Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince (± 950-1015) » Family tree Homs

Personal data Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Alternative name: St. Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great
Nickname is Vladim....
He was born about 957 TO ABT 950 in Псков / Pskov (Текущая Псковская Область / Present Pskovskaya Oblast) or c. 958, Новгородская Земля / Land of Novgorod, Киевская Русь / Kievan Rus (Present Russia)Псков / Pskov, Новгородская Земля / Land of Novgorod.
{geni:event_description} http://historiska-personer.nu/min-s/pac2186aa.html

---------------
Vladimir I "den store" av Kiev
Yrke: Storfurste

Död: 1015 1)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Familj med ?
Barn: Jaroslav "den vise" av Kiev (978 - 1054)
Burislev
Vartislav

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Källor
1) Dick Harrison - Gud vill det - Nordiska korsfarare under medeltiden

<< Startsida
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skapad av MinSläkt 3.1a, Programmet tillhör: Christer Engstrand
He was christened in Grand Duke, of, Kiev, 980-1015.
Alternative: He was christened in St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev.
Alternative: He was christened.
Alternative: He was christened in Grand Duke, of, Kiev, 980-1015.
Alternative: He was christened in Grand Duke, of, Kiev, 980-1015.
Alternative: He was christened.
Alternative: He was christened about 987.
Alternative: He was christened about 988.
Alternative: He was christened about 989.
Alternative: He was christened about 989 in Kherson, Russia.
He was baptized in Киев / Kiev, Земля Киевская / Land of Kiev, Киевская Русь / Kievan Rus (Present Ukraine)Киев / Kiev, Земля Киевская / Land of Kiev.
Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Alternative: Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Alternative: Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Alternative: Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Alternative: Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Alternative: Baptized (at 8 years of age or later) by the priesthood authority of the LDS church on November 30, 1929.
Occupations:

.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
.
{geni:job_title} Storfurste
.
.
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
in Russie.
{geni:job_title} Grand Prince de Russie
.
{geni:job_title} Storfyrste-fyrste av Kiev
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
.
{geni:job_title} Grand Prince, de Kiev
in Grand Prince of Kiev.
.
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novogorod
about 969 TO ABT 977 .
{geni:current} 0
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novgorod
about 970 TO ABT 988 .
{geni:current} 0
{geni:job_title} князь Новгородский
on 11 JUN 978 TO 15-07-1015 Kiev in Kiev, Ukraine.
{geni:current} 0
{geni:job_title} Grand Prince of Kiev
about 979 TO ABT 988 Novgorod in Novgorod, Russia.
{geni:current} 0
{geni:job_title} Prince of Novgorod

Resident:

Russia.
of Russia.

He died on July 15, 1015 in Берестово, около Киева / Berestovo, near Kiev, Земля Киевская / Land of Kiev, Киевская Русь / Kievan Rus (Present Ukraine)Берестово, около Киева / Berestovo, near Kiev, Земля Киевская / Land of Kiev.
He is buried about 1015 in Десятинная церковь / Church of the TithesКиев / Kiev, Земля Киевская / Land of Kiev, Киевская Русь / Kievan Rus (Present Ukraine).
A child of Святослав Игоревич Velikij Knjaz Velikij Knjaz and Predslava Árpád(házi)
A child of Святослав Игоревич Velikij Knjaz Velikij Knjaz and Малуша / Malusha /Малковна Malkovna
This information was last updated on June 9, 2012.

Household of Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

(1) He is married to Anna Porphyrogeneta.

They got married on May 19, 989 at Kherson, Kherson, Ukraine.

Child(ren):

Dobroniega Maria Мария Добронега ± 1011-± 1087

(2) He is married to Rogneda / Рогнеда Полоцкая / of Polotsk of Sweden.

They got married about 977 at Kiev, Ukraine, RussiaKiev, Ukraine.

Child(ren):

Ярослав I 'Мудрий' I Владимирович ± 978-1054

Child(ren):

Illegitimate daughter of Vladimir the Great of Kiev ± 965-± 1018

Notes about Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Weis, p. 205: Grand Prince of Kiev - married as 2nd (?) wife, a daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen, by Richilde, daughter of Otto I (the Great). She died 14 August 1014.

Name Prefix: St. Name Suffix: I, Grand Prince Of Kiev And 1St CzarOf Russia

Name Prefix: St.

Storfyrste. Levde 980. Død 15.07.1015.
Fyrste av Kiev i 970 og storfyrste av Novgorod 980 - 1015.
Vladimir kalles også ?den Store?. Han ble døpt i 989 med navnet Basilius.
Mogens Bugge anser i ? Våre forfedre? at Anna av Bysants var mor til Jaroslav. Bent og Vidar Billing Hansen anser derimot i ?Rosensverdslektens forfedre? at Rogneda av Polotsk var hans mor.

Fyrste av Novgorod 970 - ca. 980.
Storfyrste av Kijev [Kiev] ca. 980 - 1015.
Vladimir [Volodymyr] kalles også ?den Store?. Han ble døpt i 989 med navnet Basilius.
Han giftet seg først i 980 med Rogneda, datter til prins Rogvolod av Polotsk. Han hadde
derefter mange koner og konkubiner før han offisielt giftet seg med Anna Porphrogenita, datter
til den bysantiske keiseren Romanus II og søster til keiser Basil II. Anna døde i 1011. Senere
giftet han seg med en datter til greve Cuno av Öningen, barnebarn til keiser Otto I som døde i
1018. Vladimir hadde mange sønner, og det er uklart hvem som var deres mødre. Troligvis var
Yaroslav fra ekteskapet med Rogneda slik Bent og Vidar Billing Hansen anser i
?Rosensverdslektens forfedre?. Mogens Bugge hevder imidlertid i ? Våre forfedre? at Anna
av Bysants var mor til Yaroslav.
Svyatoslavs sønn Vladimir var til å begynne med en minst like innbitt hedning som faren. Han
tilba slavernes guder, han holdt seg med en stor skare hustruer og han straffet sine fiender på
det grusomste. Ærelysten som han var, innså han hvilke fordeler det ville medføre for ham selv
å få i stand en allianse med Bysants, som befant seg på høyden av sin makt. Ved å beleire
Kherson tvang han stormakten til forhandlinger. Som tegn på forbund gikk Vladimir med på å
la seg døpe, og keiseren skjenket ham sin søster Anna til hustru.
Vladimirs politikk fikk bred støtte hos folket. De samfunnsmessige og kulturelle forandringene
han gjennomførte, var så gjennomgripende at forutsetningene må ha ligget latente alt i de
foregående generasjoners utvikling. Den nye tro hadde alt vært forkynt i Russland i over
hundre år, selv om de ledende kretser fremdeles hadde sluttet opp om den hedenske
tradisjonen.
Forandringen ser ut til å ha gått nokså smertefritt for seg, særlig når misjonen tok fyrstenes
autoritet til hjelp. Misjonsarbeidet ble hurtig organisert, og kirker ble bygd i alle de viktigste
byene. Novgorod fikk sin egen biskop bare fem år etter Kijev, og alt i alt ble det opprettet fem
bispedømmer i Vladimirs tid. Fra Bulgaria, Krim og Konstantinopel strømmet prester, munker,
sangere, byggmestere og kirkemalere inn i landet. Den bysantinske kristne kulturtradisjonen
fikk innpass i de slaviske gudstjenestene og slo rot i Russland, til dels ved Bulgarias formidling.
Religionen ble en sterk lenke i forbindelsen mellom Bysants og Russland. Russland ble knyttet
til den østlige gren av kristendommen, og kom dermed inn i Europas østlige kulturkrets. Fyrst
Vladimirs beslutning hadde meget vidtrekkende følger. Ettervirkningene strekker seg, i hvert
fall indirekte, over tusen år helt inn i vår tid.
Den nye tro endret livsvanene fra grunnen av, og det samme skjedde med kulturen i de
sentrale byer. Men i avsides beliggende trakter, blant slaver og særlig blant finskættede
stammer, ble de hedenske tradisjoner bevart ennå i lang tid fremover. I slutten av 1000-tallet
begynte kristendommens innflytelse å nå frem til den viktige handelsruten over Ladoga.
Fyrst Vladimir hadde som nevnt hele tolv sønner med forskjellige mødre, og mellom dem brøt
det ut en blodig kamp om makten. Av hans legeme og blod var blant andre de fromt kristne
Boris og Gleb, som Vladimirs eldste sønn, Svyatoslav, lot myrde i kirken. De ble Russlands
første helgener. Novgorods hersker Yaroslav var den fjerde sønnen i rekken, og utsett som
neste offer, men han samlet sin hær, angrep Kijev og fordrev Svyatoslav.

Vladimir I, in full VLADIMIR SVYATOSLAVICH, byname SAINT VLADIMIR, orVLADIMIR THE GREAT, Russian SVYATOY VLADIMIR, or VLADIMIR VELIKY (b. c. 956, Kiev, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]--d. July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kiev; feast day July 15), grand prince of Kiev and first Christian ruler in Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces of Kiev and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptism determined the course of Christianity in the region.
Vladimir was the youngest son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav I and his mistress Malushka, and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. He was made prince of Novgorod in 970. On the death of Svyatoslav in 972, a long civil war took placebetween his sons Yaropolk and Oleg, in which Vladimir was involved. Yaropolk attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kiev. Vladimir was forced to flee to Scandinavia, where he enlisted help from anuncle. From 977 to 984 while in Scandinavia, he collected as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him recover Novgorod. On hisway to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Ragnvald, prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Ragnilda. The haughty princess refusedto affiance herself to "the son of a bondswoman," but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Ragnvald and took Ragnilda by force.
On his return, he marched against Yaropolk. In 980, he captured Kiev,slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed prince of all Russia. In 981 he conquered the Chervensk cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the heathen Yatvyags, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way. At this time Vladimir was a thoroughgoing pagan. He increased the number of the trebishcha or heathen temples; offered up Christians (Theodore and Ivan, the protomartyrs of the Russian church) on his altars; he had 800 concubines, besides numerous wives; and spent his whole leisure in feasting and hunting. He also formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his 12 sons over his subject principalities.
Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir's time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, had taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. In the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighbouring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Moslem Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported"there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench; their religion is not a good one." In the temples of the Germans they saw"no beauty"; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual ofthe Orthodox Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal. "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth, nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." [This story, deriving from the 11th-century monk Jacob, that Vladimir chose the Byzantine rite over the liturgies of German Christendom, Judaism, and Islam because of its transcendent beauty is apparently mythically symbolic ofhis determination to remain independent of external political control, particularly that of the Germans.]
With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976-1025) sought military aid from Vladimir. Vladimir was impressed by the offer of the emperor to give him his sister Anna in marriage, and agreed. A pact was reached between them about 987, when Vladimir also consented to the condition that he become a Christian. In 988 he was baptized at Kherson in the Crimea, taking the Christian name of Basil out ofcompliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followedby his marriage with the Roman princess.
Vladimir ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod, whereidols were cast into the Dnieper River after local resistance had been suppressed. While crypto-Christians had been numerous in Kiev for some time before the public recognition of the Orthodox faith, the new Rus Christian worship adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language. The Byzantines, however, maintained ecclesiastical control over the new Rus church, appointing a Greek metropolitan, or archbishop, for Kiev, who functioned both as legate of the patriarch of Constantinople and of the emperor. The Rus-Byzantine religio-political integration checked the influence of the Roman Latin church in the Slavic East and determined the course of Russian Christianity, although Kiev exchanged legates with the papacy. Among the churches erected by Vladimir was the splendid Desyatinnuy Sobor or "Cathedral of the Tithes"in Kiev (designed by Byzantine architects and dedicated about 996) that became the symbol of the Rus conversion. The remainder of his reignwas devoted to good works and he also expanded education, judicial institutions, aid to the poor, and introduced ecclesiastical courts.
Another marriage, following the death of Anne (1011), affiliated Vladimir with the Holy Roman emperors of the German Ottonian dynasty and produced a daughter, who became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland (1016-58).
Vladimir extended the realm to include the watersheds of the Don, Dnieper, Dniester, Neman, Western Dvina, and upper Volga, destroyed or incorporated the remnants of competing Varangian organizations, and established relations with neighbouring dynasties, consolidating the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. With his neighbours he lived at peace, the incursions of the savage Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquility. His nephew Svyatpolk, son of his brother and victim Yaropolk, he married to the daughter of Boleslaus of Poland. He died at Berestova, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise theinsolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. The University of Kiev has rightly been named after the man who both civilized and Christianized ancient Russia. His memory was also kept alive by innumerable folk balladsand legends. With him the Varangian period of Russian history ceases and the Christian period begins.
The successes of Vladimir's long reign made it possible for the reignof his son Yaroslav (ruled 1019-54) to produce a flowering of cultural life. But neither Yaroslav, who gained control of Kiev only after abitter struggle against his brother Svyatopolk (1015-19), nor his successors in Kiev were able to provide lasting political stability within the enormous realm. The political history of Rus is one of clashingseparatist and centralizing trends inherent in the contradiction between local settlement and colonization, on the one hand, and the hegemony of the clan elder, ruling from Kiev, on the other. As Vladimir's 12sons and innumerable grandsons prospered in the rapidly developing territories they inherited, they and their retainers acquired settled interests that conflicted both with one another and with the interests of unity

[s2.FTW]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 2, Ed. 1, Tree #1241, Date of Import: May 8, 1997]

!GRAND PRINCE OF KIEV[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 2, Ed. 1, Tree #1241, Date of Import: May 8, 1997]

!GRAND PRINCE OF KIEV

Basic Life Information

Vladimir was a pagan at the beginning of his reign, which was at first devoted to consolidating his territories into a unified Russian state. By the early 10th century, however, Kievan Rus had established close commercial and cultural ties with the Byzantine Empire, an Orthodox Christian state. He converted in 988 to Orthodox Christianity and made Orthodoxy the official religion of Kievan Rus. Vladimir's choice of Orthodox Christianity, rather than the Latin church (Roman Catholicism) or Islam, had an important influence on the future of Russia.

Vladimir's choice between the Christian and Islamic faiths was said to have been heavily influenced by the fact that he enjoyed the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The Christian faith allowed for this and the Islamic faith did not. Hence, Validimir chose Christianity.

Marriages and Children

St. Vladimir married in to Rogneda von Polotzk, a Nun and a daughter of Rognald of Polotzk, in 980. Rogneda died in 1002. St. Vladimir and Rogneda the Nun had the following children:
Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev
Vissavald of Kiev
Iasaslav, Prince of Polotzk
Mtsislav, Grand Prince Tschernigow
Premislava
Sviataslav
Sudislav, Prince of Pskow
Wizeslau, Prince of Novgorod

St. Vladimir married after 1011 to Malfreda of Bohemia, a daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen, by Richilde who was a daughter of Otto I the Great, King of Germany. They had a daughter:
Dobroniega who married in 1038 to King Casimir I, King of Poland.

http://www.robertsewell.ca/kiev.html

Basic Life Information

Vladimir was a pagan at the beginning of his reign, which was at first devoted to consolidating his territories into a unified Russian state. By the early 10th century, however, Kievan Rus had established close commercial and cultural ties with the Byzantine Empire, an Orthodox Christian state. He converted in 988 to Orthodox Christianity and made Orthodoxy the official religion of Kievan Rus. Vladimir's choice of Orthodox Christianity, rather than the Latin church (Roman Catholicism) or Islam, had an important influence on the future of Russia.

Vladimir's choice between the Christian and Islamic faiths was said to have been heavily influenced by the fact that he enjoyed the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The Christian faith allowed for this and the Islamic faith did not. Hence, Validimir chose Christianity.

Marriages and Children

St. Vladimir married in to Rogneda von Polotzk, a Nun and a daughter of Rognald of Polotzk, in 980. Rogneda died in 1002. St. Vladimir and Rogneda the Nun had the following children:

Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev
Vissavald of Kiev
Iasaslav, Prince of Polotzk
Mtsislav, Grand Prince Tschernigow
Premislava
Sviataslav
Sudislav, Prince of Pskow
Wizeslau, Prince of Novgorod

St. Vladimir married after 1011 to Malfreda of Bohemia, a daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen, by Richilde who was a daughter of Otto I the Great, King of Germany. They had a daughter:

Dobroniega who married in 1038 to King Casimir I, King of Poland.
http://www.robertsewell.ca/kiev.html

Acceded: 978

Vladimir I (or Saint Vladimir) (956?-1015), grand duke of Kiev, first
Christian sovereign of Russia; introduced Greek Orthodox church into
Russia Ukraine

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The most significant event of his reign was his conversion to Byzantine
Christianity in 988 and the institution of that religion as the official
religion of the Russian people (see Orthodox Church). After casting off
several pagan wives, he married Anne, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor,
Basil II. See Anne, message under his wife. He did, however, forcibly convert
Kiev and Novgorod to Christianity.

Vladimir I of Kiev
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Volodymyr of Kiev

Vladimir I of Kiev, as illustrated in the 1905 The Story of Russia, by R. Van Bergen
Grand Prince of Kiev
Born c. 950
Died 1015
Feast July 15
Attributes crown, cross, throne
Saints Portal

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in Old East Slavic as Volodimir (?????????), in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (?????????), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (????????), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Contents [hide]
1 Way to the throne
2 Years of pagan rule
3 Baptism of Rus
4 Christian reign
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References

[edit] Way to the throne

Vladimir and Rogneda (1770).Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Preslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or kagan, of all Kievan Rus.

[edit] Years of pagan rule
In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued to expand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity.

[edit] Baptism of Rus
Main article: Christianization of Kievan Rus'

The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, by Viktor Vasnetsov (1890)The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench, and that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'." Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never had a Greek imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian before, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[1] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.[2]

[edit] Christian reign

Modern statue of Vladimir in LondonHe now formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. With his neighbors he lived at peace, the incursions of the Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

He died at Berestovo, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise the insolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who both civilized and Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Order of St. Vladimir in Russia and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

[edit] See also
Family life and children of Vladimir I
Saints Portal

Historic statue in Kiev, by Peter Klodt and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This media has an uncertain copyright status and is pending deletion. You can comment on the removal.
[edit] Notes
^ Ibn al-Athir dates these events to 985 or 986
^ "Rus". Encyclopaedia of Islam

[edit] References
Golden, P.B. (2006) "Rus." Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Preceded by
Yaropolk I Prince of Kiev and Novgorod
978-1015 Succeeded by
Sviatopolk I

Acceded: 978

Vladimir I (or Saint Vladimir) (956?-1015), grand duke of Kiev, first
Christian sovereign of Russia; introduced Greek Orthodox church into
Russia Ukraine

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The most significant event of his reign was his conversion to Byzantine
Christianity in 988 and the institution of that religion as the official
religion of the Russian people (see Orthodox Church). After casting off
several pagan wives, he married Anne, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor,
Basil II. See Anne, message under his wife. He did, however, forcibly convert
Kiev and Novgorod to Christianity.

Acceded: 978

Vladimir I (or Saint Vladimir) (956?-1015), grand duke of Kiev, first
Christian sovereign of Russia; introduced Greek Orthodox church into
Russia Ukraine

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The most significant event of his reign was his conversion to Byzantine
Christianity in 988 and the institution of that religion as the official
religion of the Russian people (see Orthodox Church). After casting off
several pagan wives, he married Anne, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor,
Basil II. See Anne, message under his wife. He did, however, forcibly convert
Kiev and Novgorod to Christianity.

Vladimir I of Kiev From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (Redirected from Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev) Detail of the Millennium of Russia monument in Novgorod (1862) representing St Vladimir and his family. Enlarge Detail of the Millennium of Russia monument in Novgorod (1862) representing St Vladimir and his family.

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c.958–1015) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name is known in three traditions: in Old East Slavic and modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (?????????), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (????????), and in the Norse and modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar. Contents [hide]

* 1 Bloody way to the throne
* 2 Years of pagan rule
* 3 Baptism of Rus
* 4 Christian reign

[edit]

Bloody way to the throne

Vladimir was the youngest son of Svyatoslav I by his slave girl Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Svyatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk. Vladimir and Rogneda (1770). Enlarge Vladimir and Rogneda (1770).

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or kagan, of all Kievan Rus. [edit]

Years of pagan rule

In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued to expand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Halychyna; in 983 he subdued the Yatvyags, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgarians of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity. It is probable that he instituted the practice of human sacrifices as well. [edit]

Baptism of Rus Modern statue in London, UK Enlarge Modern statue in London, UK

In the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench, and that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork. Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Orthodox Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.

In 988, having taken the town of Chersones in Crimea, he negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never had a Greek princess married a Barbarian before, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Chersones, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his marriage with the Roman princess. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos. [edit]

Christian reign Historic statue in Kiev, Ukraine Enlarge Historic statue in Kiev, Ukraine

He now formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. With his neighbors he lived at peace, the incursions of the savage Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

He died at Berestovo, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise the insolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who both civilized and Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Order of St. Vladimir in Russia. Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

Acceded: 978

Vladimir I (or Saint Vladimir) (956?-1015), grand duke of Kiev, first
Christian sovereign of Russia; introduced Greek Orthodox church into
Russia Ukraine

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The most significant event of his reign was his conversion to Byzantine
Christianity in 988 and the institution of that religion as the official
religion of the Russian people (see Orthodox Church). After casting off
several pagan wives, he married Anne, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor,
Basil II. See Anne, message under his wife. He did, however, forcibly convert
Kiev and Novgorod to Christianity.

["European Royal Houses"]
Sviatoslav?s elder son, Saint Wladimir (d 1015), is revered for bringing Greek Orthodox Christianity to Russia at the end of the 10th century. Saint Wladimir established complex system of succession by which each brother was succeeded as Grand Prince of Kiev by the next, then the eldest nephew whose father had been Grand Prince before him, with cadets ruling smaller principalities.

[Wikipedia, "Vladimir I of Kiev", retrieved 19 Oct 07]
Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 ? 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in Old East Slavic as Volodimir, in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr, in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir, in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Way to the throne
Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Preslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or kagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Years of pagan rule
In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued to expand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the Yatvyags, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity.

Baptism of Rus
The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench, and that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'." Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never had a Greek imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian before, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[1] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Rus for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.

Christian reign
He now formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. With his neighbors he lived at peace, the incursions of the Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

He died at Berestovo, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise the insolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who both civilized and Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Order of St. Vladimir in Russia and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

[Wikipedia, "Family life and children of Vladimir I", retrieved 19 Oct 07]
Until his baptism, Vladimir I of Kiev (c.958?1015) was described by Thietmar of Merseburg as a great profligate (Latin: fornicator maximus). He had a few hundred concubines in Kiev and in the country residence of Berestovo. He also had official pagan wives, the most famous being Rogneda of Polotsk. His other wives are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, with various children assigned to various wives in the different versions of the document. Hence, speculations abound.

Norse wife
Norse sagas mention that, while ruling in Novgorod in his early days, Vladimir had a Varangian wife named Olava or Allogia. This unusual name is probably a feminine form of Olaf. According to Snorri Sturluson the runaway Olaf Tryggvason was sheltered by Allogia in her house; she also paid a large fine for him.

Several authorities, notably Rydzevskaya ("Ancient Rus and Scandinavia in 9-14 cent.", 1978), hold that later skalds confused Vladimir's wife Olava with his grandmother and tutor Olga, with Allogia being the distorted form of Olga's name. Others postulate Olava was a real person and the mother of Vysheslav, the first of Vladimir's sons to reign in Novgorod, as behooves the eldest son and heir. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the tradition of sending the eldest son of Kievan monarch to Novgorod existed at such an early date.

Those scholars who believe that this early Norse wife was not fictitious, suppose that Vladimir could have married her during his famous exile in Scandinavia in the late 970s. They usually refer an account in Ingvars saga (in a part called Eymund's saga) which tells that Eric VI of Sweden married his daughter to a 'konung of fjord lying to the East from Holmgard'. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great.

Polotsk wife
Main article: Rogneda of Polotsk
Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's pagan wives, although her ancestry has fuelled the drollest speculations. See this article for extensive but tenuous arguments for her Yngling royal descent.

The Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons - Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod of Volhynia (+ca 995), and Yaroslav the Wise. Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e., Polotsk. According to the Kievan succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to the Kievan throne, because their forefather had never ruled in Kiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of which Vseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable.

Greek wife
During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by Svyatoslav I in Bulgaria and married to his lawful heir Yaropolk I. Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon (some would say, too soon) gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers".

Bohemian wife
Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given by Vasily Tatishchev as Malfrida. Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the 1015 internecine war, and Mstislav of Chernigov. Some chronicles, however, report that Rogneda was Mstislav's mother.

Bulgarian wife
Another wife was a Bulgarian lady, whose name is given by Tatishchev as Adela. Historians have disagreed as to whether she came from Volga Bulgaria or from Bulgaria on the Danube. According to the Primary Chronicle, both Boris and Gleb were her children. This tradition, however, is viewed by most scholars as a product of later hagiographical tendency to merge the identity of both saints. Actually, they were of different age and their names point to different cultural traditions. Judging by his Oriental name, Boris could have been Adela's only offspring.

Anna Porphyrogeneta
Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, was the only princess of the Makedones, to have been married to a foreigner. The Byzantine emperors regarded the Franks and Russians as barbarians, refusing Hugues Capet's proposals to marry Anna to his son Robert I, so the Baptism of Kievan Rus was a prerequisite for this marriage. Following the wedding, Vladimir is said to have divorced all his pagan wives, although this claim is disputed. Regarded by later Russians as a saint, Anna was interred with her husband in the Church of the Tithes.

Anna is not known to have had any children. Either her possible barrenness or the Byzantine house rule could account for this. If she had any progeny, the prestigious and much sought for imperial parentage would have certainly been advertised by her descendants. The hagiographic sources, contrary to the Primary Chronicle, posit Boris and Gleb as her offspring, on understanding that holy brothers should have had a holy mother.

German wife
Anna is known to have predeceased Vladimir by four years. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing from contemporary accounts, mentions that Boleslaw I of Poland captured Vladimir's widow during his raid on Kiev in 1018. The historians long had no clue as to identity of this wife. The emigre historian Nicholas Baumgarten, however, pointed to the controversial record of the "Genealogia Welforum" and the "Historia Welforum Weingartensis" that one daughter of Count Kuno von Oenningen (future Duke Konrad of Swabia) by "filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris" (Otto the Great's daughter; possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis], claimed by some as illegitimate daughter and by others legitimate, born from his first marriage with Edith of Wessex) married "rex Rugorum" (king of Russia). He interpreted this evidence as pertaining to Vladimir's last wife.

It is believed that the only child of this alliance was Dobronega, or Maria, who married Casimir I of Poland between 1038 and 1042. As her father Vladimir died about 25 years before that marriage and she was still young enough to bear at least five children, including two future Polish dukes (Boleslaw II of Poland, who later became a king, and Wladyslaw Herman), it is thought probable that she was Vladimir's daughter by the last marriage.

Some sources claimed Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile of England, was another daughter of this marriage and full-sister of Dobronegra. Their marriage took place by the same time of Dobronegra's wedding (the date of birth of her first child support this) and this maybe because was double wedding of both sisters. This can resolve the question about the conection between Agatha and the Holy Roman Empire claimed by several medieval sources.

Yaroslav's parentage
There is also a case for Yaroslav's descent from Anna. According to this theory, Nestor the Chronicler deliberately represented Yaroslav as Rogneda's son, because he systematically removed all information concerning Kievan ties with Byzantium, spawning pro-Varangian bias (see Normanist theory for details). Proponents allege that Yaroslav's true age was falsified by Nestor, who attempted to represent him as 10 years older than he actually had been, in order to justify Yaroslav's seizure of the throne at the expense of his older brothers.

The Primary Chronicle, for instance, says that Yaroslav died in 1054 at the age of 76, thus putting his birth at 978, whereas Vladimir's encounter and marriage to Yaroslav's purported mother Rogneda is dated to 980. Elsewhere, speaking about Yaroslav's rule in Novgorod (1016), Nestor says that Yaroslav was 28, thus putting his birth at 988. The forensic analysis of Yaroslav's skeleton seems to have confirmed these suspicions, estimating Yaroslav's birth at ca. 988-990, i.e., after the Baptism of Kievan Rus and Vladimir's divorce with Rogneda. Consequently, it is assumed that either Yaroslav was Vladimir's natural son born after the latter's baptism, or he was his son by Anna.

Of course, if Yaroslav really had an imperial Byzantine descent, he wouldn't have missed the chance to publicize it. Some have seen the willingness of European kings to marry Yaroslav's daughters as an indication of this. Subsequent Polish chroniclers and historians, in particular, were eager to view Yaroslav as Anna's son. Recent proponents envoke onomastic arguments, which have often proved decisive in the matters of medieval prosopography. It is curious that Yaroslav named his elder son Vladimir (after his own father) and his eldest daughter Anna (as if after his own mother). Also, there is a certain pattern in his sons having Slavic names (as Vladimir), and his daughters having Greek names only (as Anna). However, in the absence of better sources, Anna's maternity remains a pure speculation.

Obscure offspring
Vladimir had several children whose maternity cannot be established with certainty. These include two sons, Stanislav of Smolensk and Sudislav of Pskov, the latter outliving all of his siblings. There is also one daughter, named Predslava, who was captured by Boleslaw I in Kiev and taken with him to Poland as a concubine. Another daughter, Premyslava, is attested in numerous (though rather late) Hungarian sources as the wife of Duke Ladislaus, one of the early Arpadians.

Vladimir the Great The empire was divided among the prince's three sons, causing dynastic conflicts that were ended in 980, when the youngest son, Vladimir I (see Vladimir, Saint), later known as Vladimir the Great, became sole ruler. The most significant event of his reign was his conversion to Byzantine Christianity in 988 and the institution of that religion as the official religion of the Russian people. After casting off his several pagan wives, he married Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II. From its inception, the Russian Orthodox Church differed from its Byzantine parent. Services were offered in liturgical Slavonic, and the church enjoyed a large measure of autonomy, even though it remained under the canonical authority of the patriarch of Constantinople and the Russian ruler was in fact its supreme head. Monasteries and churches were built in Byzantine style, however, and Byzantine culture ultimately became the predominant influence in such fields as architecture, art, and music.

[alfred_descendants10gen_fromrootsweb_bartont.FTW]

(Vladimir I Weis 147-23, St. Vladimir in 241-4) Grand Prince of Kiev, m. aft. 1011. a dau. of Kono, Count of Ohningen, by Richilde, dau. of OTTO I, the Great (147-19); m. also Rogneide, dau. of Rognald of Polotzk. )Weis 241-5).(Wies 147-23-w.f).

Converted to Christianity to marry Anna.

[1773] WSHNGT.ASC file (Geo Washington Ahnentafel) # 17441716

Encyclopedia Britannica on-line
Vladimir I, in full VLADIMIR SVYATOSLAVICH, byname SAINT VLADIMIR, or VLADIMIR THE GREAT, Russian SVYATOY VLADIMIR, or VLADIMIR VELIKY (b. c. 956, Kiev, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]--d. July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kiev; feast day July 15), grand prince of Kiev and first Christian ruler in Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces of Kiev and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptism determined the course of Christianity in the region.

also Volodymyr the Great

DUDLE.GED Duke of Kiev, Saint ...

BIRT DATE abt 960

BIRTH: RURIK.DEC (Compuserve)
COMYNI.GED (Compuserve) says ABT 955
COMYN4.TAF (Compuserve Roots) says ABT 955 PAGE 4

DEATH: RURIK.DEC (Compuserve) says 15-Jul-1015
COMYNI.GED (Compuserve) says 15-Jul-1015
COMYN4.TAF (Compuserve Roots) says 16-Jul-1015 PAGE 4

St. Volodymyr, the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev - RURIK.DEC (Compuserve); St. Volodymyr I of Kiev, Grand Prince of Kiev - COMYNI.GED (Compuserve)

Vladimir (St.) the Great of Kiev, Grand Prince of Kiev

Sources: RC 143, 321, 361; Clarkson; A. Roots 241. 243; AF; Kraentzler
1162, 1170, 1171, 1172, 1233, 1603; Timetables of History; Through the Ages.
Roots: St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev. Died 15 July 1015. Married after 1011, a daughter (died 14 Aug 1014) of Kuno, Count of Ohinigen, by Richilde, dau. of Otto I, the Great. Married also Rogneide, dau. of Rognald of Polotzk.
RC: "The Great" of Kiev, Ukraine, Russia. Grand prince of Novgorod and Kiev. Baptized a Christian, 988.
K: Wladimir I le Grand et le Saint. Grand Duke of Novogorod, Kiew.
"Le Grand et le Saint." Grand Prince of Kiev or Grand Duke of Kiev and Novgorod. Ruled 980-1015. "980. St.Vladimir becomes Prince of Kiev."
Clarkson: Vladimir succeeded his father through the process of fratricidal wars in which his brothers were slain. "He installed himself at Kiev (977), whence, by savage campaigns, he collected wives and tribute from most of the Dnieper Basin. Vladimir's chief fame rests on his forced conversion of the Russian Slavs to Christianity...During his reign, Kiev was repeatedly harassed by the Pechenegs; to hold them off, Vladimir built a sort of fortified line of new towns along the steppe frontier. At his death (1015) he left seven sons--of four or five different mothers--each ruling as prince in a portion of the Russian land; one of them, Yaroslav of Novgorod, was in open rebvellion, having refused to pay tribute to his father. Sviatopolk, who seized Kiev, promptly murdered three of his brothers, but was defeated in a four-year struggle by Yaroslav, who succeeded to the title of grand prince. Yaroslav, however, was forced to share the territory with another brother, Mstislav, who took the opportunity to move his residence from outlying Tmutorakan, beyond the Sea of Azov, to Chernigov, near Kiev. Not until Mstislav's death (1036) did Yaroslav "the Wise" venture to remove his seat from Novgorod to Kiev."
"Vladimir...who had won the throne of Kiev by the murder of his older brother, was the last major European ruler to abandon paganism." He invited envoys from the Khazars (Jews), the Volga Bulgars (Muslims), Rome and Greece to "sell" their religious beliefs. But "Vladimir and his simple warriors (were) unable to make up their minds in this war of words." Therefore, they visited the temples of the Bulgars, the Romans and the Greeks, not bothering with a visit to the Khazars. They found the mosques unclean and western Catholic worship tolerable, but they were entralled with the spendor and beauty of the Greek places of worship. Hence, they embraced the Greek Orthodox religion.
Vladimir was promised the hand of Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor, in return for military aid and, despite some foot dragging by the emperor after the aid was provided, married the lady in 988. "In 990 Vladimir returned to Kieve with his imperial bride and a retinue of priests. Throughout his dominions the population was compulsorily baptized wholesale..."
RC says he had many pagan wives and concubines of whom these are known: (1) Adlaga; (2) Olava; (3) Malfrida, a Bohemian, d. 1002; (5) a Greek, widow of his brother, Teropolk; (6) N.N.(27-36), a Bulgarian; md (7) 989, Anna, daughter of the Eastern Emperor, the Basilius Romanos, d. 10011; (8) N.N. (321-33), daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen. K. calls the latter Rogneda de Oehningen. One AF record says born about 962.
According to my records, St. Vladimir had three daughters with Vladimirovna as name or part of name--all via different wives. Maybe he just liked the name. Maybe there are errors in the records.
(SAee Royal Families of Scandinava, etc., Alen * Dahlstrom p155-158)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev)

Detail of the Millenium of Russia monument in Novgorod (1862)representing St Vladimir and his family.Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavichthe Great (c.958–1015) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted toChristianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus.His name is known in three traditions: in Old East Slavic and modernUkrainian as Volodymer (?????????), in Old Church Slavonic and modernRussian as Vladimir (????????), and in the Norse and modernScandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Contents [showhide]
1 Bloody way to the throne

2 Years of pagan rule

3 Baptism of Rus

4 Christian reign

Bloody way to the throne
Vladimir was the youngest son of Svyatoslav I by his slave girlMalusha, decribed in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to theage of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict thefuture. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity connects hischildhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who wasChristian and governed the capital during Svyatoslav's frequentmilitary campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslavdesignated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to hislegitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidalwar erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, rulerof the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen in Scandinavia,collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him torecover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched againstYaropolk.

Vladimir and Rogneda (1770).On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors toRogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand ofhis daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The haughty princess refusedto affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attackedPolotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotskwas a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk andSmolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolkby treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or kagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Years of pagan rule
In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued toexpand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, themodern Halychyna; in 983 he subdued the Yatvyags, whose territorieslay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along thecentral rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgarians of the Kama,planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimirhad remained thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines(besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines togods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism byestablishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity. It is probable thathe instituted the practice of human sacrifices as well.

Baptism of Rus

Modern statue in London, UKIn the year 987, as the result of aconsultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study thereligions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives hadbeen urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result isamusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgariansof the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; onlysorrow and a great stench; their religion is not a good one, as theydon't drink wine and eat pork. In the temples of the Germans they sawno beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual ofthe Orthodox Church was set in motion to impress them, they foundtheir ideal: We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth,nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it. If Vladimir wasimpressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so bypolitical gains of the Byzantine alliance.

In 988, having taken the town of Chersones in Crimea, he negotiatedfor the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never had a Greekprincess married a Barbarian before, as matrimonial offers of Frenchkings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, tomarry the 27-year-old princess to a pagan Slav seemed impossible.Vladimir, however, was baptized at Chersones, taking the Christianname of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; thesacrament was followed by his marriage with the Roman princess.Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments andestablished many churches, starting with the splendid Church of theTithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Christian reign

Historic statue in Kiev, UkraineHe now formed a great council out ofhis boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities.With his neighbors he lived at peace, the incursions of the savagePechenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. After Anna's death, hemarried again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

He died at Berestovo, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise theinsolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various partsof his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacredfoundations and were venerated as relics. The University of Kiev hasrightly been named after the man who both civilized and ChristianizedKievan Rus. Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St.Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable folk ballads andlegends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the FairSun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceasesand the Christian period begins.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911Encyclopædia Britannica.

#Générale#inhumation : Kiev Russie

#Générale#Baptisé la meme année que son mariage en 989 à Kiev
Profession : Grand-Prince de Kiev de 978 à 1015.

{geni:occupation} князь, Prince of Kiev, великий князь, Storfurste

{geni:about_me} Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymer (Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь). His name is spelt variously: in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир); in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian, as Vladimir (Владимир); in Old Norse as Valdamarr; and, in modern Scandinavian languages, "Valdemar".

*Born: c. 958
*Died:15 July 1015, Berestovo

*Father: Sviatoslav I of Kiev
*Mother: Malusha
*Spouses:
#Rogned of Polotsk
#Anna of Byzantium
#Adelia von Öhningen
#9 mistresses

*Issue:
#Iziaslav Vladimirovich
#Iaroslav Vladimirovich
#Mstivslav Vladimirovich "the Brave"
#Vsevolod Vladimirovich
#2 unnamed daughters (first)
#second
#Sviatopolk Vladimirovich
#Vysheslav Vladimirovich
#Sviatoslav Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Boris Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Gleb Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Pozvizd Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Sudislav Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Stanislav Vladimirovich (illegitimate)
#Name unknown Vladimirovna (illegitimate)
#Premislava Vladimirovna (illegitimate)
#Dobronega Maria Vladimirovna (illegitimate)

VLADIMIR Sviatoslavich. The Primary Chronicle names Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir as grandsons of Olga. The Primary Chronicle names Malusha, stewardess of Olga and sister of Dobrinya, as mother of Sviatoslav's son Vladimir, when recording that his father sent him to Novgorod in 970 with his maternal uncle after the inhabitants had demanded a prince of their own. After the death of his half-brother Oleg, Vladimir fled "beyond the seas" and governors were assigned to Novgorod. With support mustered in Scandinavia, Vladimir regained control of Novgorod. He captured Polotsk after killing Rogvolod Prince of Polotsk, who had refused Vladimir's offer to marry his daughter (whom he married anyway). He then moved southwards towards Kiev to attack his half-brother Iaropolk, who fled to Rodnia but was murdered when he returned to Kiev to negotiate with Vladimir. He thereby succeeded in [980] as VLADIMIR I "Velikiy/the Great" Grand Prince of Kiev. In 981, Vladimir invaded Polish territory and conquered Czerwień, "Peremyshl" and other cities. After actively promoting the worship of pagan idols, he was baptised in [987/88] as part of an agreement to help Emperor Basileios II to defeat a rebellion. He increased his own personal prestige by marrying the emperor's sister and imposed Christianity on his people by force. He sought to rule his diverse territories by nominating his various sons to rule in different towns, although at the end of his reign he was faced with the rebellions of his son Iaroslav and his adopted son Sviatopolk. Vladimir died while preparing for war with Novgorod following the suspension of payment of tribute by his son Iaroslav. Vladimir was described as "fornicator immensus et crudelis" by Thietmar. According to the Primary Chronicle, Vladimir had 300 concubines at Vyshgorod, 300 at Belgorod and 200 at Berestovo. The Primary Chronicle records the death of Vladimir at Berestovo 15 Jul 1015. He was later esteemed to be a saint, his feast day being 15 July.
m firstly ([977], divorced 986) as her second husband, ROGNED of Polotsk, widow of --- Jarl in Sweden, daughter of ROGVOLOD Prince of Polotsk & his wife --- ([956]-[998/1000]). The Primary Chronicle names Rogned, daughter of Rogvolod Prince of Polotsk, recording that she at first refused to marry Vladimir, preferring his half-brother Yaropolk. She became a nun in [989]. The Primary Chronicle records the death of Rogned in [998/1000].
m secondly (Kherson 988) ANNA of Byzantium, daughter of Emperor ROMANOS II & his second wife Theophano [née Anastasia] (13 Mar 963-[1008/11] or [1022], bur Kiev, church of the Palace). Cedrenus records that "filiam…Annæ" was born two days before the death of Emperor Romanos II[88]. The Primary Chronicle names Anna, sister of Emperors Basil and Constantine, recording that her brothers agreed to her marriage to Vladimir if he accepted baptism, and her arrival and marriage at Kherson. Zonaras records that "Uladimero ducem [Russorum]" married "sorore Anna" (referring to Basileios and Konstantinos). The marriage marked the start of increased influence for the Greek Orthodox church in Russia, as the new Russian church reported to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The sources are contradictory regarding the dating of Anna´s death. The Primary Chronicle records the death of Anna wife of Vladimir in [1008/11]. Cedrenus records that "Anna imperatoris sorore" died "in Rossia", adding that her husband had already died, in a passage following the record of events dated to [1022], adding that "Chrysochir quidam Bladimeri cognatus" (not yet identified) sailed for Constantinople after she died but was defeated and killed at Lemnos by "Davido Achridensi Sami præfecto ac Nicephoro Cabasila duce Thessalonicæ".
m thirdly (after 1011) [ADELIA] [von Öhningen, daughter of KONRAD Duke of Swabia & his wife Richlint ---] (-after 14 Aug 1018). The Genealogia Welforum refers to the four daughters of "Chuno comes [et] filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris", specifying that the third (unnamed) married "regi Rugorum". The Historia Welforum refers to the four daughters of "Couno comes" and "filia Ottonis magnis imperatoris…Richlint", specifying that they married "una Roudolfo isti [=Welforum], alia cuidam de Rinveldin, parenti Zaringiorum, tercia regie Rugiorum, quarta comiti de Diezon". As noted in the document SWABIA DUKES, these two sources are unreliable in their recording of the sons of Konrad I Duke of Swabia, so should not be assumed to be any more precise in recording his daughters. The primary source which confirms her name has not yet been identified.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I_of_Kiev

Vladimir the Great was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus'.

== Way to the throne ==

Vladimir was born in 958 and was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or khagan, of all Kievan Rus.

== Years of pagan rule ==

Vladimir continued to expand his territories beyond his father's extensive domain. In 981, he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983, he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985, he led a fleet along the central rivers of Kievan Rus' to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thoroughgoing pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. He may have attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun, as a supreme deity. "Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice."

“In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith: ‘Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God — He is worshipped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!’”

An open abuse of the deities, to which most Russians bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. Rampant crowds killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann (later, after the overall christening of Russia, people came to regard these two as the first Christian martyrs in Russia and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them, July 25th).

Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann, early mediaeval Russia saw persecutions against Christians, many of whom escaped or concealed their belief.

However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not in the last place, for political considerations too. The chronicles have it that different preachers came to the Prince, each offering a particular faith. Vladimir spoke to Muslims, Catholics, and Jews, but for different reasons rejected all the religions. Finally, a Greek philosopher told the prince of the Old and New Testaments and presented him with a canvas depicting Doomsday. When he learned of the fate of the unrepentant were in for, Prince Vladimir was benumbed by terror and after a short pause said with a sigh: “Blessed are the doers of good and damned are the evil doers!”"

== Baptism of Rus' ==

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench. They also said that the Bulgars' religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork[citation needed]; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'." Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.

A mid-19th century statue overlooking the Dnieper at Kiev, by Peter Klodt and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[6] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.

== Christian reign ==

He then formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities.

It is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle that Vladimir founded the city of Belgorod in 991.

In 992 he went on a campaign against the Croats, most likely the White Croats (an East Slavic group unrelated to the Croats of Dalmatia) that lived on the border of modern Ukraine. This campaign was cut short by the attacks of the Pechenegs on and around Kiev.

In his later years he lived in a relative peace with his other neighbors: Boleslav I of Poland, Stephen I of Hungary, Andrikh the Czech (questionable character mentioned in A Tale of the Bygone Years).

After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

In 1014 his son Yaroslav the Wise stopped paying tribute. Vladimir decided to chastise the insolence of his son, and began gathering troops against Yaroslav. However, Vladimir fell ill, most likely of old age and died at Berestovo, near Kiev.

The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics.

== Family ==

The fate of all Vladimir's daughters is uncertain whose number is around nine.

* Olava or Allogia (Varangian), speculative she might have been mother of Vysheslav while others claim that it is a confusion with Helena Lekapena

o Vysheslav (~977-~1010), Prince of Novgorod (988 - 1010)

* a widow of Yaropolk I, a Greek nun

o Sviatopolk the Accursed (~979), possibly the surviving son of Yaropolk

* Rogneda (the daughter of Rogvolod), later upon divorce she entered a convent taking the Christian name of Anastasia

o Yaroslav the Wise (no ealier than 983), Prince of Rostov (987-1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010-1034), Grand Prince of Kyiv (1016-1018, 1019-1054). Possibly he was a son of Anna rather than Rogneda. Another interesting fact that he was younger than Sviatopolk according to the words of Boris in the Tale of Bygone Years and not as it was officially known. Also the fact of him being the Prince of Rostov is highly doubtful although not discarded.

o Vsevolod (~984-1013), possibly the Swedish Prince Wissawald of Volyn (~1000)

o Mstislav, other Mstislav that possibly died as an infant if he was ever born

o Mstislav of Chernigov (~983), Prince of Tmutarakan (990-1036), Prince of Chernigov (1024-1036), other sources claim him to be son of other mothers (Adela, Malfrida, or some other Bulgarian wife)

o Izyaslav of Polotsk(~979, Kyiv), Prince of Polotsk (989-1001)

o Predslava, a concubine of Bolesław I Chrobry according to Gesta principum Polonorum

o Premislava, (? - 1015), some source state that she was a wife of the Duke Laszlo (Vladislav) the Bold of Arpadians

o Mstislava, in 1018 was taken by Bolesław I Chrobry among the other daughters

* Bulgarian Adela, some sources claim that Adela is not necessarily Bulgarian as Boris and Gleb were born from some other wife

o Boris (~986), Prince of Rostov (~1010-1015), remarkable is the fact that Rostov Principality as well as the Principality of Murom used to border the territory of Volga Bolgars

o Gleb (~987), Prince of Murom (1013-1015), as Boris, Gleb is being also claimed the son of Anna Porphyrogeneta

o Stanislav (~985-1015), Prince of Smolensk (988-1015), possible of another wife and a fate of whom is not certain

o Sudislav (?-1063), Prince of Pskov (1014-1036), possible of another wife, but he is mentioned in Nikon's Chronicles. He spent 35 years in prison and later before dying turned into a monk.

* Malfrida

o Sviatoslav (~982-1015), Prince of Drevlians (990-1015)

* Anna Porphyrogeneta

o Theofana, a wife of Novgorod posadnik Ostromir, a grandson of semi-legendary Dobrynya (highly doubtful is the fact of her being Anna's offspring)

* a granddaughter of Otto the Great (possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis])

o Maria (~1012), the Duchess of Poland (1040-1087)

o Agatha, a theoretical daughter according to Jette

* other possible family

o a out-of-marriage daughter (?-1044), a wife of the Nordmark Margrave Bernard

o Pozvizd (prior to 988-?), a son of Vladimir according to Hustyn Chronicles. He, possibly, was the Prince Khrisokhir mentioned by Niketas Choniates.

== Vladimir's significance and historical footprint ==

One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.
______________________________________________________

Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor.

In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or khagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Family life and children of Vladimir I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Until his baptism, Vladimir I of Kiev (c.958–1015) was described by Thietmar of Merseburg as a great profligate (Latin: fornicator maximus). He had a few hundred concubines in Kiev and in the country residence of Berestovo. He also had official pagan wives, the most famous being Rogneda of Polotsk. His other wives are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, with various children assigned to various wives in the different versions of the document. Hence, speculations abound.

Norse wife

Norse sagas mention that, while ruling in Novgorod in his early days, Vladimir had a Varangian wife named Olava or Allogia. This unusual name is probably a feminine form of Olaf. According to Snorri Sturluson the runaway Olaf Tryggvason was sheltered by Allogia in her house; she also paid a large fine for him.

Several authorities, notably Rydzevskaya ("Ancient Rus and Scandinavia in 9-14 cent.", 1978), hold that later skalds confused Vladimir's wife Olava with his grandmother and tutor Olga, with Allogia being the distorted form of Olga's name. Others postulate Olava was a real person and the mother of Vysheslav, the first of Vladimir's sons to reign in Novgorod, as behooves the eldest son and heir. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the tradition of sending the eldest son of Kievan monarch to Novgorod existed at such an early date.

Those scholars who believe that this early Norse wife was not fictitious, suppose that Vladimir could have married her during his famous exile in Scandinavia in the late 970s. They usually refer an account in Ingvars saga (in a part called Eymund's saga) which tells that Eric VI of Sweden married his daughter to a 'konung of fjord lying to the East from Holmgard'. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great.

Polotsk wife

Main article: Rogneda of Polotsk

Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's pagan wives, although her ancestry has fuelled the drollest speculations. See this article for extensive but tenuous arguments for her Yngling royal descent.

The Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons - Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod of Volhynia (+ca 995), and Yaroslav the Wise. Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e., Polotsk. According to the Kievan succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to the Kievan throne, because their forefather had never ruled in Kiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of which Vseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable.

Greek wife

During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by Svyatoslav I in Bulgaria and married to his lawful heir Yaropolk I. Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon (some would say, too soon) gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers".

Bohemian wife

Main article: Malfrida

Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given by Vasily Tatishchev as Malfrida. Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the 1015 internecine war, and Mstislav of Chernigov. Some chronicles, however, report that Rogneda was Mstislav's mother.

Bulgarian wife

Another wife was a Bulgarian lady, whose name is given by Tatishchev as Adela. Historians have disagreed as to whether she came from Volga Bulgaria or from Bulgaria on the Danube. According to the Primary Chronicle, both Boris and Gleb were her children. This tradition, however, is viewed by most scholars as a product of later hagiographical tendency to merge the identity of both saints. Actually, they were of different age and their names point to different cultural traditions. Judging by his Oriental name, Boris could have been Adela's only offspring.

Anna Porphyrogeneta

Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, was the only princess of the Makedones to have been married to a foreigner. The Byzantine emperors regarded the Franks and Russians as barbarians, refusing Hugues Capet's proposals to marry Anna to his son Robert I, so the Baptism of Kievan Rus was a prerequisite for this marriage. Following the wedding, Vladimir is said to have divorced all his pagan wives, although this claim is disputed. Regarded by later Russians as a saint, Anna was interred with her husband in the Church of the Tithes.

Anna is not known to have had any children. Either her possible barrenness or the Byzantine house rule could account for this. Had she had any progeny, the prestigious and much sought imperial parentage would have certainly been advertised by her descendants. Hagiographic sources, contrary to the Primary Chronicle, posit Boris and Gleb as her offspring, on the understanding that holy brothers should have had a holy mother.

German wife

Anna is known to have predeceased Vladimir by four years. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing from contemporary accounts, mentions that Boleslaw I of Poland captured Vladimir's widow during his raid on Kiev in 1018. The historians long had no clue as to identity of this wife. The emigre historian Nicholas Baumgarten, however, pointed to the controversial record of the "Genealogia Welforum" and the "Historia Welforum Weingartensis" that one daughter of Count Kuno von Oenningen (future Duke Konrad of Swabia) by "filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris" (Otto the Great's daughter; possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis], claimed by some as illegitimate daughter and by others legitimate, born from his first marriage with Edith of Wessex) married "rex Rugorum" (king of Russia). He interpreted this evidence as pertaining to Vladimir's last wife.

It is believed that the only child of this alliance was Dobronega, or Maria, who married Casimir I of Poland between 1038 and 1042. As her father Vladimir died about 25 years before that marriage and she was still young enough to bear at least five children, including two future Polish dukes (Boleslaw II of Poland, who later became a king, and Wladyslaw Herman), it is thought probable that she was Vladimir's daughter by the last marriage.

Some sources claimed Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile of England, was another daughter of this marriage and full-sister of Dobronegra. Their marriage took place by the same time of Dobronegra's wedding (the date of birth of her first child support this) and this maybe because was double wedding of both sisters. This can resolve the question about the connection between Agatha and the Holy Roman Empire claimed by several medieval sources.

Yaroslav's parentage

There is also a case for Yaroslav's descent from Anna. According to this theory, Nestor the Chronicler deliberately represented Yaroslav as Rogneda's son, because he systematically removed all information concerning Kievan ties with Byzantium, spawning pro-Varangian bias (see Normanist theory for details). Proponents allege that Yaroslav's true age was falsified by Nestor, who attempted to represent him as 10 years older than he actually had been, in order to justify Yaroslav's seizure of the throne at the expense of his older brothers.

The Primary Chronicle, for instance, states that Yaroslav died at the age of 76 in 1054 (thus putting his birth at 978), while dating Vladimir's encounter and marriage to Yaroslav's purported mother, Rogneda, to 980. Elsewhere, speaking about Yaroslav's rule in Novgorod (1016), Nestor says that Yaroslav was 28, thus putting his birth at 988. The forensic analysis of Yaroslav's skeleton seems to have confirmed these suspicions, estimating Yaroslav's birth at ca. 988-990, after both the Baptism of Kievan Rus and Vladimir's divorce of Rogneda. Consequently, it is assumed that Yaroslav was either Vladimir's natural son born after the latter's baptism or his son by Anna.

Had Yaroslav an imperial Byzantine descent, he likely would not have stinted to advertise it. Some have seen the willingness of European kings to marry Yaroslav's daughters as an indication of this imperial descent. Subsequent Polish chroniclers and historians, in particular, were eager to view Yaroslav as Anna's son. Recent proponents invoke onomastic arguments, which have often proven decisive in the matters of medieval prosopography. It is curious that Yaroslav named his elder son Vladimir (after his own father) and his eldest daughter Anna (as if after his own mother). Also, there is a certain pattern in his sons having Slavic names (as Vladimir), and his daughters having Greek names only (as Anna). However, in the absence of better sources, Anna's maternity remains a pure speculation.

Obscure offspring

Vladimir had several children whose maternity cannot be established with certainty. These include two sons, Stanislav of Smolensk and Sudislav of Pskov, the latter outliving all of his siblings. There is also one daughter, named Predslava, who was captured by Boleslaw I in Kiev and taken with him to Poland as a concubine. Another daughter, Premyslava, is attested in numerous (though rather late) Hungarian sources as the wife of Duke Ladislaus, one of the early Arpadians.

--------------------

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988[1], and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in Old East Slavic and modern Ukrainian as Volodimir (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Way to the throne

Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Preslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or khagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Years of pagan rule

In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued to expand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity.

Baptism of Rus

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench, and that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'." Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never had a Greek imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian before, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[2] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.

Christian reign

He then formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. With his neighbors he lived at peace, the incursions of the Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

He died at Berestovo, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise the insolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who both civilized and Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I_of_Kiev

--------------------

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymyr Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988[1], and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

--------------------

Storfyrste Vladimir I Svjatoslavitj -den store-den Hellige av Kiev

--------------------

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in Old East Slavic as Volodimir (Володимир), in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

--------------------

Painting: Vladimir and Rogneda

Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 – July 15, 1015, Berestovo), also known as Saint Vladimir of Kiev, was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 987 and is generally credited as the person most responsible for the Christianization of Russia.

The illegitimate son of Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev, Vladmir consolidated the Kievan Rus' from the Ukraine to the Baltic Sea through his military exploits. During his early reign, he remained a zealous pagan, devoting himself to the Slavic-Norse deities, establishing numerous temples, and practicing polygamy. In 987, however, he converted to Christianity as a condition of a marriage alliance with Anna, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. He then ordered the conversion of Kiev and Novgorod to the Orthodox Church and began the destruction of other faiths.

After his conversion, and with the Byzantine Empire now his ally, Vladimir was able to live for the most part in peace with his neighbors and devote new resources to education, legal reform, and charitable works. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on July 15. A large number of legends and Russian folk songs were written in Vladimir’s memory.

Returning to Kiev, Vladimir began the conversion of his people to Christianity. He formed a great council out of his boyars, and set twelve of his sons over his various principalities. He put away his former pagan wives and mistresses and destroyed pagan temples, statues, and holy sites. He built churches and monasteries and imported Greek Orthodox missionaries to educate his subjects. He also reportedly gave generously to various charitable works. After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great.

Not all of Vladimir's subjects accepted his policies peacefully, however. Among these were some of his former wives and their sons. Several of these princes rose in armed rebellion, notably Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. In the course of putting down this revolt, Vladimir died in battle at Berestovo, near Kiev on July 15,

--------------------

St. Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kiev (1)

M, #220658, d. 1015

Last Edited=7 Mar 2007

St. Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kiev was the son of Svyatolslav I, Grand Duke of Kiev.1 He married Anna (?), daughter of Romanus II, Emperor of Constantinople. (2)

He died in 1015. (1)

St. Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kiev succeeded to the title of Grand Duke St. Vladimir I of Kiev in 978. (1)

Children of St. Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kiev and Anna (?)

-1. Boris of Kiev d. 1015 (2)

-2. Gleb of Kiev d. 1015 (2)

Children of St. Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kiev

-1. Jarislaus I, Grand Duke of Kiev+ d. 1054 (1)

-2. Svyatopolk I, Grand Duke of Kiev+ d. 1019 (1)

-3. unknown (?)+ 1

-4. Dobronega Maria of Kiev+ b. c 1011, d. 1087 (3)

Forrás:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p22066.htm#i220658

--------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I,_Prince_of_Kiev

Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymer Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988[1][2][3], and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus'. His name is spelt variously: in modern Ukrainian, for example, as Volodymyr (Володимир); in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian, as Vladimir (Владимир); in Old Norse as Valdamarr; and, in modern Scandinavian languages, "Valdemar".

Way to the throne

Vladimir and Rogneda (1770).

Vladimir was born in 958 and was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or khagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Years of pagan rule

Vladimir continued to expand his territories beyond his father's extensive domain. In 981, he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983, he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985, he led a fleet along the central rivers of Kievan Rus' to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thoroughgoing pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. He may have attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun, as a supreme deity. "Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice." [4]

“In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith: ‘Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God — He is worshipped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!’”

An open abuse of the deities, to which most Russians bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. Rampant crowds killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann (later, after the overall christening of Russia, people came to regard these two as the first Christian martyrs in Russia and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them, July 25th).

Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann, early mediaeval Russia saw persecutions against Christians, many of whom escaped or concealed their belief.

However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not in the last place, for political considerations too. The chronicles have it that different preachers came to the Prince, each offering a particular faith. Vladimir spoke to Muslims, Catholics, and Jews, but for different reasons rejected all the religions. Finally, a Greek philosopher told the prince of the Old and New Testaments and presented him with a canvas depicting Doomsday. When he learned of the fate of the unrepentant were in for, Prince Vladimir was benumbed by terror and after a short pause said with a sigh: “Blessed are the doers of good and damned are the evil doers.

Baptism of Rus'

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench. They also said that the Bulgars' religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork[citation needed]; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'."[citation needed] Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God[citation needed]. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.[citation needed]

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[6] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.

Christian reign

Modern statue of Vladimir in London

He then formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities.

It is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle that Vladimir founded the city of Belgorod in 991.

In 992 he went on a campaign against the Croats, most likely the White Croats (an East Slavic group unrelated to the Croats of Dalmatia) that lived on the border of modern Ukraine. This campaign was cut short by the attacks of the Pechenegs on and around Kiev.

In his later years he lived in a relative peace with his other neighbors: Boleslav I of Poland, Stephen I of Hungary, Andrikh the Czech (questionable character mentioned in A Tale of the Bygone Years).

After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

In 1014 his son Yaroslav the Wise stopped paying tribute. Vladimir decided to chastise the insolence of his son, and began gathering troops against Yaroslav. However, Vladimir fell ill, most likely of old age and died at Berestovo, near Kiev.

The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics.

[edit] Family

The fate of all Vladimir's daughters is uncertain whose number is around nine.

* Olava or Allogia (Varangian), speculative she might have been mother of Vysheslav while others claim that it is a confusion with Helena Lekapena

o Vysheslav (~977-~1010), Prince of Novgorod (988 - 1010)

* a widow of Yaropolk I, a Greek nun

o Sviatopolk the Accursed (~979), possibly the surviving son of Yaropolk

* Rogneda (the daughter of Rogvolod), later upon divorce she entered a convent taking the Christian name of Anastasia

o Yaroslav the Wise (no ealier than 983), Prince of Rostov (987-1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010-1034), Grand Prince of Kyiv (1016-1018, 1019-1054). Possibly he was a son of Anna rather than Rogneda. Another interesting fact that he was younger than Sviatopolk according to the words of Boris in the Tale of Bygone Years and not as it was officially known. Also the fact of him being the Prince of Rostov is highly doubtful although not discarded.

o Vsevolod (~984-1013), possibly the Swedish Prince Wissawald of Volyn (~1000)

o Mstislav, other Mstislav that possibly died as an infant if he was ever born

o Mstislav of Chernigov (~983), Prince of Tmutarakan (990-1036), Prince of Chernigov (1024-1036), other sources claim him to be son of other mothers (Adela, Malfrida, or some other Bulgarian wife)

o Izyaslav of Polotsk(~979, Kyiv), Prince of Polotsk (989-1001)

o Predslava, a concubine of Bolesław I Chrobry according to Gesta principum Polonorum

o Premislava, (? - 1015), some source state that she was a wife of the Duke Laszlo (Vladislav) the Bold of Arpadians

o Mstislava, in 1018 was taken by Bolesław I Chrobry among the other daughters

* Bulgarian Adela, some sources claim that Adela is not necessarily Bulgarian as Boris and Gleb were born from some other wife

o Boris (~986), Prince of Rostov (~1010-1015), remarkable is the fact that Rostov Principality as well as the Principality of Murom used to border the territory of Volga Bolgars

o Gleb (~987), Prince of Murom (1013-1015), as Boris, Gleb is being also claimed the son of Anna Porphyrogeneta

o Stanislav (~985-1015), Prince of Smolensk (988-1015), possible of another wife and a fate of whom is not certain

o Sudislav (?-1063), Prince of Pskov (1014-1036), possible of another wife, but he is mentioned in Nikon's Chronicles. He spent 35 years in prison and later before dying turned into a monk.

* Malfrida

o Sviatoslav (~982-1015), Prince of Drevlians (990-1015)

* Anna Porphyrogeneta

o Theofana, a wife of Novgorod posadnik Ostromir, a grandson of semi-legendary Dobrynya (highly doubtful is the fact of her being Anna's offspring)

* a granddaughter of Otto the Great (possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis])

o Maria (~1012), the Duchess of Poland (1040-1087)

o Agatha, a theoretical daughter according to Jette

* other possible family

o a out-of-marriage daughter (?-1044), a wife of the Nordmark Margrave Bernard

o Pozvizd (prior to 988-?), a son of Vladimir according to Hustyn Chronicles. He, possibly, was the Prince Khrisokhir mentioned by Niketas Choniates.

[edit] Vladimir's significance and historical footprint

One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_life_and_children_of_Vladimir_I#Anna_Porphyrogeneta

Family life and children of Vladimir I

Until his baptism, Vladimir I of Kiev (c.958–1015) was described by Thietmar of Merseburg as a great profligate (Latin: fornicator maximus). He had a few hundred concubines in Kiev and in the country residence of Berestovo. He also had official pagan wives, the most famous being Rogneda of Polotsk. His other wives are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, with various children assigned to various wives in the different versions of the document. Hence, speculations abound.

Norse wife

Norse sagas mention that, while ruling in Novgorod in his early days, Vladimir had a Varangian wife named Olava or Allogia. This unusual name is probably a feminine form of Olaf. According to Snorri Sturluson the runaway Olaf Tryggvason was sheltered by Allogia in her house; she also paid a large fine for him.

Several authorities, notably Rydzevskaya ("Ancient Rus and Scandinavia in 9-14 cent.", 1978), hold that later skalds confused Vladimir's wife Olava with his grandmother and tutor Olga, with Allogia being the distorted form of Olga's name. Others postulate Olava was a real person and the mother of Vysheslav, the first of Vladimir's sons to reign in Novgorod, as behooves the eldest son and heir. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the tradition of sending the eldest son of Kievan monarch to Novgorod existed at such an early date.

Those scholars who believe that this early Norse wife was not fictitious, suppose that Vladimir could have married her during his famous exile in Scandinavia in the late 970s. They usually refer an account in Ingvars saga (in a part called Eymund's saga) which tells that Eric VI of Sweden married his daughter to a 'konung of fjord lying to the East from Holmgard'. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great.

[edit] Polotsk wife

Main article: Rogneda of Polotsk

Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's pagan wives, although her ancestry has fuelled the drollest speculations. See this article for extensive but tenuous arguments for her Yngling royal descent.

The Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons - Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod of Volhynia (+ca 995), and Yaroslav the Wise. Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e., Polotsk. According to the Kievan succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to the Kievan throne, because their forefather had never ruled in Kiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of which Vseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable.

[edit] Greek wife

During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by Svyatoslav I in Bulgaria and married to his lawful heir Yaropolk I. Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon (some would say, too soon) gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers".

[edit] Bohemian wife

Main article: Malfrida

Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given by Vasily Tatishchev as Malfrida. Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the 1015 internecine war, and Mstislav of Chernigov. Some chronicles, however, report that Rogneda was Mstislav's mother.

[edit] Bulgarian wife

Another wife was a Bulgarian lady, whose name is given by Tatishchev as Adela. Historians have disagreed as to whether she came from Volga Bulgaria or from Bulgaria on the Danube. According to the Primary Chronicle, both Boris and Gleb were her children. This tradition, however, is viewed by most scholars as a product of later hagiographical tendency to merge the identity of both saints. Actually, they were of different age and their names point to different cultural traditions. Judging by his Oriental name, Boris could have been Adela's only offspring.

[edit] Anna Porphyrogeneta

Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, was the only princess of the Makedones to have been married to a foreigner. The Byzantine emperors regarded the Franks and Russians as barbarians, refusing Hugues Capet's proposals to marry Anna to his son Robert I, so the Baptism of Kievan Rus was a prerequisite for this marriage. Following the wedding, Vladimir is said to have divorced all his pagan wives, although this claim is disputed. Regarded by later Russians as a saint, Anna was interred with her husband in the Church of the Tithes.

Anna is not known to have had any children. Either her possible barrenness or the Byzantine house rule could account for this. Had she had any progeny, the prestigious and much sought imperial parentage would have certainly been advertised by her descendants. Hagiographic sources, contrary to the Primary Chronicle, posit Boris and Gleb as her offspring, on the understanding that holy brothers should have had a holy mother.

[edit] German wife

Anna is known to have predeceased Vladimir by four years. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing from contemporary accounts, mentions that Boleslaw I of Poland captured Vladimir's widow during his raid on Kiev in 1018. The historians long had no clue as to identity of this wife. The emigre historian Nicholas Baumgarten, however, pointed to the controversial record of the "Genealogia Welforum" and the "Historia Welforum Weingartensis" that one daughter of Count Kuno von Oenningen (future Duke Konrad of Swabia) by "filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris" (Otto the Great's daughter; possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis], claimed by some as illegitimate daughter and by others legitimate, born from his first marriage with Edith of Wessex) married "rex Rugorum" (king of Russia). He interpreted this evidence as pertaining to Vladimir's last wife.

It is believed that the only child of this alliance was Dobronega, or Maria, who married Casimir I of Poland between 1038 and 1042. As her father Vladimir died about 25 years before that marriage and she was still young enough to bear at least five children, including two future Polish dukes (Boleslaw II of Poland, who later became a king, and Wladyslaw Herman), it is thought probable that she was Vladimir's daughter by the last marriage.

Some sources claimed Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile of England, was another daughter of this marriage and full-sister of Dobronegra. Their marriage took place by the same time of Dobronegra's wedding (the date of birth of her first child support this) and this maybe because was double wedding of both sisters. This can resolve the question about the connection between Agatha and the Holy Roman Empire claimed by several medieval sources.

[edit] Yaroslav's parentage

There is also a case for Yaroslav's descent from Anna. According to this theory, Nestor the Chronicler deliberately represented Yaroslav as Rogneda's son, because he systematically removed all information concerning Kievan ties with Byzantium, spawning pro-Varangian bias (see Normanist theory for details). Proponents allege that Yaroslav's true age was falsified by Nestor, who attempted to represent him as 10 years older than he actually had been, in order to justify Yaroslav's seizure of the throne at the expense of his older brothers.

The Primary Chronicle, for instance, states that Yaroslav died at the age of 76 in 1054 (thus putting his birth at 978), while dating Vladimir's encounter and marriage to Yaroslav's purported mother, Rogneda, to 980. Elsewhere, speaking about Yaroslav's rule in Novgorod (1016), Nestor says that Yaroslav was 28, thus putting his birth at 988. The forensic analysis of Yaroslav's skeleton seems to have confirmed these suspicions, estimating Yaroslav's birth at ca. 988-990, after both the Baptism of Kievan Rus and Vladimir's divorce of Rogneda. Consequently, it is assumed that Yaroslav was either Vladimir's natural son born after the latter's baptism or his son by Anna.

Had Yaroslav an imperial Byzantine descent, he likely would not have stinted to advertise it. Some have seen the willingness of European kings to marry Yaroslav's daughters as an indication of this imperial descent. Subsequent Polish chroniclers and historians, in particular, were eager to view Yaroslav as Anna's son. Recent proponents invoke onomastic arguments, which have often proven decisive in the matters of medieval prosopography. It is curious that Yaroslav named his elder son Vladimir (after his own father) and his eldest daughter Anna (as if after his own mother). Also, there is a certain pattern in his sons having Slavic names (as Vladimir), and his daughters having Greek names only (as Anna). However, in the absence of better sources, Anna's maternity remains a pure speculation.

[edit] Obscure offspring

Vladimir had several children whose maternity cannot be established with certainty. These include two sons, Stanislav of Smolensk and Sudislav of Pskov, the latter outliving all of his siblings. There is also one daughter, named Predslava, who was captured by Boleslaw I in Kiev and taken with him to Poland as a concubine. Another daughter, Premyslava, is attested in numerous (though rather late) Hungarian sources as the wife of Duke Ladislaus, one of the early Arpadians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurik_Dynasty

The Rurik Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Kievan Rus' (after 862), the successor principalities of Galicia-Volhynia (after 1199), Vladimir-Suzdal, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, as well as the early Tsardom of Russia (after 1168).

According to the Primary Chronicle, the dynasty was established in 862 by Rurik, the legendary great ruler of Novgorod. The exact origin of his tribe, the Varangians called Rus', is disputed and his ethnicity remains unclear, although Scandinavian and Slavic influences are cited. He and his brothers founded a state that later historians called Kievan Rus'. By the middle of the twelfth century, Kievan Rus' had dissolved into independent principalities (Russian, or Rus' principalities), each ruled by different branches of the Rurik dynasty.

In the west, Galicia-Volhynia continued to be ruled by the Rurikids until 1323. The last ones were two brothers Andrew and Lev II, who ruled jointly and were slain trying to repel Mongol incursions on behalf of the rest of Europe. Polish king Władysław I the Elbow-high in his letter to the Pope wrote with regret: "The two last Ruthenian (Ukrainian) kings, that had been firm shields for Poland from the Tatars, left this world and after their death Poland is directly under Tatar threat." Losing their leadership role, Rurikids, however, continued to play a vital role in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the later Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most notably, the Ostrogski family held the title of Grand Hetman of Lithuania and strove to preserve the Old Ukrainian language and Eastern Orthodoxy in this part of Europe.

In the north-east, the principality of Moscow won a struggle for supremacy among medieval Rus states by the end of the fifteenth century. Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Muscovite branch of the Rurik dynasty used the title "Tsar of All Russia" and ruled over the Tsardom of Russia. The death in 1598 of Tsar Feodor I ended the rule of the Rurik dynasty. The unstable period known as the Time of Troubles succeeded Feodor's death and lasted until 1613. In that year, Mikhail I ascended the throne, founding the Romanov dynasty that would rule until 1762 and as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov until the revolutions of 1917. One descendant of the Rurik Grand Prince of Tver was Catherine the Great, who married Peter III of the Romanov dynasty. Historian Vasily Tatishchev and filmmaker Jacques Tati were descended from Rurik.

--------------------

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelled in different ways: in Old East Slavic as Volodimir (Володимир), in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

--------------------

Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymer Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь (c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988[1][2][3], and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus'. His name may be spelled in different ways: in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), in Old Norse as Valdamarr and the modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Way to the throne

Vladimir was the youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsmen Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The well-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Actually, Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (980), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed konung, or khagan, of all Kievan Rus.

Years of pagan rule

In addition to his father's extensive domain, Vladimir continued to expand his territories. In 981 he conquered the Cherven cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of the Kievan Rus' to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thorough going pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. It is argued that he attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing thunder-god Perun as a supreme deity. "Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice." [4]

"In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith:

“Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God — He is worshipped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!”

An open abuse of the deities, to which most of our forefathers bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. Rampant crowds killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann. Later on, after the overall christening of Russia, people came to regard them as the first Christian martyrs in Russia and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them — July 25.

Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann Ancient Russia saw persecutions against Christians, many of which had to escape or conceal their belief.

However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not in the last place, for political considerations too. The chronicles have it that different preachers came to the Prince, each offering a particular faith. Vladimir spoke to Muslims, Catholics, Jews but for different reasons rejected all the religions. Finally, a Greek philosopher told the prince of the Old and New Testaments and presented him with a canvas depicting Doomsday. When he learned of what the unrepentant were in for, Prince Vladimir went numb with horror and after a short pause said with a sigh: “Blessed are the good doers and damned are the evil!”" [5]

Baptism of Rus'

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench, and that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'." Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine

alliance.

A mid-19th century statue overlooking the Dnieper in Kiev, by Peter Klodt and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, al-Dimashki, and ibn al-Athir[6] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on September 14, 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Orthodox Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.

Christian reign

He then formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities.

It is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle that Vladimir founded the city of Belgorod in 991.

In 992 he went on a campaign against the Croats, most likely the White Croats (an East Slavic group unrelated to the [Croats that lived in Dalmatia) that lived on the border of modern Ukraine. This campaign was cut short by the attacks of the Pechenegs on and around Kiev.

In his later years he lived in a relative peace with his other neighbors: Boleslav I of Poland, Stephen I of Hungary, Andrikh the Czech (questionable character mentioned in A Tale of the Bygone Years).

After Anna's death, he married again, most likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

In 1014 his son Yaroslav the Wise stopped paying tribute. Vladimir decided to chastise the insolence of his son, and began gathering troops against Yaroslav. However, Vladimir fell ill, most likely of old age and died at Berestovo, near Kiev.

The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics.

Vladimir's significance and historical footprint

One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

--------------------

Владимир (древнее Владимер) Святославич - великий князь Киевский, в крещении Василий, святой и равноапостольный, сын Святослава Игоревича и Малуши , ключницы княгини Ольги. Традиционная история княжения Владимира, покоящаяся на "Повести временных лет" (начало XII в.), такова: Святослав, окончательно уходя на Дунай, поделил свое княжество на три части; Владимира, по просьбе новгородцев, он посадил в Новгороде (970). После смерти Святослава (972) произошла распря между Ярополком и Олегом Святославичами; последний пал (977). Опасаясь той же участи, Владимир бежал к варягам за море, через два года вернулся, занял Новгород, объявил войну Ярополку и присватался к Рогнеде , дочери полоцкого князя. Отказ Рогнеды привел к взятию Полоцка, гибели князя Рогволода и насильному захвату Рогнеды в жены Владимира. Когда Ярополк погиб, Владимир вокняжился в Киеве (980). Варяги, помогавшие Владимиру, потребовали дани, но Владимир избавился от них, частью разослав их по городам, частью услав в Византию. В 981 г. Владимир покоряет червенские города, в 982 г. идет на вятичей, в 983 г. - на ятвягов, после чего гибнут в Киеве варяги-христиане, отец и сын (отец отказался выдать сына в жертву богам) В 984 г. - поход на радимичей, в 985 г. - поход на болгар, не известно каких - волжских или дунайских. В 986 г. явились к Владимиру послы-миссионеры: болгаре-магометане, хозарские евреи, "немцы" от папы и грек-"философ". Только последний заронил в душу Владимира семена христианства. По совету бояр и старцев, Владимир отправил посольство для испытания вере; лучшей оказалась греческая. Бояре и старцы, руководясь примером Ольги , посоветовали Владимиру креститься (987). Владимир пошел войною на Корсунь (Херсонес в Крыму), осадил и взял город. На требование у императоров руки их сестры, царевны Анны, они ответили Владимиру согласием, под условием крещения. По прибытии царевны, Владимир крестился в Корсуни; затем разрушил в Киеве идолов и крестил киевлян (988). После крещения Владимир совершил еще несколько походов, успешно отбивался от печенегов, строил против них города. Как христианин, Владимир заботился о просвещении (ему приписывается основание первой школы) и о построении церквей, даровав одной из них десятину (996). Владимир не казнил "разбойников", "боясь греха". Но "епископы" посоветовали, и Владимир установил казнь, скоро, однако, вновь замененную вирой. Владимир разослал по областям сыновей. Один из них, Ярослав Новгородский , отложился. Владимир готовился к походу на сына, но заболел и умер 15 июля 1015 г. Насколько Владимир до крещения был ярым язычником (обновление культа, человеческая жертва) и женолюбцем (5 жен, 800 наложниц), настолько после крещения он является образцом князя-христианина. Его щедрость сказывалась в богатейших пирах и обильной милостыни. Такова традиция, ученая разработка и критика которой свелась к разбору известий летописи по существу, к сопоставлению их с известиями других русских источников, свидетельствами иностранцев (византийцев, арабов, одного армянина, западноевропейцев, исландской саги), данными былин; были выяснены состав и источники летописного предания. Результаты этой работы, в общем, следующие. Владимир вступил на киевский стол в 978, а не в 980 г. Известия о варягах и о Рогнеде сомнительны; жертвоприношение отрока-варяга относится к первым месяцам княжения Владимира; оно, быть может, является выдумкой летописца (мнение Костомарова , не разделяемое большинством ученых). Легенда о женолюбии Владимира, являясь позднейшей вставкой в древнейший летописный свод (Шахматов ), не подтверждается другими известиями и не правдоподобна; она составлена по аналогии с библейской историей Соломона и для оттенения контраста с последующей христианской жизнью Владимира (Костомаров, Голубинский ). В обновлении языческого культа иные ученые (Соловьев , Завитневич ) видят результат реакции язычества против христианских тенденций и терпимости времен Ярополка. Другие признают и в этом известии преувеличение. Главной темой ученых изысканий является крещение Руси. Известие о приходе посольства является, по-видимому, отдельным сказанием, входившим, по Шахматову, в древнейший летописный свод. Самое содержание речей послов и Владимира признается измышлением автора сказания; голый факт прихода послов одними отвергается как неправдоподобный (Костомаров), другими признается возможным (Голубинский, Соловьев) и ставится в связь с политическим положением Восточной Европы и Передней Азии (Завитневич). Речь "философа" одни считают переводом речи миссионера, большинство - позднейшей компиляцией. Известие об испытании вер, подвергнутое уничтожающей критике по существу (Голубинский, Костомаров), признается позднейшей вставкой в древнейший свод (Шахматов). Автором его мог быть грек. Сохранившееся греческое известие о приходе из Руси послов в Царьград для испытания вер, на которое ссылался Карамзин , оказывается поздним измышлением (Голубинский). Согласно древнейшему своду (в реконструкции Шахматова), Владимир крестился в Киеве после проповеди философа (987). Этот взгляд известен и составителю "Повести временных лет", который предпочел так называемую "Корсунскую легенду", повествовавшую о крещении Владимира в Корсуни, и внес ее в "Повесть". В пользу крещения Владимира именно в Киеве и в 987 г. говорит многое. Поход на Корсунь долго оставался необъяснимым. Костомаров отвергал его, но неосновательно. Объяснение Карамзина - Владимир шел "завоевать веру" - несостоятельно; немногим лучше объяснение Голубинского - Владимир пошел в поход, чтобы добыть иерархию и цивилизаторов Руси. Объяснение, по-видимому, дают греческие дела. В конце 987 г. в Византии восстал против императоров полководец Варда Фока, едва не овладевший престолом. Императоры заключили союз с Владимиром на условии присылки Владимиром вспомогательного отряда и выдачи за него замуж царевны Анны, после принятия им христианства. Вот это последнее условие (принятие христианства) является как будто единственным существенным противоречием гипотезе о крещении Владимира уже в 987 г. Можно думать, что осада и взятие Корсуни были вызваны отказом императоров исполнить условие о браке Владимира и Анны, а самая осада относится к 989 г. При этом барон Розен относит крещение ко времени после взятия Корсуни, а Васильевский - к 987 г. Истолкование причин перехода Владимира в христианство вызвало среди ученых полемику. Слабо объяснение митрополита Филарета - покаянное настроение братоубийцы и развратника Владимира. Недостаточно объяснение Соловьева - бедность и бессодержательность язычества. Одними причинами, по-видимому, были тесная связь Руси и Византии, постепенное проникновение христианства в русское общество, образование в Киеве влиятельной христианской общины; лично на Владимира влияли впечатления детства (княгиня Ольга), может быть, общение с женами христианками (Голубинский). Повенчавшись с царевной, Владимир привез из Корсуни в Киев священников, книги, утварь. Крещение киевлян произошло в 989 или 990 г., может быть, по внешней обстановке так, как рассказано в "Повести". Несомненно, новая вера встречала некоторое сопротивление, о котором молчат источники. Только про Новгород мы знаем из так называемой летописи Иоакима , что там дело не обошлось без вооруженной борьбы. Христианство распространялось в Руси при Владимире медленно. Существовали ли при нем русские митрополиты - вопрос нерешенный. Другие известия о времени Владимира большею частью достоверны, хотя не лишены легендарных подробностей и создались под влиянием народных преданий и песен. Эпоха Владимира была временем большого культурного развития Киевской Руси, но следы его в источниках скудны. Личность Владимира далеко не выяснена. Одни считают его гением, Петром Великим древней Руси, ставят его даже выше Петра; другие отрицают в нем черты гениальности. У Владимира были сыновья: Вышеслав , Изяслав, Ярослав, Всеволод , Мстислав , Станислав, Святослав, Борис , Глеб , Позвизд, Судислав; двенадцатый, Святополк , был собственно сыном Ярополка. - Источники. "Полное Собрание российских летописей", главным образом, тома I - III и VIII. Другие источники изданы наиболее доступно Голубинским ("История русской церкви", I, 1). Важное письмо западноевропейского миссионера Брунова напечатано Гильфердингом в "Русской Беседе" (1856, № 1). Литература громадна. Хорошей библиографии нет. См. А.А. Шахматов "Розыскания о древнейших русских летописных сводах" (СПб., 1908; здесь напечатан гипотетический древнейший летописный свод 1039 г. в редакции 1073 г.); его же "Корсунская легенда" ("Сборник в честь Ламанского", т. II); Завитневич "Владимир святой как политический деятель" ("Владимирский сборник"; Киев, 1888); Костомаров "Предания первоначальной русской летописи" ("Монографии", т. XIII); Васильевский "Труды", издание Академии Наук, тома I - II; Бар. Розен "Император Василий Болгаробойца". Новейшие работы Н.К. Никольского и М.Д. Приселкова еще не опубликованы. Алексий Елачич.

http://www.rulex.ru/01030630.htm

--------------------

Vladimir I Svjatoslavitj (fornöstslaviska: Володимир, Volodimir; fornkyrkoslaviska och ryska: Владимир, Vladimir; ukrainska: Володимир, Volodymyr; fornnordiska: Valdamarr; modern nordiska: Valdemar), kallad Vladimir den store (Vladimir Velikij) eller Vladimir den helige (Vladimir Svatoj), född omkring 956-958, död 15 juli 1015, var storfurste av Kiev. Han var son till Svjatoslav I och Malusja.

Med ambitionen att förena folken i Kievriket ville storfurst Vladimir ge de dem en gemensam religion. Han gjorde ett försök att slå ihop alla hedniska gudar i riket till en religion. Då detta misslyckades tog han dop år 988 och därmed var den grekisk-ortodoxa kyrkan etablerad i Kiev; Vladimir kristnade sedan hela Kievriket. Folket tvingades till massdop och man anlade grottklostret i Kiev.

Han gifte sig 989 med Anna av Bysans.

--------------------

Storfyrste Vladimir den Hellige av Novgorod levde i år 980. Død 15.07.1015. Han var sønn av Storfyrste Svjatoslav I av Kiev. Født omkring 942. Død 972, og Matuscha ???.

Vladimir hadde sønnen:

1. Storfyrste Jaroslav I den Vise av Novgorod. Født omkring 988. Død 20.02.1054 i Vyshorod.

Vladimir var Fyrste av Kiev i 970 og Storfyrste av Novgorod 980 - 1015.

Vladimir kalles også «den Store». Han ble døpt i 989 med navnet Basilius.

Vladimir fikk Novgorod etter sin far, men måtte rømme til Sverige på grunn av fiendtligheter fra sin brors side. 980 felte han broren og ble russisk enehersker. Han utvidet riket, bl. a. ved seire over polakker og bulgarere. Han lot seg døpe i 988 og prøvde å kristne sitt folk.

Mogens Bugge anser i « Våre forfedre» at Anna av Bysants var mor til Jaroslav. Bent og Vidar Billing Hansen anser derimot i «Rosensverdslektens forfedre» at Rogneda av Polotsk var hans mor. 1)

1). Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon, bind 20 (1973/75), side 6. N. de Baumgarten: Généalogie et Mariage occidenteaux des Rurikides Russes du Xe au XIII Siècle. Mogens Bugge: Våre forfedre, nr. 145, se også nr. 167 og side 63. Bent og Vidar Billing Hansen: Rosensverdslektens forfedre, side 90. Gyldendals Store Konversasjonsleksikon S-Å, sid. 3127.

--------------------

VLADIMIR I 980-1015, SVIATOPOLK I 1015-1019

VLADIMIR Sviatoslavich, son of SVIATOSLAV I Grand Prince of Kiev & his mistress Malusha [Malfred] ([960]-Berestov 15 Jul 1015). The Primary Chronicle names Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir as grandsons of Olga[72]. The Primary Chronicle names Malusha, stewardess of Olga and sister of Dobrinya, as mother of Svyatoslav's son Vladimir, when recording that his father sent him to Novgorod in 970 with his maternal uncle after the inhabitants had demanded a prince of their own[73]. After the death of his half-brother Oleg, Vladimir fled "beyond the seas" and governors were assigned to Novgorod. With support mustered in Scandinavia, Vladimir regained control of Novgorod. He captured Polotsk after killing Rogvolod Prince of Polotsk, who had refused Vladimir's offer to marry his daughter (whom he married anyway) [74]. He then moved southwards towards Kiev to attack his half-brother Iaropolk, who fled to Rodnia but was murdered when he returned to Kiev in an attempt to negotiate with Vladimir. He thereby succeeded in [980] as VLADIMIR I "Velikiy/the Great" Grand Prince of Kiev. In 981, Vladimir invaded Polish territory and conquered Czerwień, "Peremyshl" and other cities[75]. After actively promoting the worship of pagan idols, he was baptised in [987/88] as part of an agreement to help Emperor Basileios II in defeating a rebellion. He increased his own personal prestige by marrying the emperor's sister and imposed Christianity on his people by force. He sought to rule his diverse territories by nominating his various sons to rule in different towns, although at the end of his reign he was faced with the rebellions of his son Iaroslav and his adopted son Sviatopolk. Vladimir died while was making preparations for war with Novgorod following the suspension of payment of tribute by his son Iaroslav[76]. Vladimir was described as "fornicator immensus et crudelis" by Thietmar[77]. According to the Primary Chronicle, Vladimir had 300 concubines at Vyshgorod, 300 at Belgorod and 200 at Berestovo[78]. The Primary Chronicle records the death of Vladimir at Berestovo 15 Jul 1015[79]. He was later esteemed to be a saint, his feast day being 15 July.

m firstly ([977], divorced 986) as her second husband, ROGNED of Polotsk, widow of --- Jarl in Sweden, daughter of ROGVOLOD Prince of Polotsk & his wife --- ([956]-[998/1000]). The Primary Chronicle names Rogned, daughter of Rogvolod Prince of Polotsk, recording that she at first refused to marry Vladimir, preferring his half-brother Yaropolk[80]. She became a nun in [989]. The Primary Chronicle records the death of Rogned in [998/1000][

--------------------

Vladimir I "The Great" Svyetoslavitch storhertig av Kiev och Novgorod

begravda kyrka Tionden, Kiev, Ukraina

Vladimir Svjatoslavitj den storeOckså ibland stavat Volodymer

Vladimir föddes i 958 och var den yngste son Svjatoslav I av Kiev hans hushållerska Malusha, Som beskrivs i Nordiska gudasagan en profetissa som levde till en ålder av 100 och kom från hennes grotta till palatset för att förutsäga framtiden. Malusha bror Dobrynya var Vladimir handledare och mest betrodda rådgivare. Hagiografisk tradition av tvivelaktig äkthet ansluter också sin barndom med namnet på sin farmor Olga Prekrasa, Som var kristen och regleras huvudstaden under Svjatoslav är ofta militära kampanjer.

Överföra sitt kapital till Pereyaslavets år 969, Svjatoslav utsedda Vladimir härskare Novgorod the Great men gav Kiev till sin legitime son Jaropolk. Efter Svjatoslav död (972), ett inbördeskrig bröt ut (976) mellan Jaropolk och hans yngre bror Oleg, Härskare över Drevlians. I 977 Vladimir flydde till sina fränder Haakon Sigurdsson, Härskare Norge in Scandinavia, Samla så många av Viking warriors han kunde för att hjälpa honom att återhämta Novgorod, och om sin återkomst nästa år marscherade mot Jaropolk.

På väg till Kiev han skickat ambassadörer till Rogvolod (Nordisk: Ragnvald), furste av Polotsk, Att föra talan om hand av sin dotter Rogneda (Nordisk: Ragnhild). Den väl född prinsessa vägrade affiance sig att sonen till en trälinna, men Vladimir attackerade Polotsk, dräpte Rogvolod, och tog Ragnhild med våld. Egentligen var Polotsk en viktig fästning på väg till Kiev, och tillfångatagandet av Polotsk och Smolensk lättare att ta av Kiev (980), där han dräpte Jaropolk av förräderi, och utropades KonungEller KhaganAv alla Kievriket.

År hedniska regel

Förutom sin fars stora domän, fortsatte Vladimir att expandera sina territorier. I 981 han erövrade Cherven städer, den moderna Galicia, I 983 han underkuvade YatvingiansVars territorier låg mellan Litauen och Polen, I 985 han ledde en flotta längs centrala floder av Kievriket att erövra Bulgarer av Kama, Plantering många fästningar och kolonier på väg.

Fastän Christianity hade vunnit många omvandlar sedan Olga styre hade Vladimir förblev en grundlig går hedning, med åtta hundra konkubiner (förutom många fruar) och sätta hedniska statyer och helgedomar till gudar. Det hävdas att han försökt att reformera slavisk hedendom genom att inrätta thunder-god Perun som en högsta gudom. "Även om kristendomen i Kiev fanns innan Vladimir tid, hade han varit en hednisk, samlade omkring sju fruar, etablerade tempel, och, sägs det, deltagit i avgudadyrkande riter innefattar mänskliga offer. [4]

"I 983, efter en annan av hans militära framgångar, Prince Vladimir och hans armé ansåg det nödvändigt att offra människoliv till gudarna. Mycket kastades och den föll på en yngling, Ioann namn, son till en kristen, Fjodor. Hans far stod stadigt mot sin son offras till avgudar. Mer än så, försökte han v

Vladimir I, in full VLADIMIR SVYATOSLAVICH, byname SAINT VLADIMIR, orVLADIMIR THE GREAT, Russian SVYATOY VLADIMIR, or VLADIMIR VELIKY (b. c.956, Kiev, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]--d. July 15, 1015, Berestova, nearKiev; feast day July 15), grand prince of Kiev and first Christian rulerin Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces ofKiev and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptismdetermined the course of Christianity in the region.

Vladimir was the youngest son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav I andhis mistress Malushka, and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominantfrom the 10th to the 13th century. He was made prince of Novgorod in 970.On the death of Svyatoslav in 972, a long civil war took place betweenhis sons Yaropolk and Oleg, in which Vladimir was involved. Yaropolkattempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kiev. Vladimir wasforced to flee to Scandinavia, where he enlisted help from an uncle. From977 to 984 while in Scandinavia, he collected as many of the Vikingwarriors as he could to assist him recover Novgorod. On his way to Kievhe sent ambassadors to Ragnvald, prince of Polotsk, to sue for the handof his daughter Ragnilda. The haughty princess refused to affianceherself to "the son of a bondswoman," but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slewRagnvald and took Ragnilda by force.

On his return, he marched against Yaropolk. In 980, he captured Kiev,slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed prince of all Russia. In981 he conquered the Chervensk cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 hesubdued the heathen Yatvyags, whose territories lay between Lithuania andPoland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia toconquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses andcolonies on his way. At this time Vladimir was a thoroughgoing pagan. Heincreased the number of the trebishcha or heathen temples; offered upChristians (Theodore and Ivan, the protomartyrs of the Russian church) onhis altars; he had 800 concubines, besides numerous wives; and spent hiswhole leisure in feasting and hunting. He also formed a great council outof his boyars, and set his 12 sons over his subject principalities.

Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir's time, he hadremained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples,and, it is said, had taken part in idolatrous rites involving humansacrifice. In the year 987, as the result of a consultation with hisboyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the variousneighbouring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embracetheir respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by thechronicler Nestor. of the Moslem Bulgarians of the Volga the envoysreported "there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a greatstench; their religion is not a good one." In the temples of the Germansthey saw "no beauty"; but at Constantinople, where the full festivalritual of the Orthodox Church was set in motion to impress them, theyfound their ideal. "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or onearth, nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." [This story,deriving from the 11th-century monk Jacob, that Vladimir chose theByzantine rite over the liturgies of German Christendom, Judaism, andIslam because of its transcendent beauty is apparently mythicallysymbolic of his determination to remain independent of external politicalcontrol, particularly that of the Germans.]

With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976-1025)sought military aid from Vladimir. Vladimir was impressed by the offer ofthe emperor to give him his sister Anna in marriage, and agreed. A pactwas reached between them about 987, when Vladimir also consented to thecondition that he become a Christian. In 988 he was baptized at Khersonin the Crimea, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment tohis imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his marriagewith the Roman princess.

Vladimir ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod, whereidols were cast into the Dnieper River after local resistance had beensuppressed. While crypto-Christians had been numerous in Kiev for sometime before the public recognition of the Orthodox faith, the new RusChristian worship adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavoniclanguage. The Byzantines, however, maintained ecclesiastical control overthe new Rus church, appointing a Greek metropolitan, or archbishop, forKiev, who functioned both as legate of the patriarch of Constantinopleand of the emperor. The Rus-Byzantine religio-political integrationchecked the influence of the Roman Latin church in the Slavic East anddetermined the course of Russian Christianity, although Kiev exchangedlegates with the papacy. Among the churches erected by Vladimir was thesplendid Desyatinnuy Sobor or "Cathedral of the Tithes" in Kiev (designedby Byzantine architects and dedicated about 996) that became the symbolof the Rus conversion. The remainder of his reign was devoted to goodworks and he also expanded education, judicial institutions, aid to thepoor, and introduced ecclesiastical courts.

Another marriage, following the death of Anne (1011), affiliated Vladimirwith the Holy Roman emperors of the German Ottonian dynasty and produceda daughter, who became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland(1016-58).

Vladimir extended the realm to include the watersheds of the Don,Dnieper, Dniester, Neman, Western Dvina, and upper Volga, destroyed orincorporated the remnants of competing Varangian organizations, andestablished relations with neighbouring dynasties, consolidating theKievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and solidified the frontiersagainst incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. With hisneighbours he lived at peace, the incursions of the savage Pechenegsalone disturbing his tranquility. His nephew Svyatpolk, son of hisbrother and victim Yaropolk, he married to the daughter of Boleslaus ofPoland. He died at Berestova, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise theinsolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts ofhis dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacredfoundations and were venerated as relics. The University of Kiev hasrightly been named after the man who both civilized and Christianizedancient Russia. His memory was also kept alive by innumerable folkballads and legends. With him the Varangian period of Russian historyceases and the Christian period begins.

The successes of Vladimir's long reign made it possible for the reign ofhis son Yaroslav (ruled 1019-54) to produce a flowering of cultural life.But neither Yaroslav, who gained control of Kiev only after a bitterstruggle against his brother Svyatopolk (1015-19), nor his successors inKiev were able to provide lasting political stability within the enormousrealm. The political history of Rus is one of clashing separatist andcentralizing trends inherent in the contradiction between localsettlement and colonization, on the one hand, and the hegemony of theclan elder, ruling from Kiev, on the other. As Vladimir's 12 sons andinnumerable grandsons prospered in the rapidly developing territoriesthey inherited, they and their retainers acquired settled interests thatconflicted both with one another and with the interests of unity.[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 23, pp. 229-30, VLADIMIR I;Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, VLADIMIR I; Encyclopaedia Britannica CD'97, RURIK DYNASTY]Ancestral File Number: 9570-P0St. Vladimir theGreat, Grand Prince of Kiev
Born in 960
Acceded in 978
Died on July 15 1015 at Kiev
Vladimir was a pagan at the beginning of his reign, which was at firstdevoted to consolidating his territories into a unified Russian state. Bythe early 10th century, however, Kievan Rus had established closecommercial and cultural ties with the Byzantine Empire, an OrthodoxChristian state. He converted in 988 to Orthodox Christianity and madeOrthodoxy the official religion of Kievan Rus. Vladimir's choice ofOrthodox Christianity, rather than the Latin church (Roman Catholicism)or Islam, had an important influence on the future of Russia.
Vladimir's choice between the Christian and Islamic faiths was said tohave been heavily influenced by the fact that he enjoyed the consumptionof alcoholic beverages. The Christian faith allowed for this and theIslamic faith did not. Hence, Validimir chose Christianity.

St. Vladimir married in 980 to Rogneda von Polotzk, a Nun and a daughterof Rognald of Polotzk. Rogneda died in 1002.
St. Vladimir and Rogneda the Nun had the following children:
Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev
Vissavald of Kiev
Iasaslav, Prince of Polotzk
Mtsislav, Grand Prince Tschernigow
Premislava
Sviataslav
Sudislav, Prince of Pskow
Wizeslau, Prince of Novgorod
St. Vladimir married after 1011 to Malfreda of Bohemia, a daughter ofKuno, Count of Ohningen, by Richilde who was a daughter of Otto I theGreat, King of Germany.
St. Vladimir and Malfreda had a daughter:
Dobroniega who married in 1038 to King Casimir I, King of Poland.

494px-Anton_Losenko
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=e2fce605-8195-4742-9ab4-a01943c18f1c&tid=261097&pid=-1815561961

110904540. Storfyrste Vladimir I. den Store (den Hellige) SVETOSLAVSON av Kiev was a Fyrste in 970 in Novgorod.(10047) He was a Storfyrste between 980 and 1015.(10048) He died on 15 Jul 1015.(10049) He was baptised 989 med navn Basilius.(10050) He was married to Anna N.NSDTR av Bysanz in 989 in Cherson på Krim. (10051)

Age 55 in 1015

1 NAME the Great //
2 GIVN the Great
2 SURN
2 NICK the Great

1 BIRT 2 DATE ABT. 995 2 PLAC Russia

Saint Vladimir. Converted to Christianity in 988. 1 Sources: RC 143, 321, 361; Clarkson; A. Roots 241. 243; AF; Kraentzler 1162, 1170, 1171, 1172, 1233, 1603; Timetables of History; Through the Ages. Roots: St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev. Died 15 July 1015. Married after 1011, a daughter (died 14 Aug 1014) of Kuno, Count of Ohinigen, by Richilde, dau. of Otto I, the Great. Married also Rogneide, dau. of Rognald of Polotzk. RC: "The Great" of Kiev, Ukraine, Russia. Grand prince of Novgorod and Kiev. Baptized a Christian, 988. K: Wladimir I le Grand et le Saint. Grand Duke of Novogorod, Kiew. "Le Grand et le Saint." Grand Prince of Kiev or Grand Duke of Kiev and Novgorod. Ruled 980-1015. "980. St.Vladimir becomes Prince of Kiev." Clarkson: Vladimir succeeded his father through the process of fratricidal wars in which his brothers were slain. "He installed himself at Kiev (977), whence, by savage campaigns, he collected wives and tribute from most of the Dnieper Basin. Vladimir's chief fame rests on his forced conversion of the Russian Slavs to Christianity...During his reign, Kiev was repeatedly harassed by the Pechenegs; to hold them off, Vladimir built a sort of fortified line of new towns along the steppe frontier. At his death (1015) he left seven sons--offour or five different mothers--each ruling as prince in a portion of the Russian land; one of them, Yaroslav of Novgorod, was in open rebvellion, having refused to pay tribute to his father. Sviatopolk, who seized Kiev, promptly murdered three of his brothers, but was defeated in a four-year struggle by Yaroslav, who succeeded to the title of grand prince. Yaroslav, however, was forced to share the territory with another brother, Mstislav, who took the opportunity to move his residence from outlying Tmutorakan, beyond the Sea of Azov, to Chernigov, near Kiev. Not until Mstislav's death (1036) did Yaroslav "the Wise" venture to remove his seat from Novgorod to Kiev." "Vladimir...who had won the throne of Kiev by the murder of his older brother, was the last major European ruler to abandon paganism." He invited envoys from the Khazars (Jews), the Volga Bulgars (Muslims), Rome and Greece to "sell" their religious beliefs. But "Vladimir and his simple warriors (were) unable to make up their minds in this war of words." Therefore, they visited the temples of the Bulgars, the Romans and the Greeks, not bothering with a visit to the Khazars. They found the mosques unclean and western Catholic worship tolerable, but they were entralled with the spendor and beauty of the Greek places of worship. Hence, they embraced the Greek Orthodox religion. Vladimir was promised the hand of Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor, in return for military aid and, despite some foot dragging by the emperor after the aid was provided, married the lady in 988. "In 990 Vladimir returned to Kieve with his imperial bride and a retinue of priests. Throughout his dominions the population was compulsorily baptized wholesale..." RC says he had many pagan wives and concubines of whom these are known: (1) Adlaga; (2) Olava; (3) Malfrida, a Bohemian, d. 1002; (5) a Greek, widow of his brother, Teropolk; (6) N.N.(27-36), a Bulgarian; md (7) 989, Anna, daughter of the Eastern Emperor, the Basilius Romanos, d. 10011; (8) N.N. (321-33), daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen. K. calls the latter Rogneda de Oehningen. One AF record says born about 962. According to my records, St. Vladimir had three daughters with Vladimirovna as name or part of name--all via different wives. Maybe he just liked the name. Maybe there are errors in the records.

Buried in Church Of The Tithes, Kiev, Ukraine, and was later declared a saint.

Source: 'The World Book Encyclopedia', 1968, UV337.

Vladimir, great-grandson of Rurik (the traditional founder of the Russian state), grandson of Olga, and youngest of the three sons of Sviatoslav of Kiev, was born in 956 and was made Prince of Novgorod in 970. In 972 his father died, and the three sons fought for the crown. Yaropolk killed Oled, and Vladimir fled to his Viking kinsmen in Scandinavia. In 980 he returned with Viking support, killed Yaropolk, and took the throne. He expanded his empire by a series of conquests. In 988, he proposed a military alliance with the Byzantine emperor Basil II, and a marriage to the emperor's sister Anna. In return, he agreed to convert to Christianity. The agreement was made, Vladimir was baptized, and when the emperor reneged on the marriage, Vladimir invaded the Crimea. The marriage duly took place and the alliance prospered.

Vladimir was baptized, in 988 or 989, before his marriage to Anna, daughter of Byzantine Emperor, Basil II. Basil was known as the "Slayer of the Bulgars" after he led an attack against them in 1014, at the battle of Struma, a region in northern Greece. King Samauel escaped but Basil took 14,000 prisoners. He blinded all except their leader, who he spared one eye. He then sent the entire group back to their leader, King Samuel. When King Samuel saw the condition of his men, he fell down in despair, and died two days later.

Vladimir took his Christian commitment seriously, and under his rule the Christianization of Russia proceeded rapidly. He put away his former collection of pagan wives and mistresses, destroyed idols and pagan temples, built churches and monasteries and schools, brought in Greek missionaries to educate his people, abolished or greatly restricted capital punishment, and gave lavish alms to the poor. In converting his people, however, he was willing to resort to military methods (all his life he had survived by fighting), and some of his former pagan wives and their sons raised an armed rebellion against him, in the course of which he was killed near Kiev, 15 July 1015. He and his grandmother Olga are honored as the founders of Russian Christianity.

Sources:
The Russian Primary Chronicle, ed. and tr S.H. Cross and O.P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor (Harvard UP, 1953)
G. Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (Yale UP, 1948)
Donald Attwater, The Golden Book of Eastern Saints (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Pr, 1971)
S. H. Cross, Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature XII (1930) 77-309
F. Dvornik, The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. (Boston: Am Acad of Arts and Sciences, 1956) Constantin de Grunwald, tr Roger Capel, Saints of Russia (NY: MacM 1960)
'The World Book Encyclopedia', 1968, UV337.

!BIRTH: "Royal Ancestors" by Michel Call - Based on Call Family Pedigrees FHL
film 844805 & 844806, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT. Copy of
"Royal Ancestors" owned by Lynn Bernhard, Orem, UT.

!Grand Duke of Kiev
First Czar or Russia

Data From Lynn Jeffrey Bernhard, 2445 W 450 South #4, Springville UT 84663-4950
email - (XXXXX@XXXX.XXX)

Sources: RC 143, 321, 361; Clarkson; A. Roots 241. 243; AF; Kraentzler
1162, 1170, 1171, 1172, 1233, 1603; Timetables of History; Through the Ages.

Roots: St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev. Died 15 July 1015. Married after 1011, a daughter (died 14 Aug 1014) of Kuno, Count of Ohinigen, by Richilde, dau. of Otto I, the Great. Married also Rogneide, dau. of Rognald of Polotzk.

RC: "The Great" of Kiev, Ukraine, Russia. Grand prince of Novgorod and Kiev. Baptized a Christian, 988.

K: Wladimir I le Grand et le Saint. Grand Duke of Novogorod, Kiew.
"Le Grand et le Saint." Grand Prince of Kiev or Grand Duke of Kiev and Novgorod. Ruled 980-1015. "980. St.Vladimir becomes Prince of Kiev."

Clarkson:
Vladimir succeeded his father through the process of fratricidal wars in which his brothers were slain. "He installed himself at Kiev (977), whence, by savage campaigns, he collected wives and tribute from most of the Dnieper Basin. Vladimir's chief fame rests on his forced conversion of the Russian Slavs to Christianity...During his reign, Kiev was repeatedly harassed by the Pechenegs; to hold them off, Vladimir built a sort of fortified line of new towns along the steppe frontier. At his death (1015) he left seven sons--of four or five different mothers--each ruling as prince in a portion of the Russian land; one of them, Yaroslav of Novgorod, was in open rebvellion, having refused to pay tribute to his father. Sviatopolk, who seized Kiev, promptly murdered three of his brothers, but was defeated in a four-year struggle by Yaroslav, who succeeded to the title of grand prince. Yaroslav, however, was forced to share the territory with another brother, Mstislav, who took the opportunity to move his residence from outlying Tmutorakan, beyond the Sea of Azov, to Chernigov, near Kiev. Not until Mstislav's death (1036) did Yaroslav "the Wise" venture to remove his seat from Novgorod to Kiev."

"Vladimir...who had won the throne of Kiev by the murder of his older brother, was the last major European ruler to abandon paganism." He invited envoys from the Khazars (Jews), the Volga Bulgars (Muslims), Rome and Greece to "sell" their religious beliefs. But "Vladimir and his simple warriors (were) unable to make up their minds in this war of words." Therefore, they visited the temples of the Bulgars, the Romans and the Greeks, not bothering with a visit to the Khazars. They found the mosques unclean and western Catholic worship tolerable, but they were entralled with the spendor and beauty of the Greek places of worship. Hence, they embraced the Greek Orthodox religion.

Vladimir was promised the hand of Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor, in return for military aid and, despite some foot dragging by the emperor after the aid was provided, married the lady in 988. "In 990 Vladimir returned to Kieve with his imperial bride and a retinue of priests. Throughout his dominions the population was compulsorily baptized wholesale..."

RC says he had many pagan wives and concubines of whom these are known: (1) Adlaga; (2) Olava; (3) Malfrida, a Bohemian, d. 1002; (5) a Greek, widow of his brother, Teropolk; (6) N.N.(27-36), a Bulgarian; md (7) 989, Anna, daughter of the Eastern Emperor, the Basilius Romanos, d. 10011; (8) N.N. (321-33), daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen. K. calls the latter Rogneda de Oehningen. One AF record says born about 962.

According to my records, St. Vladimir had three daughters with Vladimirovna as name or part of name--all via different wives. Maybe he just liked the name. Maybe there are errors in the records.

Grand Duke Vladimer of Russia became a Christian in 989.

--Other Fields

Ref Number: 1375

SOURCE NOTES:
Bu145 http://mariah.stonemarche.org/famfiles/fam01448.htm

RESEARCH NOTES:
Saint; Grand Duke of Kiev; Prince of Novgorod and Kiev.

Age 55 in 1015

Storfurste i Kiev och Novgorod. Låter döpas sig 988.
Fördrevs av sina bröder Oleg och Jaropolk. Återtog riket med hjälp av
varjager.

Vladimir I Svjatoslavitsj (Russisk; ????????, Vladimir eller den nordiske skrivemåten Valdemar), kalt Vladimir den store (Vladimir Velikij) eller Vladimir den hellige (Vladimir Svatoj), født omkring 956-958, død 15. juli 1015, var storfyrste av Kiev. Han var sønn av Svjatoslav I og Malusja. Han var fyrste av Holmgard 970 - ca 980, og storfyrste av Kiev ca 980 - 1015.

Med ambisjonen om å forene folket i Kievriket ville storfyrste Vladimir gi dem en felles religion. Han prøvde å slå sammen alle de hedenske gudene i riket til en religion, men det mislyktes og han lot seg døpe i 988 og dermed ble den gresk-ortodokse kirken etablert i landet. Vladimir kristnet da hele Kievriket.

Han gifte seg i 989 med Anna av Bysants.

Barn:
Jaroslav I av Kiev
Vissavald
Iasaslav
Mtsislav
Premislava som ble gift med Vladislav av Ungern.
Svjatoslav, (?-1015)
Sudislav
Wizeslav
Adoptivbarn:
Svjatopolk I

Until his baptism, Vladimir I of Kiev (c.958-1015) was described by Thietmar of Merseburg as a great profligate (Latin: fornicator maximus). He had a few hundred concubines in Kiev and in the country residence of Berestovo. He also had official pagan wives, the most famous being Rogneda of Polotsk. His other wives are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, with various children assigned to various wives in the different versions of the document. Hence, speculations abound.

Norse wife
Norse sagas mention that, while ruling in Novgorod in his early days, Vladimir had a Varangian wife named Olava or Allogia. This unusual name is probably a feminine form of Olaf. According to Snorri Sturluson the runaway Olaf Tryggvason was sheltered by Allogia in her house; she also paid a large fine for him.

Several authorities, notably Rydzevskaya ("Ancient Rus and Scandinavia in 9-14 cent.", 1978), hold that later skalds confused Vladimir's wife Olava with his grandmother and tutor Olga, with Allogia being the distorted form of Olga's name. Others postulate Olava was a real person and the mother of Vysheslav, the first of Vladimir's sons to reign in Novgorod, as behooves the eldest son and heir. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the tradition of sending the eldest son of Kievan monarch to Novgorod existed at such an early date.

Those scholars who believe that this early Norse wife was not fictitious, suppose that Vladimir could have married her during his famous exile in Scandinavia in the late 970s. They usually refer an account in Ingvars saga (in a part called Eymund's saga) which tells that Eric VI of Sweden married his daughter to a 'konung of fjord lying to the East from Holmgard'. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great.

Polotsk wife

Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's pagan wives, although her ancestry has fuelled the drollest speculations. See this article for extensive but tenuous arguments for her Yngling royal descent.

The Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons - Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod of Volhynia (+ca 995), and Yaroslav the Wise. Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e., Polotsk. According to the Kievan succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to the Kievan throne, because their forefather had never ruled in Kiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of which Vseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable.

Greek wife
During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by Svyatoslav I in Bulgaria and married to his lawful heir Yaropolk I. Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon (some would say, too soon) gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers".

Bohemian wife
Main article: Malfrida
Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given by Vasily Tatishchev as Malfrida. Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the 1015 internecine war, and Mstislav of Chernigov. Some chronicles, however, report that Rogneda was Mstislav's mother.

Bulgarian wife
Another wife was a Bulgarian lady, whose name is given by Tatishchev as Adela. Historians have disagreed as to whether she came from Volga Bulgaria or from Bulgaria on the Danube. According to the Primary Chronicle, both Boris and Gleb were her children. This tradition, however, is viewed by most scholars as a product of later hagiographical tendency to merge the identity of both saints. Actually, they were of different age and their names point to different cultural traditions. Judging by his Oriental name, Boris could have been Adela's only offspring.

Anna Porphyrogeneta
Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, was the only princess of the Makedones to have been married to a foreigner. The Byzantine emperors regarded the Franks and Russians as barbarians, refusing Hugues Capet's proposals to marry Anna to his son Robert I, so the Baptism of Kievan Rus was a prerequisite for this marriage. Following the wedding, Vladimir is said to have divorced all his pagan wives, although this claim is disputed. Regarded by later Russians as a saint, Anna was interred with her husband in the Church of the Tithes.

Anna is not known to have had any children. Either her possible barrenness or the Byzantine house rule could account for this. Had she had any progeny, the prestigious and much sought imperial parentage would have certainly been advertised by her descendants. Hagiographic sources, contrary to the Primary Chronicle, posit Boris and Gleb as her offspring, on the understanding that holy brothers should have had a holy mother.

German wife
Anna is known to have predeceased Vladimir by four years. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing from contemporary accounts, mentions that Boleslaw I of Poland captured Vladimir's widow during his raid on Kiev in 1018. The historians long had no clue as to identity of this wife. The emigre historian Nicholas Baumgarten, however, pointed to the controversial record of the "Genealogia Welforum" and the "Historia Welforum Weingartensis" that one daughter of Count Kuno von Oenningen (future Duke Konrad of Swabia) by "filia Ottonis Magni imperatoris" (Otto the Great's daughter; possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis], claimed by some as illegitimate daughter and by others legitimate, born from his first marriage with Edith of Wessex) married "rex Rugorum" (king of Russia). He interpreted this evidence as pertaining to Vladimir's last wife.

It is believed that the only child of this alliance was Dobronega, or Maria, who married Casimir I of Poland between 1038 and 1042. As her father Vladimir died about 25 years before that marriage and she was still young enough to bear at least five children, including two future Polish dukes (Boleslaw II of Poland, who later became a king, and Wladyslaw Herman), it is thought probable that she was Vladimir's daughter by the last marriage.

Some sources claimed Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile of England, was another daughter of this marriage and full-sister of Dobronegra. Their marriage took place by the same time of Dobronegra's wedding (the date of birth of her first child support this) and this maybe because was double wedding of both sisters. This can resolve the question about the connection between Agatha and the Holy Roman Empire claimed by several medieval sources.

Yaroslav's parentage
There is also a case for Yaroslav's descent from Anna. According to this theory, Nestor the Chronicler deliberately represented Yaroslav as Rogneda's son, because he systematically removed all information concerning Kievan ties with Byzantium, spawning pro-Varangian bias (see Normanist theory for details). Proponents allege that Yaroslav's true age was falsified by Nestor, who attempted to represent him as 10 years older than he actually had been, in order to justify Yaroslav's seizure of the throne at the expense of his older brothers.

The Primary Chronicle, for instance, states that Yaroslav died at the age of 76 in 1054 (thus putting his birth at 978), while dating Vladimir's encounter and marriage to Yaroslav's purported mother, Rogneda, to 980. Elsewhere, speaking about Yaroslav's rule in Novgorod (1016), Nestor says that Yaroslav was 28, thus putting his birth at 988. The forensic analysis of Yaroslav's skeleton seems to have confirmed these suspicions, estimating Yaroslav's birth at ca. 988-990, after both the Baptism of Kievan Rus and Vladimir's divorce of Rogneda. Consequently, it is assumed that Yaroslav was either Vladimir's natural son born after the latter's baptism or his son by Anna.

Had Yaroslav an imperial Byzantine descent, he likely would not have stinted to advertise it. Some have seen the willingness of European kings to marry Yaroslav's daughters as an indication of this imperial descent. Subsequent Polish chroniclers and historians, in particular, were eager to view Yaroslav as Anna's son. Recent proponents invoke onomastic arguments, which have often proven decisive in the matters of medieval prosopography. It is curious that Yaroslav named his elder son Vladimir (after his own father) and his eldest daughter Anna (as if after his own mother). Also, there is a certain pattern in his sons having Slavic names (as Vladimir), and his daughters having Greek names only (as Anna). However, in the absence of better sources, Anna's maternity remains a pure speculation.

Obscure offspring
Vladimir had several children whose maternity cannot be established with certainty. These include two sons, Stanislav of Smolensk and Sudislav of Pskov, the latter outliving all of his siblings. There is also one daughter, named Predslava, who was captured by Boleslaw I in Kiev and taken with him to Poland as a concubine. Another daughter, Premyslava, is attested in numerous (though rather late) Hungarian sources as the wife of Duke Ladislaus, one of the early Arpadians.

_P_CCINFO 2-2438

Line 3778 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
NAME Vladimir I "The Great" Grand Duke Of /KIEV/

Line 3781 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
BIRT DATE 0960 (55-1015)

Line 3787 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long: BURI PLAC Church Of The Tithes, Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine

storfyrste av Kiev, fyrste av Novgorod
" Den røde sol " opr. en vill hedning.

Wladimir I "de Heilige" van Kiev, (zie dezelfde persoon hierboven in generatie 31) geb. ca. 960, ovl. 15.07.1015 in Berestiow, ref. nr. 25.03.2004 ES II-128, KHO, NOW.8,5,9 Hij trouwde met (1) Rogneda van Polock, ook bekend als Ragnild, getrouwd 980, ovl. 1002, ref. nr. 25.03.2004 ES II-128.8 Hij trouwde met (2) NN, ref. nr. 14.11.2004 ES II-128.8 Partner NN, ref. nr. 22.01.2007 EGS I.1-286.10

_P_CCINFO 1-20792
Original individual @P2447683498@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@) merged with @P2442109209@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@)
Original individual @P2447683498@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@) merged with @P2308141583@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@)
Original individual @P2447683498@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@) merged with @P2442110467@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@)

His baptism made Orthodox Christianity the official religion of Russia.
Vladimir was a pagan at the beginning of his reign, which was at first
devoted to consolidating his territories into a unified Russian state. In
exchange for helping the Byzantine emperor Basil II suppress a rebellion,
Vladimir was allowed to marry the emperor's sister, Anne, at which time he
accepted Christianity. Allied to Byzantium by religious and family ties,
Vladimir introduced Byzantine civilization into Russia by building
churches, suppressing paganism, and making social reforms. Nonetheless, he
remained open to Western influences, which are reflected in his
legislation.

Line 3426 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
NAME Vladimir I "The Great" /Kiev/

OR "WLADIMIR""BASIL I (THE SAINT)""VASSILLI""THE GREAT""SWJATOSLAWITSCH"; GRAND
PRINCE OF KIEV 977-1015; BAPTIZED A CHRISTIAN 988 (AS VASSILI) AT KHERSON, AND
SOON "CONVERTED" THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, AFTER THE MANNER OF MEDIEVAL PRINCES; HAD
MANY "PAGAN" WIVES AND CONCUBINES

He ruled from 980 to 1015. He converted to Greek Orthodoxy in 988 and made it the State religion, with himself at its head. He was canonized after his death.

BIOGRAPHY
Vladimir was the son of Svjatoslav I Igorjevitch, grand duke of Kiev, and Predslava. When his father was killed in 972 he was a contender for the rule of Kiev, together with his elder two brothers. The eldest brother Jaropolk I Svjatoslavitsch was already established in Kiev, and he disposed of the middle brother Oleg and forced Vladimir to flee the country. Vladimir went from Novgorod to Scandinavia, from where he returned with an army of Varangians. He attacked and killed Jaropolk and in doing so became the sole ruler of Rus.

In his early years as ruler he was brutal, bloodthirsty and dissolute. By his first wife Ragneda of Polatsk, whom he abducted before killing her parents and two brothers, he had three sons and two daughters; by a Greek woman he fathered one son; by a Czech woman one son; two more sons by a different mother; and by a Bulgarian woman two more sons. He was said to have had three hundred concubines at Vyshegorod, three hundred at Belgorod, and two hundred at Berestovo.

At the beginning of his long reign he continued attacking the Byzantine empire. However he soon realised that it was better to be on good terms with his neighbours and around 988 he adopted Christianity for himself and his people. He also took as his third wife Anna Porphyrogenita, the sister of the Byzantine emperors Basilus II and Constantine VIII. However, the Pechenegs continued to harass him and he had to fight them until the end of his reign. After his conversion Vladimir became a changed man; he became mild towards criminals, generous to the poor and supported the Greek missionaries. This led later generations to look on Vladimir and his grandmother Olga as the first-born of the new Christian people of Russia and her borderland. They were both esteemed as saints and St. Vladimir became the subject of a cycle of folklore and heroic poems.

He died on 15 July 1015, and was succeeded in Kiev by his son Jaroslav I Vladimirovitch, one of the two sons by Ragneda who would have progeny.

He ruled from 980 to 1015. He converted to Greek Orthodoxy in 988 and made it the State religion, with himself at its head. He was canonized after his death.

Han hadde minst tre friller og gitet seg 2. med Anna av By zantz. Var
konge fra 980-1015. Mange kjente etterkommere. M ed sin først frille
hadde han blant annet sønnen Vsevolod ( 970) som ble innebrendt sammen
med Harald Grenske av Sigri d Storråde i 995 i Sverige.

Rurikovich; SWJATOSLAWITSCH; Saint; Grand Duke of KIEV (UKRAINE); `the Great';
« Soleil Clair » (en ukrainien Volodymyr Volodymer)
A fait assassiner son frère Iaropolk Ier

Il reçut le baptême en 988 et imposa à son peuple le christianisme de rite byzantin.

Epouses:
Malfrida une tchèque (Bohème)=
- Vycheslav

Rogneda (Rognieda) Princess of POLOTZK = quatre fils et deux filles:
- Iaroslav le Sage prince de Rostov puis de Novogorod,
- Iziaslav prince de Polotzk, épouse Gertruda, la sœur de Kazimir I pologne.
- Mstislav prince de Tmoutorakan puis de Tchernigov,
- Vsevolod prince de Vladimir

de diverses femmes =
- Sviatoslav prince des Drevlianes tué en 1015
- Stanislav prince de Smolensk
- Pozvizd
- Soudislav mort en 1065

Adela or Milolika (?) a Bulgarian =
- Boris prince de Rostov assassiné en 1015
- Gleb prince de Mourom assassiné en 1015

Ste.Anna PORPHYROGENITA (963-1011), sœur de Basile II empereur de Constantinople. (no kids)

(Ragneda ?) von OHNINGEN = fille du Cte Kuno (fils d'OTTO I du St.Empire Germanique.)
- Dobroniega épouse Kazimierz I de Pologne (le restaurateur)

Line 3778 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
NAME Vladimir I "The Great" Grand Duke Of /KIEV/

Line 3781 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
BIRT DATE 0960 (55-1015)

Line 3787 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long: BURI PLAC Church Of The Tithes, Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine

1 NAME the Great //
2 GIVN the Great
2 SURN
2 NICK the Great

1 BIRT 2 DATE ABT. 995 2 PLAC Russia

Saint Vladimir. Converted to Christianity in 988. 1 Sources: RC 143, 321, 361; Clarkson; A. Roots 241. 243; AF; Kraentzler 1162, 1170, 1171, 1172, 1233, 1603; Timetables of History; Through the Ages. Roots: St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev. Died 15 July 1015. Married after 1011, a daughter (died 14 Aug 1014) of Kuno, Count of Ohinigen, by Richilde, dau. of Otto I, the Great. Married also Rogneide, dau. of Rognald of Polotzk. RC: "The Great" of Kiev, Ukraine, Russia. Grand prince of Novgorod and Kiev. Baptized a Christian, 988. K: Wladimir I le Grand et le Saint. Grand Duke of Novogorod, Kiew. "Le Grand et le Saint." Grand Prince of Kiev or Grand Duke of Kiev and Novgorod. Ruled 980-1015. "980. St.Vladimir becomes Prince of Kiev." Clarkson: Vladimir succeeded his father through the process of fratricidal wars in which his brothers were slain. "He installed himself at Kiev (977), whence, by savage campaigns, he collected wives and tribute from most of the Dnieper Basin. Vladimir's chief fame rests on his forced conversion of the Russian Slavs to Christianity...During his reign, Kiev was repeatedly harassed by the Pechenegs; to hold them off, Vladimir built a sort of fortified line of new towns along the steppe frontier. At his death (1015) he left seven sons--offour or five different mothers--each ruling as prince in a portion of the Russian land; one of them, Yaroslav of Novgorod, was in open rebvellion, having refused to pay tribute to his father. Sviatopolk, who seized Kiev, promptly murdered three of his brothers, but was defeated in a four-year struggle by Yaroslav, who succeeded to the title of grand prince. Yaroslav, however, was forced to share the territory with another brother, Mstislav, who took the opportunity to move his residence from outlying Tmutorakan, beyond the Sea of Azov, to Chernigov, near Kiev. Not until Mstislav's death (1036) did Yaroslav "the Wise" venture to remove his seat from Novgorod to Kiev." "Vladimir...who had won the throne of Kiev by the murder of his older brother, was the last major European ruler to abandon paganism." He invited envoys from the Khazars (Jews), the Volga Bulgars (Muslims), Rome and Greece to "sell" their religious beliefs. But "Vladimir and his simple warriors (were) unable to make up their minds in this war of words." Therefore, they visited the temples of the Bulgars, the Romans and the Greeks, not bothering with a visit to the Khazars. They found the mosques unclean and western Catholic worship tolerable, but they were entralled with the spendor and beauty of the Greek places of worship. Hence, they embraced the Greek Orthodox religion. Vladimir was promised the hand of Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor, in return for military aid and, despite some foot dragging by the emperor after the aid was provided, married the lady in 988. "In 990 Vladimir returned to Kieve with his imperial bride and a retinue of priests. Throughout his dominions the population was compulsorily baptized wholesale..." RC says he had many pagan wives and concubines of whom these are known: (1) Adlaga; (2) Olava; (3) Malfrida, a Bohemian, d. 1002; (5) a Greek, widow of his brother, Teropolk; (6) N.N.(27-36), a Bulgarian; md (7) 989, Anna, daughter of the Eastern Emperor, the Basilius Romanos, d. 10011; (8) N.N. (321-33), daughter of Kuno, Count of Ohningen. K. calls the latter Rogneda de Oehningen. One AF record says born about 962. According to my records, St. Vladimir had three daughters with Vladimirovna as name or part of name--all via different wives. Maybe he just liked the name. Maybe there are errors in the records.

494px-Anton_Losenko
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=e2fce605-8195-4742-9ab4-a01943c18f1c&tid=261097&pid=-1815561961

852677920. Storfyrste Vladimir den Hellige NOVOGOROD Kiev was living in 980. He was a Storfyrste between 980 and 1015 in Novgorod og Kiev. He was married to Rogenda POLOTSK.

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

This functionality is only available in Javascript supporting browsers.

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used: grootouders

grandparents ouders

parents

brothers/sisters kinderen

children

Ancestors (and descendant) of Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia Sviatoslavich

Igor / Игорь /Rurikovich Рюрикович
± 880-± 946

Regent Olga Helena / Елена of Russia, Grand Duchess of Kiev
± 886-969

'Tar' Zerind of Hungary Árpád(házi)
????-955

Святослав Игоревич Velikij Knjaz Velikij Knjaz
± 942-± 972

Predslava Árpád(házi)
± 935-????

Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia Sviatoslavich
± 950-1015

(1) 989

Anna Porphyrogeneta
948-± 1011



					Dobroniega Maria Мария Добронега ± 1011-± 1087

(2) ± 977

Rogneda / Рогнеда Полоцкая / of Polotsk of Sweden
± 962-± 1002



					Ярослав I 'Мудрий' I Владимирович ± 978-1054

Onbekend



					Illegitimate daughter of Vladimir the Great of Kiev ± 965-± 1018

Show complete ancestor table

Visualize another relationship

The data shown has no sources.

Historical events

Christening day November 30, 1929

Christening day November 30, 1929

The temperature on November 30, 1929 was between 7.2 °C and 11.8 °C and averaged 9.4 °C. There was 2.4 mm of rain. There was 0.2 hours of sunshine (2%). The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the south. Source: KNMI
Koningin Wilhelmina (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from 1890 till 1948 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
In The Netherlands , there was from March 8, 1926 to August 10, 1929 the cabinet De Geer I, with Jonkheer mr. D.J. de Geer (CHU) as prime minister.
In The Netherlands , there was from August 10, 1929 to May 26, 1933 the cabinet Ruys de Beerenbrouck III, with Jonkheer mr. Ch.J.M. Ruys de Beerenbrouck (RKSP) as prime minister.
In the year 1929: Source: Wikipedia
- The Netherlands had about 7.7 million citizens.
- January 17 » Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
- June 1 » The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.
- August 11 » Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
- August 16 » The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.
- October 29 » The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.
- December 19 » The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).

Same birth/death day

Also died on July 15

Source: Wikipedia

1015 » Vladimir the Great, Grand prince of Kievan Rus' (b. c. 958)
1274 » Bonaventure, Italian bishop and saint (b. 1221)
1291 » Rudolf I of Germany (b. 1218)
1299 » King Eric II of Norway (b. c. 1268)
756 » Yang Guifei, consort of Xuan Zong (b. 719)
998 » Abū al-Wafā' Būzjānī, Persian mathematician and astronomer (b. 940)

About the surname Sviatoslavich

View the information that Genealogie Online has about the surname Sviatoslavich.
Check the information Open Archives has about Sviatoslavich.
Check the Wie (onder)zoekt wie? register to see who is (re)searching Sviatoslavich.

The Family tree Homs publication was prepared by George Homs.contact the author

When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin:
George Homs, "Family tree Homs", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-homs/I6000000001172352035.php : accessed May 3, 2024), "Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince (± 950-1015)".

Search all persons

Search all publications

Search helptexts

Search Open Archives

Search Wie (onder)zoekt wie?

Search discussions

Search all sites

Family tree Homs » Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince (± 950-1015)

Personal data Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Household of Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Notes about Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Timeline Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia (Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia) "Vladim..." Sviatoslavich Grand Prince

Ancestors (and descendant) of Saint Vladimir I "Velikiy" "the Great" of Russia Sviatoslavich

Historical events

Christening day November 30, 1929

Same birth/death day

About the surname Sviatoslavich