ITINERARIES OF ANNA YAROSLAVNA IN FRANCE (1051–1075)

Abstract

The article analyzes the itineraries of Anna Yaroslavna, Queen of the Franks, daughter of Prince Yaroslav I of Kyiv, during her stay in France in 1051–1075. Based on 26 royal charters with her mention, preserved in the repositories of France and the Vatican, her own charter of the foundation of the monastery of St. Vincent in 1065 from the National Library of France (BnF), as well as the act of her second husband Raoul de Vexin, Count of Amiens and Valois (between 1067 and 1069), the author attempts to reconstruct the movements of Anna Yaroslavna. The paper is devoted to the period of her marriage to the King Henry I (1051–1060), as well as to the first years of the reign of her son Philip I (1060–1067), when she actively participated in the administration of the possessions of the Capetian dynasty. As the analysis of the documents shows, Anna lived mainly in the royal residences and castles of Île-de-France, among which Paris did not play the role of the key seat of the royal family. Obviously, Anna Yaroslavna preferred traditional, built in the Carolingian times, castles and fortified estates, which served as security functions and, at the same time, were representative and convenient places. She also visited neighboring regions where the kings of France had the rights of suzerain. Her movements are closely related to the question of the socio-political role of the queen in the classical Middle Ages and make it possible to clarify the boundaries of the power and capabilities of a foreign princess on the French throne, as well as to debunk certain established myths and speculations about Anna Yaroslavna.