems to convince us that Elizabeth Yaroslavna remained the Norwegian queen for more than twenty years - from the winter of 1043/44 until the death of her husband Harald Sigurdarson on September 25, 1066 at the Battle of Stamfordbridge .

Marriage of Vladimir Monomakh and Guides

In the “Saga of Olaf the Quiet”, a Norwegian king from 1066 to 1093 (based on “Beautiful Skin”) and in the “Saga of the Sons of Magnus” (based on “Rotten Skin”, “Earthly Circle” and “Hulda”), telling about Sigurd the Crusader (1103-1130), Eystein (1103-1122) and Olaf (1103-1115), as well as in the Knüttling Saga, dedicated to Danish history, there are fragments that can be called “genealogical certificates”. Here is a vivid example of such text:

“On Gyda, daughter of King Harald (English. - T.D.), King Valdamar, son of King Jaritsleif in Holmgard, married Ingigerd, daughter of King Olaf of Sweden. The son of Valdamar and Gyuda was King Harald, who married Kristin, daughter of King Inga Steinkelsson. Their daughters were Malmfrid and Ingibjorg. Malmfrid was married first to King Sigurd the Crusader, and then to Eirik Eimun Eiriksson, king of the Danes. Knut Lavard, brother of Eirik Eymun, married Ingibjörg Haraldsdóttir, Malmfrid's sister. Their children were King Valdamar, and Kristin, and Katherine, and Margareta. Valdamar, king of the Danes, married Siffia, daughter of King Valad in Pulinaland and Queen Rikisa. Their children, King Valdamar and Sithia, were King Knut and King Valdamar, and Queen Rikisa."

As we can see, the text begins with a chronological and substantive error, which was already discussed above: with the confusion of two Vladimirs - Vladimir Yaroslavich and his nephew Vladimir Vsevolodovich. Gyuda- This is Gida, the daughter of the English king Harald, son of Houdini, who died in the late 1090s. In accordance with the hypothesis of A.V. Nazarenko, in Rus' Gida Haraldovna took, according to the custom of that time, the Orthodox name Anna [Nazarenko 1993a: 77, note. 79]. According to the text quoted above and a whole series of sagas, Vladimir, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, married Gida, but, as S.Kh. rightly noted. Cross, chronological considerations make us think that it was not the son, but the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, born in 1053, Grand Duke of Kiev in 1113-1125. .

The scientific dating of the marriage of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh and Gida - 1074/75 - is based only on the date of birth of their eldest son Mstislav - February 1076 [PSRL. T. 2. Stb.190; Kuchkin 1971: 24-25]. Taking into account the participation of the Danish king Sven Estridsen in the conclusion of this marriage, noted by Saxo Grammaticus, as well as the simultaneity of German-Chernigov and German-Danish negotiations in the early 1070s, A.V. Nazarenko sees in this marriage “a manifestation of coordinated international politics” younger brothers of Izyaslav of Kyiv - Svyatoslav of Chernigov and Vsevolod of Pereyaslav, father of Vladimir Monomakh, - “in 1069-1072, aimed at isolating Boleslav II, the main ally of Izyaslav Yaroslavich.” Accordingly, he dates the marriage to the period between 1072 and 1074. [Nazarenko 1984: 187-188].

Marriage of Harald-Mstislav and Kristin

Information about the marriage of Harald Valdamarsson and Christine, daughter of the Swedish king Inga Steinkelsson (c. 1084 - c. 1100), concluded c. 1095, contained in “Rotten Skin”, “Beautiful Skin”, “The Earthly Circle” by Snorri Sturluson, “The Saga of the Knüttlings”. Russian Chronicles Christina (Christina) known as the wife of Mstislav - “Menstislav Christina” [NPL: 21, 205]. Two fragmentary seals from Novgorod with the legend “Holy Christina” are also attributed to Mstislav’s wife [Yanin 1991: 33].

On the basis that the sources call Christina the wife of both Mstislav Vladimirovich and Harald Valdamarsson, A.V. Nazarenko concludes that “it is Mstislav who is called Harald in the saga.” He gives preference to these data over the message of the “Genealogy of the Danish Kings” by Abbot William (late 12th century), who calls Christina’s husband the “Russian king” Izizlaus(or, in another list, Iuzillanus). Based on the second reading, Nazarenko concludes that this passage is “obviously spoiled; the “correct” reading Izizlaus(Izyaslav?) is contained in a copy made by the famous antiquarian Arne Magnusson in the first quarter of the 18th century. from a manuscript that then perished in a fire in 1728, and could well have been the result of a “correction” when copying an incomprehensible name” [Nazarenko 1993a: 66, 74, note. 13; cf.: Wilhelm 182-183].

So, Harald, the son of Valdamar, the sagas call, according to the general consensus of researchers, Mstislav, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, born in 1075, the Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1125-1132, so named “in honor of his English grandfather” [Pashuto 1968: 135].

Marriages of Mstislav's daughters - Mal(m)frid and Ingibjorg

The marriages of Mstislav’s daughters Mal(m)frid and Ingibjörg (Engilborg) are reported in “Rotten Skin”, “Beautiful Skin”, “The Earthly Circle” by Snorri Sturluson and “The Saga of the Knüttlings”.

Mal(m)frid and Sigurd the Crusader

Mal(m)frid, daughter of Harald Valdamarsson, - Malmfrid Mstislavna. She was (probably from 1111) the wife of the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader (1103-1130), and three years after his death, in 1133, of Eirik Eymun. V.T. Pashuto believes that in the first third of the 11th century. “Kyiv and Novgorod should have had political connections with Norway and Denmark, if only because Malfrid Mstislavna, when she was in Schleswig with Earl Eilif in 1111, married Sigurd I, the son of the Norwegian king Magnus III, who was returning from the crusade ; Having become a widow (1130), she became the wife of the Danish king Eric Emun (1134-1137), who took refuge in Norway after the death of her father, the Danish king Eric III the Good” [Pashuto 1968: 146]. The daughter of Sigurd the Crusader and Malmfrid Mstislavna was named, like the daughter of Ingibjorg Mstislavna, in honor of their grandmother, the wife of Mstislav Vladimirovich, Christine.

Ingibjörg and Knut Lavard

Ingibjörg, daughter of Harald Valdamarsson, - Ingibjörg Mstislavna, sister of Malmfrida Mstislavna. The anonymous "Genealogia Regum Danorum", recorded c. 1218, calls Ingibjorg the daughter of Christina and Izyaslav, not Mstislav. Another version of the name of Christina’s husband was recorded by Abbot Wilhelm of Ebelgot in his letter of 1194/95 to the Archbishop of Lunden - Rizlove .

Knut Lavard is the son of the Danish king Eirik the Good (1095-1103), paternal brother of Eirik Eymun, Danish prince, Duke of Schleswig, King of Bodrich in 1129-1131, killed in 1131 [Pashuto 1968: 146]. His nickname means either “(dis)tributing bread” or “lord” [History of Denmark 1996: 81, note. 7]. The marriage (c. 1117) of Knut Lavard and Ingibjorg (Engilborg), daughter of Harald/Mstislav, is most extensively narrated in the “Knüttling Saga”:

“At that time, Harald, the son of King Valdamar, son of Jaritsleif, son of Valdimar, tutor of King Olaf Tryggvason, was king in the east in Holmgard. King Harald's mother was Gyda, daughter of Harald, king of the Angles, Gudinason. King Harald was married to Kristin, daughter of Inga, king of the Svei, Steinkelsson, sister of Queen Margret, to whom Nikulas, king of the Danes, was then married. The daughters of King Harald in Holmgard and Kristin were Malmfrid, who was the wife of Sigurd the Crusader, king of Norway, and Engilborg." A certain merchant named Vidgaut went on a trip on behalf of Knut Lavard to the east to Holmgard to ask for Engilborg's hand in marriage. Harald gave a positive response to Knut's matchmaking with his daughter. Soon a wedding took place in Denmark. “St. Knut Lavard and Engilborg had three daughters, Margret, Christine and Catherine, who was married to Austrweg; and Christine was married to Magnus the Blind, a Norwegian king, son of Sigurd the Crusader; Margret married Stig White Feather from Skåne. […] And when Saint Knut Lavard fell, Engilborg, his wife, was expecting a child; that winter she was in the east in Gardariki with King Harald, her father. She gave birth to a boy and named him Valdimar; he was born seven days after the death of Saint Cnut Lavard, his father; at an early age he was a large and handsome [child] and was superior to others in everything. While he was a child, he grew up in the east in Gardariki in his mother’s family, and soon became loved by all the people.”

V. T. Pashuto suggested that “the son of Ingeborg and Knut, the future Danish king Valdemar I (1157-1182), was named so, apparently, in honor of his grandfather, Monomakh” [Pashuto 1968: 147; Lind 1990: 16]. According to the Knüttling Saga, which in this particular case seems reliable to J. Lind, Waldemar was born in Rus' seven days after the murder of his father and spent his early childhood there. At the time of the marriage of Ingibjörg and Knut Lavard (c. 1117), the saga states that the bride's father, Harald-Mstislav, sits in Holmgarde(Novgorod); when it comes to the arrival of Ingibjorg to him in 1130-1131, it is not about Holmgarde, and about Gardariki(Rus), and this, according to Lind, is due to the fact that Mstislav was already the Grand Duke of Kyiv at that time. Such a distinction could hardly have been made by a 13th-century compiler, and therefore reflects, according to Lind, the authenticity of the saga’s message. He considers the Icelandic skald Atli Sveinsson, named in it, who was with Valdemar in the battle of 1157, to be the informant of the author of the saga. I doubt, however, that the opposition Holmgard And Gardariki was conscious and that the second toponym took on a meaning that was not entirely characteristic of it (their usual relationship: the first is the name of the city, the capital of the state, designated by the second toponym).

Mal(m)frid and Eirik Eymun

Eirik Eymun is the son of the Danish king Eirik the Good (1095-1103), the paternal brother of Knut Lavard, the Danish king Eric II the Memory (1134-1137). His marriage with Malmfrid Mstislavna (sister of Ingibjorg, to whom Knut Lavard was married) was concluded in 1133. J. Lind believes that the marriage of the second son of Eirik and the second daughter of the Grand Duke of Kiev Mstislav Vladimirovich was not an accident, but was part of the struggle for power between brothers Eirik and Knut, on the one hand, and their cousin Magnus, son of Niels, married to the Polish princess Rikisa, daughter of Boleslaw III, on the other. After Magnus killed the unarmed Cnut in 1131, Eirik opposed the king, and three years later the civil war ended with his victory, as well as the death of Niels and his son Magnus. During the war, Eirik restored the Danish-Russian alliance by marrying Ingibjorg's sister, Malmfrid, widow of Sigurd the Crusader.

Marriage of Valdemar of Denmark and Sophia

We read about the marriage of Valdemar of Denmark and Sophia, in addition to “Beautiful Skin” (“Valdamar, king of the Danes, married Siffia, daughter of King Valad in Pulinaland and Queen Rikisa”), in “The Saga of the Knüttlings”, “Review of the Sagas of the Danish Kings” [ Ágrip af sögu danakonunga: 334], in Saxo Grammar and in the genealogy of the Danish kings. The date of this marriage is found in the Danish Bartolian Annals: “1154. Valdamar became engaged to Sophia and became king."

To understand who the wife of Valdemar I of Denmark was, it is necessary to find out who her father was Walad in Pulinaland. This character is identified by researchers with several different princes. The most convincing argument seems to be J. Gallen, who identifies Valada with the Minsk prince Volodar Glebovich. A.V. Nazarenko rightly emphasized that this “hypothesis looks fair also because otherwise it would have to be assumed that Valdemar (grandson of Mstislav the Great) was married to his own niece” [Nazarenko 1995: 35-36]. So, most likely, Siffia, the wife of Valdemar of Denmark, is Sophia, the daughter of Volodar Glebovich of Minsk, who died in 1198. “Beautiful Skin” and “The Saga of the Knüttlings” call Valad (Valadar) king in Pulinalande, and “Review of the sagas of the Danish kings” - the king in Logging. Both toponyms usually serve as a designation for Poland. Perhaps Valad's nickname is explained by the fact that his wife was Polish (Rikisa is the daughter of the Polish prince Boleslav III and Sbyslava, the great-granddaughter of Yaroslav Vladimirovich).

* * *

The presence of the considered material in the sources is very significant: if the sagas, annals and chronicles aimed at exalting the Scandinavian kings put the Russian “kings” on a par with them, it means that the fame and influence of these latter in Northern Europe were great. The matrimonial dynastic ties of the Russian princely family with the royal families of Scandinavia testify, on the one hand, to the breadth of foreign policy relations of Rus' and its active foreign policy, and on the other hand, to the power of medieval Rus', with which the Scandinavian countries sought an alliance [Pashuto 1972: 194] .

matrimonial connections of the Russian princely dynasty with the Scandinavian courts in the 11th – first half of the 12th centuries. (based on Icelandic royal sagas)

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Notes

I beg to differ with the opinion formulated by my colleagues E.A. Melnikova and G.V. Glazyrina in the section of the textbook we prepared jointly [Drevnyaya Rus 1999: 488], that it is possible that King Ingvar from “ The Saga of Sturlaug the Hardworking" is "identical to Prince Igor."

For another interpretation of this name, based on free handling of sago material, see my commentary in: [Ancient Russian cities 1987: 115-116, note. 23].

Name options: Ingilborg, Engilborg.

Let us also mention the never-continued matchmaking of the son of Alexander (Nevsky) to Kristin, daughter of the Norwegian king Hakon, described in the “Saga of Hakon Hakonarson”, which was an integral part of the negotiations between Novgorod and Norway in the middle of the 13th century. [Rydzevskaya 1970: 325-327; Jackson T.N., Kuchkin 1998: 24-28].

According to the calculations of L.M. Sukhotin, out of 45 foreign marriages of Russian princes and princesses of the 11th-12th centuries. there were 8 Normans [Sukhotin 1938: 175-187].

Yaroslav the Wise diplomatic dynastic

Yaroslav the Wise went down in history as a ruler who entangled almost all of Europe with family ties!

Yaroslav, himself married to the daughter of the Swedish king Ingigerda, sought to arrange the marriage affairs of his children with foreign monarchs:

• 1. The union of the Polish prince Casimir with the sister of Yaroslav the Wise Maria: “...Wanting to take advantage of the friendship of the powerful Yaroslav, he married his sister, the daughter of St. Vladimir. Polish Historians say that the marriage celebration took place in Krakow; that the virtuous and amiable Maria, called Dobrogneva , accepted the Latin Faith and that the King took great wealth for his wife, many silver and gold vessels, also precious horse and other jewelry. Our own Chronicler says that Casimir gave Yaroslav for a vein - that is, for his bride - 800 people: probably. The Russians, captured by Boleslav in 1018. This union, approved by the sound Policy of both States, established the cities of Cherven for Russia; and Yaroslav, as a sincere friend of his son-in-law, helped him humble the brave and cunning rebel, in the name of Moislav, who took possession of Mazovia and wanted to be Sovereign. independent, the Grand Duke, having defeated his numerous army, conquered this region to Casimir..."
• 2. Union of Prince Harold of Norway with Yaroslav’s daughter Elizabeth:

"...In his youth, having left his fatherland, he served Prince Yaroslav; fell in love with his beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, and, wanting to be worthy of her hand, sought a great name in the world. Harald went to Constantinople; entered the service of the Eastern Emperor; in Africa , in Sicily he defeated the infidels; he traveled to Jerusalem to worship the Holy Places and after a few years, returning to Russia with wealth and glory, he married Elizabeth, who alone occupied his heart and imagination among all the brilliant feats of heroism...”

3. Union of King Henry I of France with the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise Anna:

Henry I, frightened by the fate of his father (whose marriage the Pope declared incest and expelled him from the city), decided to marry a foreign bride. "...France, still poor and weak, could be proud of its alliance with Russia, exalted by the conquests of Oleg and his Great successors. In 1048 - according to the news of an ancient manuscript found in the S. Omer church - the King sent the Bishop of Chalon, Roger, as Ambassador to Yaroslav: Anna came with him to Paris and united the blood of Rurik with the blood of the French Sovereigns...” After the death of Henry I, Anna retired to the Senliz monastery, but after staying there for 2 years, she married the Comte de Kepri. Her son, Philip, reigned in France.

4. Union of King Andrew I of Hungary with Yaroslav’s daughter Anastasia:

“...It is likely that this marriage union served as a reason for some Russians to move to Hungary, where in different Counties, on the left side of the Danube, their numerous offspring live to this day, having lost the pure Faith of their fathers...”

5. The union of Yaroslav's son Vladimir with the daughter of the English king Harald Gida: "... the children of the unfortunate Harald, killed in the Battle of Hastings, sought refuge at the court of Svenon II, King of Denmark, and that Svenon then gave his daughter Harald to the Russian Prince, in the name of Vladimir ...".

In addition to Vladimir, Yaroslav had five sons: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, Vyacheslav, Igor. The first married the sister of Casimir of Poland, despite the fact that his own aunt was behind this King. Vsevolod, on the Greek Princess (after the signing of peace in 1046), the birth of Vsevolod’s son Vladimir from the Greek princess. Little is known about the marriage of Yaroslav's other sons. There is a version that Oda, daughter of Leopold - Count of Stadt, and Cunigonde, Countess of Orlaminda, married the Princes of Russia, but, soon widowed, returned to Germany and married German Princes. Oda was the wife of Vyacheslav, and Kunigond was the wife of Igor: “... these younger sons of Yaroslav died in their youth, and the first from the Russian Prince had one son, raised by her in Saxony: I think, Boris Vyacheslavich, about whom Nestor speaks only from 1077 and who could Until then, live in Germany..."

Thus, Yaroslav the Wise, through marriage, managed to establish friendly relations with Poland, Norway, France, England, Hungary, Sweden, Byzantium and Germany. This situation contributed to raising the international authority of Rus', and also guaranteed military assistance in case of instability; among other things, it also contributed to the acquisition of relative security on the part of those countries with which Rus' had “family” ties.

In the 40s XI century Yaroslav entered into a number of marriage alliances with European sovereigns. Russian chronicles ignored these marriages, so all more or less reliable information about them has to be extracted from Western European sources.

Many Icelandic sagas tell about the romantic story of the matchmaking of the Norwegian knight Harald Hardrad (the Severe Ruler) to the daughter of Yaroslav named Ellisiv or Elisabeth (Elizabeth). Harald was the half-brother (on his mother's side) of the Norwegian king Olav Haraldsson, who died in 1030 at the Battle of Stiklastadir. The next year after the death of his brother, Harald went “east to Gardariki to King Yaritsleiv.” Here he “performed many feats, and for this the king highly valued him. King Yaritsleif and Princess Ingigerd had a daughter named Elisabeth, the Normans call her Ellisiv. Harald started a conversation with the king to see if he would like to give him the girl as a wife, saying that he was known by his relatives and ancestors, and also partly by his behavior.” Yaroslav replied that he could not give his daughter to a foreigner who had neither a “state to rule” nor sufficient funds to buy the bride. However, he left Harald hope, promising to “preserve his honor until a convenient time.”

After this conversation, Harald left for Byzantium, where he spent several years in the imperial service. Fighting against the Saracens in the Middle East, Sicily and Africa, he “seized enormous wealth, gold and all kinds of jewelry, but all the property that he did not need, in order to support himself, he sent with loyal people north to Holmgard to be kept by King Yaritsleiv, and immeasurable treasures were accumulated there.” Returning to Rus', Harald took the gold that belonged to him and, after spending the winter at the court of Yaroslav, left for his homeland. The sagas unanimously testify that that winter “Yaritsleif gave Harald his daughter as a wife.” This is confirmed by Adam of Bremen: “Harold, returning from Greece, married the daughter of the King of Rus' Yaroslav.” According to a number of indirect signs, the wedding celebration most likely took place in the winter of 1043/1044.

About the further fate of Elizabeth, all that is known is that she gave birth to Harald two daughters - Maria and Ingigerd. The last news about her dates back to 1066. That summer, Harald and his retinue sailed to England, hoping to take possession of the kingdom of his overseas namesake, the Anglo-Saxon king Harald. Elizabeth and her children accompanied her husband to the Orkney Islands. Having landed on the English coast, Harald met the enemy at Stamfordbridge. During the battle, an English arrow dug into his throat, and the Norwegians, who had lost their leader, were completely defeated. “On the same day and at the same hour,” say the sagas, Harald’s daughter Maria died on the Orkney Islands. Elizabeth and Ingigerd returned to Norway.

The historiographical tradition of medieval Hungary (“Hungarian Chronicle”, XIV century) speaks of the marriage of the Hungarian king Endre I (reigned from 1046 to 1060) to a Russian princess. Endre and his brothers, Bela and Levente, were nephews of King Stephen I (997-1038), who expelled them from the country shortly before his death. Bela retired to Poland, and Endre and Levente went to wait out the political storm in the Russian land. In their absence, Hungary experienced several civil wars. Finally, in 1046, the Hungarian nobility invited Endre and Levente to return to their homeland and take the throne. Apparently, it was then that Endre married one of Yaroslav’s daughters. Hungarian monuments do not remember her name, but in the chronicle of the Polish historian of the 15th century. Yana Dlugosz named her Anastasia. After Endre I was overthrown from the Hungarian throne by his brother Béla I in 1060, Anastasia found refuge with the German Emperor Henry IV (1056-1106). According to legend, she spent the last years of her life in the German monastery of Admont (in Styria). The compiler of one of the later Hungarian chronicles, Antonio Bonfini (XV century), mistook the name of the Admont monastery (Agmund) for the name of the widow of Endre I. From his work, the error migrated to the historiography of the 19th-20th centuries, where this Yaroslavna received a double name: Anastasia-Agmunda.

In French chronicles and other written monuments of the 11th-12th centuries. there is no shortage of news about the Russian marriage of the French king Henry I of Capet (1031-1060). This is truly the most unusual page in the history of matrimonial unions of both France and Rus'.

Henry I was prompted to search for a bride on the other side of Europe by the fear of incest, since the Capetians by that time had become related to almost all the ruling houses of Western Europe. He, of course, was very familiar with the sad history of the marriage of his father Robert II (996-1031). While still heir to the throne, Robert for some time was a contender for the hand of the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of Emperor Basil II, and his parent Hugo Capet, in a message addressed to the basileus, quite openly admitted his matrimonial difficulties: “We cannot find an equal for his marriage because of for kinship with neighboring kings." When these plans fell through, the young French prince had to marry Susanna of Flanders, who was twice her husband's age. But soon this marriage was dissolved, and Robert took Bertha of Burgundy, who was more suitable for him in age, as his wife. The happiness of the young people, however, was short-lived, since it turned out that Robert and Bertha were second cousins. Two popes - Gregory V (996-999) and Sylvester II (999-1003) - one after another condemned incestuous marriage, and in the end Robert and Bertha had to divorce. Henry I took full account of his father's marital experience. However, he was fatally unlucky in family affairs. In 1033, he became engaged to the daughter of the German Emperor Conrad II, who died a year later. His second marriage to the Brunswick princess was longer, but she also died in 1044 without producing an heir. At this point, Western European courts completely exhausted the supply of brides who satisfied all the exacting demands of the Capetians. The answer to the question why Henry I did not approach the sovereigns of Scandinavia, Poland or Hungary with a wedding proposal should be sought in the aforementioned message of Hugo Capet: the wife of the French king had to be, among other things, “equal” to her husband; Obviously, comparison with the daughter of a Russian prince was not in favor of brides from these countries. Meanwhile, the ruler of a mighty power, “which is known and heard by all four ends of the earth,” the heir of glorious ancestors, who “with courage and bravery served in many countries,” a devout Christian, the conqueror of the pagans and the keeper of the relics of Pope Clement was the best fit for the role father-in-law of the King of France.

So, the proposal to conclude a dynastic union came from the French side. In 1048 or 1049, a large embassy headed by two bishops arrived in Kyiv. Their choice settled on Yaroslav's daughter named Anna. Yaroslav gave his consent to the marriage and sent the ambassadors back to France along with his daughter and rich gifts. On December 3, 1050, Henry and Anna already had a son, Philip.

During the life of Henry I, Anne, as befitted a queen, was primarily concerned with matters of piety. She founded the Abbey of St. in the town of Senlis near Paris. Vincent, on whose portal you can still see her bas-relief image. In addition, it is known that she brought with her to France a handwritten Slavic Gospel with magnificent miniatures and richly decorated. This book made such a strong impression on the French court that French kings used it during coronation ceremonies for several centuries. Pope Nicholas II (1058-1061) dedicated a special letter to Anna, in which he praised her for her good behavior and zeal for the affairs of the Church.

But the French soon realized with regret that the Holy Father had perhaps gone too far with his praise. In 1060 Henry I died. The regency over the young Philip passed to the Flemish Count Baudouin, who was married to the sister of the late king. Anna also became a member of the guardianship council, because her signature, along with Philip’s name, appears on many royal charters of the 60s. XI century Interestingly, she once signed her name in Cyrillic letters: “Ana reina” (from the Latin regina - “queen”). However, apparently, she wanted more power, and therefore, just a year after the death of Henry I, she remarried. Her new chosen one was the powerful lord Raoul de Crepy, Count of Valois, head of the opposition nobility. In order to marry Anna, he divorced his second wife, falsely accusing her of infidelity. Count Baudouin's party was alarmed. Archbishop Gervais of Reims reported to Pope Alexander II (1061-1073): “There is considerable turmoil in our kingdom: our queen married Count Raoul, which extremely upsets our king and worries his guardians more than it should.” Count Raoul's divorced wife was forced to complain to Rome about her husband's actions. The Pope declared the marriage of Raoul and Anna illegal, but since the newly-made spouses did not listen to the voice of the Roman Pontiff, he had to resort to the last resort: by decision of the Holy See, Raoul was excommunicated from the Church. This didn't help either; Anna and her lover were separated only by the death of Count Raoul, which happened in 1074. It seems that after that Anna was removed from governing the kingdom. In any case, after 1075 her name no longer appears on the documents of the royal office.

The “Chronicle of the Fleury Monastery” (early 12th century) reports that, having buried Raoul, Anna “returned to her homeland.” However, according to another French legend, she rested in the monastery of St. Vincent in Senlis.

Dynastic marriages were concluded with the goal of uniting two dynasties and thereby connecting the two countries with strong ties to each other. When such marriages were concluded, relations between countries improved.
To organize a dynastic marriage, both parties had to profess the same religion, but if they professed different religions, then the bride had to accept the religion of her future husband.
Russian princes always sought to strengthen the authority of Rus' in Europe, for this purpose they entered into dynastic marriages with European royal houses.
Prince Yaroslav the Wise (no wonder he received such a nickname!), ruling at the beginning of the 11th century, was married to the Swedish princess Ingigerda, who received the name Irina in baptism. Irina, the daughter of the Norwegian king Olaf, brought the city of Staraya Ladoga as a dowry.
One of Yaroslav's sons, Vsevolod, married the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh.
They had a son, Vladimir, who went down in history as the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir Monomakh, because he added the name of his maternal grandfather to his name. The word "monomakh" translated from Greek means "combatant". Thus, through the female line, Vladimir could be considered the direct heir to the throne of Byzantium.
It is believed that Constantine Monomakh gave his grandson Vladimir the well-known Monomakh cap as a sign that Vladimir contributed to the further advancement of the Orthodox faith in Rus'. This headdress was supposed to symbolize the continuity of power of Russian rulers from the Byzantine emperors. What kind of Monomakh hat is this?
This cap, a symbol of state power, is an antique piece of jewelry consisting of eight gold plates set with precious stones and weighs 498 grams. It is kept in the Kremlin Armory.
Kings wore Monomakh's hat only on the day of their royal crowning. The last Russian tsar to be crowned king with the cap of Monomakh was Ivan V, the elder brother of Peter the Great.
In turn, Vladimir Monomakh also continued the traditions of his grandfather and married the English princess Gita.
But let's return to Yaroslav the Wise. His other son Izyaslav married the sister of the Polish king Casimir Gertrude. Russian sources repeatedly mention the wife of the Kyiv prince Izyaslav, “Lyakhovitsa”. At baptism she received the name Elena, according to other sources Olisava (Elizabeth).
The princess was very educated, she was fluent in four languages ​​- Polish, German, Russian and Latin.
Prince Izyaslav listened to the words of his wife, she gave him wise political advice. For example, when he wanted to expel the monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, the princess stood up for them, citing the fact that unrest began in her homeland in Poland after the “Monnets” were removed from there.
With this in mind, Izyaslav allocated land for the expansion of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and founded the Dimitrovsky Monastery in Kyiv,
How did historians learn about Elena-Olisava’s active participation in governing the principality? After her, a Latin manuscript that belonged to her was preserved - the famous “Gertrude's Prayer Book”, with two miniatures depicting Gertrude herself, her son Yaropolk and his wife Irina.
In general, “Gertrude’s Prayer Book” is a unique monument in all respects. Currently, this prayer book is kept in the National Archaeological Museum of the northern Italian city of Cividale.
Continuing to talk about the political activities of Yaroslav the Wise, one cannot help but recall the fact that in order to strengthen the alliance with the Poles, the prince gave his sister Dobrogneva, who received the name Maria in Catholic baptism, as a wife to the Polish king Casimir.
Western historians report that the dowry received by Mary was so large that one could speak of “the enrichment of the kingdom thanks to such a brilliant marriage and the strengthening of its good neighborliness.” Maria Dobrogneva, together with her sons, also carried out state affairs.
In addition to his sons, Yaroslav the Wise had three daughters.
Yaroslav's eldest daughter Elizabeth, baptized Ellispva, was married to the Norwegian prince Harold the Terrible.
The prince met Elizabeth while serving at the court of Yaroslav the Wise. However, his attempt to immediately get the princess as his wife was unsuccessful: Yaroslav refused him, since the prince had neither wealth nor the throne. The Viking, having received a refusal, went to seek his fortune around the world in order to either forget the beautiful princess or become worthy of her hand and heart. He became famous for his military exploits in Italy and Sicily and acquired fame and enormous wealth, which he constantly sent to the court of Prince Yaroslav, proving that he was worthy of being his son-in-law.
The Norwegian prince turned out to be not only a Viking hero, but also a poet. In the best traditions of knightly poetry, he composed a song of 16 stanzas in honor of his beloved, each of which ended with the phrase: “Only a Russian girl in a golden hryvnia neglects me.” This song was repeatedly translated by Russian poets, in particular A.K. Tolstoy.
In 1035, Elizabeth was given to him as his wife, and Harold returned to Norway. However, he soon died in internecine wars. After his death, Elizabeth married the Danish king.
Yaroslav the Wise gave his second daughter Anastasia as a wife to the Hungarian King Andrew.
The name of Anastasia-Agmunda (she received this name upon conversion to the Catholic faith) is associated with the founding of two Orthodox monasteries - in Vysehrad and Tormov.
After the death of King Andrew, a political struggle for power began between his son and his opponents. Anastasia was forced to flee persecution to Germany. What happened to her in the future is not indicated in historical documents; the thread of her fate is lost.
The most interesting fate of the youngest and beloved daughter Anna, who was married to the French king Henry I.
The widowed French king Henry I of the Capetian dynasty heard about the Kyiv beauty and decided to marry her. Anna was beautiful (according to legend, she had “golden” hair), smart and received a good education for that time, she read a lot, because Yaroslav the Wise had the largest library of that time, and knew several foreign languages. At the time of the matchmaking she was about 17 years old.
Heinrich was not young, at over forty years old he was obese and always gloomy, besides, he was illiterate and signed himself with a cross. He had difficulty holding the reins of power and hoped to strengthen the country's prestige through a matrimonial connection with a strong state.
The main motive for this choice of the French king Henry I was the desire to have a strong, healthy heir. The second motive was that his ancestors from the Capetian house were related by blood to all neighboring monarchs, and the church forbade marriages between relatives. So fate destined Anna Yaroslavna to continue the royal power of the French Capetians.
Henry sent the first wedding embassy to distant Rus'. The ambassadors were instructed to obtain consent to marry Anna. But Yaroslav the Wise refused the first embassy; he wanted to give Anna to the German ruler Henry III in order to strengthen allied relations with the countries of the North-West.
However, Henry I of Capet was persistent, and a year later the ambassadors of the King of France went to Kyiv for the second time for a Russian bride, Princess Anna Yaroslavna. Yaroslav the Wise was forced to agree.
The matchmakers presented Yaroslav with rich gifts from Henry the First: Flemish brocade, Reims cloth, Orleans lace, the famous Toledo sword. Yaroslav also did not disappoint and gave furs, vodka, caviar, and numerous jewelry for his daughter, among which was the famous precious stone - the hyacinth of St. Denis. To these gifts Anna herself added books and several icons, including her most beloved, depicting Saints Gleb and Boris, the founders of their family. She did not forget about the ancient Gospel, written in Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet.
Anna Yaroslavna traveled for several months to France through Krakow, Prague and Regensburg. What did the young girl think, knowing that she was going to her husband, whom she had never seen, that he was ugly and not young? What kind of love could she dream of? After all, from childhood she was prepared to be a queen in a foreign country with foreign rituals and language. And all of Yaroslav’s daughters were ready for this. The prestige of the country was higher than personal feelings.
On May 14, 1051, Anna Yaroslavna solemnly arrived in France. A jubilant crowd in the ancient city of Reims came to greet their future queen. Anna was an excellent rider and proudly rode her horse into this unfamiliar country. Henry I went to meet his bride in Reims, where their wedding took place.
Anna Yaroslavna refused to swear in the Latin Bible and took an oath in the ancient Gospel, written in Cyrillic and Glagolitic, which she brought with her from Kyiv (it was already mentioned earlier).
Subsequently, according to tradition, the French kings, when anointing, made a vow to God on this Gospel, and since the Slavic alphabet was completely unfamiliar to them, they mistook it for some unknown magical language.
In July 1717, when Emperor Peter the Great visited Reims, he was shown this Gospel and explained that none of the people knew this “magic language.” Imagine the surprise of the French when Peter began to fluently read it aloud!
Now this Gospel is kept in Paris.
In the future, Anna, as the wise daughter of her father, will accept Catholicism.
Anna took part in governing the state - on documents of that time, next to her husband’s signature, her signature is also found. On state acts and charters you can read: “With the consent of my wife Anna,” “In the presence of Queen Anne.”
However, the first years of her life in this country were far from easy. Being a queen, she simply had no right to make the slightest mistake. In letters to her father, Anna Yaroslavna wrote that Paris is gloomy and ugly, like a village where there are no palaces and cathedrals, which Kyiv was rich in: “What a barbaric country have you sent me to. The houses here are gloomy, the churches are ugly.” Indeed, this was not the Paris that “you can see and die,” as they say now. It was Paris of the 11th century, a dirty village, and all the famous buildings appeared in it only after the 16th century.
Moreover, in Paris they did not use the bathhouse that Anna was used to, and Henry himself generally washed very rarely, about once a year. It’s hard to believe now, but the morals of that time really were like that.
The food was also different from what Anna was used to. In Rus' they ate porridge, pies, soups, drank honey drinks and decoctions, and in Europe at that time they ate lightly fried meat, washing it down with sour wine. Of course, she had to get used to a completely different way of life.
Moreover, Anna was hardly happy as a woman. Scientists have different opinions on this matter, and here's why: some of Queen Anne's fans believe that the king had homosexual tendencies, and he was absolutely indifferent to his young and beautiful wife, from whom he primarily expected an heir. Anna, apparently, also did not experience any other feelings for Henry, except for duty and respect.
The marriage of Anna and Henry lasted about nine years, then Henry died. Three sons were born from this marriage. The eldest Prince Philip became King of France at the age of 8.
The Greek-Byzantine name Philip was not used in Western Europe at that time. Anna named her eldest son by this name, and it later became widespread. It was worn by five more French kings; one can say that with Anna’s light hand this name became a family name in other European dynasties.
Anna achieved real recognition by continuing her husband's policy aimed at strengthening royal power in France. She managed to inspire respect for herself, showing herself to be a brave, persistent, selfless ruler, striving for the good of her kingdom.
At 30, she married again to Count Raoul de Valois. Apparently it was true love.
Anna, like Raoul, sacrificed a lot for this love. She alienated herself from her son the king, lost the title of queen, and along with the title she was deprived of the right to rule the kingdom. She preferred love to a high title, and this can be understood.
Where Anna's grave is located is unknown. Some believe that in France, but during the French Revolution her grave was plundered and lost. Others believe that she returned to Russia, but this is most likely just a legend. The most important thing is that Queen Anne is still honored and remembered in France.
The political steps of the sons, daughters and sisters of the powerful Yaroslav the Wise are worthy of remaining in our memory for the fact that they made a feasible contribution to strengthening the international prestige of their Motherland, their dynastic marriages contributed to the strengthening of friendly relations with the states of Western Europe and thereby strengthened the position of Rus' in the international arena.
The story about Anna Yaroslavna involuntarily echoes the story about another Anna, but one that happened 500 years after the above events.
We all know the story of Anne of Austria, Queen of France and wife of King Louis XIII thanks to Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers. Meanwhile, this woman played an extraordinary role in the events of the turbulent 17th century.
Anne was a Spanish princess belonging to the Habsburg dynasty. As is expected in arranged marriages, at the age of three she was betrothed to the French Dauphin Louis.
At the age of fourteen, Anna Maria was taken to Paris to marry the young King Louis XIII.
Anna was exhausted by curiosity as to what her fiancé would turn out to be - handsome or ugly, good or evil. But this did not play any role, since its task was to reconcile the long-warring dynasties of the Habsburgs and the French Bourbons.
Born in September 1601, Anna’s life, like that of other Spanish princesses, was subject to a strict routine: early rise, prayer, breakfast, then hours of study. Young infantas learned sewing, dancing and writing, crammed the sacred history and genealogy of the reigning dynasty. This was followed by a gala dinner, a nap, then games or chatting with the ladies-in-waiting (each princess had her own staff of courtiers). Then again long prayers and going to bed - exactly at ten in the evening. As you can see, Anna was raised in Spanish strictness.
The French court where Louis grew up was completely different from the Spanish one. Laughter and dirty jokes were often heard here, adultery was discussed, and the king and queen almost openly cheated on each other. They paid no attention to Louis at all, and his mother, Maria de Medici, visited him only to slap him in the face or whip him with rods for any offense. It is no wonder that he grew up withdrawn and obsessed with many complexes.
Louis also knew from childhood that Anna was destined for his wife, but already in advance he was prejudiced towards his future wife. Already at the age of three he spoke about her like this: “She will sleep with me and give birth to a child for me.” And then he frowned: “No, I don’t want her. She’s Spanish, and the Spaniards are our enemies.”
When he first saw Anna, she seemed so beautiful to Louis that he could not say a word to her. Anna was truly beautiful. From her Austrian ancestors she inherited blond hair and skin; only her black, burning eyes betrayed her Spanish origin.
In the evening, at the official engagement banquet, Louis was embarrassed and dumb as a fish.
In Paris, after the wedding, a marriage bed awaited the newlyweds, but Louis was so frightened that his mother had to almost force him into the bedroom where Anna was waiting. In addition to the mother, there were two maids present who instructed the young people what and how to do. In the morning, a crowd of courtiers was presented with evidence that “the marriage had taken place properly.”
It is no wonder that such actions led to the fact that Louis was completely discouraged from communicating with women. They say that after his wedding night he “did not look into his wife’s bedroom” for four whole years. The desired heir was never conceived - neither on the first night, nor for the next ten years.
Seeing the debauchery at court, Louis began to hate women and consider them insidious temptresses.
He forbade not only his wife, but also all the ladies of the court, from wearing too revealing necklines and tight dresses, so that their appearance would not distract him and his subjects from pious thoughts.
But the king behaved very affectionately with the handsome young pages, which gave rise to a wave of rumors in Paris. Louis spent whole days with them falconry, completely forgetting about his wife, and the young queen led a boring life in the Louvre, she yearned for male attention, which she was still deprived of. It took the efforts of the Pope and the Spanish ambassador for Louis to appear in his wife’s bedroom again, but the “honeymoon” was short-lived this time too. And yet, the queen did not want to cheat on her husband; her Spanish upbringing was reflected in her.
And then Cardinal Richelieu suddenly became involved in the “education of feelings” of the queen. Despite his rank, he did not shy away from women. Now he himself decided to win the heart of Anna of Austria.
The Cardinal hopes to do what Louis failed - to conceive an heir and elevate him to the throne of France. It is more likely that he simply wanted to keep the queen “under the hood”, preventing her from getting involved in any conspiracy. It cannot be ruled out that Richelieu was simply carried away by Anna, whose beauty had reached its peak; she was 24 years old, he was almost forty.
But the cardinal's masculine charms left her indifferent. Perhaps her Spanish upbringing again played a role - Anna perceived men in robes only as servants of the Lord.
And yet love visited the queen’s heart. This happened when the English envoy, 33-year-old George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, arrived in Paris.
Thanks to literature and films, we imagine the Duke of Buckingham as a kind of English macho who appeared on the French horizon.
In fact, he came from an impoverished family. The Duke's wealth and title came to him thanks to the generosity of the aging King of England, James I, whose young Buckingham was his lover, who even agreed to portray a jester at court for the sake of titles and wealth. In fact, Buckingham did not have homosexual inclinations.
Dying, the king bequeathed Buckingham to his son Charles as his chief adviser and lover, but the young people were truly connected by male friendship, so Buckingham did not become Charles’s lover.
At his request, the Duke came to France to woo the sister of Louis XIII, Princess Henrietta, to the new monarch.
As soon as Buckingham saw Anna, he lost his head. His masculinity surged within him, which he could not express under King James. The Duke spent three years of his life trying to win Anna's favor. Apparently, Anna did not deprive Buckingham of her attention, since she had long yearned for male attention. From the novels of Alexandre Dumas and films we know what a passionate love it was!
There was also a story with pendants. Several contemporaries speak about them in their memoirs, including the queen’s friend, the famous philosopher Francois de La Rochefoucauld.
D'Artagnan also existed. True, he did not take part in the mad rush to return the pendants to France, as we know from Dumas’ novel - at that time this son of a Gascon nobleman was only five years old.
Why was the cardinal so eager to annoy the queen? Of course, one of the reasons was his wounded pride as a rejected man. And of course, he was again afraid that Anna would conspire with the enemies of France. Therefore, he tried to quarrel between her and her husband. He succeeded: despite the return of the pendants, Louis was completely disappointed in his wife. She turned out to be not only an immoral person, but also a traitor, ready to exchange him for some foreigner! Buckingham was banned from entering France, and the queen was locked in the palace.
Soon the Duke of Buckingham died at the hands of an officer named Felton, who stabbed him with a sword. Many considered the killer to be the cardinal's spy, but no evidence of this was ever found.
Thus ended the tragic love of Anne of Austria and the Duke of Buckingham, in memory of which only the story of diamond pendants remains.
Anna of Austria lived in an atmosphere of conspiracies and intrigues. Despite this dynastic marriage, Spain continued to fight with France, and in order to avoid accusations of disloyalty, Anna did not communicate with her compatriots at all for many years and had already begun to forget her native language.
However, when she wrote a completely harmless letter to the Spanish ambassador in Madrid, it immediately fell into the hands of Cardinal Richelieu and was handed over to the king as proof of a new conspiracy. But this time Anna found an intercessor - the young nun Louise de Lafayette, with whom the king began a sublime “spiritual romance.” She reproached Louis for cruelty towards his wife and recalled that it was his fault that France was still left without an heir.
This suggestion was enough for the king to spend the night in the Louvre in December 1637, and after the allotted time, the queen had a son - the future “Sun King” Louis XIV. Two years later, his brother, Duke Philippe of Orleans, was born. Of course, the story with the “iron mask” is just another invention of novelists: there were no twins, sons were born one after another. However, many historians doubt that the father of both children was actually Louis XIII.
Many candidates were proposed for this role, including Richelieu, Mazarin and even Rochefort - that same scoundrel from The Three Musketeers. The king's brother Gaston d'Orléans, who shared with Anna a hatred of Richelieu, was not excluded. It is not unreasonable to assume that the cardinal personally selected and sent some strong young nobleman to the yearning queen to ensure the appearance of the Dauphin. And in the French film "The Three Musketeers" the father of the king was D'Artagnan himself.
The name of the real father of the “Sun King” became another mystery of Anna and history. She lived for 65 years and died of breast cancer, taking with her all the secrets.
Anna of Austria was neither cruel nor selfish. She cared in her own way about the good of the state and yet had the most vague idea about this good. She cannot be placed next to such great empresses as the English Elizabeth I or the Russian Catherine II.
Dynastic marriages were not always so unhappy. There are examples when spouses in such a marriage found love and happiness.
Over the years, films called "Sissi" were made about the romantic love of Elizabeth of Bavaria and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.
The life of Elizabeth, whom everyone called Sissy, in many ways remained a mystery, which after her death caused an avalanche of literary research with speculation and fantasies.
The story of her marriage was romantic. Franz Joseph was destined to marry Sissi's elder sister, Princess Helena, and the entire Bavarian family was invited to Austria for the "bride." At the end of a boring dinner, little Sissy fluttered into the room. Seeing her, Franz Joseph, who was already 23 years old, lost his head. He approached not the older sister, but the younger one and invited her to look at the horses. Returning from a walk, he announced to his mother that he was marrying, not Elena, but Princess Elizabeth. A few months later, on a ship strewn with flowers, the emperor took his young bride from Bavaria to Vienna along the Danube. Elizabeth experienced a similar love then.
Over the course of six years, she gave birth to two daughters, but after the difficult birth of her third child, the heir to the throne Rudolf, all feelings were cut off from the empress like a knife. Why this happened still remains a mystery.
Elizabeth leaves Vienna for a long time, away from her husband and children. She spends almost two years alone on the island of Madeira, then on Corfu. Although she returned to her husband, from then on she spent most of the year outside her empire. This suited her, but Franz Joseph was forced to accept it.
Elizabeth died in an unusual way, as she lived, as a result of a terrorist attack.
On September 9, 1898, Sissy arrived in Geneva. Tormented by a vague premonition, she decided to leave the next day by boat. Before landing, she managed to go to a music store, and then went on foot to the pier, which was about 100 meters away.
Just before the pier, a man suddenly ran across the street and, bending low, hit Elizabeth in the chest, as if with a fist. The empress fell, the man ran. Random passersby chased him and soon caught him. It turned out to be the Italian anarchist Luccheni.
Already on board, when the ship began to depart, Elizabeth suddenly turned pale and began to fall to her knees. It turned out that the terrorist who attacked her pierced her heart with an ordinary triangular file 16 cm long. With such a terrible wound, she talked, moved and lived for about half an hour.
Shortly before this, Franz Joseph was also assassinated by a terrorist from Hungary, but he survived. In general, the emperor reigned for about 70 years. He was a very conservative person who did not recognize any technical innovations. In his entire life, he only rode once in a car, did not use an elevator, did not use a typewriter, and did not like the telephone.
Some historians point to the fatal circumstances that accompanied the reign of Franz Joseph. This is the loss of his wife and several heirs to the throne.
Franz Joseph's son and heir, Crown Prince Rudolf, a very talented but unbalanced man, committed suicide at the age of 30 in the Mayrling hunting lodge near Vienna. The tragedy remains a mystery to this day: the most common version is that Rudolph killed his mistress, 17-year-old Maria Vechera, with a revolver shot, and a few hours later he shot himself, so unsuccessfully that he blew off almost the entire top of his skull.
What caused the double murder? Crown Prince Rudolf was married to Princess Stephanie of Belgium, but the marriage was unsuccessful. He fell in love with the daughter of Baroness Evenings; naturally, he could not marry her. In his suicide letter to Stefania, he writes: “You will get rid of my presence. I calmly go towards death, because this is the only way I can save my name. Your loving husband Rudolf.”
There is not a word in this letter about the motives for death, only a short hint. On
what - on a gambling debt, unhappy love, the inability to live double
life? The same hint is repeated in other suicide letters from the prince. It turns out that it was suicide.
The Mayerling tragedy has become the subject of many works of art and films.
The second tragedy is the famous Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian high school student, a member of a terrorist organization. This event marked the beginning of the First World War.
Austria-Hungary ceased to exist two years after the death of Emperor Franz Joseph.
And yet, the love story of the Bavarian Princess Elisabeth, nicknamed Sissi, and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph is an impeccable, well-selling brand. The love story of their son Rudolf and Maria Vechera is also often replicated. The Austrians know how to benefit from their history!
Here is another example of a successful dynastic marriage in Russia.
Princess Dagmar (her full name is Maria-Sofia-Frederica-Dagmar) from the Kingdom of Denmark has always been a desired bride for the rulers of many European countries, but she was given in marriage to the Russian Emperor Alexander III.
The decision was made by Alexander’s parents, and he had no choice but to agree to ask for Dagmar’s hand in marriage. “He bowed to necessity, to duty,” wrote S.D. Sheremetev, friend of the royal family. The fact is that Dagmar was supposed to marry his older brother Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future emperor, but he, having caught a cold, unexpectedly died from tuberculous meningitis and from improper treatment.
Dagmar also could not forget Nikolai, but agreed with her parents’ decision. Alexander was uncouth, poorly educated and unprepared for serious government activities, since he was never considered by his parents as a possible future emperor.
We remember that dynastic marriages are concluded without a hint of love.
When Princess Dagmar was escorted to the ship bound for Russia, the great storyteller Hans Christian Andersen could not hold back his tears when the princess, passing next to him, extended her hand in farewell. “Poor child!” he would write later. “There is a brilliant court in St. Petersburg and a wonderful royal family, but she is going to a foreign country, where there is a different people and religion, and there will be no one with her who surrounded her before.” But all the royal children are ready for this, knowing that their they must bring their lives for the good of their country.
But everything turned out to be not so bad.
The young crown princess, who took the name Maria Feodorovna at Orthodox baptism, began her family and social life. She regularly gave birth to children (there were five of them, of course, the first-born was named Nikolai in honor of the deceased older brother Alexander and ex-fiancé Dagmar) and participated in social life. Everyone admired her intelligence, beauty, and manners. She steadfastly withstood hours-long receptions, loved balls and dancing “till you drop,” and the crown princess did not change her love of dancing even during periods of pregnancy, she was friendly and at the same time majestic with everyone.
Unlike his wife, Alexander the Third did not like balls and receptions; he was overweight and was afraid to seem funny while dancing. But he liked military training and competitions, where he showed the abilities of an excellent shooter.
In the photo of that time, Dagmar looks like a small, thin, graceful girl, and next to her is the healthy, huge, real Russian hero Alexander the Third. By the way, he was the largest of all the reigning emperors.
Dagmar spent time not only at balls. She was probably the only one of the wives of the ruling emperors who devoted much time to charity.
She skillfully managed the Russian Red Cross Society, shelters, hospitals, and women's schools, organizing surprise checks in hospitals, while literally looking into the plates of the sick, asking what they were fed and what kind of bed linen they had.
During the First World War, she organized hospitals, collected things and food for soldiers, often visited warships, and “rooted” for the development of Russian military aviation. She herself was a skillful and economical housewife: she did not disdain to peel potatoes with her own hands and darn her husband’s socks. This is evidenced by photographs depicting the august lady with a knife and a potato in her hands.
Alexander Alexandrovich was completely captivated by the kindness, sincerity and amazing femininity of his chosen one. He wrote in his diary that if you have such a wife, you can be calm and happy.
The Emperor always remained emphatically, to the point of asceticism, modest in everyday life, and there was no posture in this.
They lived together for 28 years and really fell in love with each other and were very sad when they had to part, so they tried to do this as little as possible and, while apart, wrote to each other every day. In his letters he called her "Minnie".
Although Alexander did not like his wife to interfere in state affairs, Maria Feodorovna still secretly guided her husband, since Alexander III did not have great abilities in leading the country, and was not averse to drinking, so it was up to his crowned wife to ensure that decorum was maintained.
Maria Fedorovna, oddly enough, hated the Germans and everything German from childhood. The choice of her eldest son, the heir of Nicholas II, who decided to marry a German princess, was a blow for her. She resisted this marriage for a long time and subsequently did not love her daughter-in-law. She considered Alexandra Fedorovna to be overly hysterical, incapable of the burdensome imperial duties, and, moreover, with bad taste.
After the son’s marriage, relations with his daughter-in-law did not go well at all: the two empresses were too different in character. Alexandra Feodorovna, constantly immersed in her complex experiences that were incomprehensible to her mother-in-law, seemed vulnerable and at the same time too cold and alienated.
At the beginning of 1894, Alexander III suddenly and seriously fell ill. Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia. Having always given the impression of a man with powerful, even indestructible health, he literally melted before our eyes. All the famous doctors whom the royal family turned to for consultations could not establish the exact cause of the sharp deterioration in his health (as it turned out later, it was acute heart failure).
In addition, Alexander III himself really did not like to get sick and be treated; he simply ignored many of the recommendations of doctors. He began to experience severe swelling of his legs, shortness of breath and weakness, he became terribly thin, could not sleep or walk, and suffered terribly from acute pain in his chest. Maria Fedorovna transported him to Crimea, in the hope of the beneficial effects of the southern climate, but this did not help, and he soon died in the Livadia Palace. Having learned about this, Maria Fedorovna lost consciousness, so great was their love.
During these 13 years, while they jointly led the country, Russia lived without wars and upheavals, nevertheless having the highest political and military authority in Europe, although historians call this period “stagnation”.
After the revolution, Maria Feodorovna was not arrested along with the royal family. She was even allowed to say goodbye to her son Nicholas II, who had abdicated the throne, and leave for Crimea. There she received news of the death of her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. She was allowed to travel to her homeland, Denmark.
What else characterizes Maria Fedorovna as a noble person who loves Russia? This is that she took with her only a jewelry box when she emigrated, although she had at her disposal considerable wealth from the imperial dacha and a whole ship for exporting valuables.
Maria Feodorovna, whose maiden name was the Danish princess Dagmar, lived another seven years in her homeland in Copenhagen, in extreme poverty and loneliness. But until the end, she kept the box with her jewelry and believed that her son and grandchildren survived, and hoped to meet them.
Maria Fedorovna, despite her origin, was always considered to be originally Russian, therefore, at the insistence of the public, on September 28, 2006, her ashes were brought from Denmark and reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg.
As we reported earlier, Empress Maria Feodorovna was always against the marriage of her son Nicholas II and Princess Alix from the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. Alexander III also knew about his son’s passion for his charming cousin Alix, but was not enthusiastic about an alliance with another German ruling house. Having concluded an alliance with France, he considered marrying his heir to one of the princesses of the House of Orleans.
Nicholas was in despair, but in the end his parents agreed to his marriage to Alix, and Nicholas II married her (her full name was Alix Victoria Elena Brigitte Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, at baptism she received the name Alexandra Fedorovna).
Although this marriage did not contribute to the improvement of Russian-German relations, the emperor loved Alexandra Fedorovna all his life. This is one of the few cases where royalty married “for love.”
The Hessian princess was raised in Great Britain by her grandmother, Queen Victoria. In mind, feelings and tastes she was more like an Englishwoman than a German. The daily language of the last emperor's family was English. Letters in English from Nicholas II to his Alix, filled with love and tenderness, have been preserved.
Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna had 5 children: Princess Olga was born in 1895, Tatiana in 1897, Maria in 1898, Anastasia in 1901, and the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, was born in 1904.
After the revolution, the family was sent to Yekaterinburg. In July 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, headed by Chairman Sverdlov, decided to execute the royal family. Lenin believed that “it is impossible to leave a living banner, especially in the current difficult conditions.”
Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna and their children remained together until the last minute, understanding what awaited them. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the royal family, 3 servants and a doctor were shot in Ipatiev’s house. They did not part during life and did not part after death, their love went into eternity.
Thank God that history has put everything in its place.
The remains of the royal family were discovered and identified using modern methods. On July 17, 1998, they were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, princesses Olga, Maria, Tatiana, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei as martyrs.
Nowadays, there are also arranged marriages that occur among the political or economic elite. Such marriages are viewed more as a connection between different families (surnames, clans) than a personal relationship between a man and a woman. Although representatives of both families offer partners for future marriage, the decision remains with their children. Often, contractual relationships lead to good relationships and successful marriages over time.
At one time, the son of the President of Kyrgyzstan, Aidar Akayev, and the daughter of the President of Kazakhstan, Aliya Nazarbayeva, got married.
Another “dynastic marriage” of the century: not long ago, the son of the owner of Crocus International, Emin Agalarov, married Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the granddaughter of former President Heydar Aliyev.
Emin Agalarov was among the most eligible bachelors. He is attractive, well educated (he studied in the USA and Switzerland), and most importantly, he is the heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune.
Back in 2004, Forbes magazine included his father Aras Agalarov among the hundred richest Russians, placing him in 66th place with a capital of $360 million. Agalarov Sr. himself boasted that he plans to increase capital to $1 billion. However, Emin Agalarov is beautiful not only because of his father’s condition. His assets include his own acumen and efficiency. Now the twenty-five-year-old representative of the Agalarov dynasty is the commercial director of Crocus International. In addition, he is interesting as a person, musical, has a good voice, because he studied vocals with Muslim Magomayev himself.
Leyla Aliyeva is a worthy match for such a groom. She is a beautiful young girl, brought up in a Swiss school, pretty and smart. She is engaged in social activities, is the president of the foundation of her grandfather Heydar Aliyev, promotes recreation and resorts on the Caspian Sea, in addition, she is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the glossy magazine “Baku”.
Each marriage is the intersection of two family trees, with huge “crowns of ancestors.” And the ancestors are not indifferent: whether the branches of the family wither or bloom with many beautiful fruits. .
Dynastic marriages led to the fact that marital ties began to be concluded between cousins. Such marriages are called cousin marriages. In the next chapter we will move on to examine such marriages.

Yaroslav the Wise had three daughters. No information about the prince’s daughters has been preserved in Russian chronicles. All information that is known about them is collected from foreign sources, for example, Icelandic sagas or the multi-volume “History of Poland” by Jan Dlugosz (15th century). Therefore, the names of Yaroslav’s daughters - Anastasia, Elizaveta and Anna - can be considered quite conventional. All of them were married to foreigners and became queens of different European states.

Anastasia Yaroslavna is the eldest daughter of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerda of Sweden. She was born around 1023.

Anastasia's future husband, the Hungarian Duke Andras, together with his brothers Bela and Levente, was forced to flee Hungary after the massacre of their father Vazul, committed by King Stephen I the Saint. The brothers ended up first in the Czech Republic, then in Poland (where Bela remained, having married the daughter of the Polish prince Meshko II), then in Rus'. Historians differ regarding the date of the wedding of Anastasia and András: some call it 1038/39, others 1040/41, and others call 1046.

In 1046, the Hungarian nobility, dissatisfied with the pro-German policy of the king, invited András and his brother to Hungary. At the end of September, András ascended the throne, and in the spring of 1047 he was crowned in Székesfehérvár. So Yaroslav's daughter became the queen of Hungary.

In 1053, Anastasia gave birth to a son named Sholomon. It is also known that in Hungary Anastasia gave birth to a son, David, as well as at least one daughter. The birth of Sholomon, and later his coronation, led to conflict between the royal couple and the king's brother Bela, who was heir until the birth of the child.

In Hungary, Anastasia remained Orthodox. The founding of several Orthodox monasteries is associated with her name. One of them is in the name of St. Aniana in Tihany on Lake Balaton. Another Orthodox monastery was founded in Tormovo. Another monastery founded by Anastasia is the monastery in Visegrad.

In 1060, Bela rebelled against András and in the same year defeated his brother, shortly after which he died, and on December 6, 1060, Bela became king of Hungary. Anastasia and her children were forced to flee to the German king Henry IV, whose sister Judith Maria was engaged to Sholomon. Henry ordered them to live in Bavaria and paid their expenses from the royal treasury. Anastasia wanted German troops to help her overthrow Bela and return the throne to her son. The army had already begun to gather, but as a result of an accident, Bela received serious injuries and died. After Béla's death in 1063, German troops invaded Hungary, forcing his sons to flee to Poland.

Sholomon was declared the new king. In gratitude for the help provided to her, Anastasia gave the Bavarian Duke Otto of Northeim the Hungarian royal relic “Attila’s sword”.

With her young son, Anastasia ruled the kingdom, and their position remained precarious. The support of her and King Sholomon was Henry IV, and the sons of Bela I Geza and Laszlo were supported by Poland, as well as Anastasia’s brother, Prince of Kiev Izyaslav Yaroslavich, married to the Polish princess Gertrude.

At this time, Anastasia remarried the German Count Poto. She was against the armed struggle between Shalamon and his cousins ​​and urged her son to resolve all conflicts peacefully. In 1074, after the defeat of Shalamon's armies by the troops of Geza and Laszlo, their relationship became so tense that Shalamon raised his hand against his mother. Anastasia cursed her son, who lost the Hungarian throne because of his aggressiveness and greed.

Anastasia Yaroslavna curses her son Shalamon (Queen Judith is depicted in the foreground, with her back)

Anastasia died no later than 1094, since in this year she is already mentioned as having died. According to legend, she died in the Admont monastery in Styria.

2 Elizabeth

Elizaveta Yaroslavna is the second daughter of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingegerda of Sweden. She was probably born in 1025.

Elizabeth's future husband, Harald, son of King Sigurd the Pig of Eastern Norway, was the younger brother of King Olaf II of Norway. In 1030, when Harald was 15 years old, Olaf II died defending the throne from the Danish king Canute the Great. Harald had to go into hiding and then leave Norway. In 1031 he arrived in Kyiv, where he entered the service of Yaroslav the Wise. He wooed Elizabeth. But then Yaroslav did not agree to such a marriage, since the groom had neither money nor a throne.

After this, Harald went to Constantinople and signed up as a mercenary for the Byzantine emperor Michael IV of Paphlagon, who needed to keep his huge state in obedience. The emperor paid the elite mercenaries very generously. Harald fought in Africa, Sicily and Palestine, receiving a lot of money and achieving fame.

Returning from his travels, Harald received the hand of Elizabeth, with whom he married in the winter of 1043-1044. In the spring, Harald and Elizabeth went to Scandinavia. Having entered into an alliance with the king of Sweden, Harald equipped ships and set off on a military campaign against Denmark. Then Harald reconciled with his nephew Magnus, who ruled Norway at that time, and they began to rule the country together. Magnus soon died, and from 1047 Harald became the sovereign king of Norway. Elizabeth became queen.

By the time Harald began to rule Norway, he and Elizabeth already had two daughters: Maria and Ingigerda. Harald wanted to have a son, and he took his concubine Thora, who bore him not one, but even two sons: Magnus and Olav. Nevertheless, Elizabeth continued to share with her husband all the hardships of his turbulent life. When he decided to conquer England, Elizabeth and both of their daughters went on the campaign with him.

At first, luck smiled on the Norwegian king in England. He won a number of victories and captured several cities. But at the Battle of Stamfordbridge on September 25, 1066, an arrow hit him in his unprotected throat. The wound turned out to be fatal.

At the time of the battle, Elizabeth and her daughters were in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. Harald was confident that they were safe there. But, as the sagas say, on the same day that Harald died, his daughter Maria also died.

Elizabeth and Ingigerd returned to Norway. What happened to Elizabeth later is unknown. Her daughter Ingigerd married the Danish king Olaf Sveinsson and became Queen of Denmark.

3 Anna

Anna Yaroslavna is the youngest of three daughters of the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise from his marriage to Ingegerda of Sweden. She was born, according to various sources, around 1032 or 1036. In France they believe that she was born around 1025.

The 17th-century historian François de Mézeret wrote that Henry I of France “reached the fame of the charms of a princess, namely Anne, daughter of George, King of Russia, now Muscovy, and he was fascinated by the story of her perfections.” In 1051, Anna married the French king.

In 1052, Anna gave birth to an heir to the king, the future King of France Philip I, and then three more children (including two sons, Robert and Hugo, of whom the first died in childhood, and the second later became Count of Vermandois).

After Henry's death, Anna shared custody of the young Philip I with the regent Baudouin of Flanders. She took part in the royal court's tour of the domains at the end of 1060 - beginning of 1061, but soon her name again disappeared from the acts. Apparently, already in 1061 she married Count Raoul de Crepy. This lord had been constantly at court for several years, where he occupied a prominent place - right after the peers of France and the highest clergy. He was married for the second time, but accused his wife of adultery, drove her away and married Anna.

This marriage was scandalous for several reasons. Firstly, Raoul was a relative of King Henry; secondly, his previous marriage had not been dissolved, and now he was becoming a bigamist; thirdly, for the sake of this man, Anna abandoned her children, the youngest of whom was about seven years old.

In the 1060s, Anne founded the monastery of Saint Vincent in Senlis. In the portico of the monastery church in the 19th century, a statue of the queen was installed holding in her hands a model of the temple she founded.

Raoul de Crepy died on September 8, 1074, and a war of succession began between his relatives. Anna returned to the court. She signed the last document in 1075, in this act she is called simply "mother of the king", without a royal title. She is believed to have died between 1075 and 1089.