Maritsa Vladimirovna

Maritsa (Maria) Vladimirovna (d. January 20, 1146 ) - Russian princess, daughter of Vladimir Monomakh , wife of a pretender to the Byzantine throne of the fake Diogenes .

Maria was married by her father to marry a man who appeared at the beginning of the XII century in Russia, who pretended to be Leo Diogenes , the son of the Byzantine Emperor Roman IV , who died in 1087 in a battle with the Pechenegs . Russian chronicles call him Prince Leon Devgenich. The Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir Monomakh, recognized the impostor as a real imperial son and decided to support his claims, if not for the Byzantine throne, then at a number of Byzantine cities on the Danube , where he intended to create a state-dependent state formation under the nominal dominion of false Diogenes.

V.N. Tatishchev informs that the marriage of Mary to “Tsarevich Leon” took place on July 20, 1104. But this information should be treated with caution: it is obvious that he reconstructed events in accordance with his own ideas about how things could develop. Leon, he mistakenly called the son of Emperor Alexis , and the marriage, in his opinion, was concluded in Constantinople .

According to one version, Monomakh singled out the Pereyaslav city of Voinj for his daughter and her husband. During the excavations at the site of this city, a chest cross was found with an inscription in Greek: "Lord, help your servant Leon." It is assumed that he could belong to a false Diogenes.

In 1116, Vladimir Monomakh, under the pretext of returning the throne to the "legitimate" Tsarevich, undertakes a campaign against Byzantium. With the support of Monomakh, the pseudo-Diogenes managed to seize many Danube cities, including Dorostol , who apparently became the temporary residence of the impostor. However, the "prince" failed to establish himself on the Danube: on August 15 of the same 1116, the false Diogenes was killed in Dorostol by two hired assassins sent by Emperor Alexey I Komnin to him.

Maria and “Leon” still have a son Vasilko (he was also called Vasilko Maricinic / Maricic - in honor of the mother), obviously named after Monomakh, whose Christian name was Vasily. After the death of the pseudo-Diogenes, the prince of Kiev did not stop the war on the Danube, now acting in the interests of "Tsarevich Vasily." In the same year of 1116, he put his governors in the cities he had conquered by an impostor. The emperor Alexey, however, managed to squeeze out the Russian troops from the Danube and retake Dorostol. Peace with Byzantium was established only after the death of Emperor Alexei and the accession to the throne of his son John Comnenus . The granddaughter of Monomakh was married to the son of Emperor John - according to the most common version, to Alexei Comnenus .

Son of Maritsa and False Diogenes Vasilko Leonovich died in 1135 in one of the internecine wars of the Russian princes near Pereyaslavl , fighting on the side of Monomakh’s son Yaropolk with the Chernigov princes .

Maritsa herself apparently lived in a monastery in Kiev and died in 1146. The Laurentian Chronicle writes in this way: “Toe of the same winter ^{[comm. 1]} cease the noble princess Maritsa, Volodymyr's mother, the same month ^{[comm. 2]} at 20, per week; and on Monday he was put into the coffin in his church, and he also had his hair cut. ”