MARIA DMITRIEVNA (the year of birth is unknown, † after 1299), Princess of Pskov, since 1280 the wife of the Pskov prince Daumantas (Timofey), granddaughter of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky , the Grand Prince of Vladimir
Father
- Dmitry Alexandrovich, Prince of Vladimir
Biography
The year of birth of Maria, daughter of Dmitry Alexandrovich, Prince of Vladimir, and granddaughter of the faithful Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, is unknown. It is also unknown who her mother, the wife of Prince Dmitry, was. In some pre-revolutionary works there is an opinion that Maria was the only daughter of Dmitry Alexandrovich [5, p. 69]. However, A. V. Eksemplyarsky believed that besides to Maria, Dmitry and his wife could have several more daughters [6, p. 52]. It is noteworthy that for a long time there was an erroneous opinion that Maria was not a granddaughter, but the daughter of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky. This error stemmed, firstly, from the inscription on the icon of the Mirozhskaya Our Lady of Oranta, a list of which was made by order of the Pskov prince Dovmont and his wife Maria, where Maria is directly called «дшерью» of Alexander; secondly, it stammed from the record of the Life of Prince Daumantas and “Tales of the Mirozh Icon of Our Lady", where Daumantas's wife is named the sister of Dmitry Alexandrovich [1, p. 25; 2]. However, these records do not coincide with the data of the chronicles, where Maria is mentioned several times as the daughter of Dmitry Alexandrovich [III, p. 324]. Subsequently, by the researchers of the Life of Alexander Nevsky it was unequivocally established that the prince did not have a daughter named Maria [3, p. 386].
Around 1282 Maria was married to the Pskov prince Daumantas, who fled from Lithuania from Mindaugas [I, p. 16-18; III, p. 85]. Considering the approximate date of birth of Dmitry Alexandrovich himself (c. 1250), it can be assumed that at the time of marriage, Maria was about 13-14 years old. Daumantas was about twice her age. For the Pskov prince, this was the second marriage. The first wife, according to the Ipatiev Chronicle, in 1263 was "stolen" from Daumantas by Mindaugas [II]. Having fled to Rus about three years later, the disgraced Nalshan prince sat down in Pskov and found himself drawn into the struggle between the sons of Alexander Yaroslavich for the grand-princal table. Probably, the marriage with Maria cemented the union of Daumantas and Dmitry Alexandrovich: the latter repeatedly used the help of his son-in-law in the fight against his brother Andrei, who by that time had already ascended the Vladimir throne, not without the support of the Tatar army. Daumantas organized a military campaign against Novgorod and Koporye, freed the captured wife and boyars of Dmitry and his treasury. He was baptized under the name of Timofey [I, p. 16-18].
In marriage Maria supposedly had one son - David, the future David of Hrodno. Daumantas died in 1299. There was a version that Maria outlived her husband for only a year, but the mention of her death in the Pskov Service Book dates 1317 [4, p. 58–76]. Widowed, Maria took monastic vows under the name Martha and, most likely, lived the rest of her life in the Pskov St. John the Baptist Convent, where she was buried.
Children
- David Hrodno (?), Kastelian of Hrodno, one of the commanders of Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania
Information
The miraculous icon of Our Lady of Oranta of Mirozhsk is a copy made in the 16th century according to a list that has not survived to this day. It is believed that the original icon was commissioned by the couple, the Pskov prince Daumantas, baptized by Timofey, and his wife Maria. The icon depicts the figure of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary with her hands raised to the sky, and on either side of her - the figures of the prince and princess. There are inscriptions above the figures: "Blessed Prince Daumantas in holy baptism Timofey" and "Blessed princess Maria Doumantova wife, daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky." Copy made in XVI century is stored in the Pskov-Izborsk United Museum.
Sources
I. Pskovskie letopisi / Pod red. A.N. Nasonova. Vyp. 2. M., 1955.
II. Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei. T. II. Ipat'evskaia letopis'. M., 1998.
III. Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei. Novgorodskaia Pervaia letopis' starshego i mladshego izvodov. T. III. M.; L., 1950.
Bibliography
1. Andreev A.R. Kniaz' Dovmont Pskovskii. Dokumental'noe zhizneopisanie. Moskva. 1998.
2. Kruglova T.V. Zhena pskovskogo kniazia Dovmonta [elektronnyi resurs] // Arkheologicheskoe obshchestvo Pskovskoi oblasti http://arheologpskov.ru/index.php/arheologija-pskova/istoriya-izucheniya/proekt-letopis/item/zhena-pskovskogo-kniazia-dovmonta
3. Pashuto V.T. Obrazovanie Litovskogo gosudarstva. M., 1959.
4. Stoliarova L.V. Mariia Dmitrievna – zhena kniazia Dovmonta // Srednevekovaia Rus': Sbornik statei / Otv. red. A.A. Gorskii. Vyp. 1. M., 1996. S. 58–76.
5. Khmyrov M.D. Alfavitno-spravochnyi perechen' gosudarei russkikh i zamechatel'neishikh osob ikh krovi. Spb., 1870.
6. Ekzempliarskii A.V. Velikie i udel'nye kniaz'ia severnoi Rusi v tatarskii period s 1238 g. po 1505 g.: biograficheskie ocherki po pervoistochnikam i glavneishim posobiiam. T. 1. Velikie kniaz'ia Vladimirskie i Vladimiro-Moskovskie. SPb.. 1889.
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