Gytha of Wessex

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Gytha of Wessex was one of several daughters of Ealdgyth Swan-neck by Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.

According to Saxo Grammaticus, two of Harold's sons and a daughter escaped to the court of their uncle, king Sweyn Estridsson of Denmark. They 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. It is assumed that she followed Godfrey of Bouillon in the first Crusade and died in Palestine, most likely in 1098, as a year later Vladimir Monomakh married another woman.

[edit] Children

Their children were:

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

[edit] References