Biography
Her father was Thomas Palaeologus, the Despot of Morea. Together with her brothers, she was taken to Rome after the conquest of Morea by Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1460. In Rome, her Greek name Zoe was changed to Sophia. Born into the Orthodox religion, it is possible that she was raised as a Catholic in Rome.
In 1469, Pope Paul II offered to marry her to the Russian monarch in order to unite the Orthodox and Catholic churches. She entered Russia with a grand entourage and was welcomed in the city of Pskov, where she was officially celebrated — it was noticed that she thanked the public herself for the celebrations. The widowed Russian prince married Sophia at the Dormition Cathedral, Moscow on 12 November 1472. The cardinal Johannes Bessarion, sent by the Pope to Moscow, however, did not succeed in his mission.
Over the years, Sophia gained great influence in her husband's decision making. She was described as a "shrewd" character, and it was rumoured that her husband let himself be directed by her suggestions. In 1472, she was affected by the formal tributary gesture by which her spouse greeted the Mongolian representatives, and is believed to have convinced him to abandon the tributary relationship to the Mongols, which was completed in 1480. It is thought that she introduced grand Byzantine ceremonies and meticulous court etiquette in the Kremlin, the idea of Moscow as a Third Rome evidently pleasing her. Sophia was apparently not obliged to follow the custom of traditional isolation which was expected of other Russian noble and royal women at the time; it is noted that she was not confined to the women's quarters, but greeted foreign representatives from Europe similarly as the queens of Western Europe. Shortly before her death she persuaded her husband to pass the throne to her son Vasili, rather than to Ivan's grandson Dmitry, as had been planned earlier. Apart from Vasili III, only her fifth son, Andrey of Staritsa, left issue. Her last known descendant, Maria of Staritsa, wife of Livonia's king Magnus, died in 1610.
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