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Transcontinental royal intermarriage

{{Short description|Practice of ruling dynasties of different continents marrying into each other}}

{{Incomplete list|date=December 2023}}

File:Fresco_Alexander_and_Stateira.jpg

Transcontinental royal intermarriages is royal intermarriage between royal families originating from different continents. One of the best-known instances of transcontinental royal intermarriage is the one between Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, and his three Persian wives, Roxana, Stateira and Parysatis.

Ancient Macedonia

=Alexander the Great and the Susa weddings=

in 327 BC, during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great fell in love with Roxana, daughter of the Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes, and married her despite his companions' opposition. Roxana will later give birth to a son after Alexander's death, Alexander IV of Macedon.{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Encyclopaedia Iranica |title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=https://iranicaonline.org/ |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=iranicaonline.org |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last=Bosworth |first=A. B. |date=1981 |title=A Missing Year in the History of Alexander the Great |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/629841 |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=101 |pages=17–39 |doi=10.2307/629841 |jstor=629841 |s2cid=161365503 |issn=0075-4269}}

After Alexander defeated Darius III at the Battle of Issus, he captured his family, including his daughter Stateira. In 324 BC, during a mass wedding known as the Susa weddings, Alexander married both Stateira and her cousin Parysatis, members of the Achaemenid dynasty. Other notable marriages that occurred during the Susa weddings are the one between Selecus I and the Sogdian noble Apama and the one between Ptolemy I and the Persian noble Artakama{{Cite book |last=Carney |first=Elizabeth Donnelly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbI2hZBy_EkC |title=Women and Monarchy in Macedonia |date=2000 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-3212-9 |language=en}}{{Cite book |title=Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death: The Hellenistic Dynasties |date=1999-02-01 |publisher=The Classical Press of Wales |isbn=978-0-7156-2930-7 |editor-last=Ogden |editor-first=Daniel |location=London |language=English}}{{Cite web |title=Seleukos Nikator (Routledge Revivals): Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom |url=https://www.routledge.com/Seleukos-Nikator-Routledge-Revivals-Constructing-a-Hellenistic-Kingdom/Grainger/p/book/9780415744010 |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |language=en}}

Byzantine Empire

=Khazarian dynasties=

In 695, the Byzantine emperor Justinian II was deposed and exiled to Crimea. In 703, he escaped and received help by Busir, khagan of Khazaria, who offered him his sister's hand. Justinian accepted and renamed her Theodora, probably after the wife of Justinian I. The couple had one son, co-emperor Tiberius IV.{{Cite book |last=Ostrogorski |first=Georgije |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ |title=History of the Byzantine State |date=1956 |publisher=Blackwell |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bury |first=J. B. |title=A History of the Later Roman Empire 2 Volume Set: From Arcadius to Irene |date=2015-03-05 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-08319-5 |edition=Reissue edizione |location=Cambridge |language=English}}{{Cite book |last=Norwich |first=John Julius |title=Byzantium (I): The Early Centuries |date=1989-03-18 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0-394-53778-8 |location=New York |language=English}}

Around 732, to solidify an alliance with Khazaria, the future emperor Constantine V married Tzitzak, daughter of khagan Bihar. Tzitzak was later renamed "Irene". The marriage produced Byzantine emperor Leo IV, who was given the epithet "the Khazar" referencing his maternal descent.{{Cite book |last=Dagron |first=Gilbert |title=Emperor and Priest: The Imperial Office in Byzantium |date=2003-11-24 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80123-2 |location=Cambridge |language=English |translator-last=Birrell |translator-first=Jean}}

=Armenia and Georgia=

File:Nicephorus III and Maria of Alania BnF Coislin79 fol2bis.jpg

Due to the closeness of the empire with the two realms, Byzantine royals often married with Armenian and Georgian dynasties. Here follows a list of documented marriages:

  • Emperor Michael VII and Maria of Alania.{{Cite book |title=Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200 |date=2006-09-01 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7546-5737-8 |editor-last=Garland |editor-first=Lynda |editor-link=Lynda Garland |location=Aldershot Burlington (Vt.) |language=English}}
  • Emperor Nikephoros III and Maria of Alania.
  • Hovhannes-Smbat III of Armenia and an Argyra (niece of emperor Romanos III){{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
  • Constantine I of Armenia and Pokhaina (relative of emperor Nikephoros II Phokas){{Cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=Joseph A. D. |title=Aleppo Chronicles: The Story of the Unique Sephardeem of the Ancient Near East--In Their Own Words |last2=Dayan |first2=Mireille |date=1988-01-01 |publisher=Thayer-Jacoby |isbn=978-0-9606472-1-7 |language=English}}
  • Theodore I of Nicaea and Philippa of Armenia.{{Citation |last=Angold |first=Michael |title=The Latin Empire of Constantinople, 1204–1261: Marriage Strategies |date=1991 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315587738-12/latin-empire-constantinople-1204%E2%80%931261-marriage-strategies-michael-angold |work=Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204 |pages=65–86 |access-date=2023-12-02 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315587738-12 |isbn=978-1-315-58773-8}}
  • David VI of Georgia and Theodora Doukaina Palaeologina (daughter of emperor Michael VIII).{{Cite book |last=Rayfield |first=Donald |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/E/bo14444362.html |title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia |publisher=Reaktion Books |language=en}}
  • Emperor Michael IX and Rita of Armenia.{{Cite book |title=Byzantium And the Crusades : Harris, Jonathan: Amazon.it: Libri |id={{ASIN|1852855010|country=it}} }}
  • Demetrius II of Georgia and Megale Komnena (daughter of Manuel I of Trebizond).{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
  • Bagrat V of Georgia and Helene of Trebizond.{{Cite book |last1=Panaretos |first1=Michael |title=Two Works on Trebizond |last2=Bessarion |date=2019-02-18 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-98662-6 |location=Cambridge (Mass.) |language=English |translator-last=Kennedy |translator-first=Scott}}
  • Bagrat V of Georgia and Anna of Trebizond.

=Mongol khanates=

{{Main|Byzantine–Mongol Alliance}}

Around 1265, Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII attempted to start diplomatic relationships with the Mongol Ilkhanate. A marriage was combined between Ilkhan Hulagu, and Michael's illegitimate daughter, Maria Palaiologina. Maria left Costantinople in 1265, but when she arrived in Caesarea she was informed that Hulagu had died, so it was decided for her to marry Hulagu's son, Abaqa. The Mongols called Maria "Despina Khatun". The marriage produced a daughter, Theodora Ara Qutlugh.{{Cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |title=A History of the Crusades, Vol. III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades |date=1987-12-25 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-34772-3 |location=Cambridge |language=English}}{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Jean |url=http://archive.org/details/histoiredescroi01michgoog |title=Histoire des croisades |date=1996 |publisher=[Paris] : Fayard |others=Harvard University}}{{Cite book |last=George |first=Walter S. |url=https://www.amazon.com/Byzantine-Churches-Constantinople-History-Architecture/dp/B003YMMZFE |title=Byzantine Churches in Constantinople - Their History and Architecture |date=2010-07-06 |publisher=FQ Books |language=English}}{{Cite book |last=Shukurov |first=Rustam |title=The Byzantine Turks, 1204-1461: 105 |date=2016-05-19 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-30512-0 |location=Leiden |language=English}}

Michael VIII also tried to form an alliance with the Golden Horde. In 1266, he gave another illegitimate daughter, Euphrosyne Palaiologina, in marriage to the khan Nogai. There are no known children resulting from this marriage.{{Cite book |last=Nicol |first=Donald M. |title=Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 |date=1972 |publisher=HarperCollins Distribution Services |isbn=978-0-246-10559-2 |location=London |language=English}}

England

=Failed alliance with the Ayyubids=

In a negotiation between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin during the third crusade, it was proposed to arrange a marriage between al-Adil, Saladin's brother, and either Richard's sister Joan or his niece Eleanor. The arrangement however failed for religious reasons.{{Cite book |last=Nicolle |first=David |title=The Third Crusade 1191: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the struggle for Jerusalem |date=2005-11-10 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |others=Christa Hook |isbn=978-1-84176-868-7 |location=Oxford |language=English}}

Hungary

=Cumania=

Around 1238, Béla IV of Hungary arranged a marriage between his son, future Stephen V, and Elizabeth, the daughter of a Cuman leader whom he had invited to settle in the plains along the river Tisza. This leader is either khan Köten or a man named Seyhan. The marriage resulted in 4 daughters and 2 sons, among whom there is Laudislaus IV, who succeeded his father, and who was nicknamed "the Cuman" for his mother's origins.{{Cite book |last=Berend |first=Nora |title=At the Gate of Christendom: Jews, Muslims and 'Pagans' in Medieval Hungary, c.1000 – c.1300 |date=2006-11-02 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-02720-5 |location=Cambridge |language=English}}{{Cite book |last=Engel |first=Pal |title=The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary |date=2005-05-25 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-85043-977-6 |location=London New York, NY |language=English}}{{Cite web |last=Tamás |first=Kőfalvi |date=1999 |title=A pécsváradi konvent külső hiteleshelyi tevékenységének főbb jellemzői 1526-ig |url=https://contentas.ek.szte.hu/Record/acta65218 |access-date=2023-12-02}}{{Cite web |last=Szupernap |title=Az Árpád-ház uralkodói · Kristó Gyula – Makk Ferenc · Könyv |url=https://moly.hu/konyvek/kristo-gyula-makk-ferenc-az-arpad-haz-uralkodoi |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Moly |language=hu}}

Russia

=Mongol khanates=

In 1315, Yury, prince of Moscow, sealed an alliance with khan Uzbeg of the Golden Horde by marrying his sister Konchaka. Konchaka then converted to orthodoxy and was renamed "Agafiia". She was imprisoned in a war to take the principality of Vladimir and died before she could give Yury any sons.{{Cite web |title=Medieval Russia, 980–1584 (2nd ed.) |url=https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/802816/medieval-russia-980-1584/janet-martin/ |access-date=2023-12-02 |language=en-us}}{{Cite book |last=Halperin |first=Charles |title=Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History |date=1987-07-22 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20445-5 |location=Bloomington |language=English}}

Georgia

=Europe=

After the annexation of Georgia by the Russian Empire, the Georgians gradually entered into the Western cultural sphere. This came following centuries of staying within the Persian cultural sphere and multiple intermarriages with the Mongols, the Shirvanshahs, the Seljuks, and the Safavid and Afsharid dynasties of Persia. Although, the Bagrationi Dynasty lost its royal dignity and became subsumed into the Russian nobility, they were nonetheless still able to achieve several marriages with reigning or fellow previously-reigning royal houses from Europe. There are inconsistent and conflicting designations of such unions as dynastic or morganatic. Here is a short list of such marriages:

References

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Category:Royalty

Category:Monarchy

Category:Types of marriage