Holmgard'. This prince may have been Vladimir the Great. Polotsk wife Rogneda of Polotsk is the best known of Vladimir's Varangian pagan wives. According to the Primary Chroncile, Vladimir wanted to forge an alliance with her father, prince Rogvolod of Polotsk, but after she refused to marry Vladimir, he raped and forcibly married Rogneda. Koptev (2010) hypothesised that the story of Rogneda's revenge (found in the Laurentian Chronicle under the year 1128), namely her attempt to kill her husband Vladimir, was 'an obvious later addition to the original story of Rogneda, known in the Primary Chronicle under the year 980.' Koptev stated that "Shakhmatov is almost certainly correct when he suggests that the story derives from the later Novgorodian tradition, which asserted the superiority of the clan of Jaroslav's descendants in comparison to Rogvolod's descendants ruling in Polotzk.' The Primary Chronicle mentions three of Rogneda's sons - Izyaslav of Polotsk (+1001), Vsevolod of Volhynia (+ca 995), and Yaroslav the Wise. Following an old Yngling tradition, Izyaslav inherited the lands of his maternal grandfather, i.e., Polotsk. According to the Kievan succession law, his progeny forfeited their rights to the Kievan throne, because their forefather had never ruled in Kiev supreme. They, however, retained the principality of Polotsk and formed a dynasty of local rulers, of which Vseslav the Sorcerer was the most notable. Greek wife During his unruly youth, Vladimir begot his eldest son, Sviatopolk, relations with whom would cloud his declining years. His mother was a Greek nun captured by Svyatoslav I in Bulgaria and married to his lawful heir Yaropolk I. Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, invariably erring in the matters of onomastics, gives her the fanciful Roman name of Julia. When Yaropolk was murdered by Vladimir's agents, the new sovereign raped his wife and she soon gave birth to a child. Thus, Sviatopolk was probably the eldest of Vladimir's sons, although the issue of his parentage has been questioned and he has been known in the family as "the son of two fathers". Bohemian wife Vladimir apparently had a Czech wife, whose name is given by Vasily Tatishchev as Malfrida. Historians have gone to extremes in order to provide a political rationale behind such an alliance, as the Czech princes are assumed to have backed up Vladimir's brother Yaropolk rather than Vladimir. His children by these marriage were probably Svyatoslav of Smolensk, killed during the 1015 internecine war, and