Closely related marriages of the princes of North-Eastern Rus’ in the XIV–XV centuries

Abstract

The paper is devoted to closely related marriages of princes descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest in the XIIIXV centuries, which have not received sufficient attention from researchers. After analyzing the known marriages the author came to the conclusion that in general Rurikids in this historical period followed the traditions of pre-Mongol Rus, considering the 7th degree of kinship for closely related marriages to be most acceptable. This is evidenced by the few examples available to us. This tradition was followed by the princes of the leading principalities not only in the external arena, but also within their dynasties in order to strengthen family unity. At the same time, with the rise of Moscow, joining and the fall of the importance of other principalities as well as due to political reasons, Moscow princes from the 15th century began to marry in the 6th degree of kinship with the great princes of Tver, Ryazan and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod. Of particular interest is the marriage of the daughter of the Grand Prince of Moscow Vasily Dmitrievich with two representatives of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod dynasty. The available evidence also show that a similar tradition of marriages in such degrees of kinship was followed by the appanage princes on the periphery.