Female Royal Titles of the 13th—14th Centuries (on the Example of Galicia, Volodymyria, and Rus’)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to systematize all written fragments about the female royal titles used in relation to Galicia, Volodymyria, separately, together for Galicia and Volodymyria, as well as in relation to Rus’ in the 13th—14th centuries. It is noted that not only women from Rus’ became queens of other lands. Certain territories of Rus’ were periodically influenced by the Western royal traditions. The cases presented in the article are separated in time and space, have different origins, and were aimed at implementing ideologically different tasks. However, this ideologically different royal terminolog y disappeared from the written sources for the same reason — the inability or inexpediency of institutionalizing the mentioned kingdoms recreated in the titles by crowned dynasties that possessed the appropriate powers. Methodology. The written sources allow us to clearly establish the chronolog y and the individuals who held the titles of the queens of Galicia, Volodymyria, separately from Galicia and Volodymyria, as well as of Rus’. In the case of the “Queen of Galicia and Volodymyria”, this fact is confirmed by the legends of the majestic seals and three smaller ones in the form of rings. In the cases of the other three titles, we do not possess the monuments of material culture or iconography to supplement the written sources. Scientific novelty. In the formation of almost any Kingdom, the figure of the queen is also important, along with the king (first the queen-consort, and later the queen-mother), one of the important elements of the institutionalization of a new type of state. Despite a considerable number of historical studies, primarily devoted to the coronation of Daniel Romanovych, the use of royal symbols of power by his children, grandchildren, and further descendants, none of the scholars has attempted to delve deeper into the institutionalization of the Kingdom of Rus’. This long and complex phenomenon chronologically went beyond the existence of the Romanid family itself and ended at the beginning, in the first third of the 15th century. At the same time, completely on the margins of research attention remained the same unsuccessful attempts at institutionalizing the Kingdom of Galicia at the beginning of the 13th century, the use of the titles “Galicia and Volodymyria” by the kings and queens of Hungary in the 13th  — 14th  centuries, as well as the notation in the written sources of the king and queen of Volodymyria. Conclusions. 11 women from Rus’ and two daughters born to them were such queens of the countries of the Latin West during the 11th — early 14th centuries. Only one representative of the current dynasty of Rus’ became the emperor’s wife. This allowed Rus’ to be well-oriented in the specifics of the functioning of Western-style institutions of power. Moreover, the princes of Rus’ were often called “kings” in the Latin-language historiography, and some of them, together with their wives, received quite official royal titles, although without any practical consequences. However, the permanent crisis of power in the Halych land at the turn of the 12th — 13th centuries significantly strengthened the royal influences here, primarily of the Hungarian Árpád dynasty. It was King Andrew II, with the support of Pope Innocent III, who tried to create the Kingdom of Galicia, led by Andrew’s second son, Coloman, and his bride, the “Queen of Galicia” Salome. The extremely turbulent short reign of this crowned couple in Halych from 1215 to 1221 (with interruptions) ended in fiasco, with the renunciation of claims to the Halych throne, as a result of which Salome remained in history the only “Queen of Galicia”. The pretenders to the Halych land from the Volhynian Romanids — Princes Daniel and Vasylko — were active participants in the European policy. The Mongol invasion of their lands actualized the search for allies in the West, one of the tools of which was encouraging the brothers to accept the royal crown and recognize the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. During active negotiations with the princes, Pope Innocent IV several times quite consciously called Vasylko Romanovych “King of Volodymyria”, and his wife Dubravka — such a “Queen” in 1246. This, in our opinion, was a propaganda gesture that had no practical consequences. The official coronation of Daniel Romanovych, which took place at the end of 1253, should have foreseen the creation of the “Kingdom of Rus’”, which has been known as a term since the mid-40s of the 13th century. However, sources have never confirmed the title of the second, unknown by name, Lithuanian wife of King of Rus’ Daniel as “queen”. The problems of institutionalization of the Kingdom of Rus’ in the second half of the 13th — first half of the 14th centuries had a chance to be partially resolved during the reign of the King Casimir III from the Piast dynasty between 1350 and 1370. Having taken the royal insignia of the Romanids into his own hands in the spring of 1340 and occasionally using the title of “King of Rus’” in the 1350s, he still did not dare to transfer the title of “Queen of Rus’” to any of his wives, and thus at least try to complete the work begun by the Romanids. Only once, his older sister, Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, in 1371 was titled as “Queen of Rus’”. She briefly took custody of the Ruthenian lands of his vast possessions on behalf of her son, King of Hungary and Poland, Louis I of Anjou. However, in 1372, Louis I appointed his former palatine, Vladislaus II of Opole, to govern the lands of Rus’, and the queen-mother focused on maintaining order in his Polish lands and never used the title “Queen of Rus’” again. The new Anjou dynasty, which ascended the Hungarian throne at the beginning of the 14th century, also inherited the Árpád’s titles, in which Galicia and Volodymyria continuously figured from 1206. However, until the end of the 14th century, none of the queens of both Hungarian dynasties held the title “Queen of Galicia and Volodymyria”. This title was first used by Louis I’s eldest daughter, Maria, who inherited the throne of Hungary and, with it, her father’s titles. During her reign, there was no talk of institutionalizing a separate “Kingdom of Galicia and Volodymyria”. However, a number of documents issued by her in 1383—1385 indicate attention to the Ruthenian lands. After her marriage to Sigismund of the Luxembourg dynasty and his accession to power in Hungary on March 31, 1387, the crowned couple could no longer retain the lands restored with the title of “King of Galicia and Volodymyria”. The troops of the King of Poland Władysław II Jagiełło and his wife, Maria’s younger sister — Jadwiga, in 1387, with the support of the Lithuanian forces of Prince Vytautas, included these territories into the Kingdom of Poland. However, starting with the representatives of the Jagiellonian dynasty, all subsequent kings on the thrones of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were titled as “lords and heirs of the land of Rus’”, but by no means of the Kingdom of Rus’. The above list of queens, whose titles had a direct relationship to the history of individual lands of Rus’, testifies to the constant search throughout the 13th — 14th centuries for tools for the practical implementation of what was reproduced in the titles. None of the attempts was successful. The closest to him in the second half of the 14th century were the intellectuals of the Anjou dynasty.