Sofia Palaiologa

Forensic facial reconstruction by Sofia Palaiologa, 1994

Sofia Palaiologa (* around 1448, probably in Mystras ; † 1503 ; actually: Zoë Sophia Palaiologina, Greek : Ζωή Σοφία Παλαιολογίνα; later: Sophia Palaiologina ; Russian : Софи́я Фоми́я, also Sofia the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium Constantine XI. Palaiologos and the second wife of the ruling Russian Grand Duke Ivan III. It is regarded as the link for the legitimation of the Grand Duchy of Moscow as the nucleus of the Russian Empire, which should be seen as the continuation of the Byzantine Empire (" Third Rome ") and the religious and political authority associated with it. When they married in Moscow, Tsarism took over the idea of ​​religious autocracy and court ceremonies.

Life

childhood

Her father was Thomas Palaiologos , the younger brother of the last two Byzantine emperors; her mother's name was Katharina, a daughter of Prince Centurius Zacharias of Achea . When Byzantium fell in 1453, Sofia is said to have been around five years old. In 1460 she and her father fled from the Turks. She lived first in Corfu and since 1465 as an orphan in Rome , where Cardinal Bessarion took care of her. He was a staunch supporter of the Florentine Council and had her educated Catholic. As an orphan, she was under the care of the Pope as Patriarch of Rome and is said to have lived in relatively modest circumstances until she married.

Marriage

It is difficult to say what the decision of Ivan III to marry Sofia was based on, because his successor was secured by his son Ivan Ivanovich (the boy) from his first marriage to Maria Borisovna of Tver .

Ivan III became aware. made to Sofia by a letter from Cardinal Bessarion, of which Palaiologenkinder had assumed. At that time Sofia was engaged to a distinguished Venetian of the Caraccioli family, which the cardinal must have known. It is possible that the cardinal wanted to gain an ally against the Turks through this marriage. The widowed Ivan had hesitated at first, then conferred with the Metropolitan of Moscow (Philip), with his mother and his boyars, and finally in 1472 sent his Italian mint master Gian-Battista della Volpe to Rome to find out about Sofia (called Zoe) to inform in all areas and to report to him (Ivan III). Sofia agreed to the wedding and, after having consulted everyone again, Ivan sent Volpe again to Rome to fetch Sofia. Ivan's policy in the years that followed suggests that he was not interested in an anti-Ottoman alliance with Rome.

Since Ivan's motives for taking Sofia as his bride are not known, it is assumed that he wanted to underline the arrival of the Byzantine inheritance with the wedding. Perhaps he wanted to underline the orthodoxy , which is a cornerstone of the Russian understanding of the state. Since Sofia had two brothers, however, he could not lay claim to the Byzantine imperial throne.

In Russian sources it is reported about Sofija that the French king also intended to marry her. Since she did not want to convert to Latinism, however, she agreed immediately when she heard that Ivan wanted to take her as his wife, since he belonged to the orthodox Christian faith.

The bridal procession set off from Rome on July 24th, 1472, and among the participants were Greek representatives of the Sofias brothers and a legacy of the Pope . They traveled through areas under the Pope and Sofia was received with honor everywhere. For example, when she came to Pskov on October 11th, she received great honors and gave her numerous gifts. The bridal procession stayed there for seven days before moving on to Novgorod , which was reached on October 25th. On October 30, the train started moving towards Moscow . When he was near Moscow, an incident occurred. The Pope's legacy carried a Latin cross in front of it, which gave rise to a discussion as to whether or not to allow it. Since Metropolitan Philip opposed it, this was forbidden and Sofia moved into the city on November 12, 1472. The Moscow metropolitan trusted Ivan III. and Zoe-Sofia after the Orthodox ceremony in the wooden Church of the Assumption. She dropped her previous name "Zoe", took the name Sofia and moved in with her mother-in-law in the Terem , the Kremlin's women's shelter . At the wedding the mother of the grand dukes (Marija), the son from the first marriage (Ivan Ivanovich), Ivan's brothers with all other princes and boyars, the Roman ambassadors, the legate Antonio, the ambassadors of the Sofias brothers and a large number of the people were present present.

Sofia as the Muscovite Grand Duchess

Sofia found it difficult to assert herself against the family of Ivan the Younger. Also on her husband Ivan III. she did not always have an influence, as is attested by an entry in the chronicle, in which it is said that she fled from Moscow to the Cyrillic Monastery in Beloosero in 1480 because she was persecuted by Tatars . In fact, no one had followed her. In 1497 Sofia and her eldest son Vasily were banished from the court. The younger children stayed in Moscow. Vasily was 18 years old at the time. Shortly afterwards the 15-year-old grandson of Ivan III, Dimitri, son of Ivan the Younger, was crowned Grand Duke.

Ivan and Sofia's children

In relation to Ivan's son from his first marriage, there is little information about the children with Sofia. On April 18, 1474 Sofia gave birth to their first daughter Elena. The second Elena was born on May 19, 1476. Since only one Elena is mentioned in the chronicles, the first daughter probably died before the birth of the second and it was important for the parents to name a child after the Byzantine empress Helena, which is understandable with regard to Sofia's ancestry. However, the fact that only the girl born in 1476 was called Elena again and not Feodosia, born on May 28, 1475, was the successor to the name, suggests that the first-born Elena was still alive at the time. The name Feodosija can also be found as a daughter born on May 29, 1485. The question arises again whether the girl born in 1475 had died, whether one of these births is considered unlikely, or whether Sofia had two daughters of the same name. On March 26, 1479 Sofia gave birth to her first son named Vasily, on March 23, 1480 Juri and on October 6, 1481 Dmitri. Evdokija was born in February 1483, married a Tatar prince in 1506 and died in 1513. The birth of Semen on March 21, 1487 is controversial. In contrast, the information about the youngest child Ivan and Sofias, Andrei, who was born on August 5, 1490, is clear. The fact that only brief mentions take place in the chronicle gives the impression that Ivan III. is not particularly concerned with his wife Sofia or with the children of Sofia. It is astonishing, however, that he had so many children with a woman who allegedly meant so little to him.

Sofia's work in the Grand Duchy of Moscow

Sofia's actions in politics

Sofia's influence has often been overestimated; it took place directly in artistic activities. However, until then it was immoral for the wives of the Grand Duke to speak to foreign ambassadors. Sofia, on the other hand, even held audiences in her room. Even if she always had to assert herself against the family Ivan the Younger and his wife Elena and was even banished once, Sofia finally got Vasily to become Grand Duke.

Ivan Ivanovich and his wife Elena, the daughter of Prince Stephan IV the Great of Moldova, had a son, Dimitri. He was born in October 1483 and was supposed to secure the succession. The unexpected death of Ivan the Younger in 1490 therefore raised the question of who should now take his place: Wassili III. , the son of Ivan and Sofia, or his grandson Dimitri. The situation was not easy, because the mothers fought in the background for the rule of their son. Various groups had formed in the church. Elena supported a heretical group (the so-called Judaizers), which from the perspective of the church, condemned the wealth of the church (especially the rural property). Ivan could use land for the service nobility, but this group was condemned by the official church. Sofia stood on the opposite side of the Judaizers. Against this background, Ivan had to make his decision of the succession to the throne, for which he took his time despite his sympathy for the Judaizers and his personal affection for Elena and Dimitri. In the winter of 1497/98, Vasily was imprisoned for a prepared coup attempt, Sofia had planned this and the coup was to be carried out with Lithuanian support. Sofia fell out of favor and in 1498 Iwan crowned his grandson Dimitri Grand Duke.

A year later he also appointed Vasily Grand Duke, as he wanted unity in the Grand Prince family due to the worsening situation with Poland-Lithuania and gave Vasily III. Greater Novgorod and Pskov as a Grand Duchy. But this was not satisfied with it and threatened Ivan III. defected to Lithuania. Ivan met Vasili, who then returned to Moscow and secured his position to such an extent that Dimitri was named after Vasili and his three younger brothers in protocol as early as 1501.

The fact that Ivan had his grandson Dimitri and his daughter-in-law Elena arrested in 1502 was primarily due to foreign policy matters. Dimitri's coronation took place, among other things, in view of a union with Stephan IV of Moldova against Poland-Lithuania, which then did not take place. However, the danger of the oppositional stance of Sofia and Vasily became more and more dangerous, since they were supported by a boyar party headed by the Perikeews and the internal peace was endangered. Sofia practiced on Ivan III. Pressure to have Elena and Dimitri arrested by threatening to ally with their supporters with the Lithuanian enemy. When the arrests were completed, Iwan increasingly relied on the support of a powerful clergy and gave the official church a free hand in the "liquidation" of the Judaizers. Ivan let Vasily III. call back to Moscow and made him the new co-regent.

In order to achieve her political and dynastic goals, Sofia relied on her Byzantine origins. In 1498 she donated a liturgical tapestry to a monastery, referring to her Byzantine heritage. So she always packed her political goals (e.g. soliciting allies) in religious statements. Sofia had to endure a lot in the fight for her son's rule. Among other things, rumors were spread that she had poisoned Ivan the Younger. As is so often the case, the controversy over the throne was linked to intrigue. Sofia tried to smash Dimitri's power in Tver, but it turned out to be not so easy. Not much is known about their supporters, all that is clear is that Sofia and Vasily were supported by Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod.

Sofia was considered very religious and therefore it pained her that Moscow was in Tatar bondage. So she came up with a plan. In Moscow there was a special house in which representatives of the Tatars lived. Sofia sent messengers to the Tatar queen with large gifts and a request to let her have this house. Sofia had a dream in which she was divinely admonished to tear down this house and build a church instead. Sofia assured another building as a Tatar accommodation, the Tatar queen agreed, but the Tatars did not get any more buildings.

Changes in the cultural field

Sofia is said to have brought many foreign artists and medical professionals to Moscow, which needs to be corrected insofar as her brother Andreas allegedly sent a large number of architects and technicians to Moscow before their arrival. Andrew was in Moscow twice (1480 and 1490). On his second visit he took many architects and artists from Germany and Italy with him. Ivan III let many technicians and specialists from various disciplines come to Moscow. B. 1475 Semen Tolbuzin to Venice to get an architect for the construction of the Ascension Cathedral. Tolbuzin hired the master Aristotle, who had the old cathedral demolished and a new one built out of bricks. Aristotle had a Polish-Latin cross carved out of stone in the chancel, which the Metropolitan later had removed. Among the foreign specialists, the proportion of Italians and Greeks was particularly high, which can be attributed to Sofia's activities. At the time Sofia was in Moscow, goldsmithing and artistic embroidery were reaching a high level.

Sofia's position in the Moscow Empire

Sofia found it difficult to assert herself in Moscow. Nevertheless, she was considered very cunning and contemporaries speculated a lot about her role in Moscow. She was watched with suspicion and much about her seemed strange. For example, she even received ambassadors in her chambers. Since women who were actively involved in politics did not enjoy a good reputation and were exposed to many suspicions and accusations, Sofia felt the same. Occasionally she was credited with having a great influence on her husband's politics, for example she is said to have incited her husband to stop paying the Tatar tribute and her intrigues had led Ivan to leave his grandson Dimitri as his successor. Sofia is portrayed as a true Orthodox. However, after Ivan's death, when her son Vasily ruled with severity and part of the Moscow court mourned the autocratic style, she became the culprit for the unpleasant changes.

Sofia's position in the family of Ivan III.

The role at the grand ducal court was a very difficult one for Sofia. In the Kremlin , it was not Sofia, but Helena who played the first role. This is also clear from the fact that after the death of her husband, Dimitri's co-regency was enforced.

Nothing is known about the exact reasons that led Ivan to marry Sofia. Only the Moscow Chronicle shows that the wedding was a work of papal and Venetian politics. Pope Paul II was himself a Venetian and supported the Venetian policy against the Turks. However, it is controversial whether the initiative for the marriage came from Ivan himself or from the curia, disputed in research circles. For Ivan III. the wedding with Sofia meant a gain in prestige. In addition, his first wife had left him only one child. A second marriage was useful to further secure Ivan's line of succession. But in order to find an equal candidate, he had to look beyond Moscow's borders. Sofia Palaiologa was known as the “most distinguished lady in Europe”, but she was very poor. It is therefore assumed that Ivan's noble parentage may have been more important to Ivan than a rich dowry.

literature

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Web links

Commons : Sofia Palaiologa  - collection of images, videos and audio files