Trice a Foreigner: Helena of Muscovy, Grand Duchess of Lithuania 63 I The Muscovite report, which is the only account on the ceremony,12 informs of two rites performed separately for the groom and the bride, and the two confused escorts balancing on the verge of conflict. While the Muscovites complained and recorded the “wrongs” of the Lithuanian party, the latter spoke of the wedding celebrated “as appropriate for such high lords”.13 Apparently, Helena did not understand the foreign rites of her own wedding and remained clad in her bridal outfit for four days in a row,14 as if she was not wed. Perhaps she did not recognize her husband as wed, since Alexander, who accepted the gifts brought from Moscow, did not wear the Muscovite groom clothes he was presented with. Hence Ivan’s idea—to have the wedding of his daughter in Vilnius which looked as if it was celebrated in Moscow—not only failed, but also exposed the foreignness of the bride and her entourage. That this foreignness was not appreciated in Helena’s marital home became evident from the fact that members of Alexander’s immediate family15 —Queen Mother Elizabeth, brother Cardinal Frederick,16 as well as sisters Barbara and Elizabeth— arrived to Vilnius only after the Muscovite guests had departed. Lithuanian narratives tell that they were received with honors, joy, and largesse, were introduced to Grand Duchess Helena, and left for Poland loaded with precious gifts.17 With celebrations over, efforts were made to diminish foreign appearance of the grand duchess. According to Russel E. Martin, who examined Helena’s accoutrement list, “[g]iven all the clothing she had brought with her, it appears she (or her father) intended all along that she would dress in Muscovite garb rather than adopt the fashions of her new homeland”.18 This interpretation indeed accords well with Ivan’s reproaches in the letter from May 1495: he accuses Alexander of ordering “to put his own dress on our daughter,” sending back Helena’s Muscovite courtiers, and replacing them with local Catholics.19 While Lithuania did observe the agreement mandating that Helena remained within her “Greek law”, and that all the local ladies of her entourage come from the Orthodox denomination,20 efforts were made to diminish the Muscovite presence at the court 12 Ibid., no. 35.I, 186. For English summaries and Orthodox interpretations of the wedding ceremony, see Martin, “Gifts for the Bride,” 127; idem, “Ritual and Religion in the Foreign Marriages of Three Muscovite Princesses,” Russian History 35 (2008): 363–65, and idem, A Bride for the Tsar. Bride-Shows and Marriage Politics in Early Modern Russia (Illinois, 2012), 35. 13 Polnoe sobranie russkihh letopisei, vol. 32, Khroniki Litovskaya i Zhomoitskaya i Bykhovtsa, ed. Nikolai N. Ulashchik (Moscow, 1975), 164. 14 Sbornik, vol. 35, no. 35.I, 187. 15 On the Jagiellonian family, see Uwe Tresp and Agnieszka Gąsior, “Eine ‘famose und grenzenlos mächtige Generation’. Dynastie und Heiratspolitik der Jagiellonen im 15. und zu Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts,” Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte 8 (2007): 3–28. 16 On Frederick, see Natalia Nowakowska, Church, State and Dynasty in Renaissance Poland. The Career of Cardinal Fryderyk Jagiellon (1468–1503) (Aldershot, 2007), on his activities regarding Helena, see ibid., 134–38. 17 Polnoe sobranie, vol. 32, 164. 18 Martin, “Gifts for the Bride,” 36. 19 Sbornik, vol. 35, no. 36.II-III, 190–92. 20 On Helena’s court, see Krzysztof Pietkiewicz, “Dwór Litewski wielkiego Księcia Aleksandra Jagiellończyka,” in Lietuvos valstybė XII–XVIII a., eds. Zigmantas Kiaupa, Arturas Mickevičius, and Jolita Sarcevičienė (Vilnius, 1997), 94.
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