Ilya Yaroslavich - the forgotten son of Yaroslav the Wise

The paper is devoted to the circumstances of the biography of the eldest son of Yaroslav the Wise Ilya, the origin and burial place of his mother. The author is convinced of the reality of the existence of this prince, despite his single mentions in the sources and the doubt of a number of researchers in this matter. His historicity, as well as additional details of his biography, stand on the basis of indirect data, thanks to which this eldest son of Yaroslav the Wise acquires specific features. Ilya Yaroslavich was the prince of Novgorod during his father’s struggle for Kiev. At the same time, it seems that Ilya Yaroslavich died very young and therefore could not marry. His supposed wife, the sister of Knud the Great, was married to one of Vladimir Svyatoslavich’s sons. As for Ilya’s mother, it is difficult to establish her origin, as well as the place of her burial. The remains recognized in the XV century in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral hardly belong to the first wife of Yaroslav the Wise. At least she wasn’t an old woman and died long before the cathedral was built. In general, there is an obvious confusion with some burials in this cathedral, which makes it difficult to identify them. The fact of the subsequent silencing of Ilya Yaroslavich in the sources follows from the origin of this prince from his father’s first marriage, unlike all other sons who were born from the second wife of Yaroslav the Wise. The second reason for the actual exclusion of the prince from the Rurikids was the early death of Ilya in the north of Rus’.