The most famous wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, Anna of Byzantium, married him in 988 on the eve of the christening of Russia. She was the daughter and sister of the emperors who reigned in Constantinople.
Anna's personality
Princess Anna of Byzantium was born in the family of Emperor Roman II in 963. My father only had to rule for 4 years. The girl's mother was a noble girl of Armenian origin. Roman died a few days after the birth of his daughter. The commander Nikifor Foka came to power, whom Anna's mother Feofano married. In 969 there was a coup d'état. Another commander, John Tzimisces, became emperor. He banished Anna and her mother from the capital.
The girl returned to Constantinople only after her older brothers took the throne. Anna was an enviable European bride, who was predicted to be the wife of many monarchs. Relatives treated the princess as an important political card and were in no hurry to marry her.
Dynastic marriages at that time were an integral part of state affairs. Anna was a valuable wife, not only because she came from the reigning Byzantine dynasty, but also because the girl received the best education,what only that era could give her. Contemporaries gave the bride the nickname Rufa (Redhead).
Enviable bride
Since 976, Anna's two brothers ruled in Constantinople - Vasily II the Bulgar Slayer and Constantine VIII. European sources of that time have confusing evidence about which of the Christian monarchs wooed a Byzantine princess before the Slavic prince Vladimir.
In 988, ambassadors from Paris arrived in Constantinople. The French king Hugh Capet was looking for a bride of equal dynastic stature for his son Robert II. The mission of envoys to Byzantium was of great importance for this monarch. His Capetian dynasty had just begun to rule, and it needed to emphasize its legitimacy. Robert was 9 years younger than Anna, but the age difference at that time was rarely considered when it came to politics. For unknown reasons, the organization of the marriage failed, and the girl remained at home.
Vladimir's matchmaking
How Anna Byzantine married Vladimir of Kyiv is best known thanks to The Tale of Bygone Years. According to this document, the Slavic prince went with an army to the Crimea, which belonged to the empire. On the peninsula, Vladimir captured the important city of Korsun. Rurikovich in a letter threatened Emperor Basil that he would attack Constantinople if he did not marry his younger sister to him.
Anna of Byzantium agreed to the marriage, but at the same time announced her condition. She demanded that VladimirHe was baptized according to the Greek Orthodox pattern. For the inhabitants of the empire, the Slavs were wild pagans from the northern steppes. In the Greek chronicles of the time, they were even called Tauris and Scythians.
The organization of Anna's move dragged on for several months. The emperor brothers hoped that they would be able to buy time and offer Vladimir other conditions. However, the Slavic prince firmly insisted on his own. For greater persuasiveness, he again promised to go with the army to the capital of the empire. When news of this threat reached Constantinople, Anna was hastily put on a ship.
Circumstances of Anna's arrival
Even before the Crimean events in Byzantium, there was a military rebellion of the influential commander Varda Foka. The two brother emperors found themselves in a precarious position. When, among other things, they were attacked by a Slavic prince, they agreed to accept his conditions concerning their marriage to Anna. Vladimir, according to pagan custom, had many concubines. However, it was not without reason that he chose the Byzantine princess. Rumors about personal merit spread among the diplomats of all European countries. They also reached Kyiv. For Vladimir, marrying the sister of the Byzantine emperor was not only a family matter, but also a matter of reputation.
According to the Greek chronicles, Anna treated her inevitable marriage as a national duty. In fact, she gave herself as a sacrifice to the ambitions of the prince of a wild country. The princess did not want a destructive war for her homeland and therefore agreed to leave for Kyiv. At that moment sheprobably did not expect happiness in Russia.
Wedding with a Slavic prince
The Byzantine princess Anna, when meeting with her chosen one, persuaded him to accept Christianity as soon as possible. The prince was indeed baptized very soon. After that, in 988, the couple married. Vladimir made peace with the Byzantine emperor and returned Korsun to him.
When the sovereign returned to Kyiv, he ordered to get rid of pagan idols and baptize all compatriots. The adoption of Christianity was an important state step for Vladimir, which he decided even before the start of the war with Byzantium. The campaign for him was just an excuse to talk with Vasily on an equal footing.
Christian marriage
With the help of the capture of Korsun, the Kyiv prince achieved two important things. Firstly, Princess Anna of Byzantium became his wife, which made him related to the powerful Greek dynasty. Secondly, Orthodoxy was adopted, which soon united the whole country. Prior to this, the Eastern Slavs were divided into several tribal unions that lived apart from each other. They had not only their own customs, but also gods. Pantheons often differed from each other. Christianity became an important religious bond that created the Russian nation.
Anna Byzantine (wife of Prince Vladimir) contributed to the spread of her native faith in a foreign country. The husband often consulted with his wife in religious matters. On her initiative, several churches were built. Especially important was the Kyiv Cathedral in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin. Laterit was nicknamed the Church of the Tithes due to the fact that a tenth of the princely income was spent on it. Together with Anna, numerous Greek missionaries and theologians came to the Russian lands.
Founder of Tithe Church
There is a lot of evidence that the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Anna became the founder of the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv. The temple was dedicated to the Mother of God, which hints that a woman was the initiator of its creation. Anna wanted the new building to have the architecture of Constantinople she was accustomed to.
The Church of the Tithes is often compared to the two great Byzantine churches - Blachernae and Pharos. She appeared next to Anna's palace in Kyiv. The climate of this city suited the Greek princess much more than the atmosphere of northern Novgorod, where Vladimir himself came from and where he spent his youth. His wife rarely left the southern capital. There, from Kherson, she was brought rich Greek gifts from her homeland, which replenished Anna's own treasury. Byzantine architects and craftsmen came from Crimea to help implement the project of the new Church of the Tithes.
Anna's death
Slavic Prince Vladimir and Anna Byzantine were married for 22 years. However, during this time they never had children. The sons of Vladimir, who later inherited his state, were offspring from the monarch's former connections. Being a pagan, Vladimir had his own harem and concubines. When the prince married a Greek princess, he left behind his formerlife.
Anna died in 1011 at the age of just 48. It is not known exactly what caused her death. Most likely, it was a disease caused by an epidemic. For Vladimir it was a heavy loss. After the death of his wife, he himself did not live long and died in 1015.
A marble sarcophagus was made for Anna. It was made by Greek craftsmen who decorated their creation with unique carvings. It was decided that it was in the Church of the Tithes that Anna Byzantine would be buried. An Armenian by origin, she was born and raised in Byzantium, and lived her adult life in Russia, where she died. A few years later, Vladimir was buried next to his wife. Their tombs were destroyed in 1240 when the Tatars captured and leveled Kyiv.
The meaning of marriage for Vladimir
Marriage with Anna glorified Vladimir. Some foreign chroniclers began to call him king, according to the title of his wife. It was under him that Russia finally became a part of Christian Europe and the local civilization. At the same time, one should not forget that Vladimir, while still a pagan, considered the possibility of converting to Islam or Judaism for state purposes. But in the end he chose Orthodoxy.
It was the Byzantine princess Anna (wife of Prince Vladimir) who helped him not to become dependent on the Byzantine emperor after the adoption of Christianity. On the contrary, the Kyiv ruler found himself on the same level as the monarch of Constantinople.
Russian Church without Anna
Anna's death hit the youngRussian church. In 1013, the stepson of Vladimir Svyatopolk, who claimed the future supreme power in Russia, married the daughter of Boleslav I, the Polish king and political opponent of the Kyiv princes. Even preparations began for the creation of the Turov Catholic Diocese. However, Vladimir did not tolerate the defiant behavior of his stepson. He arrested Svyatopolk and expelled Catholic missionaries from the country.
Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise paid much attention to religious issues. Under him, the Kyiv Metropolis was created, the first Russian hierarch Hilarion appeared. All these events somewhat overshadowed the important role that Anna of Byzantium played in the Christianization of Russia. Metropolitan Hilarion did not like the Greek influence on the church and therefore did everything so that the chroniclers did not particularly spread about the activities of Vladimir's wife. In many ways, the paucity of Russian sources that told about Anna is connected with this.
