Eupraxia of Kiev
| Eupraxia of Kiev | |
|---|---|
Burgundy | |
| Tenure | 18 August 1089 – 31 December 1105 |
| Coronation | 1089 |
| Born | Eupraxia Vsevolodovna c. 1067 |
| Died | 10 July 1109 (aged 41–42) Kievan Rus' |
| Spouses | Henry I, Margrave of the Nordmark (died 1087) |
Volodimerovichi (by birth) Salian dynasty (by marriage) | |
| Father | Vsevolod I of Kiev |
| Mother | Anna Polovetskaya |
Eupraxia Vsevolodovna of Kiev (c. 1067 – 10 July 1109
First marriage
Eupraxia was first married to Henry I the Long, count of Stade and margrave of the Saxon Northern March, who was the son of Lothair Udo II.[3] Eupraxia and Henry had no children before his death in 1087.
Empress
After her first husband's death, Eupraxia went to live in the convent of Quedlinburg, where she met Henry IV, who was then the Saxon king. He was greatly impressed by her beauty. After his first wife Bertha of Savoy died in December 1087, Henry became betrothed to Eupraxia in 1088. The couple married the following year on 18 August 1089 at Cologne. Immediately after the wedding, Eupraxia was crowned and assumed the name Adelaide (or Adelheid).[4]
During Henry's campaigns in Italy, he took Eupraxia-Adelaide with him and kept her imprisoned at the monastery of San Zeno, where the emperor and his troops traditionally stayed, just outside the walled city of
According to an account written in the mid-twelfth century, because Henry forced Eupraxia-Adelaide to take part in orgies, when she became pregnant she was unable to tell who the father of her child was. Eupraxia-Adelaide thus decided to leave Henry.[9] Christian Raffensperger has suggested that there might be some truth to this story, based on a reference to the death of one of Henry’s sons in Donizo’s Vita Mathildis (written c.1115).[10] Since Henry’s children by his first wife Bertha are accounted for, according to Raffensperger this could be a child by Eupraxia-Adelaide (alternatively, it could be a reference to a child by a mistress, or simply a mistake).[11]
Later life
Eupraxia-Adelaide left Italy for
Notes
- ^ a b "Adelaide of Kiev (c. 1070–1109)". Gale Research Inc. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2013.(subscription required)
- ^ Women of Ancient Rus (In Russian)
- ^ Rüß, ‘Eupraxia,’ pp. 487f.
- ^ Althoff, Heinrich IV., pp. 207f.
- ^ Robinson, Henry IV, p. 289.
- ^ Robinson, Henry IV, p. 290
- ^ Althoff, Heinrich IV, p. 213
- ^ Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 289ff.; Women of Ancient Rus (In Russian)
- ^ Gerhoh of Reichersburg, De investigatione Antichristi, MGH LdL 3, I.17, pp. 324f., accessible online at Monumenta Germaniae Historica Archived 2019-03-27 at the Wayback Machine (in Latin)
- ^ Raffensperger, ‘Missing Russian Women,’ pp. 76, 83 n. 31, with reference to Donizo of Canossa, Vita Mathildis, Book II, v.665.
- ^ According to one of the editors of the Vita Mathildis, this is a reference to one of Henry’s illegitimate children: Vita Mathildis, celeberrimae principis Italiae, ed. L. Simeoni (Bologna, 1940), p. 77.
- ^ Raffensperger, 'Missing Russian Women,' pp. 78f.
- ^ Rüß, ‘Eupraxia,’ pp. 511-514.
References
- G. Vernadsky, Kievan Rus (New Haven, 1976).
- C. Raffensperger, ‘Evpraksia Vsevolodovna between East and West,’ Russian History/Histoire Russe 30:1–2 (2003), 23-34.
- C. Raffensperger, 'The Missing Russian Women: The Case of Evpraksia Vsevolodovna,' in Writing Medieval Women's Lives (ed. Goldy, Livingstone) (2012), pp.
- H. Rüß, ‘Eupraxia-Adelheid. Eine biographische Annäherung,‘ Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 54 (2006), 481–518
- I. S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056-1106 (Cambridge, 2003).
- G. Althoff, Heinrich IV (Darmstadt, 2006).
External links
- Adelaide of Kiev, c.1070-1109 (subscription required)
- Praxedis-Adelheid von Kiev, Deutsche Deutsche Königin (in German)
- Women of Ancient Rus (in Russian)
