Princess Anna Yaroslavna is the youngest of the three daughters of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise.
1048 - the ambassadors of the widowed French king arrived in the Kiev palace of Yaroslav Vladimirovich. N. M. Karamzin, reports this, referring to the manuscripts stored in the St. Omer Church.
How old was Anna then? Different sources have different answers about the date of her birth: 1024, 1032 or 1036. The genealogical code "Prince Rurik and his descendants" carefully indicates that Anna was born after 1016, and died between 1075 and 1089. TG Semenkova believes that when the embassy arrived, Anna Yaroslavovna was 16 years old. As you can see, this age is more in line with the traditions of early marriages in that era.
The Kiev prince was at the zenith of his power. The tragic events of the struggle for power, in which some of the sons of Vladimir Svyatoslavich died, have sunk into the past. A huge country, from the Baltic to the Black and Azov Seas, was ruled solely from Kiev. The German chroniclers of Yaroslav Titmar of Merseburg and Adam of Bremen compared Kiev to Constantinople, the largest and most majestic city of the early Middle Ages. And there was every reason for this.
What led the embassy of the King of France, which, according to historical evidence, included two bishops?
The French king did not want to tie the knot with the daughters of the French feudal lords formally subordinate to him. The rulers of neighboring states, as Karamzin wrote, were in kinship with Henry. The Pope declared it a sin and incest to marry Henry's father with a fourth-generation relative. The monarch did not have children from his first marriage, and he wanted to have a wife capable of giving birth to healthy children, preferably a son who would inherit the royal throne. The way out of the situation was to search for a bride in a country as remote as possible, but at the same time having fame and prestige in Europe.
The presence of two bishops in the embassy clearly spoke of the importance that the King of France himself and the French Church attached to it.
Imagine the state of the Kiev princess, whom people from a distant foreign country came to woo.
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Imagine her father, far from sentimental, who should have made a decision. Of course, he was flattered by this offer. Constantinople could not approve of Anna's marriage with the Western European king, who recognized the Pope as spiritual ruler. But Yaroslav did not want to follow the policy of Byzantium.
It was necessary to resolve many issues - from the size of the dowry to ensuring the safety of the bride and her retinue during a long journey. Judging by the fact that we do not know anything about further Russian-French ties of the Middle Ages, political and economic interaction did not act as one of the conditions for marriage.
After agreeing on all the circumstances of the wedding, which could take a lot of time, the bride set off on her way to her groom. To the armed detachment of French knights, who accompanied the ambassadors, were added the father's warriors. A wagon train with a dowry was added, which also required protection. The journey to France took several months, was not easy and dangerous. I had to go through the territories of neighboring states: Poland, Germany.
Of course, Henry could not wait calmly for the bride to be delivered to Paris. Etiquette required the groom to meet the bride. One should take into account the natural impatience of the King of France when he meets a young girl destined for his wife.
Departure of Anna Yaroslavna
The marriage took place on May 19, 1051 (according to the dating of E. V. Pchelov; in the encyclopedia "History of Russia" the date is given on May 14, 1049, in the "Slavic Encyclopedia" 1049 is indicated), almost three years after the matchmaking of the French king. A year later, the most important wish of the monarch came true: in 1052 Anna Yaroslavovna presented him with an heir. Under the name of Philip I in 1060, he ascended the throne. Soon two more sons appeared: Hugo and Robert. Robert died as a child, and Hugo was a loyal assistant to his brother Philip, who became the French king. Subsequently, Count Hugh de Vermandois took part in the first crusade.
The division of the churches into Eastern and Western, which occurred in 1054, apparently did not affect the position of the queen in any way. Probably, she was baptized according to the Catholic rite, because among the French, Anna Yaroslavna is better known by the name of Agnes.
After Henry's death on August 4, 1060, the regent, Count Baudouin, ruled on behalf of his eight-year-old son, but his mother, Anna Yaroslavna, also took part in the administration of France. This follows from the fact that government documents have her signatures, including in Russian. Documents signed jointly by King Henry and Queen Anne have also survived to this day.
It is interesting to note that the name Philip is of Greek origin and means "horse lover, rider, rider." In Western Europe, the heiress of Roman culture and under the spiritual direction of the pope, Greek names, especially in royal families, were not used. Anna broke with tradition. Over time, this name became very common in Europe, especially in the Spanish and French royal dynasties. The very name of Yaroslav's daughter, translated from Hebrew, means "merciful, gracious, giver of joy." In fact, the beautiful Queen of France knew how to give joy to people.
There is reason to believe that Anna was an attractive woman and loved life. Just a year after the death of her husband, she remarried the Count of Valois, Raoul de Crépy. He traced his origin from Charlemagne himself. A number of historians have indications that the marriage was not committed by mutual consent, the count kidnapped the king's widow from the monastery of St. Vincent (Vincent) in Senlis, which she founded. Anna became his third wife while the Count's previous wife was still alive. The Pope did not bless this marriage and declared it invalid. But the couple continued to live together and, apparently, were happy.
For this act, the society and the church together condemned Raoul and Anna. The Pope was furious, wrote a letter to the count, in which he excommunicated him from the church and ordered Anna Yaroslavovna to return to the court.
The lovers did not follow the order. For several years Anna lived in the Raoul Castle. During this time, she completed her monastery. Her reputation is tarnished, but her state mentality remains in order. While the sons were growing up, the mother ruled France from a distance. Therefore, over time, the queen was forgiven. When she became close to Valois, she could no longer choose power, she chose what was more important - love.
Anna Yaroslavna also outlived her second husband: Raoul de Crepy died in 1074. After the death of her beloved, Anna's life lost its meaning.
Aged and lonely, no longer needed by the children, the Queen Mother settled in Senlis far from everyone. France again became a foreign country for her. Anna is gradually losing interest in government affairs, and does not go on her favorite horseback riding trips. The last document with her signature, as noted by G. V. Vernadsky, is dated 1075. By this time, her son Philip, the French king, was already 23 years old, and then he could already rule the state independently.
Being in the distance, Anna Yaroslavna was looking forward to news from her home. And they were not always good. Immediately after she left Kiev, her mother died. 4 years later, Prince Yaroslav the Wise died. During her lifetime, her father did not have the firmness to decide on the appointment of one of his sons as his legal successor. He simply divided the lands between the brothers, which led to a rivalry between them for the princely throne. Now, more than ever, Anna Yaroslavna felt loneliness and melancholy. Many relatives and loved ones have passed away.
And then … the queen disappeared.
The place and time of Anna's death are not known exactly. Most likely, she ended her days in one of the monasteries in France. In the study of V. M. Kogan and V. I. Dombrovsky-Shalagin "Prince Rurik and his descendants" it is said that she was buried in the monastery founded by her in the city of Senlis. Her piety and generosity towards the churches was well known.
There is a version that at the end of her life Anna returned to her homeland. It is based on a single message, anonymous and unreliable, which sums up her life in one phrase: "The king is dead, Anne married Count Raoul, he died, she returned to her homeland" (Chronicle of the Abbey of Fleury). This information, firstly, is clearly not enough to draw any conclusions, and secondly, it is difficult to imagine what reasons could induce Anna to return to her homeland, where hardly anyone was waiting for her. The unfoundedness of this version was already obvious to Karamzin.
She brought with her to France the Slavic Gospel, now known from the place of its storage as the "Reims Gospel". Anna Yaroslavovna took religiosity from her father, Yaroslav. He built churches, paid much attention to other church affairs. On his initiative, Illarion became the first metropolitan of Russian origin. From her father, Anna, apparently, inherited an imperious character. She took an active part in governing the country, as evidenced by her signatures on numerous government documents.
The descendants of Anna Yaroslavna, representatives of the Capetian, Valois and Bourbon dynasties, ruled France until Napoleon Bonaparte and until 1830 after the restoration of the monarchy that followed Napoleon's abdication. In Spain and now the king is a representative of the Bourbon dynasty, a distant relative of the Russian Rurikovich.
In France, they remember the Russian princess who became the queen of France. A marble monument has stood in Senlis since the 17th century. A life-wise woman with regular, beautiful facial features, wearing a crown on her head with long braided braids and loose robes, holds a royal scepter and a model of the temple, and the inscription reads: "Anna of Kiev, Queen of France, founded this cathedral in 1060".
And in the 30s of the twentieth century, she performed another miracle: she helped save St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev from destruction. By that time, the Mikhailovsky Cathedral had already been destroyed, the Soviet government also wanted to demolish Sophia, built by Yaroslav the Wise. Here the memory of the Queen of France intervened. The French asked the Soviet authorities not to destroy the cathedral, which was built by the father of Queen Anne. Fearing to spoil diplomatic relations with France, the cathedral was left in place.