Historical information about the queen of Muscovy sophia paleolog. Sophia Paleolog: the path from the last Byzantine princess to the Grand Duchess of Moscow. Life in Rome

Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, she is Zoya Paleologina (Greek Ζωή Σοφία Παλαιολογίνα). Born ca. 1455 - died April 7, 1503. Grand Duchess of Moscow, second wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. She came from the Byzantine imperial dynasty of the Palaiologos.

Sofia (Zoya) Paleolog was born around 1455.

Father - Thomas Palaiologos, brother last emperor Byzantium Constantine XI, Despot of the Morea (Peloponnese).

Her maternal grandfather was Centurione II Zaccaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia. Centurione came from a Genoese merchant family. His father was placed to rule Achaia by the Neapolitan king Charles III of Anjou. Centurione inherited power from his father and ruled in the principality until 1430, when the Despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, launched a large-scale offensive against his possessions. This forced the prince to retreat to his hereditary castle in Messenia, where he died in 1432, two years after the peace treaty, according to which Thomas married his daughter Catherine. After his death, the territory of the principality became part of the despotate.

Sophia's elder sister (Zoya) - Elena Paleologina Moreiskaya (1431 - November 7, 1473), from 1446 was the wife of the Serbian despot Lazar Brankovich, and after the capture of Serbia by Muslims in 1459, she fled to the Greek island of Lefkada, where she took the vows of a nun.

She also had two surviving brothers - Andrei Palaiologos (1453-1502) and Manuel Palaiologos (1455-1512).

Decisive in the fate of Sophia (Zoya) 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.

She and her brothers - 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuel moved to Rome 5 years after her father. There she received the name Sophia. Palaiologos settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (customer of the Sistine Chapel). To get support in Last year During his life, Thomas converted to Catholicism.

After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died a little earlier in the same year), the well-known Greek scientist, Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, 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 release 3,600 ecu per year for their maintenance (200 ecu per month: for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus it was necessary to save for a rainy day, and spend 100 ecu on the maintenance of a modest yard , which included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, a translator and 1-2 priests).

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, during the reign of Bayezid II 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 lordship offered the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan the candidacy of Sophia as a bride, but he refused. According to Fr. Pirlinga, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising the waters of the Mediterranean. 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.

The wedding of Sophia Paleolog and Ivan III

The role of Sophia Paleolog was played by an actress.

“My heroine is a kind, strong princess. A person always tries to cope with adversity, so the series is more about strength than about female weaknesses. It is about how a person copes with his passions, how he humbles himself, endures, about how love wins. It seems to me that this is a film about the hope for happiness, ”Maria Andreeva said about her heroine.

Also, the image of Sophia Palaiologos is widely present in fiction.

"Byzantine"- A novel by Nikolai Spassky. The action takes place in Italy in the 15th century against the background of the consequences of the fall of Constantinople. The protagonist intrigues to pass off Zoya Paleolog for the Russian Tsar.

"Sophia Palaiologos - from Byzantium to Russia" A novel by Georgios Leonardos.

"Basurman"- a novel by Ivan Lazhechnikov about the doctor Sofia.

Nikolai Aksakov dedicated a story to the Venetian doctor Leon Zhidovin, which spoke about the friendship of the Jewish doctor with the humanist Pico della Mirandola, and about the journey from Italy together with the brother of Queen Sophia Andrei Paleolog, Russian envoys Semyon Tolbuzin, Manuil and Dmitry Ralev, and Italian masters - architects , jewelers, gunners. - invited to the service of the Moscow sovereign.

Sophia Paleolog - Byzantine princess.

Sofia Paleolog-Byzantine princess.

Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, she is also Zoya Paleologin (c. 1455 - April 7, 1503), Grand Duchess of Moscow, second wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan IV the Terrible. Descended from the imperial dynasty of Palaiologos.

Family

Her father, Thomas Palaiologos, was the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and despot of the Morea (Peloponnese).

Thomas Palaiologos, Sophia's father (Fresco by Pinturicchio, Piccolomini Library)

Emperor John VIII, Sophia's uncle (fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli, Magi Chapel)

Emperor Constantine XI, Sophia's uncle

Her maternal grandfather was Centurione II Zaccaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia. Centurione came from a Genoese merchant family. His father was placed to rule Achaia by the Neapolitan king Charles III of Anjou. Centurione inherited power from his father and ruled in the principality until 1430, when the Despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, launched a large-scale offensive against his possessions. This forced the prince to retreat to his hereditary castle in Messenia, where he died in 1432, two years after the peace treaty, according to which Thomas married his daughter Catherine. After his death, the territory of the principality became part of the despotate.

Zoya's older sister Elena Paleologina Morejskaya (1431 - November 7, 1473) was the wife of the Serbian despot Lazar Brankovich from 1446, and after the capture of Serbia by Muslims in 1459, she fled to the Greek island of Lefkada, where she took the veil. Thomas also had two surviving sons, Andrei Palaiologos (1453–1502) and Manuel Palaiologos (1455–1512).

Italy

Decisive 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 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 Manuel, moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sophia. Palaiologos settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (customer of the Sistine Chapel). In order to gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life.

Sixtus IV, Titian

After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died a little earlier in the same year), the well-known Greek scientist, Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, 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 release 3,600 ecu per year for their maintenance (200 ecu per month: for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus it was necessary to save for a rainy day, and spend 100 ecu on the maintenance of a modest yard , which included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, a 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, during the reign of Bayezid II 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 lordship offered the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan the candidacy of Sophia as a bride, but he refused. According to Fr. Pirlinga, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising the waters of the Mediterranean. 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 of Tverskaya died, leaving him 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 strengthening the influence of the Catholic Church in Russia or, perhaps, bringing the Catholic and Orthodox churches closer together - to restore the Florentine connection of churches. Ivan III's motives were probably related to status, and the recently widowed monarch agreed to marry a Greek princess. The idea of ​​marriage may have been born in the mind of Cardinal Vissarion.

The negotiations lasted three years. The Russian chronicle narrates: 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 (she was silent about her conversion to Catholicism). Ivan III consulted with his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, and made a positive decision.

Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from the Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sophia Palaiologos (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of the Marche, Urbino.

In 1469, Ivan Fryazin (Gian Battista della Volpe) was sent to the Roman court to woo Grand Duke Sophia. The Sofia chronicle testifies that a portrait of the bride was sent back to Russia 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 been preserved, which is very regrettable, since it was probably painted by a painter in the papal service, the generation of Perugino, Melozzo da Forli and Pedro Berruguete). The Pope received the ambassador with great honour. He asked the Grand Duke to send the boyars for the bride. Fryazin went to Rome for the second time on January 16, 1472, and arrived there on May 23.

Viktor Muyzhel. "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. Ivan Fryazin was the deputy of the Grand Duke. The wife of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Clarice Orsini and the Queen of Bosnia, Katharina, were also guests. The Pope, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6,000 ducats.

Clarici Medici

On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sophia Palaiologos, together with Fryazin, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, who was supposed to realize the opportunities that were opening up for the Holy See. Legend has it that Sophia'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 Konstantin, Dmitry (ambassador of her brothers), St. Cassian the Greek. And also - the papal legate Genoese Anthony Bonumbre, Bishop of Accia (his annals are erroneously called a cardinal). The nephew of diplomat Ivan Fryazin, architect Anton Fryazin, also arrived with her.

Fedor Bronnikov. "Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog by Pskov posadniks and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi"

The itinerary of the journey was as follows: north from Italy through Germany, they arrived at the port of Lübeck on September 1. (I had to go around Poland, through which travelers usually went to Russia by land - at that moment she was in a state of conflict with Ivan III). The sea voyage across 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 Veliky Novgorod. November 12, 1472 Sophia entered Moscow.

Sofia Paleolog enters Moscow. Miniature of the Front Chronicle

Even during the bride's journey through the Russian lands, it became obvious that the plans of the Vatican 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 a 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 Time Book - Archpriest Hosea of ​​Kolomna). According to some indications, Metropolitan Philip was against a marriage union with a Uniate woman. The official chronicle of the Grand Duke claims that it was the Metropolitan who married the Grand Duke, but the unofficial code (as part of the Annals of Sophia II and Lvov) denies the participation of the Metropolitan in this ceremony: “The archpriest of Kolomna Osei was crowned, outside the local archpriest and confessor did not command ...”.

The wedding of Ivan III with Sophia Paleolog in 1472. Engraving of the 19th century.

Dowry

The Moscow Kremlin Museums have several items associated with her name. Among them are several precious reliquaries originating from the Annunciation Cathedral, whose setting was probably created already in Moscow. According to the inscriptions, it can be assumed that she brought the relics in them from Rome.

Korsun cross

"Savior Not Made by Hands". Board - 15th century (?), painting - 19th century (?), salary - last quarter (17th century). Tsata and drobnitsa with the image of Basil the Great - 1853. MMK. According to legend, recorded in Ser. 19th century, the image was brought to Moscow from Rome by Sophia Paleolog.

Reliquary pectoral 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 century

Icon of Our Lady Hodegetria, 15th century

Married life

Sophia's family life, apparently, was successful, as evidenced by numerous offspring.

For her, special mansions and a courtyard were built in Moscow, but they soon burned down in 1493, and the treasury of the Grand Duchess also perished during the fire. Tatishchev conveys evidence that, thanks to the intervention of Sophia, the Tatar yoke was thrown off by Ivan III: when the demand of tribute by Khan Akhmat was discussed at the council of the Grand Duke, and many said that it was better to pacify the wicked with gifts than to shed blood, it was as if Sophia burst into tears and with reproaches she persuaded her husband to end the tributary relationship.

Painting by N. S. Shustov “Ivan III overthrows the Tatar yoke, tearing the image of the Khan and ordering the death of ambassadors”

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; in the event that Akhmat crosses the Oka and takes Moscow, then she was told to run further north to the sea. This gave rise to Vissarion, the lord 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: “horror found on n, and you want to run away from the shore, and his Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her were sent to Beloozero.”

Ovechkin N.V. Ivan III. 1988. Canvas. Butter

The family returned to Moscow only in winter. The Venetian ambassador Contarini says that in 1476 he introduced himself to the Grand Duchess Sophia, who received him politely and affectionately and convincingly asked her to bow to the brightest republic from her.

There is a legend connected with the birth of Sophia's son Vasily III, heir to the throne: as if during one of the pious trips to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klementyevo, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog had a vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who “throw into the bowels of her youth of the young male sex”

"Vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh to the Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia Paleolog. Lithography. Workshop of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. 1866

Over time, the second marriage of the Grand Duke became one of the sources of tension at court. Soon enough, two groups of court nobility formed, one of which supported the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich the Young, and the second, the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog. In 1476, the Venetian A. Contarini noted that the heir "is in disfavor with his father, because he behaves badly with Despina" (Sofya), but since 1477 Ivan Ivanovich has been mentioned as his father's co-ruler.

Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich on a walk

Avilov Mikhail Ivanovich

In subsequent years, the grand ducal family increased significantly: Sophia gave birth to a total of nine children to the grand duke - 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 sovereign of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka, who immediately found herself with her mother-in-law "on knives". On October 10, 1483, their son Dmitry was born. After the annexation of Tver in 1485, Ivan Molodoy was appointed prince of Tver as his father; in one of the sources of this period, Ivan III and Ivan Molodoy are called "autocrats of the Russian land." Thus, during all the 1480s, the position of Ivan Ivanovich as the legitimate heir was quite strong.

Ivan and Elena's wedding

The position of the supporters of Sophia Palaiologos was less favorable. So, in particular, the Grand Duchess failed to get government posts for her relatives; her brother Andrei left Moscow with nothing, and her niece Maria, the wife of Prince Vasily Vereisky (the 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 presented her relative with a precious piece of jewelry - a "sazhen" 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 “sazhen” on Elena Voloshanka, upon discovering the loss of the jewelry, became angry and ordered a search to be launched. Vasily Vereisky did not wait for measures against himself and, having captured his wife, fled to Lithuania. One of the results of this story was the transition of the Vereysko-Belozersky principality to Ivan III according to the will of the appanage prince Mikhail Vereisky, Vasily's father. Only in 1493 Sophia procured Vasily the mercy of the Grand Duke: the disgrace was removed.

"The great prince granted his grandson a great reign"

By 1490, however, new circumstances came into play. The son of the Grand Duke, heir to the throne Ivan Ivanovich fell ill "kamchugo in the legs"(gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leona" who presumptuously 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 around 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 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 struggle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III “placed disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, the Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day on he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, nor to be called the Grand Duke, and put them in the 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 imprisonment. Thus, the struggle within the grand-ducal family ended in the victory of Prince Vasily; he became the co-ruler of his father and the rightful heir to a huge power. The fall of Dmitry the grandson and his mother also predetermined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod reform movement in 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, 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 from hunger and cold, others that he suffocated from smoke”- Herberstein reported about his death

"Veil of Elena Voloshanka". Workshop of Elena Stefanovna Voloshanka (?) depicting the 1498 ceremony. 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. On the lid of the sarcophagus, the word "Sophia" was scratched with a sharp instrument.

This cathedral was destroyed in 1929, and the remains of Sophia, as well as 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

The attitude of contemporaries

The Byzantine princess was not popular, she was considered smart, but proud, cunning and treacherous. Hostility towards her was even reflected in the annals: for example, regarding her return from Beloozero, the chronicler notes: “Grand Duchess Sophia ... ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, and no one drove; and in which countries she went, the more so Tatars - from boyar serfs, from Christian bloodsuckers. Repay them, O Lord, according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their undertakings.

The disgraced duma man of Vasily III, Bersen Beklemishev, in a conversation with Maxim Grek, spoke of her like this: “Our Russian land lived in silence and in peace. As the mother of the Grand Duke Sophia came here with your Greeks, so our land got mixed up and great disturbances came to us, just like you had in Tsar-grad under your kings. Maxim objected: “Lord, the Grand Duchess Sophia on both sides was of a great family: on her father, the royal family, and on her mother, the Grand Duke of the Italian side.” Bersen replied: “Whatever it may be; Yes, it has come to our disorder. This disorganization, according to Bersen, was reflected in the fact that since that time “the great prince changed the old customs”, “now our Sovereign, having locked himself in thirds by the bed, does all sorts of things.”

Prince Andrei Kurbsky is especially strict with Sophia. He is convinced that “The devil instilled evil morals into the good Russian princes, especially by their evil wives and sorcerers, like in Israel the kings, more than whom they were raped from foreigners”; accuses Sophia of poisoning John the Young, of the death of Elena, of imprisoning Dmitry, Prince Andrei Uglitsky and other persons, contemptuously calls her a Greek woman, Greek "sorcerer".

In the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, a silk veil is kept, sewn by the hands of Sophia in 1498; her name is embroidered on the veil, and she calls herself not the Grand Duchess of Moscow, but "royal tsar's city". Apparently, she highly valued her former title, if she remembers it even after 26 years

Shroud from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

Appearance

When in 1472 Clarice Orsini and the court poet of her husband Luigi Pulci witnessed an absentee marriage that took place in the Vatican, the poisonous wit Pulci, in order to amuse Lorenzo the Magnificent, who remained in Florence, sent him a report on this event and the appearance of the bride:

“We entered a room where a painted doll sat in an armchair on a high platform. She had two huge Turkish pearls on her chest, a double chin, thick cheeks, her whole face shone with fat, her eyes were wide 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 other parts of the body - I have never seen such a funny and disgusting person as this fair 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 bewitched, saw in this monster in a woman's guise a beauty, and the interpreter's speech clearly gave her pleasure. One of our companions even admired the painted lips of this doll and considered that she spits amazingly gracefully. All day, until evening, she chatted in Greek, but we were not allowed 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 this dress was of rich silk and cut from at least six pieces of fabric, so that they could cover the dome of Santa Maria Rotunda. Since then, every night I dream of mountains of butter, fat, lard, rags and other similar muck.

According to the review of the Bolognese chroniclers, who described the passage of her procession through the city, she was short in stature, had very beautiful eyes and amazing whiteness of skin. In appearance they gave her 24 years.

In December 1994, studies of the remains of the princess began in Moscow. They are well preserved (almost complete skeleton except for some small bones). Criminalist Sergey Nikitin, who restored her appearance using the Gerasimov method, points out: “After comparing the skull, spine, sacrum, pelvic bones and lower limbs, taking into account the approximate thickness of the missing soft tissues and interosseous cartilage, it was possible to find out that Sophia was short, about 160 cm, full, with strong-willed features. According to the degree of overgrowth of the sutures of the skull and wear of the teeth, the biological age of the Grand Duchess was determined at 50-60 years, which corresponds to historical data. At first, her sculptural portrait was molded from special soft plasticine, and then a plaster casting was made and tinted to look like Carrara marble.

Great-great-granddaughter, Princess Maria Staritskaya. According to scientists, her face shows a great resemblance to Sophia

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Paleolog

At the end of June 1472, the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologos solemnly set off from Rome to Moscow: she was on her way to a wedding with Grand Duke Ivan III. This woman was destined to play an important role in the historical fate of Russia.

Byzantine princess

May 29, 1453 the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in battle defending Constantinople.

His younger brother Thomas Palaiologos, 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 fight against the Turks, signed the Union of Florence in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek refuge from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos 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 house in Rome and a good boarding house from the papacy.

In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - the sons of Andrei 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 her father's possessions in the Peloponnese, where she received her primary education. The education of the royal orphans was taken over by the Vatican, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. A Greek by birth, a former archbishop of Nicaea, he was an ardent supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He brought up Zoya Palaiologos in European Catholic traditions and especially taught that she should humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her "the beloved daughter of the Roman Church." Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, fate will give you everything. However, it turned out quite the opposite.

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 to the recently widowed Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basileus. This marriage served two political purposes. First, they expected that the Grand Duke of Muscovy would now accept the Union of Florence and submit to Rome. And secondly, it will become a powerful ally and recapture the former possessions of Byzantium, taking some of them as dowry. So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. It remained to obtain the consent of Moscow.

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

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was already considered an elderly 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, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow) to Rome 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 Paleolog in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Russia. At least, they were so amazed by him that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon”, not finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”

However, the matchmaking dragged on, because Metropolitan Philip of Moscow objected for a long time to the marriage of the sovereign with a Uniate woman, moreover, 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 the bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was 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 vain hopes placed by Rome on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried in front of the procession, which led to great confusion and excitement among the inhabitants of Russia. Upon learning of this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow in blessed Moscow to carry the cross in front of the Latin bishop, then he will enter the single gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent a boyar to meet the procession with an order to remove the cross from 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 of all visited an Orthodox church, where she kissed the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there bow to the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God by order of the despina (from the Greek despot- "ruler"). And then Sophia promised the admiring Pskovites her protection before the Grand Duke.

Ivan III did not intend 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 did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently brought up in childhood Athos 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 the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion into the great Third Rome.

Kremlin Despina

Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the 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, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. 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 look. And before, Ivan Vasilyevich had a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, brought up in Europe, was different from Russian women in many ways. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power, and many Moscow orders were not to her liking. 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 fortifications and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are wooden, and that Russian women look at the world from the little window of the lighthouse. Sophia Paleolog 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 as a coat of arms - a symbol royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Actually, 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 the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned 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 Senya, the house church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Evdokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury to be stored in 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 a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with ivory and walrus ivory plates with biblical themes 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 place it for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources - for his mother, Dowager Empress 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 they say, a rare icon of the Mother of God "Blessed Heaven". The icon was in the local rank of the iconostasis of the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. True, according to another legend, this icon was brought to ancient Smolensk from Constantinople, and when Lithuania captured the city, this way they blessed the Lithuanian princess Sofya Vitovtovna for marriage with the great Moscow prince Vasily I. The icon, which is now in the cathedral, is a list from that ancient image, executed by order of Fyodor Alekseevich at the end of the 17th century. According to tradition, Muscovites brought water and lamp oil to the image of the Mother of God "Blessed Sky", which were filled with healing properties, since this icon had a special, miraculous healing power. And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, the ancestor of the Palaiologos dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers intermarried, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was affirmed, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

After the wedding, Ivan III himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all started with the catastrophe of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had befallen because of the “Greek”, who had previously been in “Latinism”. While they found out the reasons for the collapse, Sophia advised her husband to invite Italian architects, who were then the best masters in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and maintain the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only to the Second, but also to the First Rome. Scientists have noticed that the Italians went to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because despina could give them protection and help. Sometimes there is a statement that it was Sophia who suggested to her husband the idea of ​​​​inviting Aristotle Fioravanti, whom she could hear about in Italy or even know him personally, because he was famous in his homeland as the “new Archimedes”. Like it or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, and he happily agreed.

In Moscow, a special, secret order awaited him. Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin being built by his compatriots. There is an assumption that an impregnable fortress was built to protect Liberia. In the Assumption Cathedral, the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they put a priceless library. It was this cache that the Grand Duke accidentally discovered Vasily III many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, in 1518, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow to translate these books, who allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, the son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They searched for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichny Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in the dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleolog. The first of these was the Cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker himself appeared in a dream to Sophia and ordered to build an Orthodox church on that place. Sophia proved herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the wife of the khan and, having told about the miraculous vision shown to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was obtained, and in 1477 the wooden Nikolsky Cathedral appeared, later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Recall that the first printer Ivan Fedorov was the deacon of this church). However, the historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleolog, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

Traditions call Sophia Paleolog the founder of the Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and began to be called Verkhospassky at the same time - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Palaiologos brought a temple image to Moscow Holy Savior this cathedral. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted from him the image of the Lord for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Church of the Transfiguration as its main shrine. It is known that Sophia Paleolog indeed brought the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, with which her father blessed her. In the Kremlin Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, a salary from this image was kept, and on the lectern lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia.

Another story is connected with the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky Monastery, and Despina, thanks to which the Novospassky Monastery appeared in Moscow. After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, now and then burning in the frequent Moscow fires. Once Sophia herself had to escape from the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The sovereign decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was constrained by new palace buildings. And in 1490 Ivan III moved the monastery to the banks of the Moskva River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then, the monastery has become known as Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor has remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya, which also suffered from a fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III), did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Nativity Church to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street.

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with antique coins minted under the Roman emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Palaiologos, in which there were natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government posts, became treasurers, ambassadors, translators. A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Russia in the retinue of Despina. Later, Sophia invited doctors from Italy for the family of the Grand Duke. The occupation of medicine was then very dangerous for foreigners, especially when it came to treating the first person of the state. A complete recovery of the highest patient was required, but in the event of the death of the patient, the life of the doctor himself was taken away.

So, the doctor Leon, discharged by Sophia from Venice, vouched with his head that he would cure the heir who suffered from gout - Prince Ivan Ivanovich the Younger, the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife. However, the heir died, and the doctor was executed in Zamoskvorechye on Bolvanovka. The people blamed Sophia for the death of the young prince: the death of the heir could be especially beneficial for her, for she dreamed of the throne for her son Vasily, who was born in 1479.

Sophia was not loved in Moscow for her influence on the Grand Duke and for the changes in Moscow life - “great discords,” as the boyar Bersen-Beklemishev put it. She also interfered in foreign policy affairs, insisting that Ivan III stop paying tribute to the Horde Khan and free himself from his power. And as if once she said to her husband: “I refused my hand to rich, strong princes and kings, for faith I married you, and now you want to make me and my children tributaries; do you not have enough troops? As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, Sophia's skilful advice always met her husband's secret intentions. Ivan III really refused to pay tribute and trampled on the Khan's charter right in the Horde courtyard in Zamoskvorechye, where the Transfiguration Church was later erected. But even then the people "spoke" of Sophia. Before leaving for the great stand on the Ugra in 1480, Ivan III sent his wife with small children to Beloozero, for which he was credited with secret intentions to quit power and flee with his wife if Khan Akhmat took Moscow.

Having freed himself from the yoke of the Khan, Ivan III felt himself a sovereign sovereign. Through the efforts of Sophia, palace etiquette began to resemble Byzantine. The Grand Duke gave his wife a "gift": he allowed her to have her own "thought" of the members of the retinue and arrange "diplomatic receptions" in her half. She received foreign ambassadors and struck up a courteous conversation with them. For Russia, this was an unheard-of innovation. The treatment at the sovereign's court also changed. The Byzantine princess brought sovereign rights to her husband and, according to the historian F.I. Uspensky, the right to the throne of Byzantium, which the boyars had to reckon with. Previously, Ivan III loved “a meeting against himself”, that is, objections and disputes, but under Sophia he changed his treatment of the courtiers, began to keep himself inaccessible, demanded special respect and easily fell into anger, now and then disgracing himself. These misfortunes were also attributed to the pernicious influence of Sophia Paleolog.

Meanwhile, their family life was not cloudless. In 1483, Sophia's brother Andrei married his daughter to Prince Vasily Vereisky, the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. Sophia presented her niece for the wedding with a valuable gift from the sovereign's treasury - an ornament that previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna, naturally believing that she had every right to make this gift. When the Grand Duke missed the jewelry to welcome his daughter-in-law Elena Voloshanka, who gave him a grandson Dmitry, such a storm broke out that Vereisky had to flee to Lithuania.

And soon storm clouds hung over the head of Sophia herself: strife began over the heir to the throne. Ivan III had a grandson Dmitry, born in 1483, from his eldest son. Sophia gave birth to his son Vasily. Which of them should have taken the throne? This uncertainty caused a struggle between the two court parties - supporters of Dmitry and his mother Elena Voloshanka and supporters of Vasily and Sophia Paleolog.

"Grekinya" was immediately accused of violating the legitimate succession to the throne. In 1497, enemies told the Grand Duke that Sophia wanted to poison his grandson in order to put her own son on the throne, that she was secretly visited by fortune-tellers preparing a poisonous potion, and that Vasily himself was participating in this conspiracy. Ivan III took the side of his grandson, arrested Vasily, ordered the soothsayer to drown him in the Moscow River, and removed his wife from himself, defiantly executing several members of her “thought”. Already in 1498, he married Dmitry in the Assumption Cathedral as heir to the throne. Scientists believe that it was then that the famous “Legend of the Princes of Vladimir” was born - a literary monument of the late 15th - early 16th centuries, which tells about the Monomakh's hat, which the Byzantine emperor Konstantin Monomakh allegedly sent with regalia to his grandson - Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh. Thus, it was proved that the Russian princes had become related to the Byzantine rulers back in the days of Kievan Rus and that the descendant of the older branch, that is, Dmitry, had a legal right to the throne.

However, the ability to weave court intrigues was in Sophia's blood. She managed to achieve the fall of Elena Voloshanka, accusing her of adherence to heresy. Then the Grand Duke placed his daughter-in-law and grandson in disgrace and in 1500 named Vasily the legitimate heir to the throne. Who knows what path Russian history would have taken if not for Sophia! But Sophia did not have long to enjoy the victory. She died in April 1503 and was buried with honor in the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan III died two years later, and in 1505 Vasily III ascended the throne.

Nowadays, scientists have managed to restore her sculptural portrait from the skull of Sophia Paleolog. Before us appears a woman of outstanding mind and strong will, which confirms the numerous legends built around her name.

The Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia (Zoya) Palaiologos played a huge role in the development of the Muscovite kingdom. Many consider her the author of the concept "Moscow - the third Rome". And together with Zoya Palaiolognea, 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.

Childhood and youth

Zoya Palaiologos was born (presumably) in 1455 in Mistra. The daughter of the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, was born in a tragic and critical time - the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II and the death of Emperor Constantine, Thomas Palaiologos fled to Corfu with his wife Catherine of Achaia and their children. From there he moved to Rome, where he was forced to convert to Catholicism. Thomas died in May 1465. His death happened shortly after the death of his wife in the same year. Children, Zoya and her brothers - 5-year-old Manuel and 7-year-old Andrei, moved to Rome after the death of their parents.

The education of orphans was taken up by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicaea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (it was he who became the customer of the famous Sistine Chapel). In Rome, the Greek princess Zoe Palaiologos and her brothers were brought up in the Catholic faith. The cardinal took care of the maintenance of the children and their education.

It is known that Bessarion of Nicaea, 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. Sophia Paleolog received a fairly solid education for those times.

Grand Duchess of Moscow

When Sophia came of age, the Venetian Signoria took care of her marriage. To take a noble girl as a wife was first offered to the King of Cyprus, Jacques II de Lusignan. 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 betrothal took place, but for unknown reasons, the marriage was canceled.

There is a version that Sophia secretly communicated with the Athonite elders and adhered to Orthodox faith. She herself made efforts not to marry a non-Christian, frustrating all marriages offered to her.

In the turning point for the life of Sophia Paleolog in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Maria Borisovna, died. In this marriage, the only son was born. Pope Paul II, counting on the spread of Catholicism to Moscow, offered the widowed sovereign of all Russia to marry his ward.

After 3 years of negotiations, Ivan III, having asked for advice from his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, decided to marry. It is noteworthy that the papal negotiators prudently kept silent about the transition of Sophia Paleolog to Catholicism. Moreover, they reported that the proposed wife of Paleologne is an Orthodox Christian. They didn't even know it was true.

In June 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologos were betrothed in absentia. After that, the convoy of the bride left Rome for Moscow. The bride was accompanied by the same Cardinal Wisssarion.

Bologna chroniclers described Sophia as a rather attractive person. She looked 24 years old, she 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 Sophia Paleolog, in addition to clothes and jewelry, there were many valuable books that later formed the basis of the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Among them were treatises and unknown poems.

Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog on Lake Peipsi

At the end of a long route that ran through Germany and Poland, the Roman escorts of Sophia Palaiologos realized that their desire to spread (or at least bring closer) Catholicism to Orthodoxy through the marriage of Ivan III to Palaiologos was defeated. Zoya, who had barely left Rome, showed her firm intention to return to the faith of her ancestors - Christianity. The wedding took place in Moscow on November 12, 1472. The ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral.

The main achievement of Sophia Paleolog, which turned into a huge boon 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 the elite offered to continue paying dues in order to avoid bloodshed.

Personal life

Apparently, the personal life of Sophia Paleolog with Grand Duke Ivan III was successful. In this marriage, considerable offspring were born - 5 sons and 4 daughters. But it is difficult to call the existence of the new Grand Duchess Sophia in Moscow cloudless. The boyars saw the enormous influence that the wife had on her husband. Many people didn't like it.

Basil III, son of Sophia Paleolog

Rumor has it that the princess had a bad relationship with the heir, born in the previous marriage of Ivan III, Ivan the Young. Moreover, there is a version that Sophia was involved in the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy and the further removal of his wife Elena Voloshanka and son Dmitry from power.

Be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog had a huge impact on the entire subsequent history of Russia, on its culture and architecture. She was the mother of the heir to the throne and grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. According to some reports, the grandson had a considerable resemblance to his wise Byzantine grandmother.

Death

Sophia Paleolog, Grand Duchess of Moscow, died on April 7, 1503. Husband, Ivan III, survived his wife only 2 years.

Destruction of the grave of Sophia Paleolog in 1929

Sophia 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 survived - they were transferred to the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.

The Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia (Zoya) Palaiologos played a huge role in the development of the Muscovite kingdom. Many consider her the author of the concept "Moscow - the third Rome". And together with Zoya Palaiolognea, 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.

Childhood and youth

Zoya Palaiologos was born (presumably) in 1455 in Mistra. The daughter of the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, was born in a tragic and critical time - the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II and the death of Emperor Constantine, Thomas Palaiologos fled to Corfu with his wife Catherine of Achaia and their children. From there he moved to Rome, where he was forced to convert to Catholicism. Thomas died in May 1465. His death happened shortly after the death of his wife in the same year. Children, Zoya and her brothers - 5-year-old Manuel and 7-year-old Andrei, moved to Rome after the death of their parents.

The education of orphans was taken up by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicaea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (it was he who became the customer of the famous Sistine Chapel). In Rome, the Greek princess Zoe Palaiologos and her brothers were brought up in the Catholic faith. The cardinal took care of the maintenance of the children and their education.

It is known that Bessarion of Nicaea, 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. Sophia Paleolog received a fairly solid education for those times.

Grand Duchess of Moscow

When Sophia came of age, the Venetian Signoria took care of her marriage. To take a noble girl as a wife was first offered to the King of Cyprus, Jacques II de Lusignan. 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 betrothal took place, but for unknown reasons, the marriage was canceled.

There is a version that Sophia secretly communicated with the Athonite elders and adhered to the Orthodox faith. She herself made efforts not to marry a non-Christian, frustrating all marriages offered to her.

In the turning point for the life of Sophia Paleolog in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Maria Borisovna, died. In this marriage, the only son was born. Pope Paul II, counting on the spread of Catholicism to Moscow, offered the widowed sovereign of all Russia to marry his ward.

After 3 years of negotiations, Ivan III, having asked for advice from his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, decided to marry. It is noteworthy that the papal negotiators prudently kept silent about the transition of Sophia Paleolog to Catholicism. Moreover, they reported that the proposed wife of Paleologne is an Orthodox Christian. They didn't even know it was true.

In June 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologos were betrothed in absentia. After that, the convoy of the bride left Rome for Moscow. The bride was accompanied by the same Cardinal Wisssarion.

Bologna chroniclers described Sophia as a rather attractive person. She looked 24 years old, she 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 Sophia Paleolog, in addition to clothes and jewelry, there were many valuable books that later formed the basis of the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Among them were treatises and unknown poems.

Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog on Lake Peipsi

At the end of a long route that ran through Germany and Poland, the Roman escorts of Sophia Palaiologos realized that their desire to spread (or at least bring closer) Catholicism to Orthodoxy through the marriage of Ivan III to Palaiologos was defeated. Zoya, who had barely left Rome, showed her firm intention to return to the faith of her ancestors - Christianity. The wedding took place in Moscow on November 12, 1472. The ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral.

The main achievement of Sophia Paleolog, which turned into a huge boon 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 the elite offered to continue paying dues in order to avoid bloodshed.

Personal life

Apparently, the personal life of Sophia Paleolog with Grand Duke Ivan III was successful. In this marriage, considerable offspring were born - 5 sons and 4 daughters. But it is difficult to call the existence of the new Grand Duchess Sophia in Moscow cloudless. The boyars saw the enormous influence that the wife had on her husband. Many people didn't like it.

Basil III, son of Sophia Paleolog

Rumor has it that the princess had a bad relationship with the heir, born in the previous marriage of Ivan III, Ivan the Young. Moreover, there is a version that Sophia was involved in the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy and the further removal of his wife Elena Voloshanka and son Dmitry from power.

Be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog had a huge impact on the entire subsequent history of Russia, on its culture and architecture. She was the mother of the heir to the throne and grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. According to some reports, the grandson had a considerable resemblance to his wise Byzantine grandmother.

Death

Sophia Paleolog, Grand Duchess of Moscow, died on April 7, 1503. Husband, Ivan III, survived his wife only 2 years.

Destruction of the grave of Sophia Paleolog in 1929

Sophia 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 survived - they were transferred to the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.