In this interview, Natalia (Talia) Zajac, an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Niagara University, New York State, discusses her on-going research into ‘Noble Ladies: Between East and West’.  This is the interesting phenomenon of noble ladies from Rus marrying into Central European noble families, and nobles ladies from Central Europe marrying into the Rus nobility, thus creating marriages of mixed Orthodox and Latin Christianity.  Natalia also offers explanations of why this religious openness and acceptance of difference gradually came to an end in the thirteenth century.

In addition, Natalia talks about her research into one specific noble lady, the Duchess Gremislava (in Polish, Grzymisława), a Rus princess married into the Polish nobility.  Through the detailed examination of a seal of Duchess Gremislava, Natalia reviews the power struggles and internal family competition of the nobility, as well as how these travelling brides built wider support and friendship networks throughout their married lives.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.