Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, she is Zoya Paleologina (born about 1455 - death on April 7, 1503) - Grand Duchess of Moscow. The wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan IV the Terrible. Origin - Byzantine imperial dynasty of Palaeologus. Her father, Thomas Palaeologus, was the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and the despot of Morea. Sophia's maternal grandfather - Centurione II Dzakkaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia.
Profitable marriage
Ivan III Vasilievich was widowed in 1467. Two years later, an embassy from Rome came to Moscow. Cardinal Vissarion, a champion of the Florentine unity of the churches, in a letter offered Ivan Vasilyevich the hand of Sophia, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, daughter of his brother Thomas, Prince of Morea, who, after the fall of Constantinople, found refuge with his family in Rome. Pope Paul II, through his cardinal, decided to arrange the marriage of Sophia with the Grand Duke in order to establish relations with Moscow and try to assert his authority over the Russian Church.
Such a proposal pleased the proud Ivan; but he, in his cautious disposition, did not immediately agree. He consulted with his mother, with the Metropolitan, and with the nearest boyars. Everyone found, like the king himself, this marriage desirable. Ivan Vasilievich sent Ivan Fryazin, his money-holder (who minted the coin), as ambassador to Rome. He returned from there with letters from the pope and a portrait of Sophia and was again sent to Rome to represent the groom at the betrothal. The Pope thought to restore the Florentine connection and hoped to find a strong ally against the Turks in the Russian sovereign. Fryazin, although he adopted Orthodoxy in Moscow, did not particularly value it and therefore was ready to promise the Pope everything he wanted, just to settle the matter as soon as possible.
Summer 1472 - Sofia Palaeologus was already on her way to Moscow. She was accompanied by Cardinal Antony; besides this, many Greeks were with her. On the way, solemn meetings were arranged for her. When she was approaching Pskov, the mayors and clergy with crosses and banners came out to meet her. Sophia went to the Trinity Cathedral, where she prayed fervently and applied to the images. The people liked it; but the Roman cardinal, who was with her, confused the Orthodox.
He was dressed, according to the chronicler, not according to our custom - all in red, on his hands were gloves, which he never took off and blessed in them. Before him was carried a cast silver crucifix on a long shaft (Latin canopy). He was not baptized and did not apply to images; he venerated only the icon of the Virgin, and then at the request of the princess. The Orthodox did not like it all very much.
From the church, Sophia went to the prince's court. There the mayors and boyars treated her and those close to her with various dishes, honey and wine; finally, presents were presented to her. Boyars and merchants gave it as gifts, whoever could. From all of Pskov, they presented her with 50 rubles. It was just as solemnly received in Novgorod.
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When Sophia was approaching Moscow, the Grand Duke conferred with his mother, brothers and boyars, what to do: he found out that wherever Sophia entered, the papal cardinal walked in front of him, and a Latin kryz was carried in front of him. Some advised not to forbid this, so as not to offend dad; others said that it had never happened before in Russia that such honor was given to the Latin faith; Isidore tried to do it, and for that he died.
The Grand Duke sent to ask the Metropolitan how he thought about this, and received the following answer:
- The papal ambassador not only enter the city with a cross, but even drive up close is inappropriate. If you honor him, he will be at one gate to the city, and I, your father, will be at the other gate out of the city! Not only to see, but also to hear about it is indecent. Whoever honors someone else's faith swears at his own!
Such intolerance of the Metropolitan to the Clatinians showed in advance that the papal ambassador would not be able to achieve anything. The Grand Duke ordered the boyar to take the cross from him and hide it in the sleigh. At first, the legate did not want to yield; in particular, Ivan Fryazin opposed, who wanted the papal ambassador to be received in Moscow with the same honor that they received him, Fryazin, in Rome; but the boyar insisted, and the order of the grand duke was fulfilled.
Sophia's arrival in Moscow
1472, November 12 - Sofia entered Moscow. On the same day they got married; and the next day the papal ambassador was received. He presented the Grand Duke with gifts from the Pope.
Within three months there was a Roman embassy in Moscow. Here he was treated, held in great honor; Ivan III generously endowed the cardinal. He tried to talk about the unification of churches, but from this, as expected, nothing came of it. Ivan Vasilyevich gave this church matter to the decision of the metropolitan, and he found some scribe Nikita Popovich to compete with the legate. This Nikita, according to the chronicler, argued with the cardinal, so that he did not know what to answer - he excused himself only by the fact that there were no books with him necessary for an argument. The Pope's attempt to unite the churches ended in complete failure this time.
Dowry of Sophia Palaeologus
Sophia brought with her a generous dowry. It was the legendary "Liberia" - a library allegedly brought in on 70 carts (better known as "the library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even surviving books from the legendary Alexandrian library.
The wedding of Ivan III with the Byzantine princess Sophia
According to legend, Sophia brought with her as a gift to her husband a “bone throne” (now known as “the throne of Ivan the Terrible”): its wooden frame was covered with plates of ivory and walrus with biblical subjects carved on them.
Sophia also brought several Orthodox icons, including, presumably, a rare icon of the Mother of God "Blessed Sky".
The value of the marriage of Ivan and Sophia
The marriage of the Grand Duke with a Greek princess had important consequences. There have been cases before that Russian princes married Greek princesses, but these marriages were not as important as the marriage of Ivan and Sophia. Byzantium was now enslaved by the Turks. The Byzantine emperor used to be considered the main protector of all Eastern Christianity; now the Moscow sovereign was becoming such a defender; with the hand of Sophia, he, as it were, inherited the rights of the Palaeologus, even assimilated the coat of arms of the Eastern Roman Empire - a two-headed eagle; on the seals that were hung on the letters, they began to depict a two-headed eagle on the one hand, and on the other - the former Moscow coat of arms, George the Victorious, slaying the dragon.
The Byzantine order began to affect more and more strongly in Moscow. Although the last Byzantine emperors were not at all powerful, they held themselves very high in the eyes of everyone around them. Access to them was very difficult; many different court officials filled the magnificent palace. The splendor of the palace customs, the luxurious royal clothes, shining with gold and precious stones, the unusually rich decoration of the royal palace - all this in the eyes of the people greatly elevated the person of the sovereign. Everything bowed before him, as before an earthly deity.
It was different in Moscow. The Grand Duke was already a mighty sovereign, and he lived a little wider and richer than the boyars. They treated him respectfully, but simply: some of them were from appanage princes and their origin, like the Grand Duke, was from Rurik. The unpretentious life of the tsar and the simple treatment of him by the boyars could not please Sophia, who knew about the royal greatness of the Byzantine autocrats and saw the life of the popes at court in Rome. From his wife and especially from the people who came with her, Ivan III could hear a lot about the court life of the Byzantine kings. He, who wanted to be a real autocrat, had to really like many of the Byzantine court orders.
And little by little, new customs began to appear in Moscow: Ivan Vasilyevich began to behave majestically, in relations with foreigners he was titled "tsar", he began to receive ambassadors with magnificent solemnity, established a ceremony of kissing the tsar's hand as a sign of special mercy. Then came the court ranks (nursery, equestrian, bed-man). The Grand Duke began to reward the boyars for merits. In addition to the boyar's son, at this time another lower rank appears - the devious.
The boyars, formerly advisers, Duma members, princes, with whom the sovereign, as usual, consulted about any important matter, as with comrades, now turned into his obedient servants. The sovereign's grace can raise them up, anger can destroy them.
Towards the end of his reign, Ivan III became a real autocrat. Many boyars did not like these changes, but no one dared to express this: the Grand Duke was very severe and punished severely.
Innovations. Sophia's influence
Since the arrival of Sophia Palaeologus in Moscow, relations have been established with the West, especially with Italy.
An attentive observer of Moscow life, Baron Herberstein, who twice came to Moscow as the ambassador of the German emperor under Ivanov's successor, after listening to boyar talk, notes about Sophia in his notes that she was an unusually cunning woman who had a great influence on the Grand Duke, who, according to her suggestion, did a lot … Even Ivan III's determination to throw off the Tatar yoke was attributed to her influence. In boyar tales and judgments about a princess, it is not easy to separate observation from suspicion or exaggeration guided by ill will.
Moscow at that time was very unattractive. Small wooden buildings placed at random, crooked, unpaved streets, dirty squares - all this made Moscow look like a big village or, rather, like a collection of many country estates.
After the wedding, Ivan Vasilyevich himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin, into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all began with the catastrophe of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, erected by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble was due to the "Greek", which had previously been in "Latin". While the reasons for the collapse were clarified, Sophia advised her husband to invite architects from Italy, who were then the best craftsmen in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and support the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only to the Second, but also to the First Rome.
One of the best Italian builders of that time, Aristotle Fioravanti, agreed to go to Moscow for 10 rubles a month (the money was decent at that time). In 4 years, he built a magnificent temple at that time - the Assumption Cathedral, consecrated in 1479. This building has survived to this day in the Moscow Kremlin.
Then they began to build other stone churches: in 1489 the Annunciation Cathedral was erected, which had the significance of the tsar's house church, and shortly before the death of Ivan III, the Archangel Cathedral was built again instead of the old dilapidated church. The sovereign decided to build a stone chamber for ceremonial meetings and receptions of foreign ambassadors.
This building, built by Italian architects, known as the Faceted Chamber, has survived to this day. The Kremlin was again surrounded by a stone wall and decorated with beautiful gates and towers. For himself, the Grand Duke ordered to build a new stone palace. Following the Grand Duke, the Metropolitan began to build brick chambers for himself. Three boyars also built stone houses for themselves in the Kremlin. Thus, Moscow began to gradually build up with stone buildings; but these buildings were not part of the custom for a long time after that.
Birth of children. State affairs
1474, April 18 - Sophia gave birth to her first (quickly died) daughter Anna, then another daughter (who also died so quickly that they did not have time to baptize her). Disappointments in family life were compensated for by activity in public affairs. The Grand Duke consulted with her in making state decisions (in 1474 he bought out half of the Rostov principality, entered into a friendly alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey).
Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus
Sophia Paleologue took an active part in diplomatic receptions (the Venetian envoy, Cantarini noted that the reception she organized was "very stately and affectionate"). According to the legend, cited not only by Russian chronicles, but also by the English poet John Milton, in 1477 Sophia was able to outwit the Tatar khan, announcing that she had a sign from above about the construction of a temple to St. Nicholas on the place in the Kremlin where the house of the khan's governors who controlled the collection of yasak stood and the actions of the Kremlin. This legend presents Sophia with a decisive nature ("she drove them out of the Kremlin, she demolished the house, although she did not begin to build the temple").
1478 - Russia actually stopped paying tribute to the Horde; 2 years remain until the complete overthrow of the yoke.
1479, March 25 - Sophia gave birth to a son, the future Prince Vasily III Ivanovich.
In 1480, again on the "advice" of his wife, Ivan Vasilyevich left with the militia to the Ugra River (near Kaluga), where the army of the Tatar Khan Akhmat was stationed. "Standing on the Eel" did not end with the battle. The onset of frost and lack of food forced the khan and his army to leave. These events put an end to the Horde yoke.
The main obstacle to the strengthening of the grand-ducal power collapsed and, relying on his dynastic connection with “Orthodox Rome” (Constantinople) through his wife Sophia, the sovereign proclaimed himself the successor of the sovereign rights of the Byzantine emperors. The Moscow coat of arms with St. George the Victorious was combined with the double-headed eagle - the ancient coat of arms of Byzantium. This emphasized that Moscow is the heir to the Byzantine Empire, Ivan III is “the king of all Orthodoxy,” the Russian Church is the successor of the Greek one. Under the influence of Sophia, the ceremonial of the grand ducal court acquired an unprecedented splendor, similar to the Byzantine-Roman one.
Rights to the Moscow throne
Sophia began a stubborn struggle to justify the right to the Moscow throne for her son Vasily. When he was eight years old, she even tried to organize a conspiracy against her husband (1497), but he was discovered, and Sophia herself was convicted on suspicion of magic and connection with the "woman-witch" (1498) and, together with Tsarevich Vasily, was subjected to disgraced.
But fate was merciful to her (over the years of her 30-year marriage, Sophia gave birth to 5 sons and 4 daughters). The death of Ivan III's eldest son, Ivan the Young, forced Sophia's husband to change his anger to mercy and return the exiled to Moscow.
Death of Sophia Palaeologus
Sophia died on April 7, 1503. She was buried in the Grand Duke's tomb of the Ascension Convent in the Kremlin. The buildings of this monastery were dismantled in 1929, and the sarcophagi with the remains of the Grand Duchesses and Queens were transported to the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin, where they remain today.
After death
This circumstance, as well as the good preservation of the skeleton of Sophia Palaeologus, made it possible for experts to recreate her appearance. The work was carried out at the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medicine. Apparently, there is no need to describe in detail the recovery process. We only note that the portrait was reproduced using all scientific methods.
The study of the remains of Sophia Palaeologus showed that she was short in stature - about 160 cm. The skull and each bone were carefully studied, and as a result, it was established that the death of the Grand Duchess occurred at the age of 55-60 years. As a result of studies of the remains, it was established that Sophia was a plump woman, with strong-willed features and had a mustache that did not spoil her at all.
When the face of this woman appeared before the researchers, it once again became clear that nothing is accidental in nature. We are talking about the amazing resemblance of Sophia Palaeologus and her grandson, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, whose true appearance we are well aware of from the work of the famous Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov. The scientist, working on the portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich, noted the features of the Mediterranean type in his appearance, linking this precisely with the influence of the blood of his grandmother, Sophia Palaeologus.