by Jean-Jacques COURTEY, Doctor in Economic Geography, Ph. D
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Nowadays, a lot of people have heard somewhere the name of Ann of Kiev, also called Ann of Russia (the Kievan Russia). But they don't know much about her life, and how important is the inheritage she has left for France, and her homeland as well !
What you will discover or rediscover may surprise you completely, as you thought she was just a Queen of France out of numerous others. In fact, she was far more than that...from the right beginning !
So sit down comfortably in your armchair, and listen to what she wants to tell you from the other world : try to hear at her legendary beautiful voice, as if she was a fairy from the land of the snow appearing suddenly to you !
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Nobody knows exactly when Ann of Kiev or of Russia was born in Kiev. There is even a difference of 12 years between the two possible years of birth (between 1024 and 1036). Strangely this was possible because she looked very young due to her very high cheekbones. Her physical appearance and her great beauty, as well as her strong but charming character, had a tremendous importance on her extraordinary destiny. Before meeting her for his marriage in Reims (May 19th, 1051), the King Henri I of France didn't really find any woman attractive in Paris. So some bad tongues even said he was not attracted by the beautiful sex. Of course, if he was surrounded by ugly women who had no taste mostly, anyone can understand his choosiness and his selective character. However, people easily forget he had been married already once with Mathilda of Frisia (1025 - 1044). And when the grandson of Hugues Capet (c. 936-941 - 996), the elected King - in Senlis on June 1st, 987 -, became a widower, he ordered to find a woman as beautiful and wise as the first one for him !
And this happened with Ann of Kiev or Russia, daughter of Iaroslav I the Wise (978 - 1054), King of the Rus' of Kiev, Prince of Novgorod, and Prince of Rostov notably. When he discovered Princess Ann for the first time at her arrival in Reims, he was deliciously shocked : he had never seen such a beautiful woman, with long blond-red hair, blue-green eyes, and a flexible and slender body. And cherry on the cake, she had to become his wife that very day. He was so thrilled that after having made get her off her cart by holding her delicate hand, he had a virile urge : he kissed her on the mouth (Russian way) with passion in front of all the people assembled before the cathedral for her marriage and crowning. The People liked it, and applauded the royal couple. She was going to stay one of the most popular Queen France ever had. At that moment, Ann said to Henri I that she had never met before : "I suppose you are my husband, the King ?" And he answered "yes" while smiling with delightfulness !
Henri I (1008 - 1060) who thought he was suddenly the happiest and the luckiest man in the world, always carried his conjugal duty with eagerness and ardour. He had four children with her : Philippe, Robert (a strong boy who died early), Emma (who didn't survive) and Hugues (a very weak boy who became stronger). And the stupid tongues saying he didn't like women became more silent. On her side, the new Queen Ann of France never showed any sign of shyness, which he appreciated. In fact, she wasn't shy because deep down she was a strong woman, sure of herself and her power of fascination on men. In her country called the "Rus' of Kiev", the Kievan Russia (mother of present Russia), Queen Ann had learnt how to fight men with a kind of "pre-Samoz" - an impressive Slav wrestling resembling coincidentaly to a sort of pre-Aïkido - from orthodox monks ; and she had equally been taught how to fence efficiently and swiftly with a sword. For that matter, she sometimes liked to carry the sword at her side like a man...and she wasn't stingy with demonstration. Astonishingly, she was at same time an excellent musician of "guzli" (an Ukrainian type of guitar), and quite an enchantress singer !
Henri I and Ann could marry without any religious obstacle, because the wedding happened three years before the Great Schism of July 16th, 1054, between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. It was the unique time in history an Ukrainian or Russian Princess could marry a French King. Queen Ann was a full Queen, so not just the wife of the King. She could subtly decide in certain matters, from free education of Royal serfs with a new livery offered (her new "mujiks") to some points of the organization of the Kingdom with nascent communes - on the more efficient Slav model. He was quite attracted by his wife. In return, she taught him how to be a stronger and more strictly obeyed King in front of the Grands of the Kingdom : in the Kievan way towards the subserving boyars. She therefore played a decisive role in the strengthenting of the very young Capetian dynasty and the Royal Power in France, for the centuries to come ! And don't forget she had had an excellent formation to horse riding, hunting, swimming and water fighting, the handling of weapons (spear and dagger included), and the siege of castles in the Rus' of Kiev. She had been educated like a boy with her three brothers in her youth, and she never liked much spinning - even she accepted to do it to behave like a Dame !
So when her husband died in 1060, she strongly held her position of reigning Queen of France. And things didn't happen at all the way the Grands of the Kingdom of France had planned. With her nothing never went on the classical way : lilies ran soft with her. And the saying "the lilies do not spin in the Kingdom of France" was never relevant in her case ! She had accepted to spin and embroider to please her surrounding since her arrival in France. This way she had satisfied fully the requirements of her time. And she had been able to become a great friend of her famous cousin Mathilda (c. 1031 -1083), the daughter of the Count of Flanders, and now the loving wife of William the Conqueror (c. 1028 - 1087). Normally, she should have educated her son, Philippe I, who was too young the way she had initiated, but under the tutelage of her brother-in-law, the Count Beaudoin V of Flanders (c. 1012 - 1067) precisely, as Regent of France. But, it didn't happen exactly this way. She decided she didn't need any tutelage, as the Queen of France and the mother of the King. She was a reigning Queen under Henri I, and she would stay this way !
The People was accustomed to see her really reigning with her husband, and didn't wish this to change as she was an excellent Queen. So sure of the popular support and the one of her personal "Drujina" (personal guard of devoted boyars, which included also quickly French knights ready to die for her), she decided by herself she would be the co-Regent of France till the majority of her son Philippe I (1052 - 1108). In that way, she behaved rather in the manner of the Autocrats of Ukraine or Byzantium - her great-grand-father was Emperor of Byzantium, under the name of Roman II. As an aside, this last genealogical detail is explaining why Pierre II de Courtenay (c. 1165 - 1219), grandson of Louis VI the Fat (1081 - 1137), himself grandson of Ann of Kiev, could be crowned Emperor of Constantinople (Byzantium) on April 9th, 1217 !
Coming back to Queen Ann, it was therefore not advisable to oppose her because of her followers, and no one dared to do it. So the other "co-Regent", the Count Baudoin V of Flanders, uncle of Philippe I, couldn't do much in fact. He couldn't even prevent her to remarry in 1063 with the man of her choice, Raoul de Crépy, Count of Valois (c. 1020 - 1074), who she found manly enough to fill the affective void of her life ! This remarriage nevertheless caused her problems, as the new couple was excommunicated the year after. As a matter of fact, Raoul of Valois had to repudiate his second wife Alienor to marry Ann. But Ann was an Orthodox depending on the patriarchate of Constantinople and not anymore of Roma, since the Great Schism of 1054. Normally as a Queen, she was expected to remain widow till the end of her days. But, among all the Queens of France, Queen Ann was unique. And she did totally differently by following her good star, and by forging her exceptional and imperious destiny !
Queen Ann left Paris she found noisy and dirty, and the Parisians sometimes punished for their insolence. She always preferred Senlis where she had often stayed. And she established also nearby in Crépy-en-Valois (presently in the department of Oise too). Over there, she created a kind of court around her. And before they arrived in Paris, the foreign sovereigns made a detour of respect through her home. William the Conqueror, the new King of England descending from Prince Rollo or Hrolfr (c. 846 - c. 932) that she appreciated a lot, and whose wife Mathilda - who made the famous "Tapestry of Bayeux" - was her best friend, visited her. Both of them were from Viking origin. It is also said that the first trouveres started in her castles to paint and chant her striking beauty. She was worshipped as "the Lady" by excellence. Then she was an inspirer for the first Court of Courtly Love in France and Europe, before trouveres with the language of Oïl (and troubadours with the language of Oc in the South) expanded throughout the Kingdom of France...and in Europe !
To conclude, it has to be stressed that after the death of her second husband, Queen Ann felt terribly alone. Her son Philippe I had already attained majority since several years. And she wasn't anymore co-Regent of France. She thought she wasn't needed anymore. Then, it was time to think anew about her future life !
She had a terrible nostalgia of the Rus' of Kiev, and she wanted to come back to her homeland before dying. That's why she desired to return to Novgorod that she had left a long time ago for her marriage with the King of France, Henri I. And it's what she finally did with the permission of her son, the new King Philippe I. It was a long and tiring journey from Rouen and the mouth of the Seine River. She had to navigate in the Channel in direction of Riga (Baltic Sea) first. And the rest of the travel was made essentially by boat too by using the various rivers of her homeland, till Novgorod !
The happiness of returning to her homeland was there, despite her very poor health. She is said to have died when arriving by boat in Novgorod, like a Viking Varangian Princess (what she was effectively by ancestry and her family connection with Sweden notably). Her life had been full and adventurous. Unhappily, death prevented her to go back to Kiev thereafter, as she had planned. All the historians don't agree on the year of her death. But nowadays, she is thought to have died most likely around September 1089 (perhaps on the 5th) !
The strong mark of Ann of Kiev or Russia concerning the Sovereign's authority abruptly ceased seven hundred years after her death, in 1789. At that time, the authority of the King of France over suddenly weakened after the difficult beginnings of the Estates General in Versailles from May 5th ; and it was never recovered by King Louis XVI (1754 - 1793 ?). Another borrowed sovereignty appeared, the one of the People as our books of history are teaching us !
So the new France initiated at that time was very different. It's recalled almost everyday on TV or elsewhere, when so many people often omit its very name. It's just called for convenience "The Republic", as if there was only one in the world. Yet in truth, America with its own declaration of rights was a republic before France (1776). In fact, nowadays there are 152 republics of various types (democracies of course, but also democratorships, and dictatorships) registered in the UNO, but only one France as a Western democracy officially. And Ann of Kiev or Russia about her always called her new country, after her marriage with Henri I from its real name, France !
Of course, without us being aware, a return to the original meaning of "Res Publica" ("the public thing" or more simply "The State"), the transitional way it was applied to France under the last King Valois, Henri III (1551 - 1589), and under the new King Bourbon, Henri IV (1553 - 1610) by the jurisconsult Jean Bodin (1529 or 1530 - 1596), might have been subtly operated !
Anyhow, nowadays it's no longer a great secret for many that present France is in reality anew a Monarchy since the Constitution of October 4th, 1958 - but an hybrid one as Republican Monarchy. It was the will of General Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970), in order to reconciliate French people with the rich, glorious, and powerful past of Eternal France. Don't forget the preparatory works about this new constitution were untitled in French "Du Principat" ("Of the Principate") : to be precise, it just meant that the President of the new French Republic had to be considered as a kind of elected Prince...a bit like Hugues Capet in 987 in Senlis !
