A letter from Anne of Kiev (1072-1092)

Translated letter:

It is known to all the sons of the holy church that the creator of the universe, God the father, formed all things for the construction and adornment of the most holy nuptials of his only son. Not only the father but also his son, in harmony with the Holy Spirit, prepared the bride for him, as he says in the Song of Songs to that bride: “Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come and you will be crowned from the height of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon.” But I, Anne, understanding in my heart and going over in my mind such beauty and such splendor and remembering what is written: “Blessed are those who are called to the feast of the Lamb,” and what that bride of Christ [says] elsewhere “Those who light me will have eternal life,” I deliberated with myself how I might be a participant of those feasts and of that beatitude and eternal life. Then my heart was lifted to build a church for Christ, so that I might be connected, incorporated within it with any member of that holy society which is joined to Christ by faith, in honor of the holy Trinity and the pious mother of God, Mary, and the precursor of the Lord and the martyr St. Vincent. I built it and ordered it to be dedicated to Christ and as a gift from my goods and those which king Henry, my husband, gave me at our marriage, all of which, with the favor of my son Philip, king by the grace of God, and the counsel of all the magnates of his kingdom, I granted to be assigned to it, so that religious men serving God, renouncing the world, embracing the regular life, that is the written [rule] of the holy apostles and blessed Augustine, might live quiet and tranquil, and pray God day and night for the sins of king Henry and my sons and friends and my own, that they might by their prayers present me to God without stain or wrinkle, as was desired by Christ for the church. Namely the land which provost Yves possessed beside the church, bought at that price, with the oven and all the revenues which that land usually renders; the nine tenants, with all the revenues which I possessed in that place before; the path around the city in the suburb of which the church was constructed and which belongs to the city; a mill in a town called Gouvieux,; a town called Blancmesnil; a property in the territory of Laon in a town called Crespy. But so that no one harms them from now on, I grant all the revenues of any kind to St. Vincent and his canons. I Philip by the grace of God king of the Franks, [we] have exchanged with those canons of St. Vincent for 30 pounds a certain hamlet of ours which is called Barbery as surety on the condition that as long as we have not rendered said pounds to the canons up to the last penny, they may hold that hamlet with everything pertaining to it and possess it in peace and freely. When we have completely paid for it, said surety will return to our control, as it was before; this in the currency of Senlis.

Original letter:

Notum est omnibus sancte aecclesiae filiis quoniam universitatis creator omnia ad ornatum compositionemque sacratissimarum nuptiarum unigeniti sui Deus pater condidit, nec solum genitor sed et ipse genitus, concordia Sancti Spiritus, sibi sponsam aptavit, sicut ipse in Canticis Canticorum eidem sponsae dicit: «Veni de Libano, sponsa mea, veni de Libano, veni et coronaberis de capite Amana, de vertice Sanir et Hermon.» Ego autem Anna, corde intelligens, mente pertractans tantam pulchritudinem tantumque decus atque recolens illud quod scriptum est: « Beati qui ad cenam Agni vocati sunt», et quod ipsa Christi sponsa alias « Qui elucidant me vitam aeternam habebunt», deliberavi apud me quomodo illarum epularum illiusque beatitudinis ac vitae aeternae particeps existere possem, cumque demum sublevatum esset cor meum ad fabricandum Christo aecclesiam, ut intus incorporari et quodlibet membrum illius sanctae societatis, que fide Christo adjuncta est, connecti valuissem, in honore sanctae Trinitatis et piae Dei genitricis Mariae et precursoris Domini et sancti Vincentii martyris, Christo eam fabricavi et dedicare precepi atque dans deputavi ibi de facultatibus meis, et de his, que in matrimonio Henricus rex, conjux meus, michi dederat, que omnia, favore filii mei Philippi, Dei gratia regis, et omnium optimatum sui regni consilio attitulari concedo, quatinus ibi quieti et tranquilli religiosi viri Deo servientes, mundo renuntiantes, regularem, id est sanctorum apostolorum et beati Augustini, que scripta est, vitam canonice amplectentes, vivere valeant et pro peccatis Henrici regis ac filiorum et amicorum meorum atque meis die ac nocte Deum exorent, et ut sine macula aut ruga, sicut a Christo aptatur aecclesia suis precibus me Deo exhibeant: terram scilicet quam juxta aecclesiam Ivo prepositus sidebat, ab ipso pretio emptam, cum furno et omnibus consuetudinibus quas terra reddere solet; novem hospites, cum omni consuetudine, quos prius in eodem loco possidebam; de censu monete, tres libras; pediter civitatis, in cujus suburbio prefata constructa est aecclesia, et quod ad civitatem pertinet; molendinum unum in villa que dicitur Guvils; villam unam que dicitur Mansionale Blavum; in territorio Laudunensi, alodium unum in villa que dicitur Crespis, sed ne quis deinceps eis molestus sit, concedo omnes omnino consuetudines sancto Vincentio et canonicis ejus. Ego Philippus Dei gratia Francoram rex, mutuavimus ab ipsis canonicis sancti Vincentii .XXX. libras et eis inde quandam villulam nostram, que vocatur Barberiacus, in vadimonium concessimus, ea conditione ut quandiu prefatas libras canonicis usque ad novissimum quadrantem non reddiderimus, villulam illam cum omnibus ad eam pertinentibus teneant et possideant quietam et solutam, dum vero persolverimus ex toto, prefatum vadimonium redeat in dominium nostrum, sicut prius fuerat; sunt autem denarii Silvanectensis monete.

Historical context:

Anne’s charter which declares the foundation of St. Vincent, from her own possessions and from the dower from her marriage to Henry, is cited in a document in which Philip records a debt to the same church. His document was presumably drawn up well after the queen’s death.

Printed source:

Prou, Maurice, Recueil des Actes de Philippe I, Roi de France (Paris: Klincksieck, 1908), document CXXX, 329-31.

Date:

1072-1092