Sophia Paleologue went from the last Byzantine princess to the Grand Duchess of Moscow. Thanks to her intelligence and cunning, she could influence the policy of Ivan III, won the palace intrigues. Sophia also managed to put her son Vasily III on the throne.

Zoya Palaeologus was born around 1440-1449. She was the daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, who was the brother of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine. The fate of the whole family after the death of the ruler turned out to be unenviable. Thomas Palaeologus fled to Corfu and then to Rome. After a while, the children followed him. The Palaeologues were patronized by Pope Paul II himself. The girl had to convert to Catholicism and change her name from Zoe to Sophia. She received an education corresponding to her status, not swimming in luxury, but not living in poverty either.

Sophia became a pawn in the political game of the Pope. At first he wanted to give her as a wife to King James II of Cyprus, but he refused. The next contender for the girl's hand was Prince Caracciolo, but he did not live to see the wedding. When the wife of Prince Ivan III died in 1467, Sophia Paleologue was offered to him as his wife. The Pope kept silent that she was a Catholic, thereby wishing to expand the influence of the Vatican in Russia. The marriage negotiations continued for three years. Ivan III was seduced by the opportunity to get such an eminent person as his wife.

Correspondence betrothal took place on June 1, 1472, after which Sophia Paleologue went to Muscovy. Everywhere she was given all kinds of honors and holidays. At the head of her cortege was a man who carried a Catholic cross. Upon learning of this, Metropolitan Philip threatened to leave Moscow if the cross was brought into the city. Ivan III ordered to take away the Catholic symbol 15 versts from Moscow. Pope's plans failed, and Sophia returned to her faith again. The wedding took place on November 12, 1472 in the Assumption Cathedral.

At the court, the newly-made Byzantine wife of the Grand Duke was disliked. Despite this, Sophia had a huge influence on her husband. The chronicles describe in detail how Palaeologus persuaded Ivan III to free himself from the Mongol yoke.

Following the Byzantine model, Ivan III developed a complex judicial system. At the same time, for the first time, the Grand Duke began to call himself "the tsar and autocrat of all Russia." It is believed that the image of the two-headed eagle, which later appeared on the coat of arms of Muscovy, was brought by Sofia Paleologue.

Sophia Paleologue and Ivan III had eleven children (five sons and six daughters). From his first marriage, the tsar had a son, Ivan Young, the first contender for the throne. But he fell ill with gout and died. Another "obstacle" for Sophia's children on the way to the throne was the son of Ivan Molodoy, Dmitry. But he and his mother fell out of favor with the king and died in captivity. Some historians suggest that Palaeologus was involved in the deaths of the direct heirs, but there is no direct evidence. The successor of Ivan III was the son of Sophia Vasily III.

The Byzantine princess and princess of Muscovy died on April 7, 1503. She was buried in a stone sarcophagus in the Ascension Monastery.

The marriage of Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus turned out to be successful politically and culturally. were able to leave a mark not only in the history of their country, but also to become beloved queens in a foreign land.

They say that every city founded in antiquity or in the Middle Ages has its own secret name. According to legend, only a few people could know him. Its DNA was embedded in the secret name of the city. Having learned the "password" of the city, the enemy could easily seize it.

"Secret name"

According to the ancient urban planning tradition, in the beginning the secret name of the city was born, then the corresponding place was found, “the heart of the city”, which symbolized the Tree of the World. Moreover, it is not necessary that the navel of the city should be located in the “geometric” center of the future city. The city is almost like Koshchei: “... his death is at the end of a needle, that needle in an egg, then an egg in a duck, that duck in a hare, that hare in a chest, and the chest stands on a tall oak tree, and that Koschey tree protects his eyes ".

Interestingly, ancient and medieval city planners always left clues. Many professional guilds were fond of puzzles. Some Masons are worth something. Before the profanation of heraldry in the Age of Enlightenment, the role of these puzzles was played by the coats of arms of cities. But this is in Europe. In Russia, until the 17th century, there was no tradition at all to encrypt the essence of the city, its secret name, in the coat of arms or some other symbol. For example, George the Victorious migrated to the coat of arms of Moscow from the seals of the great Moscow princes, and even earlier - from the seals of the Tver principality. It had nothing to do with the city.

"Heart of the City"

In Russia, the starting point for the construction of the city was a temple. He was the axis of any settlement. In Moscow, this function has been performed by the Assumption Cathedral for centuries. In turn, according to Byzantine tradition, the temple was to be built on the relics of the saint. At the same time, the relics were usually placed under the altar (sometimes also on one side of the altar or at the entrance to the temple). It was the relics that represented the “heart of the city”. The name of the saint, apparently, was that "secret name." In other words, if the “foundation stone” of Moscow was the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, then the “secret name” of the city would be “Vasilyev” or “Vasilyev-grad”.

However, we do not know whose relics lie at the foundation of the Assumption Cathedral. There is not a single mention of this in the annals. Probably, the name of the saint was kept secret.

At the end of the 12th century, a wooden church stood on the site of the current Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. A hundred years later, the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich built the first Assumption Cathedral on this site. However, for unknown reasons, after 25 years, Ivan Kalita is building a new cathedral on this site. It is interesting that the temple was built on the model of St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky. It's not entirely clear why? St. George's Cathedral can hardly be called a masterpiece of ancient Russian architecture. So there was something else?

Restructuring

The sample temple in Yuryev-Polsky was built in 1234 by Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich on the site on the foundation of the white-stone church of George, which was built in 1152 when the city was founded by Yury Dolgoruky. Apparently, this place received some heightened attention. And the construction of the same church in Moscow, perhaps, should have emphasized some kind of continuity.

The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow stood for less than 150 years, and then Ivan III suddenly decided to rebuild it. The formal reason is the dilapidation of the structure. Although one and a half hundred years for a stone temple is not God knows how long. The temple was dismantled, and in its place in 1472 the construction of a new cathedral began. However, on May 20, 1474, an earthquake struck Moscow. The unfinished cathedral received serious damage, and Ivan decides to dismantle the remains and start building a new temple. Architects from Pskov are invited for the construction, but those, for mysterious reasons, categorically refuse to build.

Aristotle Fioravanti

Then Ivan III, at the insistence of his second wife Sofia Palaeologus, sent emissaries to Italy, who were supposed to bring the Italian architect and engineer Aristotle Fioravanti to the capital. By the way, in his homeland he was called "the new Archimedes". It looks absolutely fantastic, because for the first time in the history of Russia, a Catholic architect is invited to build an Orthodox church, the main church of the Moscow state!

From the point of view of the then tradition - a heretic. Why the Italian was invited, who had never seen a single Orthodox church in his eyes, remains a mystery. Maybe because not a single Russian architect wanted to deal with this project.

The construction of the temple under the leadership of Aristotle Fioravanti began in 1475 and ended in 1479. It is interesting that the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was chosen as a model. Historians explain that Ivan III wanted to show the continuity of the Moscow state from the former “capital city” of Vladimir. But this again does not look very convincing, since in the second half of the 15th century, the former authority of Vladimir could hardly have any image value.

Perhaps this was due to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which in 1395 was transported from the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, built by Ivan Kalita. However, history has not preserved direct indications of this.

One of the hypotheses why the Russian architects did not get down to business, and the Italian architect was invited, is connected with the personality of the second wife of John III, the Byzantine Sophia Paleologus. More about this.

Sophia and the "Latin Faith"

As you know, the Greek princess was actively promoted to the wife of Ivan III by Pope Paul II. In 1465, her father, Thomas Palaeologus, brought her with his other children to Rome. The family settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV.

A few days after their arrival, Thomas died, having converted to Catholicism before his death. History has not left us with information that Sophia converted to the "Latin faith", but it is unlikely that the Paleologues could remain Orthodox while living at the court of the Pope. In other words, Ivan III most likely wooed a Catholic woman. Moreover, not a single chronicle reports that Sofia switched to Orthodoxy before the wedding. The wedding took place in November 1472. In theory, it should have taken place in the Assumption Cathedral. However, shortly before this, the temple was dismantled to the foundation in order to start new construction. This looks very strange, since about a year before that it was known about the upcoming wedding. It is also surprising that the wedding took place in a wooden church specially built near the Assumption Cathedral, which was demolished immediately after the ceremony. Why another Kremlin cathedral was not chosen remains a mystery. Perhaps, the relics of a non-Orthodox saint could have become a "mortgage" relic. As you know, Sofia brought many relics as dowry, including Orthodox icons and a library. But, probably, we do not know about all relics. It is no coincidence that Pope Paul II lobbied for this marriage in such a way.

If during the reconstruction of the temple there was a change of relics, then, according to the Russian tradition of urban planning, the "secret name" was changed, and most importantly the fate of the city. People who understand history well and subtly know that it was with Ivan III that the change in the rhythm of Russia began. Then there was the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Sophia (Zoya) Palaeologus- a woman from the clan of the Byzantine emperors, the Paleologues, played an outstanding role in the formation of the ideology of the Muscovy. Sophia's education level was simply incredibly high by Moscow standards at the time. Sophia had a very great influence on her husband, Ivan III, which caused discontent among boyars and churchmen. The double-headed eagle, the family coat of arms of the Palaeologus dynasty, was adopted by the Grand Duke Ivan III as an integral part of the dowry. Since then, the double-headed eagle has become the personal coat of arms of Russian tsars and emperors (not the state coat of arms!). Many historians believe that Sophia was the author of the future state concept of Muscovy: "Moscow is the third Rome".

Sofia, reconstruction based on the skull.

The decisive factor in the fate of Zoe was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople, 7 years later, in 1460 Morea (the medieval name of the Peloponnese peninsula, the possession of Sophia's father) was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas went to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Zoya with her brothers, 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuel, moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name "Sophia". Paleologians settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (the customer of the Sistine Chapel). Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life to gain support.
After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died in the same year a little earlier), the famous Greek scientist, Cardinal Bessarion of Nicea, a supporter of union, took over the care of his children. His letter has survived, in which he gave instructions to the teacher of orphans. From this letter it follows that the pope will continue to release them for their maintenance 3,600 crowns a year (200 crowns a month - for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus should have been postponed for a rainy day, and spend 100 crowns for the maintenance of a modest yard ). The court included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, a translator, and 1-2 priests.

Bessarion of Nicea.

A few words should be said about the deplorable fate of the Sofia brothers. After the death of Thomas, the crown of the Palaeologus was de jure inherited by his son Andrew, who sold it to various European monarchs and died in poverty. During the reign of Bayezid II, the second son, Manuel, returned to Istanbul and surrendered to the mercy of the Sultan. According to some sources, he converted to Islam, started a family and served in the Turkish Navy.
In 1466, the Venetian seigneuria proposed to the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan her candidacy as a bride, but he refused. According to Fr. Pearlinga, the splendor of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising in the waters of the Mediterranean. Around 1467, Pope Paul II, through Cardinal Vissarion, offered her hand to Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. She was solemnly betrothed, but the marriage did not take place.
Ivan III was widowed in 1467 - his first wife Maria Borisovna, Princess Tverskaya died, leaving him his only son, heir, Ivan the Young.
The marriage of Sophia to Ivan III was proposed in 1469 by Pope Paul II, presumably in the hope of strengthening the influence of the Catholic Church on Moscow or, perhaps, bringing the Catholic and Orthodox churches closer together - to restore the Florentine union of churches. Ivan III's motives were probably related to status, and the newly widowed monarch agreed to marry a Greek princess. The idea of ​​marriage may have originated in the head of Cardinal Vissarion.
The negotiations lasted for three years. The Russian chronicle tells: On February 11, 1469, the Greek Yuri arrived in Moscow from Cardinal Vissarion to the Grand Duke with a leaf in which the Grand Duke was offered the bride Sophia, the daughter of the Amorite despot Thomas, an "Orthodox Christian" (she was silent about her conversion to Catholicism). Ivan III consulted with his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, and made a positive decision.
In 1469, Ivan Fryazin (Gian Batista della Volpe) was sent to the Roman court to woo the Grand Duke Sophia. The Sophia Chronicle testifies that a portrait of the bride was sent back to Russia with Ivan Fryazin, and such a secular painting turned out to be an extreme surprise in Moscow - "... and bring the princess on the icon." (This portrait has not survived, which is very regrettable, since it must have been painted by a painter in the papal service of the generation of Perugino, Melozzo da Forli and Pedro Berruguete). The Pope received the Ambassador with great honor. He asked the Grand Duke to send boyars for the bride. Fryazin went to Rome for the second time on January 16, 1472, and arrived there on May 23.

Victor Muizhel. "Ambassador Ivan Frezin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleologue."

On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The deputy of the Grand Duke was Ivan Fryazin. The wife of the ruler of Florence Lorenzo the Magnificent Clarice Orsini and the Queen of Bosnia Katarina were also guests. The Pope, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6 thousand ducats.
When in 1472 Clarice Orsini and the court poet of her husband Luigi Pulci witnessed an absentee marriage held in the Vatican, Pulci's poisonous wit, in order to amuse Lorenzo the Magnificent, who remained in Florence, sent him an account of this event and the appearance of the bride:
“We entered a room where a painted doll was sitting in an armchair on a high platform. She had two huge Turkish pearls on her chest, a double chin, thick cheeks, her whole face glistening with fat, her eyes were wide open like bowls, and around her eyes there were such ridges of fat and meat as high dams on Po. Legs are also far from thin, so are all other parts of the body - I have never seen such a funny and disgusting person as this fairground joker. All day she chatted incessantly through an interpreter - this time it was her brother, the same thick-legged club. Your wife, as if bewitched, saw a beauty in this monster in female guise, and the translator's speeches clearly gave her pleasure. One of our companions even admired the painted lips of this doll and found that it spits amazingly gracefully. All day, until the evening, she chatted in Greek, but we were not given anything to eat or drink in Greek, Latin or Italian. However, she somehow managed to explain to Donna Clarice that she was wearing a narrow and bad dress, although the dress was of rich silk and cut from at least six pieces of fabric, so that they could cover the dome of Santa Maria Rotonda. Since then, every night I have dreamed of mountains of oil, fat, lard, rags and other similar nasty things. "
According to the opinion of the Bolognese chroniclers, who described the passage of her procession through the city, she was not tall, had very beautiful eyes and an amazing whiteness of skin. They looked like they gave her 24 years.
On June 24, 1472, the large convoy of Sophia Paleologue, together with Fryazin, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by Cardinal Bessarion of Nicea, who was to realize the opening opportunities for the Holy See. Legend has it that Sofia's dowry included books that will form the basis of the collection of the famous library of Ivan the Terrible.
Sophia's retinue: Yuri Trakhaniot, Dmitry Trakhaniot, Prince Constantine, Dmitry (ambassador of her brothers), St. Cassian the Greek. And also - the Genoese papal legate Anthony Bonumbre, Bishop of Acchia (his chronicles are mistakenly called a cardinal). The nephew of the diplomat Ivan Fryazin, the architect Anton Fryazin, arrived with her.

Banner "Sermon John the Baptist" from Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sophia Palaeologus are depicted in the crowd of listeners (3rd and 4th characters from the left). Gallery of the Province of the Marche, Urbino.
The route of travel was as follows: to the north from Italy through Germany, to the port of Lubeck, they arrived on September 1. (They had to go around Poland, through which travelers usually followed to Muscovy by land - at that moment she was with Ivan III in a state of conflict). The sea voyage across the Baltic took 11 days. The ship docked in Kolyvan (present-day Tallinn), from where the motorcade in October 1472 proceeded through Yuriev (present-day Tartu), Pskov and Novgorod. On November 12, 1472, Sofia entered Moscow.
Even during the journey of the bride, it became obvious that the Vatican's plans to make her a conductor of Catholicism failed, since Sofia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate Anthony was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying a Latin cross in front of him.
The wedding in Russia took place on November 12 (21), 1472 at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. They were married by Metropolitan Philip (according to the Sofia Times - the Kolomna Archpriest Hosea).
Sophia's family life, apparently, was successful, as evidenced by the numerous offspring.
For her in Moscow, special mansions and a courtyard were built, but they soon, in 1493, burned down, and during the fire, the treasury of the Grand Duchess also perished.
Tatishchev gives evidence that, allegedly, thanks to the intervention of Sophia, Ivan III decided to resist Khan Akhmat (Ivan III was already at that time an ally and tributary of the Crimean Khan). When Khan Akhmat's demand for tribute was discussed at the council of the Grand Duke, and many said that it is better to pacify the wicked with gifts than shed blood, it was as if Sophia burst into tears and reproached her husband not to pay tribute to the Great Horde.
Before the invasion of Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with the children, the court, the boyars and the princely treasury, Sofia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero; if Akhmat crossed the Oka and took Moscow, she was told to run further north to the sea. This gave rise to Vissarion, Vladyka of Rostov, in his message to warn the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children. In one of the chronicles it is noted that Ivan panicked: "the terror is on the way, and flee from the coast, and his Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her, the ambassador to Beloozero."
The family returned to Moscow only in winter.
Over time, the Grand Duke's second marriage became one of the sources of tension at court. Soon enough, two groups of court nobility emerged, one of which supported the heir to the throne - Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy (son from his first marriage), and the second - the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue. In 1476, the Venetian A. Contarini noted that the heir “was out of favor with his father, because he behaves badly with the despina” (Sophia), but since 1477 Ivan Ivanovich has been mentioned as a co-ruler of his father.
In subsequent years, the grand ducal family increased significantly: Sophia gave birth to the grand duke a total of nine children - five sons and four daughters.
Meanwhile, in January 1483, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy, also married. His wife was the daughter of the ruler of Moldova, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka, who immediately found herself with her mother-in-law "at knives." On October 10, 1483, their son Dmitry was born. After the capture of Tver in 1485, Ivan Molodoy was appointed by the father of the Tver prince; in one of the sources of this period, Ivan III and Ivan Young are called "autocrats". Thus, throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich's position as the legal heir was quite strong.
The position of the supporters of Sophia Palaeologus was much less favorable. However, by 1490, new circumstances had come into play. The son of the Grand Duke, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with "kamchyuga in the legs" (gout). Sophia wrote out a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leon", who arrogantly promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne; nevertheless, all the efforts of the doctor were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread throughout Moscow about the poisoning of the heir; a hundred years later, these rumors, already as indisputable facts, were recorded by Andrei Kurbsky. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.
On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry took place in the Assumption Cathedral in an atmosphere of great splendor. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited. However, on April 11, 1502, the dynastic battle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III "laid disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and his mother on the Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day he did not order them to be commemorated in litanies and litias, nor to be named as the Grand Duke, and put them behind the bailiffs." A few days later Vasily Ivanovich was granted the great reign; Soon Dmitry the grandson and his mother Elena Voloshanka were transferred from house arrest to confinement. Thus, the struggle within the grand-ducal family ended with the victory of Prince Vasily; he became the co-ruler of his father and the rightful heir to the Grand Duchy. The fall of Dmitry the grandson and his mother also predetermined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod reformation movement in the Orthodox Church: the Church Council of 1503 finally defeated it; many prominent and progressive leaders of this movement were executed. As for the fate of the losers of the dynastic struggle, it was sad: on January 18, 1505, Elena Stefanovna died in captivity, and in 1509 Dmitry himself died “in need, in prison”. "Some believe that he died of hunger and cold, others that he suffocated from the smoke," Herberstein reported about his death. But the most terrible country lay ahead - the reign of the grandson of Sophia Paleologue - Ivan the Terrible.
The Byzantine princess was not popular, she was considered smart, but proud, cunning and insidious. Dislike for her was expressed even in the annals: for example, regarding her return from Beloozero, the chronicler notes: “The Grand Duchess Sophia ... ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, and no one drove her; and in which countries I went, even more so the Tatars - from boyar serfs, from Christian bloodsuckers. Repay them, O Lord, according to their deed and according to the craftiness of their undertakings. "

The disgraced Duma man of Vasily III Bersen Beklemishev, in a conversation with Maxim the Greek, spoke of her like this: “Our land lived in silence and peace. As the mother of the Grand Duke Sophia came here with your Greeks, so our land got mixed up and great disorders came to us, just like in your Tsar-grad under your kings. " Maxim objected: "Lord, the Grand Duchess Sophia was of a great family on both sides: on her father, a royal family, and on her mother, a Grand Duke of the Italic side." Bersen answered: “Whatever it is; but it came to our disorder. " This disorder, according to Bersen, manifested itself in the fact that from that time "the old customs the great prince changed", "now our Sovereign, shut himself up to the bedside, does all sorts of things."
Prince Andrei Kurbsky is especially strict with Sophia. He is convinced that "In the good-natured Russian princes, the devil allied evil manners, especially by their wicked wives and sorcerers, as well as in Israelite tsars, more than whom they took from foreigners"; accuses Sophia of the poisoning of John the Young, of the death of Elena, of the imprisonment of Dmitry, Prince Andrei Uglitsky and other persons, contemptuously calls her a Greek woman, a Greek "sorceress."
In the Trinity-Sergius Monastery there is a silk shroud sewn by Sofia's hands in 1498; her name is embroidered on the shroud, and she calls herself not the Grand Duchess of Moscow, but "the princess of the Tsarevgorodskaya". Apparently, she highly valued her former title, if she remembers it even after a 26-year marriage.

Shroud from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra embroidered by Sophia Palaeologus.

There are various versions regarding the role of Sophia Palaeologus in the history of the Russian state:
Artists and architects were summoned from Western Europe to decorate the palace and the capital. New temples and new palaces were erected. The Italian Alberti (Aristotle) ​​Fioraventi built the Cathedrals of the Assumption and the Annunciation. Moscow was adorned with the Faceted Chamber, the Kremlin towers, the Teremny Palace, and finally the Archangel Cathedral was built.
For the sake of the marriage of her son Vasily III, she introduced the Byzantine custom - a review of brides.
Considered the founder of the Moscow-Third Rome concept
Sophia died on April 7, 1503, two years before her husband's death (he died on October 27, 1505).
She was buried in a massive white-stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave of Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III. On the lid of the sarcophagus, "Sophia" is scratched with a sharp instrument.
This cathedral was destroyed in 1929, and the remains of Sophia, like other women of the reigning house, were transferred to the underground chamber of the southern annex of the Archangel Cathedral.

Transfer of the remains of the Grand Duchesses and Queens before the destruction of the Ascension Monastery, 1929.

I have shared with you the information that I "dug up" and systematized. At the same time, he has not poorer at all and is ready to share further, at least twice a week. If you find errors or inaccuracies in the article, please let us know. [email protected] I will be very grateful.

Sophia Palaeologus (? -1503), wife (since 1472) of Grand Duke Ivan III, niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus. Arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472; on the same day, in the Assumption Cathedral, she was married to Ivan III. The marriage with Sophia Palaeologus helped to strengthen the prestige of the Russian state in international relations and the authority of the grand ducal power within the country. For Sophia Palaeologus, special mansions and a courtyard were built in Moscow. Under Sophia Palaeologus, the grand ducal court was distinguished by its special splendor. Architects were invited from Italy to Moscow to decorate the palace and the capital. The walls and towers of the Kremlin, the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals, the Faceted Chamber, the Terem Palace were erected. Sophia Paleologue brought a rich library to Moscow. The dynastic marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleologue owes its appearance to the rite of wedding to the kingdom. The arrival of Sophia Palaeologus is associated with the appearance of an ivory throne in the dynastic regalia, on the back of which was placed the image of a unicorn, which became one of the most common emblems of Russian state power. Around 1490, the first image of a crowned two-headed eagle appeared on the front portal of the Faceted Chamber. The Byzantine concept of the sacredness of the imperial power directly influenced the introduction by Ivan III of "theology" ("God's grace") in the title and in the preamble of state letters.

KURBSKY TO GROZNY ABOUT HIS BABKA

But the abundance of your majesty's malice is such that it destroys not only friends, but together with your guardsmen, the entire Russian holy land, a plunderer of houses and a murderer of sons! May God save you from this and the Lord, the king of ages, will not allow it to be! After all, even then everything is walking along the edge of a knife, because if not sons, then you killed half-brothers and brothers close by birth, overfilling the measure of bloodsuckers - your father and your mother and grandfather. After all, your father and mother - everyone knows how much they killed. Likewise, your grandfather, with your grandmother, a Greek woman, renouncing and forgetting love and kinship, killed his wonderful son Ivan, courageous and glorified in heroic enterprises, born of his first wife Saint Mary, Princess of Tver, as well as his God-wedded grandson born from him Tsar Demetrius, together with his mother, Saint Helena, - the first with deadly poison, and the second with many years of imprisonment, and then strangulation. But he was not satisfied with this! ..

MARRIAGE OF IVAN III AND SOFIA PALEOLOGIST

On May 29, 1453, the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus died in battle defending Constantinople. His younger brother Thomas Palaeologus, the ruler of the small appanage state of Morea on the Peloponnese, fled with his family to Corfu, and then to Rome. After all, Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the struggle against the Turks, signed the Florentine Union in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could ask for asylum at the papal throne. Thomas Palaeologus was able to take out the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In gratitude for this, he received a home in Rome and a good boarding school from the papal throne.

In 1465 Thomas died, leaving three children - the sons of Andrew and Manuel and the youngest daughter Zoya. The exact date of her birth is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1443 or 1449 in the possession of her father in the Peloponnese, where she received an initial education. The Vatican took over the education of the royal orphans, entrusting them to Cardinal Vissarion of Nicea. Greek by birth, a former archbishop of Nicea, he was an ardent supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He brought up Zoe Palaeologus in European Catholic traditions and especially instructed her to humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her "the beloved daughter of the Roman Church." Only in this case, he suggested to the pupil, fate will bestow you with everything. However, everything turned out quite the opposite.

In February 1469, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he proposed to marry the daughter of the Morey despot. Among other things, the letter mentioned that Sophia (the name Zoya was diplomatically replaced by the Orthodox Sophia) had already refused to two crowned suitors who were wooing her - the French king and the Duke of Mediolana, not wanting to marry a Catholic ruler.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was already considered a middle-aged woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and delicate matte skin, which in Russia was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador to Rome, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow), to woo. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seems to have begun the era of Sophia Palaeologus in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Russia. At least, they were so amazed that the chronicler called the portrait "an icon", finding no other word: "And bring the princess on the icon."

However, the matchmaking dragged on, because the Moscow Metropolitan Philip long objected to the marriage of the sovereign with a Uniate woman, who was also a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Russia. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for a bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic engagement took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin. In the same June, Sophia set off with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the futility of Rome's hopes for this marriage. According to the Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried in front of the procession, which caused great confusion and excitement among the inhabitants of Russia. Upon learning of this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: "If you are allowed in noble Moscow to carry the cross in front of the Latin bishop, then he will enter the single gates, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently." Ivan III immediately sent the boyar to meet the procession with the order to remove the cross in the sleigh, and the legate had to obey with great displeasure. The princess herself behaved, as befits the future ruler of Russia. Having entered the Pskov land, she first visited an Orthodox church, where she venerated the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there he bowed to the holy icons and venerated the image of the Mother of God on the orders of the despina (from the Greek despot- "ruler"). And then Sophia promised the admired people of Pskov her protection before the Grand Duke.

Ivan III did not intend either to fight for the "inheritance" with the Turks, much less to accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia was not at all going to catholicize Russia. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox. Some historians believe that she didn't care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently brought up in childhood by the Athonite elders, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman "patrons" who did not help her homeland, betraying her to devastation and destruction to the Gentiles. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion to the great Third Rome.

In the early morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Palaeologus arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for a wedding celebration timed to coincide with the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of memory of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop divine services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes": when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible gaze. And before he was distinguished by a tough character, and now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he has turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was not a small merit of his young wife.

A wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Palaeologus. The Byzantine princess, raised in Europe, differed in many ways from Russian women. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of the authorities, and many of the Moscow orders did not suit her. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched up walls and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are wooden and that Russian women are looking at the world from the window of the fire-lights. Sophia Paleologue not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.

She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle, a symbol of royal power, into the coat of arms, and placed it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle are turned to the West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity ("symphony") of spiritual and secular power. In fact, Sophia's dowry was the legendary "Liberia" - a library allegedly brought 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 famous Alexandrian library. Seeing wooden Moscow, burnt after a fire in 1470, Sophia was frightened for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Seny - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of Saint Eudokia, the widow. And her own treasury, according to Moscow custom, was put into the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her as a gift to her husband a “bone throne”: its wooden frame was covered with plates of ivory and walrus with biblical subjects carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the tsar is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. In 1896, the throne was installed in the Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered to put it on for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources - for his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov. And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons, including, as it is assumed, a rare icon of the Mother of God "Blessed Sky" ... And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, the founder of the Paleologus dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers. Thus, the continuity of Moscow with the Byzantine Empire was affirmed, and the Moscow sovereigns were presented as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

Great love stories. 100 stories about great feelings Mudrova Irina Anatolyevna

Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus

Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus

Ivan III Vasilievich was the Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505. During the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, a significant part of the Russian lands around Moscow was unified and turned into the center of the all-Russian state. The final liberation of the country from the rule of the Horde khans was achieved. Ivan Vasilievich created the state, which became the basis of Russia up to the present day.

The first wife of the Grand Duke Ivan was Maria Borisovna, the daughter of the Tver prince. On February 15, 1458, a son, Ivan, was born into the family of the Grand Duke. The Grand Duchess, who had a meek character, died on April 22, 1467, before reaching the age of thirty. The Grand Duchess was buried in the Kremlin, in the Ascension Convent. Ivan, who was at that time in Kolomna, did not come to his wife's funeral.

Two years after her death, the Grand Duke decided to marry again. After consulting with his mother, as well as with the boyars and the Metropolitan, he decided to give his consent to the proposal recently received from the Pope to marry the Byzantine princess Sophia (in Byzantium she was called Zoya). She was the daughter of the sea despot Thomas Palaeologus and was the niece of the emperors Constantine XI and John VIII.

The decisive factor in the fate of Zoe was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine XI died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople. 7 years later, in 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas fled with his family to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life to gain support. Zoya and her brothers - 7-year-old Andrey and 5-year-old Manuel - moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sophia. The Paleologians entered under the patronage of Cardinal Vissarion, who retained sympathy for the Greeks.

Zoya has evolved over the years into an attractive girl with dark shiny eyes and pale white skin. She was distinguished by a subtle mind and prudence in behavior. According to the unanimous assessment of her contemporaries, Zoya was charming, and her mind, education and manners were impeccable. Bologna chroniclers wrote enthusiastically about Zoya in 1472: “Truly she is charming and beautiful ... She was not tall, she seemed about 24 years old; the eastern flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family. "

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the Pope decided to marry Zoya off to the Moscow Tsar Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir of the Byzantine Basileus. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Vissarion tried to renew union with Russia through marriage. It was then that the Grand Duke was informed about the stay in Rome of a noble bride devoted to Orthodoxy - Sophia Palaeologus. Dad promised Ivan his support in case he wants to marry her. The motives for marrying Sophia with Ivan III, of course, were associated with status, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors played a role. Ivan III, who claimed the royal title, considered himself the successor of the Roman and Byzantine emperors.

On January 16, 1472, the Moscow ambassadors set off on a long journey. In Rome, Muscovites were honorably received by the new Pope Sixtus IV. As a gift from Ivan III, the ambassadors presented the pontiff with sixty selected sable skins. The case quickly went to completion. Pope Sixtus IV treated his bride with paternal solicitude: he gave Zoya as a dowry, in addition to gifts, about 6,000 ducats. Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Cathedral performed the solemn ceremony of the correspondence betrothal of Sophia to the Moscow sovereign, represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin.

On June 24, 1472, having said goodbye to the pope in the Vatican gardens, Zoe headed to the far north. The future Grand Duchess of Moscow, as soon as she found herself on Russian soil, while still on her way down the aisle to Moscow, insidiously betrayed all the pope's hopes, immediately forgetting all her Catholic upbringing. Sophia, who apparently met in childhood with the Athonite elders, opponents of the subordination of Orthodox to Catholics, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She immediately openly, brightly and demonstratively showed her devotion to Orthodoxy, to the delight of Russians, kissing all the icons in all churches, behaving impeccably in the Orthodox service, being baptized like an Orthodox. The Vatican's plans to make the princess a guide of Catholicism to Russia failed, as Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying a Latin cross in front of him.

In the early morning of November 21, 1472, Sophia Palaeologus arrived in Moscow. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop divine services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "formidable eyes." And before, Ivan Vasilyevich was distinguished by a tough character, and now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was not a small merit of his young wife.

Sophia became a full-fledged Grand Duchess of Moscow. The very fact that she agreed to go to seek her fortune from Rome to distant Moscow suggests that she was a brave, energetic woman.

She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the coat of arms of the Byzantine double-headed eagle - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle are turned to the West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity ("symphony") of spiritual and secular power. Sophia's dowry was the legendary "Liberia" - the library (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 famous Alexandrian library.

According to legend, she brought with her as a gift to her husband a “bone throne”: its wooden frame was covered with plates of ivory and walrus with biblical subjects carved on them. Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons.

With the arrival in the capital of Russia in 1472 of the Greek princess, the heiress of the former greatness of the Palaeologus, a rather large group of immigrants from Greece and Italy was formed at the Russian court. Many of them took over time significant government posts and more than once carried out important diplomatic assignments of Ivan III. All of them returned to Moscow with large groups of specialists, among whom were architects, doctors, jewelers, coin makers and gunsmiths.

The great Greek woman brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power. Sophia Paleologue not only made changes at the court - some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her. Much of what is now preserved in the Kremlin was built during the reign of Grand Duchess Sophia.

In 1474, the Assumption Cathedral, erected by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Italians were involved in its restoration under the leadership of the architect Aristotle Fioravanti. During her reign, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Faceted Chamber, was built, so named for its finishing in the Italian style - facets. The Kremlin itself - a fortress that guarded the ancient center of the capital of Russia - grew and was created in front of her eyes. Twenty years later, foreign travelers began to call the Moscow Kremlin in the European way "castle", due to the abundance of stone buildings in it.

So through the efforts of Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus, the Renaissance flourished on Russian soil.

However, Sophia's arrival in Moscow did not like some of Ivan's courtiers. By nature, Sophia was a reformer, participation in state affairs was the meaning of the life of the Moscow princess, she was a decisive and intelligent person, and the nobility of that time did not like this very much. In Moscow, she was accompanied not only by the honors shown to the Grand Duchess, but also by the hostility of the local clergy and the heir to the throne. At every step she had to defend her rights.

The best way to assert yourself was, of course, childbirth. The Grand Duke wanted to have sons. Sophia herself wanted this. However, to the delight of ill-wishers, she gave birth to three daughters in a row - Elena (1474), Elena (1475) and Theodosia (1475). Unfortunately, the girls died shortly after birth. Then another girl was born, Elena (1476). Sophia prayed to God and all the saints for the gift of a son. There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia's son Vasily, the future heir to the throne: as if during one of the pious campaigns to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klement'ev, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue had a vision of St. floor ". On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named in honor of his grandfather Vasily. For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the archangel Gabriel. Following Vasily, she had two more sons (Yuri and Dmitry), then two daughters (Elena and Feodosia), then three more sons (Semyon, Andrey and Boris) and the last, in 1492, daughter Evdokia.

Ivan III loved his wife and took care of the family. Before the invasion of Khan Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with the children, the court, the boyars and the princely treasury, Sophia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero. Vladyka Vissarion warned the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children. In one of the chronicles it is noted that Ivan panicked: "Terror is on the way, and flee from the shore, and his Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her ambassador to Beloozero."

The main meaning of this marriage was that the marriage to Sophia Palaeologus contributed to the establishment of Russia as the successor of Byzantium and the proclamation of Moscow as the Third Rome, the stronghold of Orthodox Christianity. After his marriage to Sophia, Ivan III for the first time dared to show the European political world the new title of the sovereign of all Russia and forced to recognize it. Ivan was called "the sovereign of all Russia".

Inevitably, the question arose about the future fate of the offspring of Ivan III and Sophia. The heir to the throne was the son of Ivan III and Maria Borisovna, Ivan Young, whose son Dmitry was born on October 10, 1483, in marriage with Elena Voloshanka. In the event of the death of his father, he would not have hesitated in one way or another to get rid of Sophia and her family. The best they could hope for was exile or exile. At the thought of this, the Greek woman was seized by rage and impotent despair.

Throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich's position as the legal heir was quite strong. However, by 1490, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with "kamchyuga in the legs" (gout). Sophia discharged a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leon", who arrogantly promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne. Nevertheless, all the efforts of the doctor were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan Molodoy died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread around Moscow about the poisoning of the heir. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.

On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich took place in the Assumption Cathedral in an atmosphere of great splendor. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited.

Ivan III continued to painfully seek a way out of the dynastic impasse. How much pain, tears and misunderstanding his wife had to experience, this strong, wise woman who was so eager to help her husband build a new Russia, the Third Rome. But time passes, and the wall of bitterness, which with such zeal was erected around the Grand Duke by his son and daughter-in-law, collapsed. Ivan Vasilyevich wiped away his wife's tears and cried with her himself. As never before, he felt that white light was not pleasant to him without this woman. Now the plan to give the throne to Dmitry did not seem successful to him. Ivan Vasilyevich knew how overwhelmingly Sophia loved her son Vasily. Sometimes he was even jealous of this mother's love, realizing that the son completely reigns in the mother's heart. The Grand Duke felt sorry for his young sons Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry Zhilka, Semyon, Andrey ... And he lived together with Princess Sophia for a quarter of a century. Ivan III understood that sooner or later Sophia's sons would revolt. There were only two ways to prevent the demonstration: either to destroy the second family, or to bequeath the throne to Vasily and destroy the family of Ivan the Young.

On April 11, 1502, the dynastic battle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III "laid disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, the Grand Duchess Elena." Three days later, Ivan III "bestowed his son Vasily, blessed and put on the Grand Duchess Volodymyr and Moscow and All Russia as an autocrat."

On the advice of his wife, Ivan Vasilyevich released Elena from captivity and sent her to her father in Wallachia (good relations with Moldova were needed), but in 1509 Dmitry died “in need, in prison”.

A year after these events, on April 7, 1503, Sophia Palaeologus died. The body of the Grand Duchess was buried in the cathedral of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan Vasilyevich, following her death, lost heart, became seriously ill. Apparently, the great Greek woman Sophia gave him the necessary energy to build a new state, her mind helped in state affairs, her sensitivity warned of dangers, her all-conquering love gave him strength and courage. Leaving all business, he went on a trip to the monasteries, but he could not atone for his sins. He was struck by paralysis: "... it took away an arm and a leg and an eye." On October 27, 1505, he died, "being in the reign of 43 and 7 months, and all the years of his belly 65 and 9 months."

This text is an introductory fragment.

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