When Anna Yaroslavna, the daughter of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise, married King Henry the First of France, she took with her to Paris as a dowry not only gold, diamonds, but also many old manuscripts, including runic books and scrolls. Anna herself received a good education.
She already in her youth knew Greek, Latin, as well as three European languages. The young queen immediately showed herself to be an energetic statesman. On the French documents of that time, along with the signatures of her husband, her signature is also found. Although few of the European queens of those times intervened in state affairs.
Have you ever wondered why European monarchs sought to enter into marriage alliances with the daughters of Slavic princes? Although modern official history still believes that the Slavs in the eleventh century were illiterate, barbarian tribes. Where is the logic?
But the Russian tsars before Peter the Great never married foreign women. Subsequently, German princesses were wedded to the future sovereigns, but let's see exactly where these German women came from.
Catherine the Great
Sophia Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst - the future Empress Catherine II. Her homeland is Prussia. Moreover, she even hails from the places where the Obodrit Slavs lived until the 12th century. And even the names of cities are well translated into Russian: Andelburg - Stargrad; Schleswig - Slavsik. Germanized Slavs lived there. It was enough that she was from a Slavic family
The city of Schleswig has been known since the fifth century and was called until the tenth century - Slavsik - the city of the Slavs. Historians have unearthed that Princess Sophia comes from the same princely family that gave Russia Rurik.
Promotional video:
Perhaps this is the key to Catherine's love for everything Russian and her quick adaptation to an unfamiliar country.
There are notes by Catherine II, in which she writes that she first saw the road in Russia. A princess from civilized Europe saw the road for the first time! It is worth thinking about whose civilization was more civilized. Upon arrival in Russia, the princess immediately began to study the Russian language, quickly realizing that she was in a great power.
It is worth remembering that it was under Catherine the Great that the borders of the Russian Empire were significantly extended to the west to the Commonwealth and to the south - Novorossia and Crimea were annexed. Culturally, Russia finally became one of the great European powers, which was greatly facilitated by the empress herself, who was fond of literary activities. She collected masterpieces of painting, was in correspondence with French enlighteners. The system of public administration under Catherine II was reformed. Russia became one of the most enlightened powers of the eighteenth century.
At the subconscious level, Catherine the Great realized that she had fallen into her own environment - the environment of the Slavs. And this made her, of her own free will, to accept Orthodoxy, to thoroughly learn the Russian language, to study Russian history and Russian traditions. She was more Russian than the surrounding boyars and nobility.