Anne of Kiev

Princess Anne of Kiev (1024 - 1075), daughter of Yaroslav I, was Queen of France, as the wife of King Henri I. After the death of his first wife, Mathilde, King Henri had searched the courts of Europe for a suitable bride, but could not locate a princess who was not related to him within illegal degrees of kinship. At last he sent an embassy to distant Kiev, who returned with Anne (also called Agnes or Anna). Anne and Henri were married at the cathedral of Reims, May 19, 1051. They had three sons:

• Philippe I, King of France (May 23, 1052 - July 30, 1108)
• Hugues ("Magnus"), later Count of Crépi (1057 - October 18, 1102), who married the heiress of Vermandois and died on crusade in Tarsus, Cilicia.
• Robert (ca 1055 - ca 1060)

For six years after his death in 1060, she served as regent for their son, Philip, who was 7 at the time of his father's death. She was the first queen of France to serve as regent. Her co-regent was Count Baldwin V of Flanders. Anne was known as a literate woman, rare for the time, but there was some opposition to her as Regent on the grounds that her mastery of French was less than fluent.

A year after the King's death, Anne, acting as Regent took a passionate fancy for Count Raoul III of Valois and of the Vexin, a man whose political ambition encouraged him to repudiate his wife to marry Anne in 1062. Accused of adultery, Raoul's wife appealed to Pope Alexander II, who excommunicated Raoul and Anne. The young king Philippe forgave his mother, which was just as well, since he was to find himself in a very similar predicament in the 1090s. Raoul died in September 1074, at which time Anne returned to the French court. She died in 1079, and her obits were celebrated on September 5.

Sources

Bauthier, Robert-Henri. Anne de Kiev reine de France et la politique royale au Xe siècle, revue des Etudes Slaves, Vol. 57, 1985