The relationship between the Orthodox rulers of Russia and the throne of St. Peter was not always hostile. The Vatican sought to subjugate the Orthodox churches through union, and Russian princes sometimes were not averse to using this desire for their own political gain.
One of the first such attempts was made in the middle of the 13th century by the Galician prince Daniel Romanovich. With the help of the Pope, he hoped to overthrow the yoke of the Mongol-Tatars. In exchange, he agreed to church union with Rome. Not receiving support from the Polish and Hungarian kings and the German emperor, which the Pope had promised him, Prince Daniel dissolved the union. However, the title of "King of Russia" (regisRusic), which was bestowed on him by the papal throne, was borne by his descendants until the middle of the XIV century.
There is information that Alexander Nevsky also tried to enlist the support of the Roman high priest. It is unlikely that ambassadors from Pope Innocent IV could come to him without prior agreement with him. This happened in 1250 - at the same time when Daniel called on the Vatican to help him. Alexander's brother, Andrei Yaroslavich, then reigning in Vladimir, entered into an alliance with Daniel, and both of them were preparing to act against the Mongol-Tatars. There is no doubt that Alexander also probed the opportunity to enter this union, and the papal diplomats also tried to help him. But something went wrong, and, as you know, while Andrew and Daniel raised a revolt, Alexander went to the Horde and begged the khan for a label for the great reign. And in the annals there was only a story aboutthat the ambassadors of Innocent IV tried to persuade Alexander to accept Catholicism (which has to be doubted, since the usual aspiration of the popes has always been only church union, which is also proved by the history of Daniel Galitsky).
At the end of the 15th century, Muscovite Rus was completing the unification of the Great Russian lands and came to the final overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke. These historical milestones are inextricably linked with the name of Ivan III the Great. His wife Maria, Princess Tverskaya, suddenly died in 1467. The Grand Duke of Moscow was looking for a new wife and was not averse to becoming related with some famous foreign dynasty. Ivan III was well aware that such a step would strengthen the international position of the united Russian state he was creating.
Earlier, in 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople. The “Second Rome” fell, and a crowd of noble emigrants set out from Byzantium to Italy. Most of them settled in Venice, where they brought the legacy of ancient Greek writers, which gave a huge impetus to the Renaissance.
Among the exiles were the offspring of the last reigning dynasty - the Palaeologus. All of them accepted the union even earlier, and in Italy they became Catholics. The future wife of Ivan III, Sophia, was originally baptized into Catholicism under the name Zoya.
Pope Paul II and the government of the Venetian Republic initiated the marriage of the Moscow sovereign with the Byzantine princess, according to most researchers. The main intermediaries in the conclusion of the marriage deal were the Venetian Gian Batista della Volpe, who served the Moscow Grand Duke, known as Ivan Fryazin, and the Venetian ambassador Giovanni Trevisan, who served the Grand Duke of Moscow. Volpe-Fryazin represented Ivan III in his betrothal to Zoya in Rome, and the Pope himself presided over the ceremony.
Ivan III was shown a portrait of his bride in advance. There was nothing attractive about her. In addition, the Moscow sovereign knew that the Pope had already tried three times to marry Zoe, and each time unsuccessfully - because of the refusal of suitors who found more attractive parties. The exiled princess was not. This means that Ivan III decided on this marriage only by calculation, and not on an alliance with Byzantium, which no longer existed, but with the patron saint of Zoe herself, that is, with the papal throne.
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The bride's procession across Russia was led by the papal legate Antonio Bonumbre, the princess's confessor, who carried a huge Latin (four-pointed) cross. Despite the obvious indignation of the Russians, the Grand Duke ordered to remove this "canopy" only when the procession approached Moscow itself. Apparently, he was afraid to anger the Vatican ambassador.
A strange change took place in Moscow. Our chronicles call Zoya Sophia, and this, according to the historian M. Zarezin, indicates that Zoya was baptized according to the Orthodox rite and was given a new name. We can only guess why such a change took place in the attitude of Ivan III (and his new wife) to Rome. After all, the Grand Duke could not help but know that Zoya was a Catholic, nevertheless, during the negotiations on marriage, there was no talk of her conversion to Orthodoxy. The most likely version is associated with politics.
Even before the wedding of the Grand Duke (1472), Ivan Fryazin fell into disgrace, and then a sharp deterioration in relations between Moscow and Venice. As it turned out, Trevisan came to petition for an alliance between Moscow and the Golden Horde against Turkey, which at that time did not threaten Moscow in any way. Ivan III realized that they just wanted to use him in other people's interests, and he would not wait for help in liberation from the Golden Horde from the Italians.
True, then Ivan III changed his anger to mercy in relation to Venice, and throughout his reign, masters of various crafts came to Moscow from there. But the talk of a political alliance with the Republic of St. Mark (and with its debtor - the papal throne) never came up again. And the Horde yoke was overthrown by Moscow in alliance with the Crimean Khan.
Thus ended another short-term and invariably unsuccessful attempt of Russia and the Vatican to conclude a political alliance. Russia wanted concrete help in gaining independence, not wanting to compromise church independence, and the main thing for the papal throne was to assert dominion over the Russian Church. But the very marriage of Ivan the Great with the Byzantine princess patronized by the Vatican left a deep mark in the history of Russia.
Yaroslav Butakov