Anna Vsevolodovna of Kiev | |
---|---|
Died | 3 November 1112 |
House | Rurikid |
Father | Vsevolod I of Kiev |
Mother | Anastasia of Byzantium |
Anna Vsevolodovna of Kiev, also called Yanka or Ianka (died 3 November 1112), was a princess of Kievan Rus', known for having introduced schools for girls in Kievan Rus'. She is one of the six women mentioned by their full personal names in the Primary Chronicle (PVL). [1]
She was the daughter of Vsevolod I of Kiev and Anastasia. She was engaged to the Byzantine prince Konstantios Doukas in 1074. [2] The marriage never materialized, as Constantine Dukas was forced to become a monk in 1081 and died in same year before they could be married.
In 1089, Anna lead an embassy to Byzantium with the purpose of selecting a new metropolitan in Rus'. [3] During her stay in Constantinople, she was impressed by the scholarly learning in Byzantium, at that time a center of culture and education, and upon her return to Rus', she introduced an innovation of learning for women. [3] Her intended Byzantine marriage not having been realized, she remained unmarried, and instead founded a convent for women named Ianchinii. [3] She became a nun and started a school for girls. [4] Her convent school was the first school for girls in Rus'. [3] She organized the school herself, selecting the teachers, preceptresses, requirements and curriculum, offering "writhing, needlework and other useful crafts", such as rhetoric and singing. [3] Her innovation introduced the Byzantine tradition of education for upper class women in Kievan Rus', and during the 12th and 13th centuries, convent schools became common in Kievan Rus', founded and managed by princesses, noblewomen and abbesses, and many aristocratic and clerical women became literate and educated in Greek and Latin, philosophy and mathematics and several nuns and abbesses noted writers. [3]
Olga was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Sviatoslav from 945 until 957. Following her baptism, Olga took the name Elenа. She is known for her subjugation of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor. Even though it was her grandson Vladimir who adopted Christianity and made it the state religion, she was the first ruler to be baptized.
Vsevolod I Yaroslavich was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1078 until his death in 1093.
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych, given the epithet "the Great", was Prince of Novgorod from 970 and Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 until his death in 1015. The Eastern Orthodox Church canonised him as Saint Vladimir.
Sviatoslav or Svyatoslav I Igorevich was Prince of Kiev from 945 until his death in 972. He is known for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers in Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire. He conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, defeated the Alans and attacked the Volga Bulgars, and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars (Hungarians).
Anne of Kiev or Anna Yaroslavna was a princess of Kievan Rus who became Queen of France in 1051 upon marrying King Henry I. She ruled the kingdom as regent during the minority of their son Philip I from Henry's death in 1060 until her controversial marriage to Count Ralph IV of Valois. Anne founded the Abbey of St. Vincent at Senlis.
The Grand Prince of Kiev was the title of the monarch of Kievan Rus', residing in Kiev from the 10th to 13th centuries. In the 13th century, Kiev became an appanage principality first of the grand prince of Vladimir and the Mongol Golden Horde governors, and later was taken over by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Vladimir II Monomakh was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is celebrated on May 6.
Sviatoslav II Iaroslavich or Sviatoslav II Yaroslavich was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1073 until his death in 1076. He was a younger son of Yaroslav the Wise, the grand prince of Kiev. He is the progenitor of the Sviatoslavichi branch of Rurikids.
Andrey Bogolyubsky, was Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal from 1157 until his death. During repeated internecine wars between the princely clans, Andrey accompanied his father Yuri Dolgorukiy during a brief capture of Kiev in 1149. 20 years later, his son led the Sack of Kiev (1169). He was canonized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1702.
Sviatopolk II Iziaslavich was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1093 to 1113. He was not a popular prince, and his reign was marked by incessant rivalry with his cousin Vladimir Monomakh.
Oleg Svyatoslavich was a prince from Kievan Rus' whose equivocal adventures ignited political unrest in the country at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. He reigned as Prince of Chernigov from 1094 to 1097, and as Prince of Novgorod-Seversk from 1097 to 1115. He was the progenitor of the Olgovichi family.
Roman Mstislavich, also known as Roman the Great, was Prince of Novgorod (1168–1170), Volhynia, and Galicia. He founded the Romanovichi branch of Rurikids, which would rule Galicia–Volhynia until 1340.
Eupraxia Vsevolodovna of Kiev, sometimes westernised as Praxedis, was a Holy Roman Empress consort. She was the daughter of Vsevolod I, Grand Prince of Kiev, and his wife Anna Polovetskaya, daughter of a Cuman khan. She married Henry IV of Germany in 1089 and took the name Adelaide.
The family of Vladimir I, popularly known as Vladimir the Great, prince of Kievan Rus', is subject to scholarly studies. The primary sources about his life, such as the Primary Chronicle and the Chronicon Thietmari of Thietmar of Merseburg, are legendary, and require critical scrutiny to separate fact from fiction.
Mstislav Vladimirovich was the earliest attested prince of Tmutarakan and Chernigov in Kievan Rus'. He was a younger son of Vladimir the Great, the grand prince of Kiev. His father appointed him to rule Tmutarakan, an important fortress by the Strait of Kerch, in or after 988.
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus', was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangian prince Rurik. The name was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev was at the center. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east, uniting the East Slavic tribes.
Vasilko Rostislavich was a prince of Kievan Rus' and member of the Rurik dynasty. He was the first Prince of Terebovl' from 1092. His Byzantine-style blinding was very unusual among the Rurik dynasty.
Anna-Euphrosyne Angelina or Anna-Helena Angelina (?–1253), was a Princess of Galicia and Volhynia by marriage to Roman the Great, in 1199–1205. She was regent of the Principality during the minority of her son Daniel of Galicia from 1205 to 1214.
Henry I the Long, Margrave of the Nordmark, also Count of Stade, son of Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark, and Oda of Werl, daughter of Herman III, Count of Werl, and Richenza of Swabia.
Princess Yaropolkovna of Minsk was the daughter of prince Yaropolk Iziaslavich of Volhynia and Kunigunde von Orlamünde; the princess-consort of Gleb Vseslavich of Minsk ; and, according to some scholarly interpretations, princess regnant of Minsk for about 40 years after her husband's death.