Lydia of Kiev

Queen of Hungary

C. 1174

(In Hungary)

Elizabeth of Bohemia

Anne of Bohemia

Roman Catholicism

**Lydia of Kiev** (C. 1148 - 1174) was the fifth child of Igor I, Grand Prince of Kiev and Igor's first wife who was possibly Brunhilda of Silesia. Lydia was the most beautiful of Igor's 45 daughters as he had many wifes, and was her fathers most valuable pawn in the game of dynastic ambition. Lydia was first betrothed to Eric I, Duke of Estonia, but a more powerful man named Andrew, the future King of Bohemia offered Lydia his hand in marriage. Lydia's father was considering keeping the match with Eric, but the betrothal broke off, after Andrew offered a lot of money to marry Lydia, Andrew was very handsome and Lydia fell for him when she met him. That was of course until Lydia met her brother-in-law Géza of Hungary, the future King of Hungary. Lydia and Géza had a long time affair, buy Lydia did have 4 children whom she adored and raised with Géza. When Lydia's father-in-law died, Andrew inherited Bohemia and Czechia and Lydia was unkeen on moving to Bohemia, she loved the relaxed life in Hungary, and she would be saying bye to Géza. But her husband forced Lydia to Bohemia and had her crowned Queen Consort of Bohemia and Czechia (Now the Czech Republic.) When Géza died in battle, Lydia was sad her mistress was gone, but she was happy she was the new Queen of Hungary, and she would be moving back to Hungary with her 4 children. But a Local Lord knew of Lydia's affair, and told Andrew Lydia had cheated on him with Géza. Lydia was charged to adultery by her husband, and striped from her title as Queen, there marriage was annulled, and worst of all, Lydia was pregnant with Andrew's 5th child, Andrew remarried a German Princess, Maria of Slavonia. Maria hated her predecessor, and ordered the murder of the pregnant Lydia, on Maria's orders, Andrew cut Lydia's throat open 8 times, before a pond of blood was everywhere, Lydia was buried in Budapest cathedral and in September 8, 2020, there was a huge celebration in Budapest celebrating Lydia's arrival in Hungary.

## Early Life

### Childhood

Lydia of Kiev (Ukrainian: Лідія Київська) was born somewhere between 1148 and 1147 in Kyiv, she was the 5th child of Igor I, Grand Prince of Kiev and his first wife who was said to be Brunhilda of Silesia, but it is indeed possible Brunhilda was actually Igor's mistress and Lydia's real mother, was Irene of Sparta or Betrisha of Antioch. Lydia was the first of Igor's 45 daughters, Lydia was raised by her aunt Xemina of Kiev who raised her as a Russian Orthodox. When Lydia was 5, her mother died in child-birth giving birth to a daughter, "Igora of Kiev." Lydia was a wicked sister to Igora, she blamed Igora for there mother's death and poisoned her sister in anger, Lydia's father remarried Anna of Neopatra, Anna was deeply jealous of Lydia's beauty, and twice attempted to murder her, Lydia oversaw the birth of her twin- half sisters Marina of Kiev and Anastasia of Kiev, which Lydia's older brothers strangled to death, Lydia's was very close to her older brother, and they often murdered people together and plotted downfalls of certain Kievan Rus' nobles. Lydia's father did not really like Lydia, but he knew of Lydia's beauty and knew she was a powerful pawn in the marriage market. A few years later, Lydia already had 15 younger half-sisters.

### Betrothal

Lydia's father took Lydia to the marriage market when she was 8, and betrothed her to, Eric I, Duke of Estonia, Eric was pleased with Lydia's beauty and was ready to take her as a wife, Lydia however found her future husband's lands in Estonia and Latvia to be overly boring, and she found Estonia to be very poor and many people there were revolting against Eric because of his tax policies. Lydia openly expressed her hatred for her fiancee and begged her father to let her marry "The Ugliest person in Kyiv over this Scorn." Her father promised Lydia if any men richer then Eric were to propose to her, Lydia would not have to marry him. Lydia's brothers were also against this arrangement and in response, they raped and killed Eric's mother Sigrid Knutsdotter, this made Eric very furious and no longer had a desire to marry Lydia at all. But Eric was to scared of Lydia's blood-thirsty family, and did not try to take revenge.

### Marriage

In 1159, Lydia was 12, she had been betrothed to Eric for more then 4 years, but Eric made every excuse to slow down the betrothal so he would not have to marry the wicked Lydia, but a 15 year old future King of Bohemia (named Andrew) wanted to marry a Kievan Rus' Princess after he was rejected by Isabella Stewart. Lydia's father offered all of his daughters, and Andrew fell-in love with Lydia when he met her, Lydia was keen on marrying Andrew to avoid marrying Eric of Estonia, at first, her father was unkeen on marrying his most beautiful daughter to Andrew, but Andrew offered a large sum of money if he allowed him to marry her, Igor I, broke off the wedding arrangement with Eric who celebrated in Riga, Latvia, and married Cecilia Johansdotter instead, which the 2 had a happy marriage. Lydia moved to Hungary where her husband lived, when she arrived crowds cheered her and chanted her with joy, Lydia got attached to Hungary quick and called it her version of the Kievan Rus'. 4 of her older brothers came to live with her to continue plotting murders as they had. There they had there first child who was named Andrew, after Andrew of Hungary, there was debate whether Andrew was entitled to the title "Of Hungary" or "Of Bohemia." At the end, Andrew was styled "Andrew of Bohemia" as he was the eldest son of the future king of Bohemia. But soon Lydia met her handsome brother-in-law Géza of Hungary, Géza was beyond Handsome and the 2 had many affairs, he was married to his step-cousin Maria of Castile, as an alliance between Hungary and Castile, Maria hated Lydia and expelled anyone who came from the Kievan Rus'. Lydia felt an agro to get revenge, so Lydia and her brother murdered any Castilian who served in the Hungarian court. The King of Hungary, Ladislaus tried to calm the 2 woman down, but they kept trying to kill each other, instead the King moved Maria of Castile to a more relaxed life in Serbia, and Lydia would remain in Budapest, Hungary.

## Queen of Bohemia and Czechia

When Lydia turned 13, her father-in-law died of an unknown illness, after her mother-in-law Blanche of France died. The will stated Lydia's lover Géza inherit the Hungarian empire, and Lydia's husband was set to inherit Bohemia and Czechia, Lydia was distraught to leave Hungary and her lover Géza of Hungary, Lydia was pregnant at the time and wanted her child to be born in Hungary, not Bohemia, but she was dragged to Bohemia in a carriage, when she arrived, the Bohemian court was filled with crazy jesters, drunken nobles, laughing ministers, and a bunch of people in bathrooms who were murdered, it was common at the time in Royal Palaces to have at least 30 murders a day and a bunch of dead bodies laying around which were cleaned up by house-keepers. Lydia hated Bohemia and wrote of Géza expressing her hatred of Bohemia, Lydia was crowned Queen of Bohemia and Czechia when she arrived. She gave birth to a son "Ottokar of Bohemia" while in Prauge. Ottokar of Bohemia was named for the first Bohemian King, Ottokar I. Andrew wanted Lydia to like Bohemia over Hungary as he intended to live there for the rest of his life, but Lydia hated Bohemia but she at least pretended to like it while she was outside greeting crowds, Lydia soon gave birth to her first daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia, whom Lydia named after her friend who died in child-birth (Her name was Elizabeth of Zita.) Lydia then visited her lover Géza and they slept with each other behind Maria's back, luckily she never got pregnant. While a few nobles were murdered, Lydia decided to join them with Géza, Lydia and her brothers and Géza slaughtered Dasha Diogenes, a Serbian Noblewoman, but to be fair, Dasha was a murderer herself, she murdered her own children along with her husband and parents.

## Queen of Hungary

In 1174, Lydia attended the 11th crusade after giving birth to her final child Anne of Bohemia, while on Crusade, Géza was killed in battle, she was deeply devastated but very happy to go back to become Queen of Hungary and go back to Hungary. She was crowned Queen of Hungary, Croatia, Albania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia, along with Princess of Western Romania, and Grand Duchess of Bosnia. Lydia rushed on the boat back to Budapest and rushed to her old palace in Budapest Castle. Lydia held her sister-in-law Maria of Castile, now the former Queen hostage in bobovac tower in Bosnia, Maria was later drowned to death which was a pretty common way of execution/murder at the time. Lydia's brothers that month were killed in battle, her brother the Grand-Prince made Lydia's son Andrew his successor if he died before she had, as he had no children nor brothers, Lydia agreed but the Grand-Prince was able to have a son Valdemar and broke of the agreement.

## Scandal

3 months into her reign as Queen of Hungary, a local Lord named Béla exposed the truth that Lydia had had numerous affairs with Géza of Hungary, at first, everyone though Béla was just trying to silly Lydia's name as he had been a close friend to Maria of Castile, Lydia even made lies about Béla to convince her court she did not have any affairs and for another 2 months people believed her. But Béla soon brought enough evidence to convince almost everybody (Including her own husband) that she had an affair. Lydia was in a place of trouble, adultery at the time was punishible by death, and Lydia knew that every sense she was a kid. Andrew cried in his room for 1 and a half days before be brought the case to trial, Lydia's brother was to busy fighting rebellions in Kyiv to save Lydia's crown.

## Trial and Annulment

Lydia cried for days knowing she would lose the case, Béla brought all his evidence against the adulterous Queen who defended herself with her personal charm, but no one fell for Lydia's charm and Sencerity, Lydia was found guilty of Adultery, and found guilty of many other crimes she did not commit, she was arrested along with her maid-staff who were murdered in front of Lydia, Lydia was only allowed to see her 6 year old daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia once, and the marriage between the 2 was annulled, Lydia was sent to Bosnia in the same prison she sent Maria of Castile in, and her husband remarried a German Princess, Maria of Slavonia who was Lydia's downfall.

## Murder

In 1174, Maria wanted to get rid of Lydia for good, she wanted to make sure she was the only Queen of Hungary and not have the former Queen live, the night before, a former chief minister of Lydia said to Maria, "First you steal the King's heart, and now you wan't to murder the former Queen, how can heaven and earth still stand you?!" Maria responded with a grin "I am the Queen, and I did not steal his majesty's heart Césare, I simply married the king after he got rid of his wife you Doxy!" Maria then ordered Andrew to cut Lydia's throat open and through her in a wooden basket, one of the knights said "How can you be so evil your royal majesty, have pity on the poor woman, she is probably already scared of being slaughtered by someone so heartless and cruel like you?!" Andrew wen't to Bosnia, when Lydia saw Andrew's knife, she begged for mercy, but Andrew grabbed a knife screamed Maria's name and cut her throat open, it took 8 cuts to kill her, Lydia was then thrown in a basket, one of Lydia's captor's said to Maria "I as a knight of the Bosnian tower though you were to cruel on the poor Queen, you could hear her crying down the gallow room, don't be so inhumane!" Lydia was buried in Budapest cathedral.