Years ago, I had a housemate from Ukraine. He is a linguist and, at the time, was translating 11th-century documents about Yaroslav the Wise, the Grand Prince of Kyiv. Coincidently, I was writing about the 11th-century Norman Invasion of England.
![Silver commemorative coin issued in 2014 honoring Anna of Kyiv](https://alkucherenko.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Анна_Ярославна_реверс...НБУ-Public-domain-via-Wikimedia-Commons.jpeg...Anna-of-Kyiv-BothSides-2022-08-10-at-1.40.51-PM-350x163.png)
We shared our research, laughed together, and sometimes we translated Greek texts—he more agile than I—for sure.
Yaroslav’s daughter, Anna of Kyiv, became queen of the Franks when she married Henri I Capet. King Henri recognized his ward, the seven-year-old, illegitimate William, as the seventh duke of Normandy.
Anna was related to Vikings from Sweden who sailed the Slavic rivers, named the Rus, and situated themselves in micro-kingdoms like Kyiv. Anna gave the Greek word for lover-of-horses, Philip, to her son, linking the West to the ancient Mediterranean world. Anna’s fourteen-year-old son, King Philip ruled France when his vassal, William the Bastard, became king of England. As regent for her minor son, Anna gave Philip a stable and fiscally sound kingdom. She also had a scandalous affair with a married man.
I’d love to tell her story someday. I imagine a delegation of French nobles and prelates arriving at the palace in Kyiv, an eighteen-year-old girl pulling herself up to a high window to see them crossing the river, their splendid horses, the pageantry, knowing that she was the purpose of their months-long journey. Yum, what a tale.
In 2014, Ukraine issued a special coin to honor Anna, who symbolizes Ukraine’s cultural and national independence.