You are buying a beautiful vintage picture of Anna Yaroslavna, the daughter of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, the wife of King Henry I of France. This picture is finely made of embossed metal. It measures approx. 19.7" x 10.6" x 0.2" (50 x 27 x 0.5 cm). It signed and dated  1990. Very good vintage condition and will be a nice addition to your collection or decoration. Please see the photos and let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.


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Anna Yaroslavna, b 1024/25 or 1032 in Kyiv, d after 1075. Daughter of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv; the wife of King Henry I of France; and sister-in-law of kings Andrew I of Hungary and Harald III of Norway. The sonless, twice-widowed Henry arranged to marry Anna to secure Yaroslav's support against the Holy Roman Empire, to obtain a male heir, and to comply with the church's regulations forbidding marriage with close cousins. Their marriage took place at the Reims Cathedral on 19 May 1051, and the first of their three sons, later King Philip I, was born in 1052. The name ‘Philip’ was very rare in France prior to that time, and was likely inspired by Saint Philip who converted Scythia, an area identified with Kyivan Rus’ in the Middle Ages. After Henry's death in 1060, Anna (Anne) ruled France as co-regent while Philip was a child. In 1061 she married Count Raoul III of Valois, resulting in their excommunication by Pope Alexander II because Raoul already had a wife. After Raoul’s death in 1074, Anna returned to Philip’s court. The place and date of her death are unknown.


Anna's signature in Cyrillic on a French royal charter from the 1060s is the only known example of a Capetian queen's signature on parchment and the only known (pre-13th century) signature of a member of the Riurykide dynasty. It is the oldest extant example of Old Ukrainian handwriting. A medieval fresco depicting her and her mother and two sisters is preserved in Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, and two 20th-century full-figure sculptures of Anna are found in Senlis near Paris in the church of Saint Vincent's Monastery, which she had founded.