The Elusive Elena

Yelena of Moldavia (1465-1505) is one of Russia’s most intriguing but elusive historical figures. Born the daughter of a great warrior king and among the most eligible of European princesses of her era, Yelena had a life that seemed destined for greatness. Instead, she was crushed by fortune’s wheel: she lost her husband, her position, and her son’s inheritance in a devastating turn of events. Indeed, her story is among the most tragic and poignant in Russian royal history; it also offers a fascinating vignette into the cultural and political currents as Russia entered the last century of Rurikid rule (862-1610).

Yelena was the eldest daughter of Stephen III (the Great) of Moldavia (1457-1504) and Yevdokia Olelkovna of Kiev. Stephen was one of the fifteenth century’s most astute politicians and brilliant military minds, while Yevdokia belonged to a prestigious Muscovite family closely related to Ivan III of Russia and Casimir IV of Poland and Lithuania. Though comparatively little is known about Yelena’s early years or her education, one can glean a few facts from contemporary historical chronicles and records.

The Moldavian court was among the most ethnically and religiously diverse in Europe. Based in the city of Suceava – located in present-day Romania – Stephen’s court was populated by a hodgepodge of Romanians, Moldavians, Byzantines, Hungarians, Jews, Hussites, and even Gypsies. Its diversity in composition was matched by its splendor, grandeur, and majesty. Yelena’s formative years thus coincided with Moldavia’s golden age.

Yelena had a close relationship with her father and siblings. Like her countrymen, she was in awe of her father. Although ruthless on the battlefield, Stephen was very much a family man who adored his wives and children. When Yelena’s mother died in 1467, Stephen was heartbroken, and he ordered daily masses for Yevdokia’s soul until his own death nearly 40 years later. Stephen’s intense devotion to family and country left an indelible mark on Yelena’s personality and, indeed, her later political activity. As Yelena’s mother died when she was still a baby, her successive stepmothers – Maria of Mangup and Maria Voichita – shaped her adolescence. These women were strong characters in their own right, playing active roles in Moldavian religious and foreign affairs, and governing as regents for Stephen when he was away on extended campaigns. Yelena’s interests in religion and statecraft were likely spurred by their example.

The meticulous statesmanship of Stephen is what ultimately brought Yelena to Russia. All of Christian Europe celebrated Stephen’s monumental defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475. Pope Sixtus IV had even declared Stephen to be Verus christiane fidei athleta (“The true defender of the Christian faith”). As Stephen’s fame grew across Europe, so too did Yelena’s marriage prospects. Stephen believed that adynastic alliance with Russia would enable him to counterbalance the lingering Ottoman threat to Moldavia. Moreover, Stephen’s Russian in-laws – the shrewd and influential Olelkovichi – were eager to help Stephen negotiate to their mutual benefit. In 1479, Stephen initiated a round of diplomatic negotiations with Ivan III of Russia with the aim of concluding a dynastic marriage between Ivan’s eldest son and heir, Prince Ivan Ivanovich “the Young” (1458-1490), and the then 14-year-old Yelena.

Ivan III was elated by the idea of a match between Yelena and Prince Ivan. An alliance with Moldavia would elevate Russia’s standing in Europe. Additionally, as Yelena was half-Russian and his kinswoman, Ivan hoped she would not be viewed as a suspicious foreigner, like his second wife Sophia Palaiologina (in Russian София Палеолог). Marriage negotiations dragged on for three years, but Yelena was reportedly delighted by the prospect of the match and prayed for a blessed marriage in Russia. The Russians and Moldavians finalized a treaty of marriage in 1482, and Yelena received a handsome dowry from Stephen. Yelena’s entourage departed Moldavia in the autumn of 1482 in a grand procession, which passed through Poland and Lithuania en route to Moscow.

In January 1483, in a sumptuous ceremony, the 17-year-old Yelena married the 24-year-old Prince Ivan in Moscow’s Assumption Cathedral. It proved to be a happy marriage, reminiscent of Yelena’s parents, and the surviving historical documents attest to a deep, mutual love. Prince Ivan was enraptured with the raven-haired Yelena.

Within just ten months of their marriage, Yelena gave birth to a healthy son, Dmitry, which strengthened her position at court. Fluent in Russian and confident in performing the often rigid and exhausting court ceremonies, Yelena looked and dressed the part of an impeccable Russian princess, much to the delight of the Russian people who nicknamed her “Voloshanka” or “the little Wallachian.” While some Russian boyars gossiped that Yelena was the cousin of the infamous Vlad III Dracula, Yelena initially proved far more popular at court than her stepmother-in-law Sophia. This was because Yelena cultivated the image of a dutiful Russian wife, mother, and daughter-in-law. Although no stranger to intrigue or stratagem, Yelena chose outwardly to avoid public scandal and adhere to Russian customs. Only in matters of foreign affairs did she voice a political opinion favorable to Moldavia.

Despite her best efforts, Yelena could not escape the maelstrom of Sophia’s ambition. The animosity Sophia bore Yelena and Prince Ivan developed into a dangerous vendetta, which was as personal as it was political. Sophia and Ivan III had eight surviving children, but Sophia’s eldest son, Vasily (born in 1479), was merely third in line to the succession. Should primogeniture be followed as expected, Yelena’s husband and then Yelena’s son, would rule Russia. Indeed, since at least 1471, Prince Ivan had been referred to as the Grand Prince and heir.

But Sophia was determined to prevent Ivan taking the throne at any cost. As an imperial Byzantine princess, she could not fathom the adulation Yelena received from the Russian people, and she saw Yelena as a dangerous political rival. For her part, Yelena feared and distrusted the haughty Sophia; she was shocked by Sophia’s lack of royal protocol at court and resented Sophia’s disrespect towards her husband and son. Yelena, unlike Sophia, did not support closer ties to Poland and Lithuania, and she believed Sophia held nefarious pro-Western sympathies.

Yelena also strongly opposed the marriage of Yelena of Moscow – Ivan III’s favorite daughter – to the Catholic Alexander I of Poland and Lithuania in 1495. She anticipated the marriage would jeopardize the good relations between Muscovy and Moldavia, and see Sophia’s political influence extend into Poland and Lithuania.

Russian chroniclers also mention that Yelena became particularly outraged when Sophia gave away royal jewels to Vasily’s wife that rightfully belonged to her. This was a slight she would never forgive or forget. (Rather than simply return them, as his father requested, Vasily ran off to Lithuania with his young wife.)

When Sophia and Yelena took opposing sides over delicate matters within the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1480s and 1490s, their rivalry entered a new, dangerous terrain. During the mid-1480s, Yelena first encountered the ideas of the so-called “Heresy of the Judaizers” from her Olelkovichi relatives. This sect, which despite its name, had nothing to do with Judaism, appealed to Yelena’s own ideas concerning secularization. Yelena, in ways similar to her stepmother, Maria of Mangup, favored religious reform within the Orthodox Church’s hierarchy and religious orders. Over time, Yelena, Prince Ivan, and many prominent members of the Russian court came to sympathize with the broader aims of the Judaizers: structural reform within the Russian Orthodox Church and less ecclesiastical interference in government. Yelena understood she had to lend tacit support to this cause, as a political necessity, once Sophia declared her stalwart support for traditional orthodoxy and Simon I, the ultraconservative Metropolitan of Moscow.

This delicate balance of power and differing religious views shattered when Prince Ivan’s health deteriorated due to gout. His sudden death in March 1490 was a devastating blow to Yelena, and it precipitated dynastic uncertainty and considerable unease at the Russian court. The fact that a Venetian converso employed by Sophia had treated Prince Ivan on his deathbed only hardened Yelena’s fear and hatred. Throughout Russia, Sophia was believed to have poisoned Ivan so as to advance her son’s claim to the throne, at the expense of Yelena’s family. The 25-year-old Yelena felt vulnerable, knowing that, according to Russian tradition, Russian rulers left the throne to their eldest sons. However, there was no political mechanism to arbitrate between the claims of a sovereign’s grandson and an eldest, surviving son. Never in Muscovy had an eldest son with a male child predeceased his father, so there was no precedent upon which to lean in choosing between the son of a deceased heir and the eldest surviving son.

Ivan III, for reasons still debated by Russian historians, but perhaps to show no signs of weakness at court, remained mute on the subject.

All that changed at the end of 1497.

Apparently spurred by a rumor that Ivan III was to appoint Yelena’s child Dmitry Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow, Vasily is alleged to have cooked up a conspiracy. The plan was apparently that he would lead several “other boyars’ sons” in a treasonous grab for power, seizing Ivan III’s treasury in Vologda and Beloozero (in the North) and from there mount a rebellion. But the conspiracy was uncovered before it could take place, and, on December 27, six of Vasily’s conspirators were beheaded on the ice of the Moscow River. In addition, it was alleged that Sophia was found to be receiving poisonous herbs from some women. Ivan also had these women executed, “drowned by night in the Moscow River.” Needless to say, Vasily and Sophia fell into disfavor, and they were banished briefly from court.

One month later, at a lavish ceremony in the Dormition Cathedral on February 4, 1498, Ivan named and crowned 16-year-old Dmitry as Grand Prince of Vladimir, Moscow and All Russia, for all practical purposes co-ruler. Sophia and Vasily were not at the ceremony. Everything, it seemed, was ending well for Yelena.

Several historians have speculated that the root cause of Dmitry’s elevation was Ivan’s desire to reward Stephen of Moldavia for his country’s successful routing in 1497 of Lithuanian and Polish forces, who had sought to attack and occupy Moldavia en route to engaging the Turks. Stephen’s victory greatly relieved Ivan III, for he needed an ally on the Dniester, protecting Russia’s southwestern flank. And, given the past and incipient wars with Poland and Lithuania, a secure friendship and alliance with Stephen was essential. Bestowing the title of heir on Ivan and Stephen’s mutual grandson was simply good diplomacy.

Then, in early 1499, a new scandal broke. Ivan III arrested his first cousin, Ivan Patrikeyev, a leading boyar, governor of Moscow, and a trusted advisor. His two sons and his son-in-law were also arrested, all apparently on charges of treason and sedition. The son-in-law was executed, but the Patrikeyevs were spared and sent to monasteries. Ivan III was well-aware that Yelena, in particular, enjoyed close relationships with various members of the Patrikeyev family.

Next, in a strange event that defies explanation largely because the victors get to expunge historical records, Vasily and his advisors, dissatisfied with the situation in the Kremlin, fled to Vyazma, then part of Lithuania, and had to be convinced to return (Ivan had endured a rebellion led by his brothers in 1480 and dreaded a repeat).

The historical record gives few clues to the reasons behind the scandal, but likely it was tied to rivalries between the prominent boyar families,  the afore-mentioned church reform schism, and matters of foreign policy (how Russia should deal with Lithuania and Poland and the value of the alliance with Moldavia). It is worth noting that Ivan III’s beloved daughter, Yelena of Moscow, languished in Vilnius as the mistreated, uncrowned queen of Poland and grand duchess of Lithuania. Refusing to convert to Catholicism and begging her father to improve relations with Poland and Lithuania, Yelena may have unwittingly contributed to the demise of her sister-in-law and nephew, acting as the catalyst for Ivan III to reevaluate the royal succession and his foreign policy.

In the end, the prodigal son Vasily was welcomed back, pardoned, and given new titles. Sophia too was pardoned, and Ivan III appointed Vasily “sovereign grand prince” over the cities of Novgorod and Pskov. It was a final turning point in the dynastic crisis. Vasily’s star was rising, which meant Dmitry’s had to fall. It took two years. On April 11, 1502, Dmitry and Yelena were arrested.

Grand Prince Ivan placed opala [disgrace] upon his grandson Grand Prince Dmitry and upon his mother Yelena; and from that day onwards he forbade their names to be mentioned in prayers and litanies and forbade him to be called grand prince; and he placed them under guard.

Three days later, Ivan later pronounced Vasily as his new heir. Yelena and Dmitry went to prison without ever being charged with a crime. Alone and defeated, Yelena could no longer count on diplomatic expediency to save her. Stephen’s alliance with Russia was no more (he had been reluctant to join Muscovy’s war against Poland and Lithuania), and his health had been failing since 1500. He passed away in 1504. After discarding the Moldavian alliance, Ivan III finalized a “treaty of eternal peace” with Poland and Lithuania and won a third of Lithuania’s territory in 1503.

When Ivan III died in 1505 and Vasily III came to the throne, Yelena’s papers and many of her personal belongings were destroyed in an orchestrated attempt to remove her from collective memory. Persons associated with Yelena and Dmitry -- and those who shared their desire to see Orthodoxy reformed – were also banished, imprisoned, excommunicated, or executed. It is therefore difficult for historians to clearly grasp all the factors of Yelena and Dmitry’s swift rise and rapid demise.

Yelena was poisoned under mysterious circumstances in 1505, at the age of 39; Dmitry was murdered in 1509, at the age of 26. Sophia’s triumph was complete. She had died in 1503, but in 1533, her son Vasily and his second wife Yelena Glinskaya gave birth to a son, Ivan, who would rule from 1547 to his death in 1575 as Ivan IV (the Terrible).

One remarkable object, nevertheless, survived the purge of Yelena’s record and is currently housed within the State Historical Museum in Moscow. It is known as “The Shroud of Yelena the Wallachian.” Commissioned by Yelena after Dmitry’s coronation, this precious artifact portrays the royal court leaving the Assumption Cathedral on Palm Sunday in 1498. Ivan III and Dmitry are depicted wearing crowns and halos, delineating their anointed and sacred status. Vasily lacks a halo, but he curiously wears an oversized crown and a handsome cloak of blue, the latter of which denotes his piety and descent from the fêted Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia. Not surprisingly, Sophia wears a gold tablion, which symbolizes her cherished Byzantine ancestry. Yelena, forever in contrast to Sophia, wears a simple yellow hood. A dour-looking Metropolitan Simon is honored too with a halo and gazes seriously in the direction of Sophia.

When viewing the shroud, one is struck by its liveliness and unusual embellishment, which are exceptional in late medieval Russian art. The arrangement of irregular shapes and bright colors along the embroidery’s borders are not merely for show – they are, instead, the colors of Yelena’s father, Stephen the Great. Though eclipsed by Sophia and her descendants, Yelena remains, in life and in death, her father’s daughter.