King & Conqueror – History… the interesting bits!

Anna of Kyiv, Queen of France

06/09/202530/09/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly5 Comments

History ... the Interesting Bits — *Anna of Kyiv*

Few women in the medieval era were able to take the reins of government. Their role was primarily confined to the domestic sphere, with men taking on the job of governance – whether of lands, as a count or duke, or of a country, as king – because that was seen as their domain. Some women, however, did manage to rule, and to rule efficiently, although not without opposition. Most examples of women who took the reins of power follow the early deaths of their husbands, when they were called upon to rule as regents until their sons were old enough to rule alone.

One such woman was Anna of Kyiv, sometimes called Agnes. Born some time between 1024 and 1036, Anna was the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand-Duke of Kyiv, and Ingegerd of Sweden. Yaroslav and Ingegerd had nine children, several of whom had made royal marriages. Of their daughters, Anastasia had married Andrew I of Hungary, and Elizabeth (Elisiv) was the wife of Harold (Hardrada) of Norway. One son, Isiaslav, was married to the sister of the king of Poland, while another son, Vsevolod, married a daughter of the Byzantine emperor.

In 1051, Anna was to make the most prestigious marriage of all, when she became the second wife of Henry I, King of France. Following the death of his first wife, Matilda of Frisia, during childbirth, and in an attempt to find a wife who was not related to him within the Church’s prohibited degrees of kinship, Henry had sent an ambassador to Kyiv, laden with gifts, in search of a bride. Anna is said to have been renowned throughout Europe for her ‘exquisite beauty, literacy and wisdom’.¹ Anna and Henry were married at the Cathedral of Reims on 19 May 1051; Anna was probably around twenty years old, while Henry was around forty-three.

As a demonstration of her superior level of education, Anna signed the marriage contract in her own hand, using her full name, whereas Henry could only manage a cross. At her coronation at Reims, Anna used a Slavic gospel to say her vows, which she had brought with her from Kyiv, rather than the traditional Latin Bible. Anne brought no land with her marriage dowry, but she did bring connections and wealth. The jewels she brought with her probably included a jacinth, which Abbot Suger later mounted in a reliquary of St Denis.²

Although it lasted only nine years, Anna and Henry’s marriage appears to have been a great success. The couple had three sons, of whom the oldest, Philip, born in 1052, succeeded his father as Philip I. He was known as Philip ‘the Amorous’ and reigned for forty-eight years, marrying twice; firstly to Bertha of Holland and secondly to Bertrade de Montfort, having three children – two sons and a daughter – with each wife. Anne and Henry’s second son, Robert, born in 1054/5, died young and the youngest, Hugh, born in 1057, became Count of Vermandois on his marriage to Adelaide, Countess of Vermandois. Hugh was vilified for failing to fulfil his Crusader vows by returning home early from the First Crusade, he died, in 1101, of wounds received in battle with the Turks after returning to the Holy Land. One of Hugh’s nine children, his daughter, Isabel de Vermandois, was married to Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, before her father departed on crusade, even though she was only aged 10 or 11 at the time. Isabel would marry, as her second husband, William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Warenne and Surrey.

Anna appears to have thought of France as provincial compared to her homeland of Kyiv; she is said to have written to her father in 1050 saying, ‘What a barbarous country you sent me to – the dwellings are sombre, the churches horrendous and the morals – terrible’.³ Anna, however, appears to have made an effort to settle into her adopted country, she learned the language and participated, to some extent, in government; she and Henry worked in partnership as king and queen. Several decrees include the phrase ‘With the consent of my wife Anna’ or ‘In the presence of Queen Anna’.⁴

Towards the end of Henry’s reign, Anna was counter-signatory to at least four charters, including a 1058 charter of concession to the monastery of St Maur-les-Fosses, signed ‘including my wife Anna and sons Philip, Robert and Hugh’ and a donation to the monastery at Hasnon, which was signed by King Henry, Prince Philip and Queen Anna.⁵

The situation changed in 1060 when King Henry died. With Anna’s son Philip then only seven years old, a regency was set up with Baldwin V of Flanders as regent. He was the husband of King Henry’s sister Adele, and father of Matilda of Flanders, Queen of England. However, at the time, the Bishop of Chartres described Philip and his mother Anna as his sovereigns; moreover, Philip himself declared that, as a child, he ruled the kingdom jointly with his mother. The young king valued his mother’s advice and Anna signed numerous royal acts during her son’s reign; her signature was always either the first signature on the document or the second after that of King Philip. The acts included donations to monasteries, the renunciation of customs grants of exemptions and a charter to the Abbot of Marmoutier to build a church. In all, there are at least twenty-three acts that mentioned Anna, or carried her signature, between 1060 and 1075.⁶

Anna was held in high regard by many. Among her admirers was Pope Nicholas II himself, who wrote to her with high praise;

Nicholas, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the glorious queen, greeting and apostolic benediction. We give proper thanks to almighty God, the author of good will, because we have heard that the virile strength of virtues lives in a womanly breast. Indeed it has come to our ears, most distinguished daughter, that your serenity overflows with the munificence of pious generosity for the poor, sweats forth with the zeal of most devoted prayer, administers the force of punishment on behalf of those who are violently oppressed, and fulfills with other good works, insofar as it belongs to you, the office of royal dignity…⁷

In 1061 Anna was involved in a scandal in France when she married Raoul, Count of Crepy and Valois, in what appears to have been a love-match. Raoul was an ally of the young king, but was already married to Eleanor. Eleanor’s family name is identified as “Haquenez” in two primary sources, but her origins are obscure. The count had repudiated Eleanor, on the grounds of adultery, in order to marry Queen Anna. However, Eleanor appealed to the pope, Alexander II, who ordered the Archbishop of Reims to investigate the matter.

Raoul was ordered to take Eleanor back, and was excommunicated when he refused; he and Anna left court as a result of the furore. However, Raoul and Anna were both important allies of the king, and continued advising Philip and acting as signatories to his royal acts, despite being exiled from the court. The king eventually forgave his mother and she was welcomed back to court following Raoul’s death in 1074. Her return to her family was probably short-lived, however, as it seems likely that Anna died in 1075, although the exact date of her death, and her final resting place, are lost to the thousand years that have passed since then.

Anna of Kyiv left a mark on history in the remarkably high regard in which both her husband, Henry I, and her son Philip held her. She was a well-educated, pious woman whose advice and opinions were respected, not only within her family, but by such exalted persons as the pope and French bishops.

She proved that a woman could act wisely, at least in politics, if not in her second marriage, at a time when women were not expected, or allowed, to rule. The nature of her rule appears to have been a gentle hand on the shoulder of her son, whereas other women were more forceful as rulers – such as Adela of Normandy, Countess of Blois, the daughter of William the Conqueror, King of England, and Matilda of Flanders.

Images:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Notes:

1. Prominent Russians: Anna Yaroslavna (article), russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/the-ryurikovich-dynasty/anna-yaroslavna; 2. epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu, Anne of Kiev (Anna Yaroslavna) (article). Quoted from Bauthier, 550; Hallu, 168, citing Comptes de Suger; 3. Prominent Russians: Anna Yaroslavna; 4. Moniek Bloks, Anne of Kiev, the First Female Regent of France; 5. epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu, Anne of Kiev (Anna Yaroslavna) (article). The St Maur-les-Fosses charter reads ‘annuente mea conjuge Anna et prole Philippo, Roberto ac Hugone’; 6. epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu, Anne of Kiev (Anna Yaroslavna) (article); 7. Letter from Pope Nicholas II to Anne of Kiev, October 1059, epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/1190, translated by Ashleigh Imus.

Sources:

Prominent Russians: Anna Yaroslavna (article), russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/the-ryurikovich-dynasty/anna-yaroslavna; epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu, Anne of Kiev (Anna Yaroslavna) (article); Moniek Bloks, Anne of Kiev, the First Female Regent of France; Heroines of the Medieval World by Sharon Bennett Connolly; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest by Sharon Bennett Connolly; Matilda by Tracy Borman; The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris; Elisabeth M.C. Van Houts and Rosalind C. Love (eds and trans), The Warenne (Hyde) Chronicle; W.S. Davis, A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles; Emily Joan Ward, Anne of Kiev (c.1024–c.1075) and a reassessment of maternal power in the minority kingship of Philip I of France (article); Charlotte M. Yonge, History of France; Pierre Goubert, The Course of French History

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Thora, Harald Hardrada’s Other Wife

01/02/202023/09/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly8 Comments

The legend of Harald Hardrada, King Harald III of Norway, is one of my favourite stories of the 11th century. It is the tale of a warrior king, probably the best fighter of his generation, a poet and a lover. Harald’s marriage to his first wife, Elisiv of Kyiv, is the stuff legends are made of; a landless prince making his fortune in Byzantium before returning to claim his bride and winning a crown. And they lived happily ever after …. or not!

Elisiv gave Harald 2 daughters, Ingegerd and Maria, but no sons. It may, therefore, have been a desire for sons that led Harald to take a second wife, although without setting aside his first. According to Snorri Sturluson, in the ‘winter after King Magnus the Good died, King Harald took Thora, daughter of Thorberg Arnason, and they had two sons; the oldest called Magnus, and the other Olaf.’ [1]

Thora (or Tora) was the daughter of Thorberg Arnason and Ragnhild Erlingsdottir and was born around 1025; her kinsman, Fin Arnason, was a good friend of Harald’s and was married to Bergliot, the daughter of Halfdan, a brother of Harald Hardrada and Saint Olaf. The marriage also provided the desired son and heir, which his first marriage had failed to do; both of Thora’s sons would later become kings of Norway. Magnus succeeded his father in 1066, and was in 1069 succeeded by his brother, Olaf III, who had ruled alongside Magnus since 1067.

Harald probably went through some form of marriage ceremony, more likely a handfasting than a Christian marriage, with Thora in 1048. The marriage appears to have been a political arrangement, in order to garner the support of the powerful Giskeӕtten family, the chiefs of which played a significant role in power politics.

Of Harald’s two sons, Magnus, who succeeded his father in 1066, appears to have been as warlike as Harald. In 1058, aged no more than ten or eleven, he led a fleet to England in support of Earl Ӕlfgar of Mercia, after the earl had been outlawed only a year after he had succeeded to his father’s earldom. Magnus was probably little more than a figurehead for the expedition and unlikely to have been expected to make crucial military decisions, but it would have been good experience for the young prince, and a taste of what the future held for him. By the time he was sixteen, Magnus was a successful warrior and is said to have clashed with his father; the two almost coming to blows until the king was restrained by friends.

It has been suggested that the marriage may have come following the death of Elisiv, or that Elisiv never even left Kyiv, but given that her daughters were born once Harald was back in Scandinavia, this seems improbable. Harald’s daughters are not likely to have been the daughters of Thora, as Maria was engaged to Thora’s brother, Eystein Orre; who would have been Maria’s uncle, had she been Thora’s daughter. Harald having two wives, simultaneously, seems the most likely explanation. As demonstrated by King Cnut and King Harold II of England, two wives and, therefore, two families, were not uncommon in Scandinavian culture; although in these two other cases an earlier wife was put aside for the sake of a more prestigious marriage, whereas Harald Hardrada’s first marriage was by far the more prestigious, while the second was politically expedient.

Thora was the kinswoman of Harald’s one-time friend, Fin Arnason, who was captured fighting for the Danes against Harald. When Fin refused Harald’s offer of quarter (life), Harald made a further offer:

‘“Wilt thou accept thy life, then, from thy she-relation Thorer [Thora]?”

The earl: “Is she here?”

“She is here, ” said the king.

Then Earl Fin broke out with the ugly expressions which since have been preserved, as a proof that he was so mad with rage that he could not govern his tongue: —

“No wonder thou hast bit so strongly, if the mare was with thee.”

Earl Fin got life and quarter and the king kept him a while about him…’
Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, by Snorre Sturluson.

At the beginning of September, 1066, Harald sailed his fleet of over 200 ships to Shetland and then to Orkney, where he gathered reinforcements and left his wife and daughters to await news of events. There is some confusion as to which wife was left on Orkney, some sources say Elisiv, who, as Harald’s wife and queen would have expected to become queen of England, had he been successful. Some historians argue that as Thora was a relative of the Earl of Orkney she would have been more likely to travel with Harald than Elisiv.

‘Thora, the daughter of Thorberg, also remained behind; but he took with him Queen Ellisif [Elisiv] and her two daughters, Maria and Ingegerd. Olaf, King Harald’s son, also accompanied his father abroad.’
Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, by Snorre Sturluson.

Harald fought two battles outside York. The first, the Battle of Fulford, on 20 September, against the brothers, Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, ended in victory for Harald Hardrada and his ally, Tostig, the former earl of Northumberland and brother of the new King of England, Harold II. However, a second battle at Stamford Bridge, five days later, saw victory go to the English. Harold II had marched his men the 200 miles from the south coast to York, in less than 4 days, and confronted his brother and the Norwegian king on 25 September. At the end of the day, Harald Hardrada and Tostig both lay dead on the field.

Harald and Elisiv’s daughter, Maria, is said to have died suddenly on 25 September 1066, the same day as the Battle of Stamford Bridge, on hearing of her father’s death. She had been betrothed to Eystein Orre, the brother of Harald’s second wife, Thora; Eystein was also among the dead at Stamford Bridge. Maria’s sister, Ingegerd, returned to Norway with her mother and half-brother. Olaf had traveled with the Norwegian army, but had not taken part in the battle, having been left to guard the ships at Riccal, near York. After the English victory, he was allowed to claim his father’s body and take the survivors home.

After Harald’s death, Norway was ruled successively by Harald’s sons Magnus II and Olaf III. Olaf III ruled until his death in 1093 and was succeeded by Magnus III, his acknowledged but illegitimate son.

Of Thora’s fate, little is certain. She may have remarried, although there is some confusion. According to Adam of Bremen, she married either King Swein of Denmark or an unknown Swedish king. [2] As with much of her life, the year of Thora’s death remains unknown.

Footnotes:

[1] Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, by Snorre Sturluson; [2] Fulford: The Forgotten Battle of 1066 by Charles Jones.

Pictures:

Courtesy of Wikipedia