- Family life and children of Vladimir I
Until his baptism,
Vladimir I of Kiev (c.958 –1015 ) was described byThietmar of Merseburg as "a great profligate" (Latin : "fornicator maximus"). He had a few hundred concubines in Kiev and in the country residence ofBerestovo . He also had official pagan wives, the most famous beingRogneda of Polotsk . His other wives are mentioned in thePrimary Chronicle , with various children assigned to various wives in the different versions of the document. Hence, speculations abound.Norse wife
Norse saga s mention that, while ruling inNovgorod in his early days, Vladimir had aVarangian wife named Olava or Allogia. This unusual name is probably a feminine form ofOlaf . According toSnorri Sturluson the runawayOlaf Tryggvason was sheltered by Allogia in her house; she also paid a large fine for him.Several authorities, notably Rydzevskaya ("Ancient Rus and Scandinavia in 9-14 cent.", 1978), hold that later
skald s confused Vladimir's wife Olava with his grandmother and tutor Olga, with Allogia being the distorted form of Olga's name. Others postulate Olava was a real person and the mother of Vysheslav, the first of Vladimir's sons to reign in Novgorod, as behooves the eldest son and heir. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the tradition of sending the eldest son of Kievan monarch to Novgorod existed at such an early date.Those scholars who believe that this early Norse wife was not fictitious, suppose that Vladimir could have married her during his famous exile in
Scandinavia in the late 970s. They usually refer an account inIngvars saga (in a part called "Eymund's saga ") which tells thatEric VI of Sweden married his daughter to a 'konung offjord lying to the East fromHolmgard '. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great.Polotsk wife
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Rogneda of Polotsk "Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's pagan wives, although her ancestry has fuelled the drollest speculations. See [http://www.genealogia.ru/ru/links/articles/drevnerus/index.htm this article] for extensive but tenuous arguments for herYngling royal descent.The
Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons -Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod ofVolhynia (+ca 995), andYaroslav the Wise . Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e.,Polotsk . According to theKiev an succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to theKiev an throne, because their forefather had never ruled inKiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of whichVseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable.Greek wife
During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by
Svyatoslav I inBulgaria and married to his lawful heirYaropolk I . Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon (some would say, too soon) gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers".Bohemian wife
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Malfrida "Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given byVasily Tatishchev asMalfrida . Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the1015 internecine war, andMstislav of Chernigov . Some chronicles, however, report that Rogneda was Mstislav's mother.Bulgarian wife
Another wife was a Bulgarian lady, whose name is given by Tatishchev as Adela. Historians have disagreed as to whether she came from
Volga Bulgaria or fromBulgaria on theDanube . According to thePrimary Chronicle , bothBoris and Gleb were her children. This tradition, however, is viewed by most scholars as a product of later hagiographical tendency to merge the identity of both saints. Actually, they were of different age and their names point to different cultural traditions. Judging by his Oriental name, Boris could have been Adela's only offspring.Anna Porphyrogeneta
Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of Emperor
Romanos II and Theophano, was the only princess of the Makedones to have been married to a foreigner. The Byzantine emperors regarded the Franks and Russians as barbarians, refusingHugues Capet 's proposals to marry Anna to his son Robert I, so theBaptism of Kievan Rus was a prerequisite for this marriage. Following the wedding, Vladimir is said to have divorced all his pagan wives, although this claim is disputed. Regarded by later Russians as a saint, Anna was interred with her husband in theChurch of the Tithes .Anna is not known to have had any children. Either her possible barrenness or the Byzantine house rule could account for this. Had she had any progeny, the prestigious and much sought imperial parentage would have certainly been advertised by her descendants. Hagiographic sources, contrary to the
Primary Chronicle , positBoris and Gleb as her offspring, on the understanding that holy brothers should have had a holy mother.German wife
Anna is known to have predeceased Vladimir by four years.
Thietmar of Merseburg , writing from contemporary accounts, mentions thatBoleslaw I of Poland captured Vladimir's widow during his raid onKiev in1018 . The historians long had no clue as to identity of this wife. The emigre historian Nicholas Baumgarten, however, pointed to the controversial record of the "Genealogia Welforum" and the "Historia Welforum Weingartensis" that one daughter of Count Kuno von Oenningen (future DukeKonrad of Swabia ) by "filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris" (Otto the Great 's daughter; possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis] , claimed by some as illegitimate daughter and by others legitimate, born from his first marriage with Edith of Wessex) married "rex Rugorum" (king of Russia). He interpreted this evidence as pertaining to Vladimir's last wife.It is believed that the only child of this alliance was Dobronega, or Maria, who married
Casimir I of Poland between1038 and1042 . As her father Vladimir died about 25 years before that marriage and she was still young enough to bear at least five children, including two future Polish dukes (Boleslaw II of Poland , who later became a king, andWladyslaw Herman ), it is thought probable that she was Vladimir's daughter by the last marriage.Some sources claimed Agatha, the wife of
Edward the Exile of England, was another daughter of this marriage and full-sister of Dobronegra. Their marriage took place by the same time of Dobronegra's wedding (the date of birth of her first child support this) and this maybe because was double wedding of both sisters. This can resolve the question about the connection between Agatha and the Holy Roman Empire claimed by several medieval sources.Yaroslav's parentage
There is also a case for Yaroslav's descent from Anna. According to this theory,
Nestor the Chronicler deliberately represented Yaroslav as Rogneda's son, because he systematically removed all information concerning Kievan ties withByzantium , spawning pro-Varangian bias (seeNormanist theory for details). Proponents allege that Yaroslav's true age was falsified by Nestor, who attempted to represent him as 10 years older than he actually had been, in order to justify Yaroslav's seizure of the throne at the expense of his older brothers.The
Primary Chronicle , for instance, states that Yaroslav died at the age of 76 in1054 (thus putting his birth at978 ), while dating Vladimir's encounter and marriage to Yaroslav's purported mother, Rogneda, to980 . Elsewhere, speaking about Yaroslav's rule in Novgorod (1016), Nestor says that Yaroslav was 28, thus putting his birth at988 . The forensic analysis of Yaroslav's skeleton seems to have confirmed these suspicions, estimating Yaroslav's birth at ca. 988-990, after both theBaptism of Kievan Rus and Vladimir's divorce of Rogneda. Consequently, it is assumed that Yaroslav was either Vladimir's natural son born after the latter's baptism or his son by Anna.Had Yaroslav an imperial Byzantine descent, he likely would not have stinted to advertise it. Some have seen the willingness of European kings to marry Yaroslav's daughters as an indication of this imperial descent. Subsequent Polish chroniclers and historians, in particular, were eager to view Yaroslav as Anna's son. Recent proponents invoke
onomastic arguments, which have often proven decisive in the matters of medievalprosopography . It is curious that Yaroslav named his elder son Vladimir (after his own father) and his eldest daughter Anna (as if after his own mother). Also, there is a certain pattern in his sons having Slavic names (as Vladimir), and his daughters having Greek names only (as Anna). However, in the absence of better sources, Anna's maternity remains a pure speculation.Obscure offspring
Vladimir had several children whose maternity cannot be established with certainty. These include two sons, Stanislav of Smolensk and Sudislav of Pskov, the latter outliving all of his siblings. There is also one daughter, named Predslava, who was captured by Boleslaw I in Kiev and taken with him to
Poland as a concubine. Another daughter, Premyslava, is attested in numerous (though rather late) Hungarian sources as the wife of Duke Ladislaus, one of the early Arpadians.
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