"You are heavy, Monomakh's hat!" - says Russian folk wisdom. I mean, power is hard. That is, the Monomakh cap is a symbol of power. At the same time, just once looking at the notorious hat, one would ask the question: “Did the Byzantine emperors really wear THIS?” This is a round miracle with a fur trim.
So historians and cultural experts asked the same question. First of all, everyone naturally thought about the veracity of the legend according to which Constantine the Ninth Monomakh bestowed this headdress on his Russian grandson Vladimir Monomakh. The problem is that in 1055, when Konstantin died, Vladimir was only two years old and he was only the fourth son of Vsevolod Yaroslavovich, so either Konstantin was a brilliant predictor or....
Or look for an answer from specialists in clothing and art. Which is what was done. Detailed analysis. Just like that: the notorious hat - with obvious features of the Golden Horde. Moreover, it is female! And initially it did not have a cross or edge, but it had precious pendants on it. Among the Turkic-speaking peoples, such women's hats were indeed very common and were called takya.
It is also interesting that in the inventory of the jewelry of the Moscow khans of the princes, starting with Ivan Kalita, there was no mention of any Monomakh - there the cap was mentioned simply as a “golden cap”. There is no information about her at all before Ivan Kalita. Thus, historians agree that the hat was originally given to Ivan Kalita or his brother Yuri Danilovich. But the hat was a woman’s, which means one cool guy hardly gave it to another. This means that the hat did not come to Moscow alone and with its owner. And the hostess in those days was unlikely to come to Moscow on an excursion. Rather, she came there to get married.
And there is a character like no other suitable for the role of the original owner of the hat! This is the sister of the Khan of the Golden Horde Uzbek Konchak, who accepted Orthodox name Agafya and married to whom do you think? For Moscow Prince Yuri Danilovich.
Here we need to go back a little in time and talk in detail about the Moscow Principality of that time and its princes. The youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniil, was unlucky with his inheritance: he got the so-called Muscovy, which even by the standards of the not very spoiled civilization of northeastern Rus' was a real bearish corner. The prince’s entire property consisted of a wooden fort with a church on the territory, named after the local river Moscow and a dozen Finnish villages with aborigines who had barely emerged from the Neolithic. And also in endless swamps and forests with bears. But he got excellent connections with his father’s main strategic partner, and also his overlord, the Khan of the Golden Horde. Naturally, he received the label and ruled his wild destiny quietly and calmly. As an obedient vassal, he helped his overlord with money and troops and, thanks to this, even increased the territory of his principality - he annexed Kolomna and Pereslavl. However, having maintained reliable connections in Sarai throughout his life, Daniel was never able to use them - there were others in power in the horde. But he passed on these connections to his sons: Yuri, Ivan, Alexander, Afanasy and Boris. And they came in handy when in 1312 the power in the horde changed and Uzbek became khan. How he became one is a different story. An ardent Muslim, Uzbek had the imprudence to quarrel with a bunch of not so devout Chinggisids, who unanimously left him along with their troops to their allies in Rus'.
But Uzbek had no friends in Rus', which had always been an extremely disobedient domain, and now threatened to break away. It was here that the Danilovich brothers came to them and suggested, modern language speaking, to become from him looking at Rus'. Naturally, the khan agreed and Yuri Danilovich became the prince of Moscow and also received the khan’s sister as his wife. With such a wife, he was no longer a gopnik from the Trans-Volga forests and an unwashed owner of two villages and five swamps, but a man close to the Great Khan who could afford a lot. And he began a fight with Mikhail Tverskoy, who was friends with those who did not like Uzbek and, in addition to his own, ruled the Vladimir principality, which Yuri liked. More precisely, he had fought before, but now he attacked him openly and... lost in the battle near the village of Bartenovo. Yuri fled to the Horde, and Konchaka was captured by Mikhail.
And here is the most interesting thing: after several months of being in captivity, the princess died under mysterious circumstances, indicating poisoning. And Yuri immediately took advantage of this - he accused Khan Mikhail of poisoning his sister. The prince was summoned to Sarai and executed, and Yuri received the long-awaited label to the Principality of Vladimir.
The question arises: why would someone poison their own and such a valuable captive? This is silly. It would have been much smarter for Mikhail Tverskoy to make a fool of him, who could neither win the battle nor save the Khan’s sister, Yuri. But unfortunate Konchaka still died. And someone got a lot of benefit out of it. Yuri not only avoided disgrace, but also got what he wanted. This is how the greatness of the Moscow principality was purchased at the cost of a young woman’s life.
But the story of the Danilovich brothers did not end there. The guys achieved success: Yuri became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Ivan - the Prince of Moscow, Afanasy - the Prince of Novgorod. Yuri now boldly “attacked” the Ryazan and Tver principalities and Mikhail’s heir, Dmitry Stormy Eyes, recognizing his primacy, paid him tribute from all over the Tver land. And then greed took over and Yuri, instead of the Horde, sent tribute to his brother to Novgorod. Whether this was a setup on Dmitry’s part is unknown, but Yuri made a mistake and Dmitry immediately snitched on him. Yuri had to flee to his brother in Novgorod. But after some time he returned to the Horde, apparently intending to climb to the throne again, but then Dmitry met him and simply hacked him to death. For which he himself was executed, which was obviously greatly facilitated by Yuri Danilovich’s brother Ivan, who by that time was already called Kalita, because on the orders of the khan he was quite good at making money and putting it to work - for example, he bought the city of Uglich. His main occupation in life was extracting tribute from the Russian people for the Tatar Khan, who specially allocated troops to him for this purpose. Naturally, most often he visited the hated Principality of Tver, whose princes often looked towards Lithuania. It is not entirely clear at what stage of his career Konchaka’s golden cap came into his possession, but being a thrifty man, he did not drink it away, but kept it for posterity.
And the offspring lived up to his expectations! First, Kalita's godson, Metropolitan Alexei, who was also the prime minister, bought from his sons a charter from the Horde for a bunch of silver, according to which the Moscow princes received the hereditary right to a great reign. Then his grandson Dmitry Donskoy continued the tradition of Moscow princes serving the Genghisids and won the Battle of Kulikovo for Tokhtamysh. They, their descendants, tirelessly expanded the possessions of Moscow in the way that their ancestors bequeathed to them: through intrigue, bribery, deception and brute force. And a hundred years later, a descendant of Daniil Alexandrovich, Ivan III, abandoned his overlord, Khan Akhmet, on the Ugra River (when he conspired with other Tatars - the Crimean Girays), when he realized that he was already weaker than him and it was time to create his own empire. He was helped in this by his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Paleologus. This made it possible to talk about continuity no longer from the Golden Horde, but from Byzantium. It is possible that it was the Byzantine princess who found an old-fashioned hat in the stash, which soon found a worthy use - the girls' caps were removed from it, a Orthodox cross was inserted onto the top of the head and trimmed with fur. And soon it became a symbol of royal power.
And now, looking back at this whole story, we can confidently say - the hat stored in Armory Chamber truly a symbol of Russian power - once belonging to a tragically deceased Tatar woman and later crowned with an Orthodox cross and barbarian fur - there could be no other crown of the empire.
And if one can wholeheartedly agree that the hat belongs to Konchaka-Agafya, then it would seem that the purely criminal story of her murder would remain unsolved. And no one will even dig. because the foundation of everything rests on this secret Russian state.
Michael, saint Grand Duke Tverskoy, son of Yaroslav III, grandson of Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, was born in 1272, soon after the death of his father, from his second wife Ksenia; nicknamed Tver, because he reigned in Tver, not yet being a Grand Duke, and was the first to establish the independence of the Tver reign. After the death of Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich of Tverskoy (1304), Mikhail was supposed to ascend to the grand-ducal throne, but his nephew, Georgy Danilovich of Moscow, challenged this right from him. This litigation dragged on for long years, aggravated by the intransigence and love of power of George and his family relations with the Tatars - he was married to Konchak, the sister of Khan Uzbek. Once again declaring himself the Grand Duke, George opposed Michael, who defeated his army and took George and Konchaka prisoner, but out of his mercy granted them freedom. Unfortunately, Konchaka died suddenly, and George and the Tatar commander Kavgady slandered Mikhail before Uzbek. On the banks of the Nerl River, Mikhail parted with his mother and confessed his sins to his confessor, while he himself headed into the horde, heading towards almost certain death. He understood that in this way he laid down his soul for his loved ones and for his entire people.
At first, the khan received Mikhail kindly, but after some time he ordered him to be tried, bringing charges based on the evidence of slanderers. Not listening to the prince’s excuses, he was taken into custody, ordered to be shackled in chains, and a heavy block was placed on his neck. Mikhail endured humiliation and torment with amazing firmness. While still on the way from Vladimir, he received the Holy Mysteries several times, as if preparing for death; Now, seeing his inevitable death, he spent his nights in prayer and reading psalms. The princely youth held a book in front of him and turned over the pages, for Mikhail’s hands were tied. Faithful servants suggested that the prince leave secretly, but he replied: “Saving myself, I will not save the fatherland. May God's will be done!” Just before the arrival of the villains, he opened the Psalter at random and read: “My heart is troubled within me, and the fear of death attacks me.” His soul involuntarily shuddered. When he closed the book, one of the youths ran in to him and said that Prince George, Kavgady and a crowd of people were approaching the tent. They dispersed all of Michael's people, and he stood alone and prayed. The villains threw him to the ground, tortured him, and beat him with their heels. One of them, named Romanets, plunged a knife into his ribs and cut out his heart (November 22, 1319). Mikhail's body lay naked while the crowd plundered the prince's property. George sent the body of the Grand Duke to Majary. There, many zealous people wanted to bring the body into the church, but the boyars did not allow this, placing it in a stable, and later avoided stopping at the churches.
Mikhail's wife, Anna, begged George to allow the prince's remains to be transported to Tver. The residents of Tver met the coffin of their beloved prince on the banks of the Volga. Having removed the lid of the coffin, the people saw with unspeakable joy the integrity of the relics, undamaged by the long journey. The burial took place on September 6, 1320 in the Transfiguration Monastery. The holy relics of the blessed prince were found incorrupt in 1655.
The chronicler calls Michael the same lover of the fatherland as St. Demetrius of Solunsky. In addition to his state virtues, Mikhail was also distinguished by family virtues, raised in the rules of piety by his virtuous mother Ksenia, who died her days as a nun.
The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniil Alexandrovich, under whom the territory of the Moscow principality grew rapidly. In 1301-1303 it included Kolomna, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Mozhaisk, recaptured from the Ryazan prince, as a result of which the territory of the Moscow principality doubled in three years and became one of the largest in North-Eastern Rus'.
Further struggle for the grand-ducal throne took place between Moscow and Tver. As a representative of a more senior branch, the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich received a label for the great reign in the Horde. In Moscow at this time, the son of Daniil Alexandrovich, Yuri, ruled. Yuri Danilovich Moskovsky was married to the sister of Khan Uzbek. He promised to increase tribute from the Russian lands, and the khan gave him the label to the grand-ducal throne. In 1315, Mikhail started a war with Yuri, defeated his squad, and captured the khan’s sister, who soon died in Tver. Yuri blamed the Tver prince for the death of his wife, as a result of which Mikhail was summoned to the Horde and executed there. For the first time in 1319, the Moscow prince received the label of the Great Reign. However, already in 1325, Yuri was killed by the eldest son of Mikhail Tverskoy, Dmitry Groznye Ochi. Khan Uzbek executed Dmitry, but continuing the policy of pitting Russian princes against each other, he transferred the Great Reign to the brother of the executed man, Alexander Mikhailovich.
In 1327, the population of Tver rebelled against the tax collector Baskak Cholkhan, a relative of Uzbek. Outraged by the extortions and violence, the residents of Tver turned to Prince Alexander Mikhailovich for help. The Tver prince took a wait-and-see attitude, and the rebel residents killed the Tatars. Taking advantage of this, the Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich came to Tver with a Mongol-Tatar army and suppressed the uprising. At the cost of the lives of the population of another Russian land, he contributed to the rise of his own principality. At the same time, the defeat of Tver deflected the blow from the rest of the Russian lands.
Having defeated the uprising in Tver, Ivan Danilovich received a label for the Great Reign, which, according to S. Platonov, no longer “came out of the hands of the Moscow dynasty.” Under Ivan Danilovich, Moscow became the richest principality of Rus', the role of Moscow strengthened as the center of unification of all Russian lands. He achieved the necessary respite from the Horde invasions, which made it possible to boost the economy and accumulate forces to fight the Mongol-Tatars. According to the chronicler, “from then on there was great silence throughout the Russian land for forty years and the Tatars stopped fighting the Russian land.” Silence and order attracted the population: they came to the Principality of Moscow to live and serve, as simple people, and significant boyars with crowds of their servants.
Ivan Kalita can also be credited with obtaining the right to collect tribute from the Russian principalities and deliver it to the Horde without the participation of Tatar tribute collectors. This means destroyed the main reason for the Tatars to enter Russian lands, and it was achieved inner peace and security in Rus'.
Kalita's most important political success was attracting the Russian metropolitan to Moscow. Metropolitan Peter lived for a long time and often in Moscow, and his successor Theognost finally moved to the Moscow principality. V. Klyuchevsky perfectly explains the significance of this event for the Moscow principality: “The threads of church life, which diverged far from the metropolitan see throughout the Russian land, now attracted parts of it to Moscow, and the rich material resources that the Russian Church then had at its disposal began to flock to Moscow, promoting its enrichment. Even more important was the moral impression - here they began to treat the Moscow prince with great confidence, believing that all his actions were carried out with the blessing of the supreme saint of the Russian Church. Russian society eventually began to sympathize with the prince, who acted hand in hand with the supreme shepherd of the Russian Church. This sympathy of church society, perhaps most of all, helped the Moscow prince strengthen his national and moral significance in northern Rus'." Thus, at the same time, a center of both political and ecclesiastical power emerged in Moscow, and thus the previously small city of Moscow became the center of “all Rus'.”
Without resorting to weapons, Ivan Kalita significantly expanded his possessions, using the financial capabilities of the Moscow principality, for which he received the nickname “Kalita” - “money purse”. As M. Lyubavsky points out, he “bought 16 villages from various private owners in the Vladimir, Yuryevsky, Kostroma and Rostov districts, as well as the volost of Kistma. From the spiritual letter of his grandson Dmitry Donskoy it is known that Beloozero, Uglich and Galich were also “purchased” Kalita, although only Dmitry Donskoy came into actual possession of them." As a result, Kalita left his sons five cities: Moscow, Mozhaisk, Kolomna, Zvenigorod, Serpukhov, 54 volosts and 32 palace villages. Kalita and his successors continued the acquisitive policy. Under the sons of Ivan Kalita Semyon, who received the nickname “Proud” for his arrogant attitude towards other princes, and Ivan the Red, the Moscow principality included the Dmitrov, Kostroma, Starodub lands and the Kaluga region.
Thus, the successes of the first Moscow princes, which gave them the rank of grand duke, resulted in the decisive predominance of Moscow over other appanages, and this, in turn, aroused sympathy and support for Moscow from the boyars, clergy, and the masses. An important event This period was the transfer of the department of the head of the Russian Church to Moscow, thereby concentrating the center of political and spiritual power in Moscow.
Konchaka (in Orthodoxy Agafya) is the sister of Khan Uzbek, who was given in marriage by him to Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow.
Medieval society rarely brought women to the forefront of history, hiding them in the depths privacy. The patriarchal environment in most cases did not consider a woman as an independent person, and therefore denied her an independent role. Girls from noble families often served as bargaining chips in a complex diplomatic game. This was also facilitated by the nature of the medieval international relations, understood primarily as family relationships, which gave serious state weight to the so-called dynastic marriages, in which political calculations dominated.
Beginning of the 14th century national history- this is the start of a long, complex and often bloody process of creating a unified Russian state, burdened by the need to eliminate the Horde yoke. The position of Russian princes as servants (vassals) of the Golden Horde khans directly depended on the royal label, and therefore on the khan’s mercy. The struggle for primacy was between two main rivals - and, personified with the princes, on the one hand, and, on the other. Both sides did not hesitate in choosing means to consolidate their superiority; they waged permanent wars with each other, using Horde armies in internecine struggle.
The Horde, in turn, in relations with the subject Russian princes, followed the principle of “divide and conquer.” In 1317, Khan Uzbek summoned the not very successful, but very ambitious Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow, who allowed himself to take actions inconsistent with the Horde in relation to. The trip to Sarai was dangerous for the prince; arbitrariness was punished quickly and cruelly. However, the situation turned out for him in the most fortunate way. The sources describe this event as follows: “The great prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow came to the great reign from the Horde, married, and the king took his sister under the name Konchak.”. The circumstances of this marriage are not known to historians, but it seems that hardly anyone was interested in the bride’s opinion.
The new Moscow princess was baptized in Orthodox faith and gave her a new name - Agafya. So in Russian history a short time a new character appeared - Konchaka-Agafya, about whose age and life before marriage nothing is known. In 1317, she left the Khan’s court forever and went with her husband to distant and foreign Moscow. In most cases, the wives of medieval rulers focused on domestic, economic activity, the birth of heirs so necessary for the state, and only in exceptional cases began to play a more or less independent role with their husband. Such were, for example, the two Sophias - the Grand Duchesses of Moscow, one of whom begins the 15th century, and the other ends. What they have in common is that, firstly, they were not lost in the shadow of their husbands, who were distinguished by their strong character and state will, and, secondly, they were foreigners. Agafya failed neither the first nor the second. She did not give birth to an heir and the sources do not allow us to answer the question of whether Konchaka could have remained not only a wife, but turned into an ally of Prince Yuri Danilovich, since no information has been preserved about the character of this woman and the degree of her influence on her husband. Moreover, subsequent events showed that Konchaka was destined to become a toy in a serious political game, where no one considered her as a separate value.
After marriage and return to Rus', Yuri Danilovich, with the active participation Tatar troops, led by Kavgadai, moved to Tver. For some reason, the Moscow prince took his wife with him on this campaign. This is all the more surprising since such a practice was not widespread at that time. The military campaign was planned extremely poorly. In the Battle of Bortenev on December 22, 1317, the army of Kavgadai and Yuri Danilovich was defeated, they fled, and Agafya was captured by Mikhail Yaroslavovich Tverskoy. History has not preserved information about her husband’s intentions to free her from captivity.
It is not known how she was treated in Tver, but it is logical to assume that she was unlikely to be subjected to serious harassment. Mikhail could not help but realize that he was dealing with the sister of the ruling Horde khan, on whose will his personal fate depended. It can be assumed that he expected to use the fact of Konchaka’s capture in a political game. What Agafya herself experienced at the same time - betrayed by her husband, caught in a strange environment, most likely not knowing the Russian language, one can only guess. Be that as it may, in 1318, under unclear circumstances, she died in Tver. Her unlucky husband, Prince Yuri, took advantage of her death, accusing his rival of poisoning Agafya on his orders. This version has neither solid evidence nor indisputable refutations. It is clear that Mikhail did not seek to complicate his relations with the Horde and, most likely, did not give such an order. But it is also possible that the conditions of the captive’s detention could have provoked the illness and quick death of this unfortunate woman.
Her death did not bring political benefits to any of the rivals. Konchaka's death became the reason for the trial and death sentence of Mikhail Yaroslavovich Tverskoy, who was executed in the Horde in November 1318. Yuri Danilovich lost his position as a privileged vassal of the khan, in 1322 he lost his title to the great reign and in 1325 he was killed.
Thus, Agafya-Konchaka only flashed as a quick shadow in a complex historical setting, leaving a feeling of pity and the acute injustice of life.
M. P. Dudkina, Ph.D. ist. sciences
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