Maria Palaiologina ( el, Μαρία Παλαιολογίνα; died 1505) was according to Russian sources a daughter of

Andreas Palaiologos Andreas Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Ἀνδρέας Παλαιολόγος; 17 January 1453 – June 1502), sometimes anglicized to Andrew, was the eldest son of Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea. Thomas was a brother of Constantine& ...

and the niece of

Sophia Palaiologina Zoe Palaiologina ( grc-x-byzant, Ζωή Παλαιολογίνα), whose name was later changed to Sophia Palaiologina (russian: София Фоминична Палеолог; ca. 1449 – 7 April 1503), was a Byzantine princess, member of ...

, Grand Princess of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. Maria is only mentioned in Russian chronicles and is thus of unverified historicity; the lack of recorded children of Andreas in western sources has often been seen as evidence that he was childless. According to the chronicles, Maria married the Russian noble , Prince of

Vereya Vereya (russian: Верея) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Vereya, Naro-Fominsky District, Moscow Oblast, a town in Naro-Fominsky District of Moscow Oblast ;Rural localities * Vereya, Orekhovo-Zuyevsky ...

, 1480, but the two escaped into exile to Lithuania in 1483 due to an incident involving the jewels of Maria of Tver, the former Grand Princess of Moscow.

History

Background

Maria Palaiologina is described in Russian sources, for instance the near-contemporary Sofia Chronicle, as a daughter of

, otherwise commonly believed by modern historians not to have left any descendants. Andreas Palaiologos was the son of

Thomas Palaiologos Thomas Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Θωμᾶς Παλαιολόγος; 1409 – 12 May 1465) was Despot of the Morea from 1428 until the fall of the despotate in 1460, although he continued to claim the title until his death five years late ...

and the nephew of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

. After the fall of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

in 1453 and Thomas' lands in the

Despotate of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...

in 1460, Thomas and his family escaped into exile. Andreas lived in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, provided for by the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, from 1465 to his death in 1502, and claimed to be the rightful Byzantine emperor from 1483 onwards. According to Russian sources, Maria was married off to the Russian noble , Prince of

, by her aunt (Andreas' sister)

in around 1480, after Andreas' visit to Russia in 1480. Sophia was one of the most powerful people in Russia through her marriage to Grand Prince

Ivan III of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich (russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440 – 27 October 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his blin ...

. Maria is not mentioned in any western sources. Claims of her existence were first forwarded in western scholarship by the Polish historian and genealogist

Adam Boniecki Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...

in 1887 and then by the French historian and genealogist

Nicolas de Baumgarten Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

in 1934, citing the older Russian chronicles. Recognition of Maria's historicity has varied since then. In his 1961 biography of Ivan III, the British historian

John Lister Illingworth Fennell John Lister Illingworth Fennell (30 May 19189 August 1992) was a British historian of medieval Russian history and of Russian literature. He taught at Cambridge, Nottingham, and London universities, and from 1964 at Oxford, where he was a fellow ...

accepted Maria's historicity without comment, but in 1992, the British historian

Donald Nicol Donald MacGillivray Nicol, (4 February 1923 – 25 September 2003) was an English Byzantinist. Life Nicol was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, to a Church of Scotland minister, and received a classical education at King Edward VII School in ...

simply wrote that Russian sources ascribed a daughter to Andreas by this name, unknown in western sources.

Maria of Tver's jewels

The Russian chronicles relate that Maria and Vasily were involved in a scandal in 1483. On 10 October 1483, Ivan III wished to honor the birth of his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich by giving a valuable setting or cluster of jewels, or possibly a necklace, to Dmity's mother

Elena of Moldavia Elena Stefanovna of Moldavia (russian: Елена Стефановна, Elena of Wallachia, russian: Елена Волошанка; 1465–1505), was a Moldavian royal and daughter of Stephen III, who became Crown Princess of Grand Duchy of Mosco ...

. The jewels had originally been part of the dowry of Ivan III's first wife, Maria of Tver, and had been entrusted to Sophia. When Ivan III asked Sophia to hand them over, she was unable to do so. Sophia had squandered a lot of Ivan's treasure, giving some of it to her brother Andreas and some of it, including the jewels, as the dowry of Maria on her marriage to Vasily. Ivan, furious, decided not to punish Sophia, but instead punish Vasily, whose only crime was having accepted Sophia's presents. Agents were sent by Ivan to Vereya to take back the jewels, and to capture Vasily and Maria, threatening imprisonment. Though Sophia was sympathetic to her niece and nephew-in-law, Vasily was not confident in Sophia's influence at the Muscovite court and fled to Lithuania, though Maria of Tver's jewels were left behind and were successfully confiscated by Ivan's agents. According to John Lister Illingworth Fennell, there was likely more to this incident than is stated in the chronicles, given that it is unlikely that Vasily and Maria would have gone so far as to flee the country and disinherit themselves over just as trivial a mistake as Maria's aunt wrongly giving away Maria of Tver's jewels. Sophia succeeded in getting permission from Ivan for Vasily's and Maria's return to Russia in January 1493, though not permission for Vasily being restored to his lands in Vereya. Vasily, not satisfied, wrote back, asking for lands and promising to return items from Ivan's treasury, given to them by Sophia along with the jewels, which he and Maria had taken with them to Lithuania. In August 1495, a message from the Muscovite court asked Vasily to provide a list of the valuables in his possession, after which no further communication is recorded. Maria is said to have died in 1505. According to Adam Boniecki, Maria and Vasily had a daughter, Sophia Vereyska, who was granted some of Vasily's goods in 1506.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palaiologoina, Maria 1505 deaths 16th-century Greek people

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...