The sweeping under the carpet of such an important person is all the more strange in that Adelgeida’s father was Vsevolod, Grand Prince of Kyiv Rus, and her grandfather was Yaroslav the Wise. It is as though a conspiracy of silence has been kept with regard to this niece of the queens of France, Norway, and Hungary, a woman who held perhaps the noblest title in all Europe. What did she do to deserve such a fate?
Born of Vsevolod and his second wife, Polovetsian Princess Anna, Eupraxia (Adelgeida) saw the Grand Prince’s court in all its splendor when she was five. It was then, after long dynastic maneuvers and clashes, that her father had ascended to the Kyiv throne. Before long everyone in court considered the young princess a beauty and a clever one at that. By ten she was an avid reader and knew Latin, and well she should because her father was a learned man who spoke and wrote five languages.
It was not surprising that after Oda Staden, widow of Vsevolod’s brother Viacheslav, returned to Saxony from Kyiv, she recommended that her brother-in-law Henry Staden dispatch envoys to Vsevolod, asking his daughter Princess Eupraxia’s hand in marriage.
Today hearing about a twelve-year-old girl being dispatched to faraway Germany as a fiancee sounds strange. A huge caravan of camels and horses laden with her dowry arriving at the margravate all the way from Kyiv was something its residents would remember long afterward. The event attracted the German historians’ keen attention. Among other things, the marriage contract stipulated that the princess, attended by nuns, would master Western etiquette, learn the language, and accustom herself to the local ways.
At the time there was no clear distinction between the Western and Eastern Church and Catholic rites were not a big problem from the Slavic girl. At the convent of Quedlinburg Eupraxia was given a new name, Adelgeida, most likely the Stadens’ dynastic name. Despite rigid cloistered discipline, the princess was not denied contact with the outer world and her future husband was advised on Eupraxia-Adelgeida having met German Emperor Henry IV. The latter knew the Kyivan princes well; he had been approached by Vsevolod’s brother Iziaslav for a reference and he received gifts from Grand Prince Sviatoslav. Moreover, his sister was the convent’s mother superior. The emperor was enchanted by the Slavic princess’ beauty and intellect. He must also have realized that she could help him get Kyiv’s support in his struggle against Pope Gregory VII which had lasted for more than a year and which he wanted to win come what may. As German ruler, he had tried to overthrow the Pope but received an excruciating blow from Rome: excommunication. The next election of the emperor was approaching and the German dukes were not likely to elect him under the circumstances. Thus he had crossed the Alps in winter and stood for three days, barefoot, by the walls of the castle in Canossa where Gregory VII was staying until the Pope granted him absolution. The emperor looked properly humiliated and held a grudge.
Henry Staden took his bride to the altar when she was 15, but the marriage lasted a year and one half. Her husband suddenly died. Whether Henry IV had anything to do with this remains anyone’s guess.
Matchmakers from Henry IV visited Margravine Adelgeida two years later. The emperor was 21 years older and we have no way to know whether she knew about his, mildly speaking, loose lifestyle. She was 17 and she could shrug off what she did not care to consider. Yaroslav the Wise’s 18-year-old granddaughter was married and crowned at the grand cathedral of Cologne. Literally on her first day as empress she found herself drawn into the whirlpool of court intrigues and the center of big-time European politics. She had to get involved, whether she liked it or not. The goings-on in the Meissen court were something she had never seen or heard of before. Her lecherous and blasphemous husband talked her into attending black masses and orgies in defiance of all Christian dictates. Later the empress would complain to her confessors that she got pregnant and knew not by whom.
From then on Eupraxia-Adelgeida’s life followed a course fit for a modern thriller. Henry made her follow him to Italy, draggling at the heels of his army, on yet another punitive campaign against rebellious cities and to intimidate the Pope. Adelgeida tried to escape from a field camp. She was caught and locked in a castle in Verona where she stayed for three years. Her royal spouse subjected her to most refined tortures, of which the least sophisticated was what German chronicles discreetly referred to as “compulsory vice.” Aided by the Pope’s friend, Matilda of Tuscany, Adelgeida hid, in the castle of Canossa. The party in opposition to the emperor persuaded her to file a complaint against her husband with the Church Council of Konstanz. This would be reason enough to dethrone Henry. A year later Pope Urban II talked her into condemning her husband at the Church Council of Piacenza. It was held in 1105, collecting over 4,000 church hierarchs and about 50,000 laymen from all over Europe on the field of Piacenza. Adelgeida testified against Henry IV. Urban II also kept his promise. She was absolved of all sins and was not even enjoined penance. From then on, however, Eupraxia-Adelgeida’s name would remain smeared. What medieval morals could spare men they never forgave women. She was used as a base coin in a political game and then just tossed away. Now she was an unwelcome guest at Matilda’s castle.
She sought refuge with her Aunt Anastasia who ruled Hungary together with King Andrew, but when she arrived she found out that her aunt was dead, buried in a vault at a monastery by Lake Balaton. So she joined a diplomatic mission of her cousin Prince Sviatopolk returning to Kyiv. At her mother’s, Adelgeida’s story was already known, with numerous additions, which made her life unbearable despite support from the Church. Women were not supposed to wash family dirty linen in public, something she had done in Piacenza.
Aware that fate had turned its back on her, Adelgeida took the veil under the name of Eupraxia. The Kyiv chronicler would write: “In the summer of the year 6617 [i.e., 1109] Eupraxia, daughter of Vsevolod, passed away on July 10 and was buried in a corner by a door to the Monastery of the Caves. An icon was affixed to the wall over her grave.” Thus ended the tragic life of Eupraxia, granddaughter of Yaroslav the Wise. There was no place for her remains on the ground of St. Michael’s Cathedral (then under construction), Dormition Cathedral at the Pechersk Monastery, or even at the Vydubychy Monastery built by her father. She was interred somewhere by the above-the-gate Holy Trinity Church, “in a corner.” Unlike her countless relatives she was never canonized or made a martyr.
Adelgeida, Holy Roman Empress, nee Eupraxia, daughter of Vsevolod, granddaughter of Yaroslav the Wise, lies buried at the Lavra Monastery of the Caves.
Photo by Oleksandr Chekmenyov:
Near the gate to the Pecherska Lavra Monastery of the Caves there is no chapel over the grave of Yaroslav the Wise’s granddaughter. But her remains are here







