Maria Palaiologina
(
Greek
:
Μαρ?α Παλαιολογ?να
; died 1505) was, according to Russian sources, a daughter of
Andreas Palaiologos
and the niece of
Sophia Palaiologina
, the
grand princess of Moscow
by marriage to
Ivan III of Russia
.
Maria is only mentioned in Russian chronicles and is thus of unverified historicity; the lack of recorded children of Andreas in western sources has often been seen as evidence that he was childless. According to the chronicles, Maria married the Russian noble
Vasily Mikhailovich
[
ru
]
, the prince of
Vereya
, in approximately 1480, but the two escaped into exile to
Lithuania
in 1483 due to an incident involving the jewels of
Maria of Tver
, the former grand princess of Moscow.
History
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Background
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]
Maria Palaiologina is described in Russian sources,
for instance the near-contemporary
Sofia Chronicle
,
as a daughter of
Andreas Palaiologos
,
otherwise commonly believed by modern historians not to have left any descendants.
Andreas Palaiologos was the son of
Thomas Palaiologos
and the nephew of
Constantine XI Palaiologos
, the final
Byzantine emperor
.
After the fall of the
Byzantine Empire
in 1453 and Thomas' lands in the
Despotate of the Morea
in 1460, Thomas and his family escaped into exile. Andreas lived in
Rome
, provided for by the
papacy
, from 1465 to his death in 1502,
and claimed to be the rightful Byzantine emperor from 1483 onwards.
According to Russian sources, Maria was married off to the Russian noble
Vasily Mikhailovich
[
ru
]
, Prince of
Vereya
, by her aunt (Andreas' sister)
Sophia Palaiologina
in around 1480,
after Andreas' visit to Russia in 1480.
Sophia was one of the most powerful people in Russia through her marriage to Grand Prince
Ivan III of Moscow
.
Maria is not mentioned in any western sources.
Claims of her existence were first forwarded in western scholarship by the Polish historian and genealogist
Adam Boniecki
in 1887 and then by the French historian and genealogist
Nicolas de Baumgarten
in 1934, citing the older Russian chronicles.
Recognition of Maria's historicity has varied since then. In his 1961 biography of Ivan III, the British historian
John Lister Illingworth Fennell
accepted Maria's historicity without comment,
but in 1992, the British historian
Donald Nicol
simply wrote that Russian sources ascribed a daughter to Andreas by this name, unknown in western sources.
Maria of Tver's jewels
[
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]
The Russian chronicles relate that Maria and Vasily were involved in a scandal in 1483. On 10 October 1483, Ivan III wished to honor the birth of his grandson
Dmitry Ivanovich
by giving a valuable setting or cluster of jewels,
or possibly a necklace,
to Dmity's mother
Elena of Moldavia
.
The jewels had originally been part of the dowry of Ivan III's first wife,
Maria of Tver
, and had been entrusted to Sophia.
When Ivan III asked Sophia to hand them over, she was unable to do so. Sophia had squandered a lot of Ivan's treasure, giving some of it to her brother Andreas and some of it, including the jewels, as the dowry of Maria on her marriage to Vasily. Ivan, furious, decided not to punish Sophia, but instead punish Vasily, whose only crime was having accepted Sophia's presents. Agents were sent by Ivan to Vereya to take back the jewels, and to capture Vasily and Maria,
threatening imprisonment.
Though Sophia was sympathetic to her niece and nephew-in-law, Vasily was not confident in Sophia's influence at the Muscovite court and fled to
Lithuania
, though Maria of Tver's jewels were left behind and were successfully confiscated by Ivan's agents.
According to John Lister Illingworth Fennell, there was likely more to this incident than is stated in the chronicles, given that it is unlikely that Vasily and Maria would have gone so far as to flee the country and disinherit themselves over just as trivial a mistake as Maria's aunt wrongly giving away Maria of Tver's jewels.
Sophia succeeded in getting permission from Ivan for Vasily's and Maria's return to Russia in January 1493, though not permission for Vasily being restored to his lands in Vereya. Vasily, not satisfied, wrote back, asking for lands and promising to return items from Ivan's treasury, given to them by Sophia along with the jewels, which he and Maria had taken with them to Lithuania. In August 1495, a message from the Muscovite court asked Vasily to provide a list of the valuables in his possession, after which no further communication is recorded.
Maria is said to have died in 1505.
According to Adam Boniecki, Maria and Vasily had a daughter, Sophia Vereyska, who was granted some of Vasily's goods in 1506 and may have married
Albertas Go?tautas
.
References
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]
Bibliography
[
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]
- Boniecki, Adam (1887).
Poczet rodow w Wielkiem Ksistwie Litewskiem w XV i XVI wieku
[
A Group of Families in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th and 16th Centuries
] (in Polish). Warsaw: Orodek Kultury Polskiej nad Renem.
- Fennell, John Lister Illingworth (1961).
Ivan the Great of Moscow
. New York: St. Martin's Press.
OCLC
926765400
.
- Harris, Jonathan (1995).
"A Worthless Prince? Andreas Palaeologus in Rome, 1465?1502"
.
Orientalia Christiana Periodica
.
61
: 537?554.
- Mallat, Peter (1985).
"A Famous 'Emperor in Exile': Thomas Palaiologos and His Descendants"
.
The Genealogist
.
6
: 141?147.
- Nicol, Donald M.
(1992).
The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-511-58369-8
.
- Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Walther, Rainer; Sturm-Schnabl, Katja; Kislinger, Ewald; Leontiadis, Ioannis; Kaplaneres, Sokrates (1976?1996).
Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit
(in German). Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
ISBN
3-7001-3003-1
.
- Zakythinos, D. A.
(1932).
Le despotat grec de Moree, Tome 1: Histoire politique
[
The Greek Despotate of the Morea, Volume 1: Political History
] (in French). Paris: Societe d'edition "Les Belles Lettres".
OCLC
1001644255
.
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