Anna of Moscow

Anna of Moscow
Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire
The birth of Anna of Moscow
Born	1393
Died	August 1417 (aged 23–24)
Spouse	John VIII Palaiologos ​ ​ (m. 1414)​
Dynasty	Rurik
Father	Vasily I of Moscow
Mother	Sophia of Lithuania

Anna Vasilievna of Moscow (1393 – August 1417) was a Byzantine Empress consort by marriage to John VIII Palaiologos. She died while her husband was still the junior co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

Family

She was a daughter of Vasily I of Moscow and Sophia of Lithuania. Her maternal grandparents were Vytautas the Great and his first wife, Anna.

Marriage

She married John VIII in 1414. Her husband was the eldest surviving son of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš. John was named Despotes in 1416 and seems to have assumed the position of co-emperor shortly thereafter.

Anna was second in status only to her mother-in-law among the women of the Byzantine court. The history of Doukas records her dying of the "plague" in 1417. She is thought to be a victim of bubonic plague. Following the Black Death this plague continued to strike parts of Europe sporadically until the 17th century, each time with reduced intensity and fatality, suggesting an increased resistance due to genetic selection.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Anna of Moscow

16. Ivan I of Moscow 8. Ivan II of Moscow 17. Helena 4. Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy 18. Vasily Velyaminov, Mayor of Moscow 9. Alexandra Ivanovna Velyaminova 2. Vasily I of Moscow 20. Konstantin Vasilyevich of Suzdal 10. Dmitry of Suzdal 21. Helena 5. Eudoxia Dmitriyevna of Suzdal 22. Konstantin III of Rostov 11. Vasilisa-Anna Konstantinova of Rostov 23. Maria Ivanovna of Moscow 1. Anna of Moscow 24. Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania 12. Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania 25. Jewna of Polotsk 6. Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania 13. Birutė of Palanga 3. Sophia of Lithuania 28. Ivan Aleksandrovich of Smolensk 14. Svyatoslav II Ivanovich of Smolensk 7. Anna of Smolensk

External links

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