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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1998-06 > 0899220346
From: Jean Claude CHUAT< >
Subject: Mosul and Skleros
Date: 30 Jun 1998 08:25:46 -0700
Todd A. Farmerie then
S.F. Rootenberg wrote:
> In "Royal Highness", Sir Iain Moncreiffe mentions a descent of the Great
> Princes of Kiev from the Emirs of Mosul through the Skleroi dynasty of
> Byzantium. How certain is this descent? Jean-Claude Cheynet makes no
> mention thereof in the genealogical tables of his book "Pouvoirs et
> contestations Byzance 963-1210" (Paris, 1990).
>
> If Moncreiffe is correct then the descent of Mary Monomacha, princess of
> Byzantium, is as follows (based on Cheynet and ES neue Folge):
>
> 1. Mary of Byzantium, +1067; marries 1046: Vsevolod, Great-Prince of Kiev.
> 2. Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Byzantium 1042-54; married:
[break] Even IF the Monomacha (whatever her name was) was daughter of
Constantine, and not just a kinswoman, we certainly cannot say who her
mother was.
> 3. N.N. Skleraina
> 6. Basilos Skleros, married:
> 7. Pulcheria Argyropoulina.
> 12. Romanos Skleros, married (according to Moncreiffe):
> 13. N.N., Princess of Mosul, sister of Uddat ud Dawlah Abu Taglib, Emir of
> Mosul (according to Moncreiffe he may also have been her father).
<SNIP>
According to Vannier, who studied the Argyroi family, the filiation given
above is that of Na Skleraina, Constantine IX's second wife, who died
1032/34 apparently without issue. She was the pair's only child. Vannier
believes that the mother of Anastasia Monomache (who m. Vsevolod 1046/50)
was this Na's first cousin, the Sebaste Maria Skleraina, Constantine's
official mistress, so vividly depicted by Psellos. There is no proof of
this, of course, but he rather definitely dismisses the alternative
filiation.
Anyway, Maria Skleraina was also a gdau. of Romanos Skleros who may have m.
the Princess of Mosul, so that the Mosul filiation remains open, hopeless
though it may seem.
For details, see JF. VANNIER, Familles byzantines. Les Argyroi (IXe-XIIe
sicles). Paris 1975 - page 35, with a discussion of the term 'anepsia'
(here cousin rather than niece) used in contemporary sources to describe
the relationship between Na Skleraina and the Sebaste Maria Skleraina.
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