Anna Yaroslavna

Anna Yaroslavna [Анна Ярославна; Jaroslavna], b 1024/25 or 1032 in Kyiv, d after 1075. Daughter of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv and Ingegerd, daughter of King Olof Skötkunung of Sweden; the third wife of King Henry I of France; and sister-in-law of kings Andrew I of Hungary and Harald III of Norway. The sonless, twice-widowed Henry arranged to marry Anna to secure Yaroslav's support against the Holy Roman Empire, to obtain a male heir, and to comply with the church's regulations forbidding marriage with close cousins. Their marriage took place at the Reims Cathedral on 19 May 1051, and the first of their three sons, later King Philip I, was born in 1052. The name ‘Philip’ was very rare in France prior to that time, and was likely inspired by Saint Philip who converted Scythia, an area identified with Kyivan Rus’ in the Middle Ages. After Henry's death in 1060, Anna (Anne) ruled France as co-regent while Philip was a child. In 1061 she married Count Raoul III of Valois, resulting in their excommunication by Pope Alexander II because Raoul already had a wife. After Raoul’s death in 1074, Anna returned to Philip’s court. The place and date of her death are unknown.

Anna's signature in Cyrillic on a French royal charter from the 1060s is the only known example of a Capetian queen's signature on parchment and the only known (pre-13th century) signature of a member of the Riurykide dynasty. It is the oldest extant example of Old Ukrainian handwriting. A medieval fresco depicting her and her mother and two sisters is preserved in Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, and two 20th-century full-figure sculptures of Anna are found in Senlis near Paris in the church of Saint Vincent's Monastery, which she had founded.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lobanoff de Rostoff, A. Recueil de pieces historiques sur la Reine Anne ou Agnes, épouse de Henri I, roi de France (Paris 1825)
Caix de Saint-Aymour, Vicomte de. Anne de Russie, reine de France et comtesse de Valois au XIe siècle (Paris 1896)
Hallu, Roger. Anne de Kiev, reine de France (Rome 1973)
Bautier, Robert-Henri. ‘Anne de Kiev, reine de France, et la politique royale au XIe siècle: étude critique de la documentation.’ Revue des études slaves 57, no. 4 (1985)
Dunbabin, Jean. ‘What's in a Name? Philip, King of France.’ Speculum 68, no. 4 (1993)
Bogomoletz, Wladimir. ‘Anna of Kiev: An Enigmatic Capetian Queen of the Eleventh Century: A Reassessment of Biographical Sources.’ French History 19, no. 3 (2005)

[This article was updated in 2010.]