Marie von Lyffland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie von Lyffland (ca 1560, Staritsa – 13 May 1610) was a Muscovian Princess and Queen of Livonia.
She was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa and Princess Eudoksja Odojewska (a daughter of Prince Roman Odojewski), and, through her father, descended from Manuel II Palaiologos, Emperor of Byzantine 1391 - 1425.
Maria, only surviving daughter of Vladimir of Staritsa, was married in 1573 to King Magnus of Livonia (son of Christian III of Denmark). Upon her husband's death, she was summoned from Bishopric of Courland to the court of Boris Godunov and forced to take the veil in a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. In 1609, Maria entered into correspondence with her false cousin False Dmitry II, who had proclaimed himself Tsar. Her subsequent fate is not documented.
On 12 April 1574, in Weliki Nowgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia. They had two children:
Pope Paul II arranged in 1472 a marriage between the Catholic daughter of Thomas Palaiologos, Zoe Palaiologina (renamed Sophia), and Grand Prince Ivan III of Muscovy, with the hope of making Muscovy a Catholic country. This attempt to unite churches failed. Nonetheless, because of this marriage, Moscow began in the following century its imperial policy of "third Rome". Moreover, Thomas Palaiologos' great-grandson was Ivan IV the Terrible, the first Emperor (Tsar) of Muscovy to be crowned as such (the imperial title had already come into use under Ivan III and his son Vasili III of Muscovy). The last known descendant of Zoe/Sophia was Marie von Lyffland, wife of Magnus, King of Livonia. She died in 1610.
