Sacred Unions and Silent Narratives: Unravelling Twelfth-Century Marital and Political Alliances in the Novgorod and Moscow Chronicles.

This article investigates the representation of twelfth-century marriage alliances between Novgorodian boyar women and Rus' princes in Rus'ian and Moscow chronicles composed from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, focusing on their inclusion or omission and political significance. It highlights how these sporadic entries, such as the 1155 marriage of Prince Mstislav Yurievich (son of Grand Prince Yuri Dolgoruky) to the daughter of boyar Petr Mikhalkovich, reflect broader socio-political dynamics involving Novgorodian boyar clans, princely factions, and "outsider" princes vying for the Novgorod throne. The study reveals that the First Novgorod Chronicle (NPL) exhibited biases favoring certain princely lines (e.g., Smolensk and Chernihiv) while omitting or downplaying others (e.g., Vladimir-Suzdal'), contrasting with sixteenth-century Moscow chronicles like the Nikonian and Illuminated Chronicles, which emphasized genealogical claims of the Moscow Danilovich princes to Novgorod and its lands. The article argues that even brief chronicle mentions of marriage alliances serve as valuable evidence for understanding medieval Rus' political alliances, kinship relations, and the evolving historiographical agendas that shaped the transmission and reinterpretation of these narratives over time.