As much of the recent news has regarded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I thought I would post on a distant Ukrainian ancestor of mine, Anne of Kiev, an ancestor to millions of people with western European ancestry whose siblings are ancestral to millions of eastern Europeans.[1]
Anne of Kiev, or Anna Yaroslavna, was born just under one thousand years ago in Kievan Rus, present day Ukraine, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev, and his second wife Ingegerd of Sweden. She married King Henry I of France in 1051. Her marriage to the French king reflected the Catholic Church’s growing disapproval of consanguineous marriages; Anne’s father had already married some of his children to Western rulers in an attempt to avoid the Byzantine Empire’s influence. This marriage was also just three years before the East-West Schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church, so Anne and Henry’s marriage was one of the last dynastic marriages between the two disparate regions for some time. Anne and Henry had two surviving children, sons Philip and Hugh. Philip succeeded his father as King of France, and Philip’s Greek name has often been credited to his mother as deriving from Anne’s culture; it afterwards became a popular name amongst royal families of western Europe.
Philip’s Greek name has often been credited to his mother as deriving from Anne’s culture…
The simplified chart below (with most names anglicized) shows how Anne was an ancestor to not just all later monarchs of France, but later rulers of most western kingdoms. As such, nearly every immigrant to the present day United States treated in the first volume of Gary Boyd Roberts’s The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants would also be descended from Anne of Kiev, a common connection to Ukraine for much of the western world.
Note
[1] To see how Anne’s parents were ancestral to nearly all later tsars of Russia, both in the Rurik and Romanov dynasties, see here.
Wow, Anne really left her mark. She seems to be my 28th great grandmother, via 499 paths, according to Wikitree.
Thank you for alerting me to that WikiTree function!
For others who may be interested, here is Anne:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kiev-1
Near the bottom of the page, click on the link for:
“your genealogical relationship with Аnne”
“Only” 73 lines of descent from Anne for me.
Anne is my 28 th gr gm. with 15 surname changes. Howdy cousin.
Use this link to see how your gateway ancestor may descend from Anne of Kiev – http://roglo.eu/roglo?lang=en;m=R;i=7477467
Thank you for this very interesting post. I am a bit confused, though, as I thought Peter II of Courtenay was the son of Peter I of Courtenay and Isabel/Elizabeth of Courtenay, rather than being of the de Warrenne family.
Thank you very much! There was a line in the wrong place. The chart has been corrected.
Chris,
Thanks for another timely report. Timely not only to the terrible current events, but also to my own research. I discovered recently that I, too, am a descendant of Anne of Kyivan Rus’ (ca.1030-1075).
Anne’s father was Yaroslav the Wise; her grandfather was Vladimir the Great. Both have monuments and statues in Ukraine and elsewhere, and appear on Ukraine currency. Vladimir is also known as Saint Vladimir because he converted to Orthodox Christianity when he married Anna Porphyrogenita, daughter of Byzantine Emperor Romanos II, although corporeal Vlad did not act very saintly before he was baptized – he had several wives, plus an estimated 800 concubines, that he had to divorce before he could marry Anna of Byzantium.
Incidentally, Anne’s ancestors were Varangians (mainly Swedish Vikings). Her mother was Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of the King of Sweden. Perhaps that is why we see so many blue-eyed blonds in the news videos about the invasion of Ukraine.
The world is one dysfunctional family.
Cousin Duane
#IstandwithAnne
Thanks for this post Chris to remind us that we are all Ukrainian at heart. God bless them all and keep them free and safe. May this nightmare soon be over.
Jeff, my prayers echo yours… May God bless the Ukrainian people, keep them free and safe. May this nightmare soon be over. Chris, I thank you for your scholarship and generously sharing your knowledge! Very interesting ancestry.
You have seen my wikitree tree. I have all of them in my family tree. Is there any leta scholarship they can even slightly confirmed the parentage of the daughter that somethings is the daughter of Yaroslav the wise? Wasnt her name Agatha?
Yes that’s regarding Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile. I’m not as versed on what theory holds the most weight. Several of the theories (with references to articles in journals including the Register) are summarized here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_(wife_of_Edward_the_Exile)
Absolutely remarkable. Thank you, Chris.
Very interesting. Anne is my 26th great grandmother.
Sold Out? SOLD OUT! Says the link to Gary’s 900. Plans to republish or are we in revision mode for, say, 1066 or 1215 or 1348 or 1558 Royal Descents? Marketing suggestion: Next revision, and thereafter to the crack of doom, title should be [Gary Boyd] Roberts’ ROYAL DESCENTS. If there can an always be an in print Robert’s Rules of Orders, then there can an always be an in print Roberts’ Descents. After all, you own the copyright.
RD900 and its predecessors are unfortunately not published by NEHGS.
Reviewing my RD600, yes, that’s correct. Gary himself holds the copyright. So, up to him as to what happens to it. Just thinking it should have a “renewable”, and useful, life beyond us present researchers.
Gary is currently working on a Coda to come out in the next printing
Thank you for sharing! I found it very interesting.
She is my 26th Great Grandmother. She was incredible.
Just want to bring to your attention a misstep when you referred to Ukraine as “the Ukraine.” This is how Russia referred to Ukraine when it was under Soviet rule. Perhaps you would be good enough to correct.
This was great Chris !