Rogneda of Polotsk

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: about 998-1000.

The date is given in The Russian Primary Chronicle (p. 124).

Relationships

Father: Rogvolod, prince of Polotsk. (Rogvolod is probably the Slavic form of the Scandanavian name Ragnvald).

This relationship is given in The Russian Primary Chronicle (p. 91).

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: Vladimir the Great, grand prince of Kiev. Married (forcibly) about 978-980.

This relationship is given by Franklin and by Raffensperger. It is recorded in The Russian Primary Chronicle (pp. 91, 94).

Children:

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project. Most information below comes from Raffensperger and from Cawley.)

Iziaslav (died 1001), prince (kniaz') of Polotsk.

Iaroslav (about 978 - 20 February 1054), later Iaroslav I “the Wise”, grand prince of Kiev, married Ingigerd Olafsdottir.

Mstislav “the Brave” (born about 978 - died 1036), kniaz' of Tmutorokan (about 988 - 1036); kniaz' of Chernigov (about 1024 - 1036).

Vsevold, kniaz' of Vladimir.

Predslava.

A daughter probably married Bernhard, margrave of Saxon Nordmark.

Evidence

from The Russian Primary Chronicle (p. 91) (compiled about 1113):

6486-6488 (978-980). Vladimir returned to Novgorod with Varangian allies, and instructed the lieutenants of Yaropolk to return to the latter and inform him that Vladimir was advancing against him prepared to fight. He remained in Novgorod, and sent word to Rogvolod in Polotsk that he desired his daughter to wife. Rogvolod inquired of his daughter whether she wished to marry Vladimir. “I will not,” she replied, (76) “draw off the boots of a slave’s son, but I want Yaropolk instead.” Now Rogvolod had come from overseas, and exercised the authority in Polotsk just as Turȳ, from whom the Turovians get their name, had done in Turov. The servants of Vladimir returned and reported to him all the words of Rogned, the daughter of Rogvolod, Prince of Polotsk. Vladimir then collected a large army, consisting of Varangians, Slavs, Chuds, and Krivichians, and marched against Rogvolod. At this time, the intention was that Rogned should marry Yaropolk. But Vladimir attacked Polotsk, killed Rogvolod and his two sons, and after marrying the prince’s daughter, he proceeded against Yaropolk.

(p. 94):

...His lawful wife was Rogned, whom he settled on the (80) Lybed’, where the village of Predslavino now stands. By her he had fourd sons: Izyaslav, Mstislav, Yaroslav, and Vsevolod, and two daughters….

References

Cawley, Charles. “VLADIMIR Sviatoslavich” in Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.

Franklin, Simon, and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. (New York: Longman, 1996).

Raffensperger, Christian. "Rogned'" on Rusian Genealogy (website). [Consulted 3 February 2018].

Raffensperger, Christian. Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus’. (Harvard U.P., 2016).

The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text (trans. and ed. Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor), (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953).