Gytha of Wessex

Gytha of Wessex
Died 1098 or 1107
Spouse Vladimir II Monomakh
House House of Godwin (by birth)
Rurik Dynasty (by marriage)
Father Harold Godwinson
Mother Edith Swannesha

Gytha of Wessex (died 1098 or 1107) (Old English: Gȳð) was one of several daughters of Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, by his consort, Edith Swannesha. In Domesday her sole possession is the manor of Werrington a very large settlement on the Cornish / Devon border.[1]

According to Saxo Grammaticus, Gytha and two of her brothers escaped to the court of their uncle, King Sweyn Estridsson of Denmark. The two brothers were treated by Sweyn with hospitality, while their sister was married to Waldemar, King of Ruthenia, i.e. Vladimir II Monomakh, one of the most famous rulers of Kievan Rus.

Gytha was the mother of Mstislav the Great, the last ruler of united Kievan Rus. In the Norse sagas, Mstislav is called Harald, after his grandfather. The pateric of St Pantaleon Cloister in Cologne says that "Gytha the Queen" died as a nun on 10 March. A year later Vladimir Monomakh married another woman.

Children

Their children were:

  1. Mstislav the Great (1076–1132)
  2. Izyaslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Kursk († 6 September 1096)
  3. Svyatoslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Smolensk and Pereyaslav († 16 March 1114)
  4. Yaropolk II of Kiev († 18 February 1139)
  5. Viacheslav I of Kiev († 2 February 1154)

Family trees

Further reading


References

  1. ↑ http://opendomesday.org/name/262455/countess-gytha-of-wessex/
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