Gytha of Wessex

Gytha of Wessex
Gytha of Wessex
Born	c. 1053/1061
Died	1098 or 1107
Spouse	Vladimir II Monomakh
Issue	Mstislav the Great; Izyaslav Vladimirovich; Svyatoslav Vladimirovich; Yaropolk II of Kiev; Viacheslav I of Kiev; Yuri Dolgorukiy (possibly)
House	House of Godwin (by birth); Rurik Dynasty (by marriage)
Father	Harold Godwinson
Mother	Edith Swannesha

Gytha of Wessex (born c. 1053/1061 - died 1098 or 1107;[1] Old English: Gȳð) was one of several daughters of Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, and his consort, Edyth Swannesha. Through marriage to Vladimir II Monomakh Gytha became a grand princess of Kievan Rus'.[2]

Life

According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, after the death of their father Harold Godwinson (d. 1066), Gytha and two of her brothers (probably Magnus, son of Harold Godwinson and one of Godwin and Edmund) escaped to the court of their first cousin once-removed, King Sweyn Estridsson of Denmark.[3] The two brothers were treated by Sweyn with hospitality, Magnus entering into high-level service with Bolesław II the Generous while their sister was married to Waldemar, King of Ruthenia, i.e. Vladimir II Monomakh, one of the most famous rulers of Kievan Rus.[4] This took place in 1069/1070 when Bolesław restored Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev and Gertruda (Bolesław's aunt) to power after they had been deposed. Gytha's role in Vladimir’s rule isn't documented. Vladimir explained in a book of 'Instructions' (Pouchenie) for his sons, written in the twelfth-century: “Love your wives, but grant them no power over you.”[5] In his book, Vladimir also mentioned Yuri mother's recent death.

Gytha was the mother of Mstislav the Great, the last ruler of united Kievan Rus. In the Norse sagas, Mstislav is called Harald, after his grandfather. During her lifetime Gytha, as Vladimir's spouse, was Princess of Smolensk, however she died before her husband became Grand Prince of Kiev (in 1113), so she never was Grand Princess of Kiev.

Children

With Vladimir, Gytha had several children, including:[6]

Mstislav the Great (1076–1132)
Izyaslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Kursk († 6 September 1096)
Svyatoslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Smolensk and Pereyaslav († 16 March 1114)
Yaropolk II of Kiev († 18 February 1139)
Viacheslav I of Kiev († 2 February 1154)

Death date

There is a problem with establishing Gytha's date of death. It's placed between 1098 and 1107. The patericon of St. Pantaleon Cloister in Cologne says that "Gytha the Queen" (Gida regina) died as a nun on 10 March.[7] The year is presumed to be 1098.
According to the "Testament of Vladimir Monomakh" Yuri Dolgorukiy's mother died on May 7, 1107. If Gytha died in 1098 then Yuri could have been a son of his father's second wife Yefimia (whom Vladimir Monomakh in this case supposedly married c.1099). However, it means there are no mentions in Vladimir Monomakh's works of Gytha's death, despite her being his first wife. Yuri's birth then falls to c. 1099/1100. However, the Primary Chronicle records the first marriage of Yuri - on 12 January 1108. It means that Yuri was born before c.1099/1100 (as he couldn't have been 6-9 years old at the time of marriage). Then it means, that Gytha could have been Yuri's mother and died in 1107.[8]

Legacy

According to Russian politician and historian Vladimir Medinsky, Gytha was a significant influence on Monomakh's public relations: "Knyaz's English wife wasn't wasted". As a source, Medinsky quotes M. P. Akekseev's comparative analysis between Monomakh writings' and Alfred the Great's, and other anonymous then contemporary Anglo-Saxon texts.[9]

Family trees

Godwin family tree
Cnut the Great's family tree

References

Mason, House of Godwine, p. 201.
Zajac, 'Marriage,' p. 722.
Mason, House of Godwine, p. 199.
Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, vol. 2, 798– 801; Mason, House of Godwine, p. 200.
Zajac, ‘The social-political roles of the princess,’ p. 125, citing The Povĕst’ Vremennykh Lĕt: An Interlinear Collation and Paradosis, ed., D. Ostrowski , 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA , 2003), vol. 3, 1917.
Mason, House of Godwine, p. 200.
Necrologium Sanctis Pantalaeonis Coloniensis, p. 18 (VI ides of March).
Emma Mason, Robert Brink Shoemaker "The House of Godwine: The History of a Dynasty", p.201
Medinsky, Vladimir (2011). Особенности национального пиара [Peculiarities of the national PR] (in Russian). OLMA Media Group. p. 164. ISBN 9785373040495. Russian: Не зря женой князя была англичанка, romanized: Ne zrya zhenoy knyazia byla anglichianka

Sources

Necrologium Sanctis Pantalaeonis Coloniensis, in Rheinische Urbare: Sammlung von Urbaren und anderen Quellen zur rheinischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Bonn, 1902), vol. 1.
Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2015).
E. Mason, The House of Godwine: The History of a Dynasty (London, 2004).
T. Zajac, 'Marriage Impediments in Canon Law and Practice: Consanguinity Regulations and the Case of Orthodox-Catholic Intermarriage in Kyivan Rus, ca. 1000 – 1250,' in Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Toronto, 5-11 August 2012, ed. Joseph Goering, Stephan Dusil, and Andreas Thier (Vatican City, 2016), pp. 711-29.
T. Zajac, ‘The social-political roles of the princess in Kyivan Rus’, ca. 945-1240,’ in E. Woodacre, ed., A Global Companion to Queenship (Leeds, 2018), pp. 125-146.

External link

S. Lewis, 'Gytha of Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon Russian Princess', blogpost