Trice a Foreigner: Helena of Muscovy, Grand Duchess of Lithuania 61 I of Florence (1439) and the fall of Constantinople (1453), the issue of the confession of ruling elites was suspended, regaining its relevance only during the Reformation. Therefore, the heterodox marriage of Alexander and Helena was quite odd for Europe at the turn of the fifteenth century. What is more, it was rather unusual given the power positions of the spouses. On the one hand, in patrilineal societies it was “natural” for women, who moved to other countries, courts, and households, to be the “other” family member,5 and this otherness was bridged only through giving birth to children. However, looking at the marriage of Alexander and Helena through the lens of power and difference, one sees that the bride was quite an atypical “other”: already defined by gender as the weaker party, she remained such since the marriage remained sterile. Isolated within the marital court because of her Orthodox creed, Helena was considered a representative of Muscovy and supported in this role by her natal family. The compromise that Lithuania sought through this marriage was the conclusion of a lasting truce, while peaceful relations with Muscovy remained an aspiration. Muscovy endeavored to transform its power from the constant menace at the borders into a permanent confessional and political presence at the center, the Lithuanian grand ducal court. Therefore, in all the roles that sources and titles ascribed to Helena, she was a passive figure, even on the occasions when records spoke in her name. In this essay, I will focus on how the roles assigned to Helena were made manifest, and what countermeasures were undertaken against them. I consider Helena’s public visibility as an indicator in the dynamics of the political compromises and conflicts around her. Guided by the modes of how Helena was displayed and seen, given and deprived of voice, in what follows I arrange the source evidence more topically than chronologically; therefore, before proceeding further, I offer a very concise biography of the grand duchess. Born in 1476 to Ivan III of Moscow (1440–1505) and his second wife Sophia Zoe Paleologue (1455–1503), Helena was betrothed in 1494 to Alexander Jagiellon, grand duke of Lithuania, reigning from 1492. In 1495, their bi-confessional wedding was celebrated in Vilnius. In 1501, Alexander was elected and crowned king of Poland, but Orthodox Helena was denied royal coronation and queenship. In 1502, having learned of the papal insistence on Helena’s conversion, Ivan III waged war against Lithuania, declaring himself a defender of Orthodoxy. In letters to her Muscovite family, Helena pleaded for peace and against bloodshed in Lithuania. Alexander died in 1506 and was buried in Vilnius. Helena received lands close to the Muscovite border as her widow’s share. In 1511, she was detained upon an attempt to leave for Muscovy, taken to Vilnius, and ordered to stay in her manors in central Lithuania. Helena died on January 29, 1513, and was buried in the Orthodox Church of the Most Pure Virgin in Vilnius. Her grave does not survive.6 5 On the otherness of Hungarian queens, see János M. Bak, “Queens as Scapegoats in Medieval Hungary,” in Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe, ed. Anne J. Duggan (London, 1997), 223–33; reprinted in János M. Bak, Studying Medieval Rulers and Their Subjects: Central Europe and Beyond, eds. Balazs Nagy and Gabor Klaniczay, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Aldershot, 2010), X. 6 For Helena’s biographies, see Elena F. Turaeva-Tsereteli, Elena Ivanovna vielikaya kniaginia litovskaya, koroleva polskaya. Biograficheskii ocherk v sviazi s istoriei togo vremeni (St. Petersburg, 1898); Józef Garbacik, “Helena (1476–1513),” in Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. 9 (Wrocław, 1960–1961), 359–62; Krystyna Chojnicka, “Helena, Wielka Księżna Litewska, Królowa Polski,” in idem, Narodziny rosyjskiej doktryny państwowej: Zoe Paleolog – między Bizancjum, Rzymem a Moskwą
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNjA1