Zoya paleologist biography and portrait of children. Vasily III: what mark did Sophia’s son Paleolog leave in history?
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Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog
The sudden death of Ivan III's first wife, Princess Maria Borisovna, on April 22, 1467, made the Grand Duke of Moscow think about a new marriage. The widowed Grand Duke chose the Greek princess Sophia Paleologus, who lived in Rome and was reputed to be a Catholic. Some historians believe that the idea of the “Roman-Byzantine” marriage union was born in Rome, others give preference to Moscow, and still others to Vilna or Krakow.
Sophia (in Rome they called her Zoe) Palaeologus was the daughter of the Morean despot Thomas Palaeologus and was the niece of Emperors Constantine XI and John VIII. Despina Zoya spent her childhood in Morea and on the island of Corfu. She came to Rome with her brothers Andrei and Manuel after the death of her father in May 1465. The Palaiologos came under the patronage of Cardinal Vissarion, who retained his sympathies for the Greeks. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Vissarion tried to renew the union with Russia through marriage.
Yuri the Greek, who arrived in Moscow from Italy on February 11, 1469, brought a certain “leaf” to Ivan III. In this message, the author of which, apparently, was Pope Paul II himself, and the co-author was Cardinal Vissarion, the Grand Duke was informed about the stay in Rome of a noble bride devoted to Orthodoxy, Sophia Paleologus. Dad promised Ivan his support if he wanted to woo her.
In Moscow they did not like to rush in important matters and they pondered over the new news from Rome for about four months. Finally, all thoughts, doubts and preparations were left behind. On January 16, 1472, 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. From now on, the matter quickly came to an end. A week later, Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Cathedral performs a solemn ceremony of Sophia's betrothal in absentia to the Moscow sovereign.
At the end of June 1472, the bride, accompanied by Moscow ambassadors, the papal legate and a large retinue, went to Moscow. At parting, dad gave her a long audience and his blessing. He ordered that magnificent, crowded meetings be held everywhere for Sophia and her retinue.
Sophia Paleologus arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472, and her wedding to Ivan III immediately took place. What is the reason for the rush? It turns out that the next day the memory of St. John Chrysostom, the heavenly patron of the Moscow sovereign, was celebrated. From now on family happiness Prince Ivan was given under the protection of the great saint.
Sophia became the full-fledged Grand Duchess of Moscow.
The very fact that Sophia agreed to go from Rome to distant Moscow to seek her fortune suggests that she was a brave, energetic and adventurous woman. In Moscow, she was expected not only by the honors given 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.
Ivan, for all his love for luxury, was thrifty to the point of stinginess. He saved on literally everything. Growing up in a completely different environment, Sofia Paleolog, on the contrary, strived to shine and show generosity. This was required by her ambition as a Byzantine princess, niece of the last emperor. In addition, generosity made it possible to make friends among the Moscow nobility.
But the best way to establish oneself was, of course, childbearing. Grand Duke wanted to have sons. Sophia herself wanted this. However, to the delight of her ill-wishers, she gave birth to three daughters in a row - Elena (1474), Theodosia (1475) and again Elena (1476). Sophia prayed to God and all the saints for the gift of a son.
Finally her request was fulfilled. On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named Vasily in honor of his grandfather. (For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the Archangel Gabriel.) Happy parents connected the birth of their son with last year's pilgrimage and fervent prayer at the tomb of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the Trinity Monastery. Sophia said that when approaching the monastery, the great elder himself appeared to her, holding a boy in his arms.
Following Vasily, she gave birth to two more sons (Yuri and Dmitry), then two daughters (Elena and Feodosia), then three more sons (Semyon, Andrei and Boris) and the last, in 1492, daughter Evdokia.
But now the question inevitably arose about the future fate of Vasily and his brothers. The heir to the throne remained the son of Ivan III and Maria Borisovna, Ivan the Young, whose son Dmitry was born on October 10, 1483 in his marriage to Elena Voloshanka. In the event of the death of Derzhavny, he would not hesitate to get rid of Sophia and her family in one way or another. The best they could hope for was exile or exile. At the thought of this, the Greek woman was overcome with rage and impotent despair.
In the winter of 1490, Sophia’s brother, Andrei Paleologus, came to Moscow from Rome. The Moscow ambassadors who had traveled to Italy returned with him. They brought a lot of all kinds of craftsmen to the Kremlin. One of them, the visiting doctor Leon, volunteered to heal Prince Ivan the Young from a leg disease. But when he supplied the prince with jars and gave him his potions (from which he could hardly die), a certain attacker added poison to these potions. On March 7, 1490, 32-year-old Ivan the Young died.
This whole story gave rise to many rumors in Moscow and throughout Rus'. The hostile relationship between Ivan the Young and Sophia Paleolog was well known. The Greek woman did not enjoy the love of Muscovites. It is quite understandable that rumor attributed to her the murder of Ivan the Young. In “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow,” Prince Kurbsky directly accused Ivan III of poisoning his own son, Ivan the Young. Yes, such a turn of events opened the way to the throne for Sophia’s children. Derzhavny himself found himself in an extremely difficult situation. Probably, in this intrigue, Ivan III, who ordered his son to use the services of a vain doctor, turned out to be only a blind tool in the hands of a cunning Greek woman.
After the death of Ivan the Young, the question of the heir to the throne intensified. There were two candidates: the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry and the eldest son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog - Vasily. The claims of Dmitry the grandson were reinforced by the fact that his father was officially proclaimed Grand Duke - co-ruler of Ivan III and heir to the throne.
The sovereign was faced with a painful choice: to send either his wife and son, or his daughter-in-law and grandson to prison... The murder of a rival has always been regular price supreme power.
In the fall of 1497, Ivan III leaned towards Dmitry. He ordered that a solemn “crowning to the kingdom” be prepared for his grandson. Having learned about this, supporters of Sophia and Prince Vasily formed a conspiracy that included the murder of Dmitry, as well as Vasily’s flight to Beloozero (from where the road to Novgorod opened before him), and the seizure of the grand ducal treasury stored in Vologda and Beloozero. However, already in December, Ivan arrested all the conspirators, including Vasily.
During the investigation, it became clear that Sophia Paleolog was involved in the conspiracy. It is possible that she was the organizer of the enterprise. Sophia obtained poison and waited for the right opportunity to poison Dmitry.
On Sunday, February 4, 1498, 14-year-old Dmitry was solemnly declared heir to the throne in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Sophia Paleologus and her son Vasily were absent from this coronation. It seemed that their cause was completely lost. The courtiers rushed to please Elena Stefanovna and her crowned son. However, the crowd of flatterers soon retreated in bewilderment. The Sovereign never gave Dmitry real power, giving him control over only some northern districts.
Ivan III continued to painfully search for a way out of the dynastic impasse. Now the original plan did not seem successful to him. The sovereign 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 rebel. There were only two ways to prevent the performance: either destroy the second family, or bequeath the throne to Vasily and destroy the family of Ivan the Young.
This time the Sovereign chose the second path. On March 21, 1499, he “bestowed... his son Prince Vasil Ivanovich, named him Sovereign Grand Duke, gave him Velikiy Novgorod and Pskov as a grand prince.” As a result, three great princes appeared in Rus' at once: father, son and grandson!
On Thursday, February 13, 1500, a magnificent wedding was held in Moscow. Ivan III gave his 14-year-old daughter Theodosia in marriage to Prince Vasily Danilovich Kholmsky, the son of the famous commander and leader of the Tver “compatriots” in Moscow. This marriage contributed to the rapprochement between the children of Sophia Paleolog and the top of the Moscow nobility. Unfortunately, exactly a year later, Theodosia died.
The denouement of the family drama came only two years later. “The same spring (1502) the Great Prince, April 11, on Monday, put disgrace on his grandson Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, nor named Grand Duke, and put them behind the bailiffs.” Three days later, Ivan III “bestowed his son Vasily, blessed him and placed him in the Grand Duchy of Volodymyr and Moscow and All Rus' as autocrat, with the blessing of Simon, Metropolitan of All Rus'.”
Exactly one year after these events, on April 7, 1503, Sophia Paleologus died. The body of the Grand Duchess was buried in the cathedral of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. She was buried next to the grave of the Tsar’s first wife, Princess Maria Borisovna of Tver.
Soon the health of Ivan III himself deteriorated. On Thursday, September 21, 1503, he, along with the heir to the throne Vasily and his younger sons, went on a pilgrimage to the northern monasteries. However, the saints were no longer inclined to help the repentant sovereign. Upon returning from the pilgrimage, Ivan was struck by paralysis: “... it took away his arm and leg and eye.”
Ivan III died on October 27, 1505. In the “History” of V.N. Tatishchev there are the following lines: “This blessed and praiseworthy great prince John the Great, formerly named Timothy, added many reigns to the great prince and multiplied his strength, refuted the barbaric wicked power and delivered the entire Russian land of tributary and captivity , and made many tributaries from the Horde, introduced many crafts, which I had never known before, with many distant sovereigns brought love and friendship and brotherhood, glorified the entire Russian land; in all this, his pious wife helped him Grand Duchess Sofia; and so be it to them everlasting memory forever and ever."
Sofia Paleolog: biography
Most historians agree that the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duchess Sophia (Zoya) Paleologus of Moscow played a huge role in the formation of the Muscovite kingdom. Many consider her the author of the concept “Moscow is the third Rome”. And together with Zoya Paleologina, a double-headed eagle appeared. At first it was the family coat of arms of her dynasty, and then migrated to the coat of arms of all the tsars and Russian emperors.
Zoe Paleologus was born (presumably) in 1455 in Morea (as the current Greek Peloponnese peninsula was called in the Middle Ages). The daughter of the despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, was born at a tragic and turning point - the time of the fall Byzantine Empire.
Sofia Paleolog |
After the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II and the death of Emperor Constantine, Thomas Palaiologos, along with his wife Catherine of Achaia and their children, fled to Corfu. From there he moved to Rome, where he was forced to convert to Catholicism. In May 1465, Thomas died. His death occurred shortly after the death of his wife in the same year. The children, Zoya and her brothers - 5-year-old Manuel and 7-year-old Andrey, moved to Rome after the death of their parents.
The education of orphans was undertaken by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicaea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (he was the one who commissioned the famous Sistine Chapel). In Rome, the Greek princess Zoe Palaiologos and her brothers were raised in Catholic faith. The cardinal took care of the maintenance of the children and their education. It is known that Vissarion of Nicea, with the permission of the pope, paid for the modest court of the young Palaiologos, which included servants, a doctor, two professors of Latin and Greek, translators and priests.
Sofia Paleolog received a fairly solid education for those times.
Grand Duchess of Moscow
Sofia Paleolog (painting) http://www.russdom.ru
When Sofia reached adulthood, the Venetian Signoria became concerned about her marriage. The king of Cyprus, Jacques II de Lusignan, was first offered to take the noble girl as his wife. But he refused this marriage, fearing a conflict with the Ottoman Empire. A year later, in 1467, Cardinal Vissarion, at the request of Pope Paul II, offered the hand of a noble Byzantine beauty to the prince and Italian nobleman Caracciolo. A solemn engagement took place, but for unknown reasons the marriage was called off.
There is a version that Sofia secretly communicated with Athonite elders and stuck to Orthodox faith. She herself made an effort to avoid marrying a non-Christian, upsetting all the marriages offered to her.
Sofia Paleolog. (Fyodor Bronnikov. “Meeting of Princess Sofia Palaeologus by Pskov mayors and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi”)
In the turning point for the life of Sofia Palaeologus in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, Maria Borisovna, died. In this marriage, the only son, Ivan Molodoy, was born. Pope Paul II, counting on the spread of Catholicism to Moscow, invited the widowed sovereign of All Rus' to take his ward as his wife.
After 3 years of negotiations, Ivan III, having asked for advice from his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, decided to get married. It is noteworthy that the papal negotiators prudently kept silent about Sophia Paleologus’s conversion to Catholicism. Moreover, they reported that the proposed wife of Paleologina is an Orthodox Christian. They didn't even realize that it was so.
Sofia Palaeologus: wedding with John III. 19th century engraving | AiF
In June 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, the betrothal in absentia of Ivan III and Sophia Palaeologus took place. After this, the bride's convoy left Rome for Moscow. The same Cardinal Vissarion accompanied the bride.
Bolognese chroniclers described Sofia as a rather attractive person. She looked 24 years old, had snow-white skin and incredibly beautiful and expressive eyes. Her height was no higher than 160 cm. The future wife of the Russian sovereign had a dense physique.
There is a version that in the dowry of Sofia Paleolog, in addition to clothes and jewelry, there were many valuable books, which later formed the basis of the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Among them were treatises by Plato and Aristotle, unknown poems by Homer.
At the end of a long route that ran through Germany and Poland, the Roman guides of Sophia Palaeologus realized that their desire to spread (or at least bring closer) Catholicism to Orthodoxy through the marriage of Ivan III to Palaeologus had been defeated. Zoya, as soon as she left Rome, demonstrated her firm intention to return to the faith of her ancestors - Christianity.
The main achievement of Sofia Paleolog, which turned into a huge benefit for Russia, is considered to be her influence on her husband’s decision to refuse to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Thanks to his wife, Ivan the Third finally dared to throw off the centuries-old Tatar-Mongol yoke, although local princes and elites offered to continue paying the quitrent to avoid bloodshed.
Personal life
Evgeny Tsyganov and Maria Andreichenko in the film “Sofia Paleolog”
Apparently, Sofia Paleologue’s personal life with Grand Duke Ivan III was successful. This marriage produced a significant number of offspring - 5 sons and 4 daughters. But it’s difficult to call the existence of the new Grand Duchess Sofia in Moscow cloudless. The boyars saw the enormous influence that the wife had on her husband. Many people didn't like it. Rumor has it that the princess had bad relationship with the heir born in the previous marriage of Ivan III, Ivan the Young. Moreover, there is a version that Sofia was involved in the poisoning of Ivan the Young and the further removal from power of his wife Elena Voloshanka and son Dmitry.
Evgeny Tsyganov and Maria Andreichenko in the film “Sofia Paleolog” | Region.Moscow
Be that as it may, Sofia Paleologus had a huge influence on the entire subsequent history of Rus', on its culture and architecture. She was the mother of the heir to the throne, Vasily III, and the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. According to some reports, the grandson bore considerable resemblance to his wise Byzantine grandmother.
Maria Andreichenko in the film “Sofia Paleolog”
Death
Sophia Palaeologus, Grand Duchess of Moscow, died on April 7, 1503. The husband, Ivan III, survived his wife by only 2 years.
Sofia was buried next to the previous wife of Ivan III in the sarcophagus of the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral. The cathedral was destroyed in 1929. But the remains of the women of the royal house were preserved - they were transferred to the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.
Sophia Paleologus-Byzantine princess.Sofia Paleolog-Byzantine princess.
Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, aka Zoya Paleologina (c. 1455 - April 7, 1503), Grand Duchess of Moscow, second wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan IV the Terrible. She came from the imperial Palaiologan dynasty.
Family
Her father, Thomas Palaiologos, was the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and despot of the Morea (Peloponnese Peninsula).
Thomas Palaiologos, father of Sophia (fresco by Pinturicchio, Piccolomini Library)
Emperor John VIII, Sophia's uncle (fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli, Chapel of the Magi)
Emperor Constantine XI, Sophia's uncle
Her grandfather maternal line was Centurion II Zaccaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia. Centurione came from a Genoese merchant family. His father was appointed to rule Achaia by the Neapolitan king Charles III of Anjou. Centurione inherited power from his father and ruled the principality until 1430, when the Despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, launched a large-scale attack on his domain. This forced the prince to retreat to his ancestral castle in Messenia, where he died in 1432, two years after the peace treaty in which Thomas married his daughter Catherine. After his death, the territory of the principality became part of the despotate.
Zoe's elder sister Elena Paleologina of Morea (1431 - November 7, 1473) was the wife of the Serbian despot Lazar Branković from 1446, and after the capture of Serbia by Muslims in 1459, she fled to the Greek island of Lefkada, where she became a nun. Thomas also had two surviving sons, Andrei Paleologus (1453–1502) and Manuel Paleologus (1455–1512).
Italy
The decisive factor in Zoya’s fate was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople, 7 years later, in 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas went to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Zoya and her brothers, 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuil, moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sofia. The paleologians settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (the customer of the Sistine Chapel). To get support, Last year During his life, Thomas converted to Catholicism.
Sixtus IV, Titian
After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died a little earlier in the same year), the famous Greek scientist, Cardinal Vissarion of Nicea, a supporter of the union, took care of his children. His letter has been preserved, in which he gave instructions to the teacher of orphans. From this letter it follows that the pope will continue to allocate 3600 ecus per year for their maintenance (200 ecus per month: for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus they should have saved for a rainy day, and spent 100 ecus on the maintenance of a modest courtyard , which included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor Greek language, translator and 1-2 priests).
Vissarion of Nicaea
After the death of Thomas, the crown of the Palaiologos was de jure inherited by his son Andrei, who sold it to various European monarchs and died in poverty. The second son of Thomas Palaiologos, Manuel, returned to Istanbul during the reign of Bayezid II 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 lordship proposed Sophia as a bride to the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan, but he refused. According to Fr. Pirlinga, the splendor of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising in the waters Mediterranean Sea. Around 1467, Pope Paul II, through Cardinal Vissarion, offered her hand to Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. They were solemnly engaged, but the marriage did not take place.
Wedding
Ivan III was widowed in 1467 - his first wife Maria Borisovna, Princess Tverskaya died, leaving him with his only son, heir - Ivan the Young.
Sophia's marriage to Ivan III was proposed in 1469 by Pope Paul II, presumably in the hope of increasing influence catholic church in Rus' or, perhaps, the rapprochement of the Catholic and Orthodox churches - to restore the Florentine union of churches. Ivan III's motives were probably related to status, and the recently widowed monarch agreed to marry the Greek princess. The idea of marriage may have originated in the head of Cardinal Vissarion.
Negotiations lasted 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 sheet in which Sophia, the daughter of the Amorite despot Thomas, an “Orthodox Christian” was offered to the Grand Duke as a bride (her conversion to Catholicism was kept silent). Ivan III consulted with his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, and made a positive decision.
Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sofia Paleologus (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of Marche, Urbino.
In 1469, Ivan Fryazin (Gian Batista della Volpe) was sent to the Roman court to woo Sophia for the Grand Duke. The Sofia Chronicle testifies that a portrait of the bride was sent back to Rus' with Ivan Fryazin, and such secular painting turned out to be an extreme surprise in Moscow - “... and bring the princess written on the icon.”(This portrait has not survived, which is very unfortunate, since it was probably 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 Paleolog”
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 Queen Katarina of Bosnia were present as guests. The father, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6 thousand ducats.
Clarici Medici
On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sofia Paleologus, together with Fryazin, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by Cardinal Vissarion of Nicea, who was supposed to realize the emerging opportunities for the Holy See. Legend has it that Sofia's dowry included books that would 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 papal legate, the Genoese Anthony Bonumbre, Bishop of Accia (his chronicles are mistakenly called a cardinal). The nephew of diplomat Ivan Fryazin, architect Anton Fryazin, also arrived with her.
Fedor Bronnikov. “Meeting of Princess Sofia Palaeologus by Pskov mayors and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi”
The travel route was as follows: north from Italy through Germany, they arrived at the port of Lubeck on September 1. (We had to go around Poland, through which travelers usually followed the land route to Rus' - at that moment she was in a state of conflict with Ivan III). The sea journey through the Baltic took 11 days. The ship landed in Kolyvan (modern Tallinn), from where the motorcade in October 1472 proceeded through Yuryev (modern Tartu), Pskov and Velikiy Novgorod. On November 12, 1472, Sofia entered Moscow.
Sofia Paleologue enters Moscow. Miniature of the Facial Chronicle Vault
Even during the bride’s journey through Russian lands, it became obvious that the Vatican’s plans to make her a conductor of Catholicism failed, since Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate Anthony Bonumbre was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying the Latin cross in front of him (see Korsun cross).
The wedding in Russia took place on November 12 (22), 1472 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. They were married by Metropolitan Philip (according to the Sophia Vremennik - Kolomna archpriest Hosea). According to some indications, Metropolitan Philip was against a marriage union with a Uniate woman. The official grand ducal chronicle states that it was the metropolitan who crowned the grand duke, but the unofficial set (consisting of the Chronicles of Sophia II and Lvov) denies the participation of the metropolitan in this ceremony: “When the archpriest of Kolomna Osei crowned himself, he did not command his confessor to be the local archpriest...”.
The wedding of Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus in 1472. Engraving from the 19th century.
Dowry
The Moscow Kremlin Museums contain several items associated with her name. Among them are several precious reliquaries originating from the Annunciation Cathedral, whose frames were probably created in Moscow. Judging by the inscriptions, it can be assumed that she brought the relics contained in them from Rome.
Korsun Cross
"Savior Not Made by Hands." Board - 15th century (?), painting - 19th century (?), frame - last quarter (17th century). Tsata and fraction with the image of Basil the Great - 1853. MMK. According to a legend recorded in mid. 19th century, the image was brought to Moscow from Rome by Sophia Paleologus.
Pectoral reliquary icon. Frame - Moscow, second half of the 15th century; cameo - Byzantium, XII-XIII centuries. (?)
Pectoral icon. Constantinople, X-XI centuries; frame - late XIII - early XIV centuries
Icon "Our Lady Hodegetria", 15th century
Married life
Sofia's family life, apparently, was successful, as evidenced by her numerous offspring.
Special mansions and a courtyard were built for her in Moscow, but they soon burned down in 1493, and during the fire the Grand Duchess’s treasury was also lost. Tatishchev conveys evidence that, thanks to the intervention of Sofia, it was dropped by Ivan III Tatar yoke: when at the council of the Grand Duke the demand for tribute by Khan Akhmat was discussed, and many said that it was better to pacify the wicked with gifts than to shed blood, then Sophia allegedly burst into tears and with reproaches persuaded her husband to end the tributary relationship.
Painting by N. S. Shustov “Ivan III overthrows the Tatar yoke, tearing up the image of the khan and ordering the death of the ambassadors”
Before the invasion of Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with her children, court, noblewomen and princely treasury, Sofia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero; if Akhmat crossed the Oka and took Moscow, she was told to flee further north to the sea. This gave Vissarion, the ruler of Rostov, a reason to warn the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children in his message. One of the chronicles notes that Ivan panicked: “he was horrified and wanted to run away from the shore, and sent his Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her to Beloozero.”
Ovechkin N.V. Ivan III. 1988. Canvas. Oil
The family returned to Moscow only in winter. The Venetian ambassador Contarini says that in 1476 he introduced himself to the Grand Duchess Sofia, who received him politely and kindly and convincingly asked him to bow to the most serene republic on her behalf.
There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia's son Vasily III, the heir to the throne: as if during one of the pilgrimage campaigns to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klementyevo, Grand Duchess Sophia Palaeologus had a vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who “thrown into the depths of her youth as a young man”
“Vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh to the Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologus of Moscow." Lithography. Workshop of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. 1866
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 the Young, and the second, the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue. In 1476, the Venetian A. Contarini noted that the heir “is in disgrace with his father, since he behaves badly with his despina” (Sophia), but already from 1477 Ivan Ivanovich was mentioned as his father’s co-ruler.
Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich on a walk
Avilov Mikhail Ivanovich
In subsequent years, the grand ducal family grew 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 the Young, also married. His wife was the daughter of the ruler of Moldova, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka, who immediately ended up with her mother-in-law "at knifepoint". On October 10, 1483, their son Dmitry was born. After the annexation of Tver in 1485, Ivan the Young was appointed Prince of Tver by his father; in one of the sources of this period, Ivan III and Ivan the Young are called “autocrats of the Russian land.” Thus, throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich’s position as the legal heir was quite strong.
Wedding of Ivan and Elena
The position of the supporters of Sophia Paleologus was less favorable. Thus, in particular, the Grand Duchess failed to obtain government positions for her relatives; her brother Andrei left Moscow with nothing, and her niece Maria, the wife of Prince Vasily Vereisky (heir to the Vereisko-Belozersky principality), was forced to flee to Lithuania with her husband, which also affected Sophia’s position. According to sources, Sophia, having arranged the marriage of her niece and Prince Vasily Vereisky, in 1483 gave her relative a precious piece of jewelry - a “fat” with pearls and stones, which had previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna. The Grand Duke, who wished to bestow a fathom on Elena Voloshanka, upon discovering the loss of the jewelry, became angry and ordered a search to begin. Vasily Vereisky did not wait for measures against himself and, capturing his wife, fled to Lithuania. One of the results of this story was the transfer of the Vereisko-Belozersky principality to Ivan III according to the will of the appanage prince Mikhail Vereisky, Vasily’s father. Only in 1493 did Sofia obtain Vasily’s favor from the Grand Duke: the disgrace was lifted.
“The great prince granted his grandson a great reign”
However, by 1490 new circumstances came into play. The son of the Grand Duke, heir to the throne Ivan Ivanovich fell ill "salk in the feet"(gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leona", who arrogantly promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne; however, all the doctor’s efforts 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, now as undeniable facts, were recorded by Andrei Kurbsky. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan the Young as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.
Death of Grand Duke Ivan Ivanovich.
On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry took place in the Assumption Cathedral. 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 “put disgrace on his grandson, Grand Duke Dmitry, and on his mother, Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day on he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, or named Grand Duke, and put them behind bailiffs.” A few days later, Vasily Ivanovich was granted a great reign; Soon Dmitry the grandson and his mother Elena Voloshanka were transferred from house arrest to captivity. Thus, the struggle within the grand ducal family ended with the victory of Prince Vasily; he turned into a co-ruler of his father and the legal heir of a huge power. The fall of Dmitry the grandson and his mother also predetermined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod reform movement in the Orthodox Church: the Church Council of 1503 finally defeated it; many prominent and progressive figures of this movement were executed. As for the fate of those who lost the dynastic struggle themselves, it was sad: on January 18, 1505, Elena Stefanovna died in captivity, and in 1509, “in need, in prison,” Dmitry himself died. “Some believe that he died from hunger and cold, others that he suffocated from smoke.”- Herberstein reported on his death
"The Veil of Elena Voloshanka." Workshop of Elena Stefanovna Voloshanka (?) depicting the ceremony of 1498. Sophia is probably depicted in the lower left corner in a yellow cloak with a round patch on her shoulder - a tablion, a sign of royal dignity.
Death
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. The word “Sophia” was scratched on the lid of the sarcophagus 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 extension of the Archangel Cathedral.
Death and burial of the Grand Duchess
Personality
Attitude of contemporaries
The Byzantine princess was not popular; she was considered smart, but proud, cunning and treacherous. The hostility towards her was even reflected in the chronicles: for example, regarding her return from Beloozero, the chronicler notes: “Grand Duchess Sophia... ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, but no one chased her away; and through which countries she walked, especially the Tatars - from the boyar slaves, from the Christian bloodsuckers. Reward them, O Lord, according to their deeds and the wickedness of their undertakings.”
The disgraced Duma man of Vasily III, Bersen Beklemishev, in a conversation with Maxim the Greek, spoke about it like this: “Our Russian land lived in silence and in peace. Just as the mother of the Grand Duke Sophia came here with your Greeks, so our land was confused and great unrest came to us, just like you did in Constantinople under your kings.” Maxim objected: “Sir, Grand Duchess Sophia was from a great family on both sides: on her father’s side - the royal family, and on her mother’s - the Grand Duke of the Italian side.” Bersen replied: “Whatever it may be; Yes, it has come to our discord.” This disorder, according to Bersen, was reflected in the fact that from that time “the great prince changed the old customs,” “now our Sovereign, having locked himself in the third place at his bedside, does all sorts of things.”
Prince Andrei Kurbsky is especially strict towards Sofia. He is convinced that “the devil instilled evil morals into the good family of Russian princes, especially through their evil wives and sorcerers, just as among the kings of Israel, especially those whom they stole from foreigners”; accuses Sophia of poisoning John the Young, the death of Elena, the imprisonment of Dmitry, Prince Andrei Uglitsky and other persons, contemptuously calls her Greek, Greek "sorceress".
A silk shroud is kept in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, hand sewn Sofia in 1498; her name is embroidered on the shroud, and she calls herself not the Grand Duchess of Moscow, but "Tsarina Tsaregorodskaya" Apparently, she highly valued her former title if she remembers it even after 26 years of age.
Shroud from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
Appearance
When in 1472 Clarice Orsini and the court poet of her husband Luigi Pulci witnessed a wedding in absentia that took place in the Vatican, the poisonous wit of Pulci, in order to amuse Lorenzo the Magnificent, who remained in Florence, sent him a report about this event and the appearance of the bride:
“We entered a room where a painted doll was sitting in a chair on a high platform. She had two huge Turkish pearls on her chest, a double chin, thick cheeks, her whole face was shiny with fat, her eyes were open like bowls, and around her eyes there were such ridges of fat and meat, like high dams on the Po. The legs are also far from thin, and so are all the other parts of the body - I have never seen such a funny and disgusting person as this fairground cracker. All day long she chatted incessantly through an interpreter - this time it was her brother, the same thick-legged cudgel. Your wife, as if under a spell, saw a beauty in this monster in female form, and the translator’s speeches clearly gave her pleasure. One of our companions even admired the painted lips of this doll and thought that it spits amazingly gracefully. All day long, until the evening, she chatted in Greek, but we were not given food or drink in either Greek, Latin, or Italian. However, she somehow managed to explain to Donna Clarice that she was wearing a tight and bad dress, although the dress was made of rich silk and cut from at least six pieces of material, so that they could cover the dome of Santa Maria Rotunda. Since then, every night I dream of mountains of oil, grease, lard, rags and other similar disgusting things.”
According to the Bolognese chroniclers, who described the passage of her procession through the city, she was short in stature, had very beautiful eyes and amazingly white skin. They looked like she was 24 years old.
In December 1994, research into the remains of the princess began in Moscow. They are well preserved (almost complete skeleton with the exception of some small bones). Criminologist Sergei Nikitin, who restored her appearance using Gerasimov’s method, points out: “After comparing the skull, spine, sacrum, pelvic bones and lower extremities, taking into account the approximate thickness of the missing soft tissues and interosseous cartilage, it was possible to find out that Sophia was of short stature, about 160 cm, plump, with strong-willed facial features. Based on the degree of healing of the sutures of the skull and wear of the teeth, the biological age of the Grand Duchess was determined to be 50-60 years, which corresponds to historical data. First, her sculptural portrait was sculpted from special soft plasticine, and then a plaster cast was made and tinted to resemble Carrara marble.”
Great-great-granddaughter, Princess Maria Staritskaya. According to scientists, her face shows great resemblance with Sofia
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Palaeolog
Sofya Fominichna Paleolog, aka Zoya Paleologina (born approximately 1455 - death April 7, 1503) - Grand Duchess of Moscow. Wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan IV the Terrible. Origin: Byzantine imperial dynasty of the Palaiologos. Her father, Thomas Palaiologos, was the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and despot of the Morea. Sophia's maternal grandfather is Centurion II Zaccaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia.
Advantageous marriage
According to legend, Sophia brought with her a “bone throne” (now known as the “throne of Ivan the Terrible”) as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was covered with plates of ivory and walrus bone with biblical themes carved on them.
Sophia brought a few Orthodox icons, including, presumably, a rare icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven”.
The meaning of the marriage of Ivan and Sophia
The marriage of the Grand Duke to the Greek princess had important consequences. There had been cases before that Russian princes married Greek princesses, but these marriages did not have the same significance as the marriage of Ivan and Sophia. Byzantium was now enslaved by the Turks. The Byzantine emperor was previously considered the main defender of everything Eastern Christianity; now the Moscow sovereign became such a defender; with the hand of Sophia, he seemed to inherit the rights of the Palaiologos, even adopting the coat of arms of the Eastern Roman Empire - the double-headed eagle; on the seals that were attached to the letters, they began to depict a double-headed eagle on one side, and on the other, the former Moscow coat of arms, St. George the Victorious, slaying the dragon.
The Byzantine order began to have a stronger and stronger effect in Moscow. Although the last Byzantine emperors were not powerful at all, they held themselves very highly in the eyes of everyone around them. Access to them was very difficult; many different court ranks filled the magnificent palace. The splendor of palace customs, luxurious royal clothing, shining with gold and precious stones, the unusually rich decoration of the royal palace - all this greatly elevated the sovereign’s personality in the eyes of the people. Everything bowed before him as before an earthly deity.
It was not the same in Moscow. The Grand Duke was already a powerful sovereign, and lived a little wider and richer than the boyars. They treated him respectfully, but simply: some of them were from appanage princes and, like the Grand Duke, traced their origins back to. The simple life of the tsar and the simple treatment of the boyars could not please Sophia, who knew about the royal greatness of the Byzantine autocrats and had seen the court life of the popes in Rome. From his wife and especially from the people who came with her, Ivan III could hear a lot about the court life of the Byzantine kings. He, who wanted to be a real autocrat, must have really liked many of the Byzantine court practices.
And little by little, new customs began to appear in Moscow: Ivan Vasilyevich began to behave majestically, in relations with foreigners he was titled “tsar,” he began to receive ambassadors with magnificent solemnity, and established the ritual of kissing the royal hand as a sign of special favor. Then the court ranks appeared (nurser, stablemaster, bedkeeper). The Grand Duke began to reward the boyars for their merits. In addition to the boyar's son, at this time another lower rank appears - the okolnichy.
The boyars, who had previously been advisers, Duma princes, with whom the sovereign, according to custom, consulted on every important matter, as with comrades, now turned into his obedient servants. The mercy of the sovereign can exalt them, anger can destroy them.
At the end of his reign, Ivan III became a real autocrat. Many boyars did not like these changes, but no one dared to express this: the Grand Duke was very harsh and punished cruelly.
Innovations. Sophia's influence
Since the arrival of Sofia Paleologus in Moscow, relations have begun with the West, especially with Italy.
An attentive observer of Moscow life, Baron Herberstein, who came to Moscow twice as the ambassador of the German Emperor under Ivan's successor, having listened to enough boyar talk, notes about Sophia in his notes that she was an unusually cunning woman who had great influence on the Grand Duke, who, at her suggestion, did a lot . Even Ivan III’s determination to throw off the Tatar yoke was attributed to her influence. In the boyars' tales and judgments about the princess, it is not easy to separate observation from suspicion or exaggeration guided by ill will.
Moscow at that time was very unsightly. Small wooden buildings, placed haphazardly, crooked, unpaved streets, dirty squares - all this made Moscow look like big village or, rather, to a collection of many village estates.
After the wedding, Ivan Vasilyevich himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all started with the disaster of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had happened because of the “Greek woman”, who had previously been in “Latinism”. While the reasons for the collapse were being clarified, Sophia advised her husband to invite architects from Italy, who were then the best craftsmen in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and support the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only with the Second, but also with the First Rome.
One of the best Italian builders of that time, Aristotle Fioravanti, agreed to go to Moscow for a salary of 10 rubles per month (a decent amount of money at that time). In 4 years, he built a temple that was magnificent at that time - the Assumption Cathedral, consecrated in 1479. This building is still preserved in the Moscow Kremlin.
Then others began to build stone churches: in 1489, the Annunciation Cathedral was erected, which had the significance of the tsar’s house church, and shortly before the death of Ivan III, the Archangel Cathedral was built again instead of the previous dilapidated church. The sovereign decided to build a stone chamber for ceremonial meetings and receptions of foreign ambassadors.
This building, built by Italian architects, known as the Chamber of Facets, has survived to this day. The Kremlin was again surrounded by a stone wall and decorated beautiful gates and towers. The Grand Duke ordered the construction of a new stone palace for himself. Following the Grand Duke, the Metropolitan began to build brick chambers for himself. The three boyars also built themselves stone houses in the Kremlin. Thus, Moscow began to gradually be built with stone buildings; but these buildings did not become a custom for a long time after that.
Birth of children. State affairs
Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog
1474, April 18 - Sophia gave birth to her first daughter Anna (who died quickly), then another daughter (who also died so quickly that they did not have time to baptize her). Disappointments in family life were compensated by activity in government affairs. The Grand Duke consulted with her in making government decisions(in 1474 he bought half of the Rostov principality and entered into a friendly alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey).
Sofia Paleologue took an active part in diplomatic receptions (Venetian envoy Cantarini noted that the reception she organized was “very stately and affectionate”). According to the legend given not only by Russian chronicles, but also English poet John Milton, in 1477 Sophia was able to outwit the Tatar Khan by declaring that she had a sign from above about the construction of a temple to St. Nicholas on the place in the Kremlin where the house of the khan's governors stood, who controlled the collection of yasak and the actions of the Kremlin. This legend represents Sophia as a decisive person (“she kicked them out of the Kremlin, demolished the house, although she did not build a temple”).
1478 - Rus' actually stopped paying tribute to the Horde; There are 2 years left until the complete overthrow of the yoke.
In 1480, again on the “advice” of his wife, Ivan Vasilyevich went with the militia to the Ugra River (near Kaluga), where the army of the Tatar Khan Akhmat was stationed. The “stand on the Ugra” did not end with the battle. The onset of frost and lack of food forced the khan and his army to leave. These events put an end to the Horde yoke.
The main obstacle to strengthening the grand-ducal power collapsed and, relying on his dynastic connection with “Orthodox Rome” (Constantinople) through his wife Sophia, the sovereign proclaimed himself the successor to the sovereign rights of the Byzantine emperors. The Moscow coat of arms with St. George the Victorious was combined with a double-headed eagle - the ancient coat of arms of Byzantium. This emphasized that Moscow is the heir of the Byzantine Empire, Ivan III is “the king of all Orthodoxy,” and the Russian Church is the successor of the Greek Church. Under the influence of Sophia, the ceremony of the Grand Duke's court acquired unprecedented pomp, similar to the Byzantine-Roman one.
Rights to the Moscow throne
Sophia began a stubborn struggle to justify the right to the Moscow throne for her son Vasily. When he was eight years old, she even tried to organize a conspiracy against her husband (1497), but it was discovered, and Sophia herself was condemned on suspicion of magic and connection with a “witch woman” (1498) and, together with Tsarevich Vasily, was subjected to disgraced.
But fate was merciful to her (over the years of her 30-year marriage, Sophia gave birth to 5 sons and 4 daughters). The death of Ivan III's eldest son, Ivan the Young, forced Sophia's husband to change his anger to mercy and return those exiled to Moscow.
Death of Sophia Paleolog
Sophia died on April 7, 1503. She was buried in the grand-ducal tomb of the Ascension Convent in the Kremlin. The buildings of this monastery were dismantled in 1929, and the sarcophagi with the remains of the great duchesses and queens were transported to the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin, where they remain today.
After death
This circumstance, as well as the good preservation of Sophia Paleologue’s skeleton, made it possible for experts to recreate her appearance. The work was carried out at the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medicine. Apparently, there is no need to describe the recovery process in detail. We only note that the portrait was reproduced using all scientific techniques.
A study of the remains of Sophia Paleolog showed that she was short - about 160 cm. The skull and every bone were carefully studied, and as a result it was established that the death of the Grand Duchess occurred at the age of 55-60 years. As a result of studies of the remains, it was established that Sophia was a plump woman, with strong-willed facial features and had a mustache that did not spoil her at all.
When the appearance of this woman appeared before the researchers, it once again became clear that nothing happens by chance in nature. It's about about the amazing similarity between Sophia Paleolog and her grandson, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, whose true appearance is well known to us from the work of the famous Soviet anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov. The scientist, working on the portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich, noted the features of the Mediterranean type in his appearance, linking this precisely with the influence of the blood of his grandmother, Sophia Paleolog.
SOFIA FOMINICHNA PALEOLOGIST(nee Zoya) (1443/1449–1503) - second wife of V. book Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich, daughter of the ruler (despot) of the Morea (Peloponnese) Thomas Palaiologos, niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, who died during the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. Born between 1443 and 1449 in the Peloponnese.
After 1453, Thomas of Morea moved with his family to Rome. There, Sophia received a good upbringing for that time at the court of the enlightened Pope Sixtus IV (known for his patronage of Michelangelo, to whom he ordered the painting of a chapel named after him at the papal chambers). The idea of a marriage between the grown-up Zoya and the widowed ruler of the Muscovite kingdom, Ivan III, who in 1467 buried his first wife Maria Borisovna, the daughter of the Prince of Tver, also belonged to the papal curia. The main goal of the marriage was to involve Rus' in a pan-European crusade against Turkey. Zoya was unsuccessfully wooed by the French and Milanese dukes, who wanted to become related to the noble Palaiologan family, but the curia’s headquarters were already focused on Moscow.
The papal legate sent to Russia in 1467, proposing marriage, was received with honors. Ivan III, who strengthened the grand-ducal power, hoped that kinship with the Byzantine house would help Muscovy increase its international prestige, which had noticeably weakened over two centuries of the Horde yoke, and help increase the authority of the grand-ducal power within the country.
The ambassador of Ivan III, Ivan Fryazin, sent along with the legate to Rome to “see the bride,” said that Zoya was short, plump, with beautiful big eyes and unusually white skin (clean skin as a sign of health was highly valued in Muscovy). Fryazin brought with him from Rome a portrait of the bride in the form of a parsuna (an image of a real person as a saint; the chronicler reports that Zoya was “painted on an icon”). Many contemporaries also spoke about the young woman’s sharp mind.
In March 1472, the second embassy to the pope ended with Zoya’s arrival in Moscow. Together with her, her dowry came to Russia, which included (in addition to many material assets and jewelry) a huge “library” - Greek “parchments”, Latin chronographs, Hebrew manuscripts, which were later included, apparently, in the library of Ivan the Terrible. Many dowry carts were accompanied by the papal legate Anthony, dressed in a red cardinal's dress and carrying a four-pointed Catholic cross as a sign of hope for the Russian prince's conversion to Catholicism. Anthony's cross was taken away upon entering Moscow by order of Metropolitan Philip, who did not approve of this marriage.
On November 12, 1472, having converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Sophia, Zoya was married to Ivan III. At the same time, the wife “Catholicized” her husband, and the husband “Orthodoxized” his wife, which was perceived by contemporaries as a victory of the Orthodox faith over “Latinism.”
On April 18, 1474, Sophia gave birth to her first daughter Anna (who died quickly), then another daughter (who also died so quickly that they did not have time to baptize her). Disappointments in family life were compensated by activity in non-domestic affairs. Her husband consulted with her in making government decisions (in 1474 he bought half of the Rostov principality and concluded a friendly alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey). Baron Herberstein, who came to Moscow twice as the ambassador of the German Emperor under Vasily II, having heard enough of the boyars' talk, wrote about Sophia in his notes that she was an unusually cunning woman who had great influence on the prince.
Sophia actively participated in diplomatic receptions (Venetian envoy Cantarini noted that the reception organized by her was “very stately and affectionate”). According to the legend cited not only by Russian chronicles, but also by the English poet John Milton, in 1477 Sophia was able to outwit the Tatar khan by declaring that she had a sign from above about the construction of a temple to St. Nicholas on the spot in the Kremlin where the house of the khan’s governors stood, who controlled the yasak collections. and the actions of the Kremlin. This story presents Sophia as a decisive person (“she kicked them out of the Kremlin, demolished the house, although she did not build a temple”). In 1478, Rus' actually stopped paying tribute to the Horde; There were two years left before the complete overthrow of the yoke.
On March 25, 1479, Sophia gave birth to a son, the future Prince Vasily III Ivanovich.
In 1480, again on the “advice” of his wife, Ivan III went with the militia to the Ugra River (near Kaluga), where the army of the Tatar Khan Akhmat was stationed. The “stand on the Ugra” did not end with the battle. The onset of frost and lack of food forced the khan and his army to leave. These events put an end to the Horde yoke. The main obstacle to strengthening the grand-ducal power collapsed and, relying on his dynastic connection with “Orthodox Rome” (Constantinople) through his wife Sophia, Ivan III proclaimed himself the successor to the sovereign rights of the Byzantine emperors. The Moscow coat of arms with St. George the Victorious was combined with a double-headed eagle - the ancient coat of arms of Byzantium. This emphasized that Moscow is the heir of the Byzantine Empire, Ivan III is “the king of all Orthodoxy,” and the Russian Church is the successor of the Greek Church. Under the influence of Sophia, the ceremony of the Grand Duke's court acquired unprecedented pomp, similar to the Byzantine-Roman one.
In 1483, Sophia’s authority was shaken: she imprudently gave a precious family necklace (“sazhenye”) that had previously belonged to Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III, to her niece, the wife of Prince Vasily Mikhailovich of Verei. The husband intended an expensive gift for his daughter-in-law Elena Stepanovna Voloshanka, the wife of his son Ivan the Young from his first marriage. In the conflict that arose (Ivan III demanded the return of the necklace to the treasury), but Vasily Mikhailovich chose to escape with the necklace to Lithuania. Taking advantage of this, the Moscow boyar elite, dissatisfied with the success of the prince’s centralization policy, opposed Sophia, considering her the ideological inspirer of Ivan’s innovations, which infringed on the interests of his children from his first marriage.
Sophia began a stubborn struggle to justify the right to the Moscow throne for her son Vasily. When her son was 8 years old, she even made an attempt to organize a conspiracy against her husband (1497), but it was discovered, and Sophia herself was condemned on suspicion of magic and connection with a “witch woman” (1498) and, together with her son Vasily, fell into disgrace .
But fate was merciful to this irrepressible defender of the rights of her family (over the years of her 30-year marriage, Sophia gave birth to 5 sons and 4 daughters). The death of Ivan III's eldest son, Ivan the Young, forced Sophia's husband to change his anger to mercy and return those exiled to Moscow. To celebrate, Sophia ordered a church shroud with her name (“Princess of Tsargorod, Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia of the Grand Duke of Moscow”).
Feeling like a mistress in the capital again, Sophia managed to attract doctors, cultural figures and especially architects to Moscow; Active stone construction began in Moscow. The architects Aristotle Fioravanti, Marco Ruffo, Aleviz Fryazin, Antonio and Petro Solari, who came from Sophia’s homeland and at her order, erected the Faceted Chamber, the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals in the Kremlin Cathedral Square Kremlin; The construction of the Archangel Cathedral was completed. Sophia's influence on her husband increased. Boyar Bersen reproachfully said then, according to the chronicler: “Our sovereign, having locked himself in, is doing all sorts of things by the bed.” According to the great Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, Sophia “cannot be denied influence on the decorative environment and behind-the-scenes life of the Moscow court, on court intrigues and personal relationships; but she could act on political affairs only through suggestions that echoed the secret or vague thoughts of Ivan himself.”
Sophia died on August 7, 1503 in Moscow two years earlier than Ivan III, having achieved many honors. She was buried in the Moscow Ascension nunnery of the Kremlin.
In December 1994, in connection with the transfer of the remains of the princely and royal wives to the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral, her sculptural portrait was restored from Sophia’s well-preserved skull by M.M. Gerasimov’s student S.A. Nikitin.
Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva