Eupraxia of Kiev

Eupraxia of Kiev (1071- 20 July, 1109) was the daughter of Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev and second wife of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. She was the sister of Vladimir Monomakh.

Eupraxia was first married to Henry the Long, Markgraf of Nordmark. They had no children before his death in 1087. Eupraxia went to live in the convent of Quedlinburg, where she met Henry, who was then the Saxon king. He was greatly impressed by her beauty, and after his first wife died in December 1087, he married Eupraxia in 1089 in Cologne. She assumed the name "Adelheid" upon her coronation.

According to the chroniclers, Henry became involved in the Nicolaitan sect, and hosted the sect's orgies and obscene rituals in his palaces. Eupraxia-Adelheid was forced to participate in these orgies, and on one occasion Henry allegedly offered her to his son, Conrad. Conrad refused indignantly, and then revolted against his father. This black legend takes its origin from the hostility between Emperor Henry and Pope Urban II during the Investiture Controversy.

During Henry's campaigns in Italy, he took Eupraxia-Adelheid with him and kept her sequestered at Verona. She escaped in 1093 and fled to Canossa, where she sought the aid of Matilda of Tuscany, one of Henry's enemies. She met with Pope Urban II, and on his urgings Eupraxia-Adelheid made a public confession before the church council at Placentia. She accused Henry of holding her against her will, of forcing her to participate in orgies, and of attempting a black mass on her naked body.

Eupraxia-Adelheid left Italy for Hungary, where she lived until 1099, when she returned to Kiev. After Henry's death in 1106 she became a nun until her own death in 1109.

References

*George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976).
*Christian Raffensperger, “Evpraksia Vsevolodovna between East and West” "Russian History/Histoire Russe" 30:1–2 [2003] , pp. 23–3.