<oo>→<rg> Rusian genealogy

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unknown of Poland

Not much is known about the marriage of the second son of Davyd Svjatoslavič. There is only one enigmatic line recorded in a couple of chronicles that says that “Tom že lětě vedoša Ljaxovicju Mjuromu za Davydoviča Vsevoloda” (In that year, a Polish woman arrived in Murom for Vsevolod Davydič). ^[5] The traditional assumption made by everyone from Baumgarten to Dimnik is that this Polish woman was the daughter of Bolesław III and thus was most likely the daughter of Sbyslava Svjatopolkovna. ^[6]

Despite the widespread acceptance of this conclusion, there are two problems that exist. The first and most pressing for the historian is that there is no evidence that gives her identity as a Boleslavna. The reign of Bolesław III is generally well recorded in Polish chronicles, but no daughter is mentioned as having married a Davydič. ^[7] Even Jan Długosz, whose work contains many later additions from foreign sources, does not ever mention Vsevolod Davydič. ^[8] The second problem is that such a marriage is improbable considering the political situation of the time. Even Dimnik who stretches to explain foreign connections of the Svjatoslaviči does not offer an explanation as to why a Polish princess would marry a Svjatoslavič prince of Murom. ^[9]

Bolesław III and his entire family had a longer association with the Izjaslaviči, often working against the Svjatoslaviči. In the year before this marriage, 1123, there was a concerted effort by various Rusian rulers, including the Svjatoslaviči, to kill Jaroslav Svjatopolčič, ^[10] who had strong ties to Poland through his family heritage, as well as through his second wife, the sister of Bolesław III. ^[11] It seems highly improbable that the next year Bolesław III would ally himself with a minor ruler whose powerful father Davyd of Černihiv had already died and whose power had passed to his younger brother Jaroslav. ^[12] The only marginally acceptable explanation is offered by N. I. Ščaveleva, who suggests that Bolesław III may have arranged the marriage to keep up an anti–Monomaxovič alliance. ^[13] This seems to be a misinterpretation of his earlier policies, which could better be characterized as pro–Izjaslaviči, and thus is doubtful as a solution.

Though it can be claimed without a doubt that the woman Vsevolod married was a Pole, her actual identity remains unknown, and it is doubtful that she was a daughter of Bolesław III. The possibilities for marriageable Polish woman were increasing in the twelfth century as Polish noble families began to develop their own connections abroad. This may have been an attempt by such a family, or by the Svjatoslaviči, to establish a connection between two groups of powerful but not royal ^[14] families.

Footnotes

1. Birth/Death: [↑]
2. Father: [↑]
3. Mother: [↑]
4. Marriage to Vsevolod Davidich: Hypatian Chronicle, s.a. 1124.; Voskresenskaia Chronicle, s.a. 1124.[↑]
5. Hypatian Chronicle, s.a. 1124; Voskresenskij Chronicle, s.a. 1124.[↑]
6. Baumgarten, “"Généalogies,"” 18–19, table IV; and Dimnik, The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054–1146, 304.[↑]
7. The Polish Great Chronicle and Gesta principum Polonorum are the two main sources for his reign.[↑]
8. Długosz, Annales.[↑]
9. Dimnik, The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054–1146, 304.[↑]
10. Multiple chronicles, Rusian as well as Polish, record this account. Hypatian Chronicle, s.a. 1123; and Długosz, Annales, 297–98.[↑]
11. For Jaroslav Sviatopolčič’s foreign marriages, including one with a Polish princess, see above under his entry.[↑]
12. Balzer in his understanding of this marriage explains that Vsevolod should have inherited Černihiv and thus been more of a power in Rus′. Balzer, Genealogia Piastów, 137.[↑]
13. N. I. Ščaveleva, “"Pol′ki––zheny russkix knjazei (XI––seredina XIII v.),"” Drevneišie gosudarstva na territorii SSSR 1987 (1989), 55.[↑]
14. The Piast family were the royal family of Poland, even after its fragmentation into three or more territories.[↑]