The coat of arms - the two-headed eagle inherited from Byzantium after the marriage of Sophia Palaeologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, with the Grand Duke Ivan III. Why did the Greek princess prefer the Moscow prince to the rest of the contenders for her hand? And there were applicants from the most notable European families, and Sophia refused all. Maybe she wanted to marry a man of the same Orthodox faith? Perhaps, but hardly an insurmountable obstacle for her would be marriage with a groom, for example, of the Catholic faith. After all, the Orthodox faith did not prevent her uncle Dimitri Palaiologos from becoming citizens of the Islamic Sultan, and later her brother Manuel. The main motive was, undoubtedly, the political calculation of the Pope, with whom Sophia was brought up. But this decision did not come suddenly and not simply.
People of the Middle Ages … From some of them only names and scant information on the pages of chronicles have survived, others were participants in turbulent events, the intricacies of which scientists are trying to figure out today. The life of Sophia (Zoya) Palaeologus fell on an amazing and difficult period of the reign in Russia of one of its most interesting sovereigns - the Grand Duke Ivan III, among whose nicknames such is the Terrible. One can argue for a long time about the role of Sophia in the domestic life of the country, in the struggle for the throne between the children of Ivan III. But now we are talking about something else. At the end of the twentieth century, we had the opportunity to look into the face of this woman: the science of reviving the appearance of people from bone remains is now developing very successfully in Russia. The leading expert in this field, S. A. Nikitin (Moscow), recreated, among others, a sculptural portrait of Sophia Paleologue. Before us is the face of an undoubtedly intelligent and strong woman who has gone through a lot, including complex palace intrigues, and has achieved that it was her eldest son Vasily who took the grand-ducal table. The high level of methods allows today even to compare the skulls of Sophia Palaeologus and her grandson, Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The method of shadow photomaping (original development by S. A. Nikitin) clearly showed that these are the skulls of close relatives. Even M. M. Gerasimov, a famous Russian anthropologist, noted in the guise of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the features of the Mediterranean type, inherited by the Terrible from his grandmother, the Byzantine princess Zoe Palaeologus. The lid of the sarcophagus of Ivan III's second wife is adorned with a short epitaph - "Sophia", which, of course, does not reflect the events of Russian history in the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries, in which Sophia Palaeologus was an active participant.
Let us first turn to the history of Byzantium. In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into eastern (Byzantine) and western. Byzantium considered itself the successor of Rome and - by right. The West entered a period of decline in culture and spiritual life, and in Constantinople, social life was still in full swing, trade and crafts flourished, and the legal code of Justinian was introduced. Strong state power limited the influence of the church on intellectual life, which had a beneficial effect on education, science and art. Byzantium, being a bridge between Europe and Asia, occupied the most important strategic position. But she was forced to fight on all four sides - with the Persians, Goths, Avars, Huns, Slavs, Pechenegs, Polovtsy, Normans, Arabs, Turks, and crusaders.
Since the end of the XII century, the star of Byzantium has gradually declined. That was the time of a desperate, full of dramatic struggle against a powerful rival - the Turks, an energetic, warlike and numerous people. (His pressure did not weaken and kept Europe in terror until the 18th century.) Gradually, in parts, the Turks seized the lands of the empire. At the end of the XIV century, the Balkan Slavic countries submitted to them, and the position of Byzantium became critical. The struggle culminated in the 15th century. Byzantium fought stubbornly, courageously, ingeniously. The famous Byzantine diplomacy showed miracles of resourcefulness. To a large extent, it was through her efforts that the famous crusades of the knights were made in due time, which significantly weakened the Turkish sultanate and delayed the collapse of the empire.
In 1453, Ottoman troops laid siege to Constantinople - this is how an old engraving depicts the siege. The empire was doomed.
Byzantium lacked its own strength to cope with the Turkish threat. Only the united efforts of all of Europe could stop the Turkish expansion. But European politicians did not manage to come to such a unification: the stumbling block remained the religious strife between Orthodox Byzantium and the Catholic West (as you know, the split of the Christian Church occurred in the 9th-11th centuries). And then the emperor John VII Palaeologus in 1438 made a truly historic attempt to bring the churches closer together. Byzantium at that time was in a difficult situation: the nearest suburbs of Constantinople, several small islands and the despotate Morey, with whom there was no land communication, remained under its rule. The thin thread of the current truce with the Turks was about to break.
John III negotiates with Pope Eugene IV to convene an Ecumenical Council in order to finally bring about the unification of the churches. The Byzantines are making the greatest possible in those circumstances preparation for the council, which, according to their plan, should accept the church dogmas common to the entire Christian world. In the course of this preparation (for our story, the fact is very important), a famous church figure, diplomat, orator and thinker Isidore, a staunch supporter of the unification of churches (it was he who unwittingly played a big role in the fate of Sophia Paleologue and Ivan Vasilyevich), is appointed Metropolitan of Moscow.
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The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III (left) in the battle with the Tatar Khan. The engraving of the 17th century symbolically depicts the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
In 1438, a delegation headed by the emperor and patriarch left Constantinople for Italy. Metropolitan Isidore with a delegation from Russia arrived separately. For over a year in Ferrara, then in Florence, fierce theological disputes continued. They did not lead to agreement on any point. By the end of the council, strong pressure was exerted on the Greek side, and the Byzantines signed a final document, the so-called Florentine Union, in which they agreed with the Catholics on all positions. However, in Byzantium itself, the union divided the people into its supporters and opponents.
So, the merging of the churches did not happen, the only correct political move did not take place. Byzantium remained face to face with a powerful enemy. With the light hand of the French enlighteners of the 18th century, who saw Byzantium as a stronghold of monarchism, it is traditionally accepted to speak of it as a decaying, stagnant, decrepit country (this attitude was reinforced by hostility to Orthodoxy). Our thinkers Chaadaev and Herzen did not like her either. Western historians still have a slight disdain for Byzantium.
Ivan III Vasilievich ruled on the Moscow throne from 1462 to 1505.
Meanwhile, she stood at the most important strategic point, on the border of East and West, owned the straits and held out for 1100 years! Byzantium, albeit weakened, not only heroically fought against numerous invasions, but also preserved the colossal cultural potential accumulated by the ancient Greeks and Romans. When church obscurantism and intolerance to any deviation from the biblical canons reigned in Europe, Roman law was taught at the University of Constantinople, all citizens of Byzantium were legally equal before the law, literate people were read by ancient authors, and in schools they taught to read according to Homer! And it is still not known when the Italian Renaissance would have appeared, which turned a person from sterile scholasticism to the brilliance of ancient culture, if not for the constant cultural contacts of Europeans with their eastern neighbor.
State seal of Ivan the Terrible.
State seal of the Russian Empire at the end of the 17th century.
In April 1453, Constantinople was besieged by the troops of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, numbering, according to various estimates, from 200 to 300 thousand soldiers. The most powerful artillery at that time, a huge amount of siege equipment, a large fleet, excellent specialists in digging and blasting operations - everything was directed against the great city. The siege was carried on continuously and persistently. In order to deprive the Greeks of the relative safety of their sea walls, the Turks already in the course of the battles transported 70 heavy warships by dragging along the many kilometers of wooden flooring to the inner harbor of the Golden Horn, protected by chains.
What could the Byzantines oppose to all this power? Powerful ancient stone walls and towers, deep ditches, traps and other defensive structures, built at different times by excellent fortification engineers. The city was inaccessible to pre-firearms. But there was almost no artillery on the walls, and the besieged used only stone-throwing machines in battle. The emperor was able to put only 7 thousand soldiers on the walls; there were only 25 ships in the harbor. In the city itself, there were incessant religious disputes between Orthodox and Catholics, provoked by the adoption of the Union of Florence. Religious strife greatly weakened the defensive potential of Constantinople. And this was also taken into account by Mehmed.
But, in spite of everything, the morale of the defenders was incredibly high. The heroic defense of Constantinople has become legendary. The defense was led and inspired by the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaeologus, a courageous and experienced warrior with a strong and decisive character. For a month and a half, all assaults, all attacks from the sea are repelled, the trenches are unraveled and eliminated.
But on May 29, 1453, during the last assault, part of the wall collapsed under the blows of cannonballs. The selected units of the Janissaries rushed into the breach. Konstantin gathers the remaining defenders around him and rushes into the last counterattack. The forces are too unequal. Seeing that everything was over, he, a descendant of the ancient Greeks, rushed with a sword in his hands into the thick of the battle and died heroically. The great city fell. Byzantium perished, but perished undefeated. "I'm dying, but I don't give up!" is the motto of her heroic defenders.
State banner with the emblem.
The fall of Constantinople made a deafening impression throughout the then world. The Europeans seemed to believe in a miracle and expected the city to resist again, as it happened more than once in the past.
For three days, the conquerors kill, rob, rape, and drive the inhabitants into slavery. Books and works of art perish in the fire. Few were able to escape on ships. The exodus to Europe began from the still free Byzantine lands.
Of Constantine's closest relatives, two brothers survived - Demetrius and Thomas, who each ruled their own part of the despotate Morey on the Peloponnese peninsula. The Turks systematically annexed the remaining lands of Byzantium to the Sultanate. Morea's turn came in 1460. Dimitri remained in the service of the Sultan. Thomas left for Rome with his family. After his death, his two sons, Andrew and Manuel, and his daughter Sophia were in the care of the Pope.
Sophia with her charm, beauty and intelligence has earned universal love and respect in Rome. But the years passed, it was time for her to get married. Pope Paul II offers noble suitors, but she rejects everyone (even the King of France and the Duke of Milan) on the pretext that they are not her faith. The final decision to marry Sophia to the Moscow prince Ivan III Vasilievich, who was widowed several years ago, was made by the Pope under the influence of Cardinal Vissarion. Vissarion of Nicaea, one of the most enlightened people of his era, formerly an Orthodox metropolitan, is a close friend and associate of Isidore of Moscow in his desire to unite the churches. Together they actively spoke at the Florentine Cathedral, and, naturally, Vissarion heard and knew a lot about Russia.
The Grand Duke of Moscow was at that time the only Orthodox monarch independent of the Turks. Experienced politicians in Rome saw that a growing Russia had a future. Roman diplomacy was constantly looking for ways to counteract the Ottoman expansion to the West, realizing that after Byzantium, Italy could come. Therefore, in the future, one could count on Russian military assistance against the Turks. And here is such a convenient opportunity: by marriage to involve Ivan Vasilyevich in the sphere of Roman politics and make an attempt to subjugate a huge and rich country to Catholic influence.
So the choice is made. The initiative came from Pope Paul II. In Moscow, they did not even suspect about all the subtle intricacies in the papal palace when an embassy from Italy arrived with a proposal for a dynastic marriage. Ivan, as usual, consulted with the boyars, the Metropolitan, and his mother. All in unison told him one thing, and he agreed. An exchange of embassies followed. Then there was the bride's triumphal journey from Rome to Moscow, Sophia's solemn entry into the Kremlin, the first date of the young couple, the bride's acquaintance with the groom's mother and, finally, the wedding.
And now let's look in a historical retrospective at some important events in the life of two countries - Byzantium and Russia - related to the two-headed eagle.
In 987, the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir I concluded an agreement with the Byzantine emperor Vasily II, according to which he helped the emperor suppress the rebellion in Asia Minor, and in return he had to give Vladimir his sister Anna as a wife and send priests to baptize the pagan population. In 988, Orthodoxy was officially introduced in Russia according to Byzantine rites. This step determined the further fate and culture of Russia. But the princess did not come. And then in 989 the Grand Duke seized the Byzantine colony of Chersonesos in Taurida. In the ensuing negotiations, they came to an agreement: Vladimir would return the city to the Greeks as soon as Anna came to the groom. And so it turned out. This dynastic marriage was an exceptional event at that time: Anna is the sister of Basil II and the daughter of the previous emperor Roman II. Until that moment, not a single porphyry princess or a Byzantine princess had married a foreigner.
The children of emperors, born in a special room of the female half of the imperial palace in Constantinople - Porphyry, were considered porphyry. Even random people could become emperors in Byzantium, which, by the way, often happened. But only the children of the ruling emperors could be porphyry. In general, in the early Middle Ages, the authority and prestige of the Byzantine court in the eyes of Europeans was enormous. The royal houses of Europe considered it the highest honor to have at least some sign of attention from the emperor, not to mention family ties. Therefore, the marriage of Vladimir to Anna had a great resonance in that world and increased the international weight of the new Christian state at the very beginning of its Christian path.
And now, five centuries later, the last princess of the already dead Byzantium also marries the Russian Grand Duke. As an inheritance, she brings to our country the ancient coat of arms of the Byzantine Empire - a two-headed eagle. The once great empire, which had perished, seemed to be passing the baton to an Orthodox country with the emerging Great Russian nation.
A few words about the very first consequences for Russia of the arrival of Sophia with the coat of arms of her ancestors. Highly educated at that time, she herself and her Greek confidants clearly had a positive effect on the cultural level at the court of the Grand Duke, on the formation of a foreign department, on increasing the prestige of the grand duke's power. The new wife supported Ivan III in his desire to improve relations at court, abolish the inheritance and establish the order of succession to the throne from father to eldest son. Sophia, with her aura of the imperial grandeur of Byzantium, was an ideal wife for the Russian tsar.
It was a great reign. The figure of Ivan III Vasilyevich, who basically completed the unification of the Russian lands into a single state, was for his time only comparable in scale of deeds to Peter I. One of the most glorious deeds of Ivan III is the bloodless victory of Russia over the Tatars in 1480 after the famous "standing on river Ugra ". Complete legal liberation from the remnants of the Horde dependence was marked by the appearance on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, the Byzantine, and now Russian, two-headed eagle.
Double-headed eagles in coats of arms are not uncommon. Since the 13th century, they appear in the arms of the counts of Savoy and Würzburg, on Bavarian coins, they are known in the heraldry of the knights of Holland and the Balkan countries. At the beginning of the 15th century, Emperor Sigismund I made the double-headed eagle the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, and after its collapse in 1806, the double-headed eagle became the coat of arms of Austria (until 1919). Both Serbia and Albania have it in their coats of arms. He is in the arms of the descendants of the Greek emperors.
How did he appear in Byzantium? It is known that in 326 the emperor of the Roman Empire Constantine the Great made the double-headed eagle his symbol. In 330, he transferred the capital of the empire to Constantinople, and from that time on, the two-headed eagle was the state emblem. The empire splits into western and eastern, and the double-headed eagle becomes the coat of arms of Byzantium.
In the appearance of the two-headed eagle as a symbol, there is still much that is not clear. It is known, for example, that he was portrayed in the Hittite state, a rival of Egypt, which existed in Asia Minor in the second millennium BC. In the VI century BC. e., as archaeologists testify, a two-headed eagle can be traced in Media, east of the former Hittite kingdom.
In 1497, it first appears as the state coat of arms on the double-sided wax state seal of Russia: its obverse shows the coat of arms of the Moscow principality - a horseman slaying a dragon (in 1730 he was officially named St. George), and on the reverse side - a two-headed eagle. For almost five hundred years of life in Russia, the image of the eagle on the Russian coat of arms has changed several times. The double-headed eagle existed on seals until 1918. The eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers in 1935. And on November 30, 1993, by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin, the two-headed sovereign eagle of Russia was again returned to the Russian coat of arms. And at the end of the 20th century, the Duma legalized all the attributes of the symbols of our country.
The Byzantine Empire was a Eurasian power. It was inhabited by Greeks, Armenians, Turks, Slavs and other peoples. The eagle in its coat of arms with heads looking to the West and to the East symbolized, among other things, the unity of these two principles. This is just as suitable for Russia, which has always been a multinational country, uniting the peoples of both Europe and Asia under one coat of arms. The sovereign eagle of Russia is not only a symbol of its statehood, but also a symbol of a thousand-year history, of our ancient roots. It is a symbol of the historical continuity of cultural traditions - from a lost great empire that managed to preserve Hellenic and Roman cultures for the whole world to a young growing Russia. The two-headed eagle is a symbol of the unification and unity of Russian lands.
A. BARYBIN