On 19 May 1051, Anna, the youngest daughter of the grand knyaz (yarl) of Kyivan Rus, Yaroslav I the Wise got married to Henry I, the king of the Franks from the Capetian dynasty.
In the 11th century, Kyivan Rus was ruled by the Ryurihk dynasty, whose ethnic origin was Norse/Scandinavian (most likely from modern Sweden), but whose political, religious, and cultural identity by that time was predominantly East Slavic and Orthodox Christian.
In modern Ukrainian historiography, the rulers of Kyivan Rus — particularly figures such as Yaroslav the Wise — are regarded as part of Ukraine’s national historical legacy. Kyivan Rus is presented as a medieval East Slavic polity centered on Kyiv, whose political, legal, religious, and cultural traditions are seen as foundational to later Ruthenian and Ukrainian development.
While these rulers are not portrayed as Ukrainians in the modern national sense, they are commemorated in Ukraine as Kyivan princes whose state represents an early predecessor of Ukrainian statehood.
Europe’s “father-in-law”
At that time, the Ryurihk family was already related to European royal houses. Anna was the sister-in-law of Norway’s Harald III through her sister Elizaveta and of Hungary’s Andrew I the White through her sister Anastasia.
She was also the niece of Kasimir I of Poland through her aunt Maria. Additionally, Anna’s four brothers were married to the sister of the Danish king, an Austrian princess, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and a Germanic princess, respectively.
Due to these arrangements, various historical sources refer to Yaroslav as Europe’s “father-in-law,” who himself was married to Ingegerd Olofsdotter, the Swedish king’s daughter, while being already a Slavonized Norseman.
A modern map showing the marriages arranged with Kyivan Rus in the 11th century Europe.
Anna of Kyiv’s marriage to Henry I, at the Reims Cathedral, was preceded by a lengthy diplomatic mission of the Franks to the court of Yaroslav I, which was one of the most powerful and respected in Europe in the 11th century. The marriage between Henry I and Anna Yaroslavna laid the foundation for an alliance between France, Poland, and Kyivan Rus against the rising German Empire.
Subsequent documents attest that one year after the marriage, Anna gave birth to their first son, who would later become King Philip I. In 1060, Henry I passed away, and his former consort took control of the Frankish kingdom’s affairs for two years until Philip I was deemed as fit to rule.
The genealogy of royal blood originating from Kyivan Rus.
In 1061, Anna remarried Count Raoul II of Valois, whom she intended to turn into an ally of the young king. This resulted in the excommunication of both by Pope Alexander II, because the man was already in a legitimate marriage. However, Raoul II died in 1074, and Anna returned to the royal court.
Anna died between 1075 and 1079 for unknown reasons, but there is no official record that confirms the exact date. It is believed that she was buried in the Villiers Abbey in the town of La Ferte-Alais, Essonne.
Anna is the only French queen who wrote her name in Cyrillic script.
The depiction of the Kyivan Rus princess is known through the frescoes in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and the sculptures of the Church of St. Vincent in Senlis, which Anna founded near Paris.
Moscow, which claims Kyivan Rus’s legacy as its own, was founded in 1147, one hundred years after this event.
Sources: Historytoday, Encyclopediaofukraine, Wikipedia, Onlinelibrary, Academic