What kind of cathedral did Princess Sofia build? Sofia Paleolog: the woman who founded the Russian Empire

1. Sofia Paleolog was the daughter of the despot of Morea (now the Peloponnese Peninsula) Thomas Palaiologos and niece of the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire Constantine XI.

2. At birth, Sofia was named Zoey. She was born two years after Constantinople was captured by the Ottomans in 1453 and the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist. Five years later, Morea was also captured. Zoe's family was forced to flee, finding refuge in Rome. To receive the support of the Pope, Thomas Palaiologos converted to Catholicism with his family. With a change of faith, Zoya became Sophia.

3. Paleolog was appointed as Sofia’s immediate guardian Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea, supporter of union, that is, the unification of Catholics and Orthodox Christians under the authority of the Pope. Sofia's fate was supposed to be decided through a profitable marriage. In 1466 she was offered as a bride to the Cypriot King Jacques II de Lusignan, but he refused. In 1467 she was offered as a wife Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. The prince expressed his consent, after which the solemn betrothal took place.

4. Sofia’s fate changed dramatically after it became known that Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III widowed and looking for a new wife. Vissarion of Nicea decided that if Sophia Paleologus became the wife of Ivan III, the Russian lands could be subordinated to the influence of the Pope.

Sofia Paleolog. Reconstruction based on the skull of S. Nikitin. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

5. On June 1, 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, the betrothal of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologus took place in absentia. The Deputy Grand Duke was Russian Ambassador Ivan Fryazin. The wife of the ruler of Florence was present as guests Lorenzo the Magnificent Clarice Orsini and Queen Katarina of Bosnia.

6. Representatives of the Pope were silent about Sophia Paleologue’s conversion to Catholicism during marriage negotiations. But they, too, were in for a surprise - immediately after crossing the Russian border, Sofia announced to Vissarion of Nicaea, who was accompanying her, that she was returning to Orthodoxy and would not perform Catholic rites. In fact, this was the end of the attempt to implement the union project in Russia.

7. The wedding of Ivan III and Sofia Paleologus in Russia took place on November 12, 1472. Their marriage lasted 30 years, Sofia gave birth to 12 children to her husband, but the first four were girls. Born in March 1479, the boy, named Vasily, later became the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III.

8. At the end of the 15th century, a fierce struggle for the rights to succession to the throne unfolded in Moscow. The official heir was considered the son of Ivan III from his first marriage Ivan Molodoy, even had the status of co-ruler. However, with the birth of her son Vasily, Sophia Paleologus became involved in the struggle for his rights to the throne. The Moscow elite split into two warring parties. Both fell into disgrace, but in the end, victory went to the supporters of Sofia Paleologus and her son.

Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, aka Zoya Paleologina (Greek Ζωή Σοφία Παλαιολογίνα). Born approx. 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 (Zoe) Paleologus was born around 1455.

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

Her maternal grandfather 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.

The elder sister of Sophia (Zoe) - Elena Paleologina of Morea (1431 - November 7, 1473), from 1446 was the wife of the Serbian despot Lazar Brankovic, and after the capture of Serbia by Muslims in 1459, she fled to the Greek island of Lefkas, where she became a nun.

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

The decisive factor in the fate of Sophia (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.

She 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 Sofia. The paleologians settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (the customer of the Sistine Chapel). To gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life.

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 Bessarion 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 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, 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 shine of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising in the waters of the 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 of Sofia Paleolog and Ivan III

The role of Sofia Paleologue was played by the 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 women’s weaknesses. It’s about how a person copes with his passions, how he humbles himself, endures, and how love wins. It seems to me that this is a film about hope for happiness,” Maria Andreeva said about her heroine.

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

"Byzantine"- novel by Nikolai Spassky. The action takes place in 15th-century Italy amid the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople. The main character intrigues to marry Zoya Paleolog to the Russian Tsar.

"Sofia Palaeologus - from Byzantium to Russia"- 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 with the brother of Queen Sophia Andrei Paleologus, Russian envoys Semyon Tolbuzin, Manuil and Dmitry Ralev, and Italian masters - architects , jewelers, gunners. - invited to serve by the Moscow sovereign.

Sophia Paleologus (?-1503), wife (from 1472) of Grand Duke Ivan III, niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Paleologus. Arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472; on the same day, her wedding to Ivan III took place in the Assumption Cathedral. The marriage with Sophia Paleologus contributed to strengthening the prestige of the Russian state in international relations and the authority of the grand ducal power within the country. Special mansions and a courtyard were built for Sophia Paleolog in Moscow. Under Sophia Paleologus, the grand-ducal court was distinguished by its special splendor. Architects were invited from Italy to Moscow to decorate the palace and the capital. The walls and towers of the Kremlin, the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals, the Faceted Chamber, and the Terem Palace were erected. Sofia Paleolog brought a rich library to Moscow. The dynastic marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus owes its appearance to the rite of royal crowning. The arrival of Sophia Paleologus is associated with the appearance of an ivory throne as part of the dynastic regalia, on the back of which was placed an image of a unicorn, which became one of the most common emblems of Russian state power. Around 1490, the image of a crowned double-headed eagle first appeared on the front portal of the Palace of Facets. The Byzantine concept of the sacredness of imperial power directly influenced Ivan III’s introduction of “theology” (“by God’s grace”) in the title and in the preamble of state charters.

KURBSKY TO GROZNY ABOUT HIS GRANDMOTHER

But the abundance of your Majesty’s malice is such that it destroys not only your friends, but, together with your guardsmen, the entire holy Russian land, a plunderer of houses and a murderer of sons! May God protect you from this and may the Lord, King of Ages, not allow this to happen! After all, everything is already going as if on the edge of a knife, because if not your sons, then your half-brothers and close brothers by birth, you have overflowed the measure of bloodsuckers - your father and your mother and grandfather. After all, your father and mother - everyone knows how many they killed. In exactly the same way, your grandfather, with your Greek grandmother, having renounced and forgotten love and kinship, killed his wonderful son Ivan, courageous and glorified in heroic enterprises, born of his first wife, Saint Mary, Princess of Tver, as well as his divinely crowned grandson born of him Tsar Demetrius together with his mother, Saint Helena - the first by deadly poison, and the second by many years of imprisonment in prison, and then by strangulation. But he was not satisfied with this!..

MARRIAGE OF IVAN III AND SOFIA PALEOLOGIST

On 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 peninsula, 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 asylum from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos was able to remove 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 papal throne.

In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - sons 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 initial education. The Vatican took upon itself the education of the royal orphans, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. Greek by birth, former Archbishop of Nicaea, he was a zealous supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He raised Zoe Paleologue in European Catholic traditions and especially taught her to 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, will fate give you everything. However, everything turned out quite the opposite.

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

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was considered a middle-aged woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and soft matte skin, which in Rus' 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 make a match. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seemed to mark the beginning of the era of Sophia Paleologus in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Rus'. At least, they were so amazed by it that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon,” without finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”

However, the matchmaking dragged on because Moscow Metropolitan Philip for a long time objected to the sovereign’s marriage to a Uniate woman, who was also a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Rus'. 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. That same June, Sophia set off on her journey with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the futility of the hopes Rome placed on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried at the front of the procession, which caused great confusion and excitement among the residents of Russia. Having learned about this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow the cross in blessed Moscow to be carried before the Latin bishop, then he will enter the only gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent the boyar to meet the procession with the 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 Rus'. Having entered the Pskov land, she first visited an Orthodox church, where she venerated the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there venerate the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God by order of 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 accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia had no intention of Catholicizing Rus'. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox Christian. Some historians believe that she did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently raised in childhood by the Athonite 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 it to the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion to the great Third Rome.

Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleologus arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the wedding celebration dedicated to the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of remembrance of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day, in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop the services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. His eyes were especially remarkable, “formidable eyes”: when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible gaze. Previously he was distinguished by a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was largely due to his young wife.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, raised in Europe, differed in many ways from Russian women. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of government, and many of the Moscow orders did not suit her heart. 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 fortress walls and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are made of wood and that Russian women look at the world from a small window. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.

She brought a generous dowry to Rus'. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face the West and the East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and temporal 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 unknown to us poems by Homer, works by Aristotle and Plato, and even surviving books from the famous Library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after the fire of 1470, Sophia was afraid 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 Mary on Senya - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Eudokia, the widow. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation 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 entirely covered with plates of ivory and walrus ivory with scenes on biblical themes carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the king 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 it to be staged 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 is believed, a rare icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven”... And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, the founder of the Paleologus dynasty, with which the Moscow people became related, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral rulers. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was established, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

The year of birth is approximately 1455.
Year of death - 1503
In 1472, an event occurred in the life of Moscow Prince John III that forced all European states to look with curiosity at little-known and distant “barbarian” Russia.

Having learned about John's widowhood, Pope Paul II offered him the hand of the Byzantine princess Zoe through the ambassador. After the ruin of their fatherland, the family of the Byzantine kings Palaiologos settled in Rome, where they enjoyed universal respect and patronage of the Pope.

To interest the Grand Duke, the papal legate described how decisively the princess refused two suitors - the French king and the Duke of Milan - because of her reluctance to change the Orthodox faith to the Catholic one. In fact, as contemporaries believed, the suitors for Zoya’s hand abandoned her themselves after learning about her excessive plumpness and lack of a dowry. Precious time passed, there were still no suitors, and Zoya most likely faced an unenviable fate: a monastery.

Reconstruction based on the skull of S. A. Nikitin, 1994

John was delighted with the honor offered to him, and together with his mother, the clergy and the boyars, he decided that such a bride had been sent to him from God himself. After all, in Rus' the nobility and extensive family ties of the future wife were highly valued. After a while, a portrait of a bride was brought to John III from Italy - she caught his eye.

Presentation of the portrait of Sophia Paleologus to Ivan III

Unfortunately, Zoya's portrait has not survived. It is only known that with a height of about 156 cm, she was considered the most voluptuous reigning person in Europe - however, already at the end of her life. But, according to Italian historians, Zoya had amazingly beautiful big eyes and skin of incomparable whiteness. Many noted her affectionate manner with guests and her ability to do needlework.

“Sources that describe in some detail the circumstances of the marriage of Sophia Paleologus and Ivan III, report almost nothing about the intentions of the bride herself: did she want to become the wife of a widower who already had an heir to the throne, and go to a distant and little-known northern country where she had no no friends or acquaintances? - notes historian Lyudmila Morozova. - All negotiations about marriage took place behind the bride’s back. No one even bothered to describe to her the appearance of the Moscow prince, the features of his character, etc. They got by with only a few phrases about how he is “a great prince, and his land is in the Orthodox Christian faith.”

Those around the princess apparently believed that she, as a dowry-free and orphan, did not have to choose...

Presentation of the dowry to Sofia Paleolog

It is likely that life in Rome was joyless for Zoe... No one wanted to take into account the interests of this girl, who had become a dumb toy in the hands of Catholic politicians. Apparently, the princess was so tired of their intrigues that she was ready to go anywhere, as long as she was away from Rome.”

SOFIA PALEOLOGIST ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW
Ivan Anatolyevich Kovalenko

On January 17, 1472, ambassadors were sent for the bride. They were received with great honors in Rome, and on June 1 the princess in the church of St. Petra was betrothed to the Russian sovereign - he was represented at the ceremony by the chief ambassador. So Zoya went to Moscow, which she knew almost nothing about, to her thirty-year-old husband. “Faithful” people had already managed to whisper to her that John had a sweetheart in Moscow. Or not even one...

F. Bronnikov. Meeting of the Greek princess Sophia Paleologus. Photo from a pictorial sketch from the Bronnikov archive. Shadrinsky Museum of Local Lore named after. V.P. Biryukova

The journey lasted six months. Zoya was greeted everywhere as an empress, giving her due honors. Early in the morning of November 12, Zoya, named Sophia in Orthodoxy, entered Moscow. The Metropolitan was waiting for her in the church and, having received his blessing, she went to John’s mother and there she saw her groom for the first time. The Grand Duke - tall and thin, with a beautiful noble face - liked the Greek princess. The wedding was also celebrated on the same day.

Wedding of Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog.

From time immemorial, the Byzantine emperor was considered the main defender of all Eastern Christianity. Now, when Byzantium was enslaved by the Turks, the Grand Duke of Moscow became such a defender: with the hand of Sophia, he, as it were, inherited the rights of the Palaiologos. And he even adopted the coat of arms of the Eastern Roman Empire - the double-headed eagle. From that time on, all seals, which were attached to cords on cords, began to depict a double-headed eagle on one side, and on the other, the ancient Moscow coat of arms - St. George the Victorious on a horse, slaying a dragon.

Double-headed eagle on the regalia of Sophia Paleologus 1472

The day after the wedding, Cardinal Anthony, who arrived in the bride’s retinue, began negotiations on the union of churches - the purpose for which, as historians note, Sophia’s marriage was mainly conceived. But the cardinal's embassy ended in nothing, and he soon left without a meal. And Zoya, as N.I. Kostomarov noted, “during her life she deserved the reproach and censure of the Pope and his supporters, who were very mistaken in her, hoping through her to introduce the Florentine Union into Moscow Rus'.”

F. Bronnikov. Meeting of the Greek princess Sophia Paleologus. Drawing option. Paper, pencil, ink, pen. Shadrinsky Museum of Local Lore named after. V.P. Biryukova

John III overthrows the Tatar yoke, tearing up the Khan's charter and ordering the death of the ambassadors
Shustov Nikolay Semenovich

The chronicles report: it was Sophia who insisted that the Grand Duke not go out on foot, as was customary before her, to meet the Horde ambassadors, so that he would not bow to the ground to them, would not bring a cup of kumis and would not listen to the Khan’s letter on his knees. She sought to attract cultural figures and doctors from Italy to the Moscow Principality. It was under her that the construction of remarkable architectural monuments began. She personally gave audiences to strangers and had her own circle of diplomats.

Meeting Sophia Paleolog
Ivan Anatolyevich Kovalenko

Grand Duchess Sophia had three daughters. She and her husband were really looking forward to their son, and God finally listened to their fervent prayers: in 1478 (according to other sources - in 1479) their son Vasily was born.

Meeting the princess
Fedor Bronnikov

The son of the Grand Duke from his first wife, John the Young, immediately took hostility to his stepmother, often was rude to her and did not show due respect. The Grand Duke hastened to marry his son and removed him from the court, then again brought him closer to himself and declared him heir to the throne. John the Young was already taking an active part in the affairs of the government, when suddenly he suddenly fell ill from some unknown disease like leprosy and died in 1490.

Wedding train.
In the carriage - Sophia Paleolog
with "girlfriends"

The question was raised of who should inherit the throne: the son of John the Young, Demetrius, or Vasily, the son of Sophia. The boyars, who were hostile to the arrogant Sophia, took the side of the former. They accused Vasily and his mother of having evil plans against the Grand Duke and incited the Grand Duke in such a way that he alienated his son, lost interest in Sophia, and most importantly, solemnly crowned his grandson Dimitri to the great reign. It is known that during this period the Grand Duchess lost two children one after another, who were born premature... As historians say, on the very day of the coronation the sovereign seemed sad - it was noticeable that he was sad about his wife, with whom he had lived happily for twenty-five years, about his son , whose birth always seemed to him to be a special favor of fate...

Embroidered shroud 1498. In the lower left corner is Sophia Paleologus. Her clothes are decorated with a round tablion, a brown circle on a yellow background - a sign of royal dignity. Click to see larger image.

A year passed, the machinations of the boyars, thanks to the efforts of Sophia, were revealed, and they paid severely for their machinations. Vasily was declared heir to the throne, and Sophia again regained the favor of John.

Death of Sophia Paleologue. Copy of a miniature from the front chronicle of the second half of the 16th century.

Sophia died in 1503 (according to other sources, in 1504), mourned by her husband and children. The chronicles do not contain any information about the reasons for her death. She did not have a chance to see her grandson - the future Ivan the Terrible. Her husband, John III, survived her only by a year...

Plaster copy of the skull of Ivan the Terrible
with the main contours of the skull superimposed on it
(lighter) Sophia Paleolog.

Text by E. N. Oboymina and O. V. Tatkova

Sophia Palaeologus, also called Zoe Palaeologina, was born in 1455 in the city of Mystras, Greece.

Princess's childhood

The future grandmother of Ivan the Terrible was born into the family of the despot of Morea named Thomas Paleologus in a not very prosperous time - in decadent times for Byzantium. When Constantinople fell to Turkey and was taken by Sultan Mehmed II, the girl's father, Thomas Palaiologos, fled with his family to Cofra.

Later in Rome, the family changed their faith to Catholicism, and when Sophia was 10 years old, her father died. Unfortunately for the girl, her mother Ekaterina Akhaiskaya died a year earlier, which brought down her father.

The Palaiologos children - Zoya, Manuel and Andrey, 10, 5 and 7 years old - settled in Rome under the tutelage of the Greek scientist Bessarion of Nicaea, who at that time served as a cardinal under the Pope. The Byzantine princess Sophia and her prince brothers were raised in Catholic traditions. With the permission of the Pope, Vissarion of Nicea paid for the Palaeologians' servants, doctors, language professors, as well as a whole staff of foreign translators and clergy. The orphans received an excellent education.

Marriage

As soon as Sophia grew up, Venetian subjects began to look for a noble spouse for her.

• She was prophesied as a wife to the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan. The marriage did not take place to avoid quarrels with the Ottoman Empire.
• A few months later, Cardinal Vissarion invited Prince Caracciolo from Italy to woo the Byzantine princess. The newlyweds got engaged. However, Sophia gave up all her efforts not to get engaged to a man of other faiths (she continued to adhere to Orthodoxy).
• By coincidence, in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan the Third died in Moscow. There was one son left from the marriage. And Pope Paul II, with the goal of planting the Catholic faith in Rus', suggested that the widower place a Greek Catholic princess on the throne of the Princess of All Rus'.

Negotiations with the Russian prince lasted three years. Ivan the Third, having received the approval of his mother, churchmen and his boyars, decided to get married. By the way, during the negotiations about the princess’s conversion to Catholicism in Rome, the envoys from the Pope did not elaborate. On the contrary, they slyly reported that the sovereign’s bride was a true Orthodox Christian. It's amazing that they couldn't even imagine that this was true.

In June 1472, the newlyweds in Rome became engaged in absentia. Then, accompanied by Cardinal Vissarion, the Princess of Moscow left Rome for Moscow.

Portrait of a princess

Bologna chroniclers eloquently described Sophia Paleologue as an attractive girl. When she got married, she looked to be about 24 years old.

• Her skin is white as snow.
• The eyes are huge and very expressive, which corresponded to the then canons of beauty.
• The princess's height is 160 cm.
• Body type - compact, dense.

Paleologus's dowry included not only jewelry, but also a large number of valuable books, including treatises by Plato, Aristotle, and unknown works of Homer. These books became the main attraction of the famous library of Ivan the Terrible, which later disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

In addition, Zoya was very purposeful. She made every effort to avoid converting to another faith when she became engaged to a Christian man. At the end of her route from Rome to Moscow, when there was no turning back, she announced to her escorts that in marriage she would renounce Catholicism and embrace Orthodoxy. So the desire of the Pope to spread Catholicism to Rus' through the marriage of Ivan the Third and Paleologus failed.

Life in Moscow

The influence of Sophia Paleologue on her married husband was very great, and this also became a great blessing for Russia, because the wife was very educated and incredibly devoted to her new homeland.

So, it was she who prompted her husband to stop paying tribute to the Golden Horde that was burdening them. Thanks to his wife, the Grand Duke decided to cast aside the Tatar-Mongol burden that had weighed on Russia for many centuries. At the same time, his advisers and princes insisted on paying the quitrent, as usual, so as not to start a new bloodshed. In 1480, Ivan the Third announced his decision to the Tatar Khan Akhmat. Then there was a historical bloodless stand on the Ugra, and the Horde left Russia forever, never again demanding tribute from it.

In general, Sophia Paleolog played a very important role in further historical events of Rus'. Her broad outlook and bold innovative decisions subsequently allowed the country to make a noticeable breakthrough in the development of culture and architecture. Sofia Paleolog opened Moscow for Europeans. Now Greeks, Italians, learned minds and talented craftsmen flocked to Muscovy. For example, Ivan the Third gladly took under the tutelage of Italian architects (such as Aristotle Fioravanti), who erected many historical masterpieces of architecture in Moscow. At the behest of Sophia, a separate courtyard and luxurious mansions were built for her. They were lost in a fire in 1493 (along with the Palaiologos treasury).

Zoya’s personal relationship with her husband Ivan III was also successful. They had 12 children. But some died in infancy or from disease. Thus, in their family, five sons and four daughters lived to adulthood.

But it’s quite difficult to call the life of a Byzantine princess in Moscow rosy. The local elite saw the great influence that the wife had on her husband, and was very dissatisfied with this.

Sophia’s relationship with her adopted son from her deceased first wife, Ivan Molodoy, also did not work out. The princess really wanted her first-born Vasily to become the heir. And there is a historical version that she was involved in the death of the heir, having prescribed him an Italian doctor with poisonous potions, supposedly to treat sudden onset of gout (he was later executed for this).

Sophia had a hand in removing his wife Elena Voloshanka and their son Dmitry from the throne. First, Ivan the Third sent Sofia herself into disgrace because she invited witches to her place to create poison for Elena and Dmitry. He forbade his wife to appear in the palace. However, later Ivan the Third ordered to send his grandson Dmitry, already proclaimed heir to the throne, and his mother to prison for court intrigues, successfully and in a favorable light revealed by his wife Sophia. The grandson was officially deprived of his grand-ducal dignity, and his son Vasily was declared heir to the throne.

Thus, the Princess of Moscow became the mother of the heir to the Russian throne, Vasily III, and the grandmother of the famous Tsar Ivan the Terrible. There is evidence that the famous grandson had many similarities in both appearance and character with his domineering grandmother from Byzantium.

Death

As they said then, “from old age” - at the age of 48, Sophia Paleologus died on April 7, 1503. The woman was laid to rest in a sarcophagus in the Ascension Cathedral. She was buried next to Ivan's first wife.

By coincidence, in 1929 the Bolsheviks demolished the cathedral, but the sarcophagus of Palaeologina was preserved and was moved to the Archangel Cathedral.

Ivan the Third had a hard time with the death of the princess. At the age of 60, this greatly undermined his health, moreover, in lately he and his wife were in constant suspicion and quarrels. However, he continued to appreciate Sofia's intelligence and her love for Russia. Feeling the approach of his end, he made a will, appointing their common son Vasily as heir to power.