Oda of Stade

Oda of Stade (also Oda of Elsdorf) (b. 1040 – d. 1087) was a German noblewoman, who was the daughter of Ida of Elsdorf. Through marriage to Sviatoslav II of Kiev, she became a Grand Princess consort of Kievan Rus'.

Family
Oda's mother was Ida of Eldsorf (d.1052), daughter of Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia and sister of Matilda of Frisia. Ida was also a niece of Pope Leo IX, a granddaughter of Gisela of Swabia, and thus a niece of Emperor Henry III of Germany. Oda's father was perhaps Ida's first husband, Lippold/Liudolf of Derlingau (d.1038), or he may have been Ida's second husband, Dedi of Saxony (d.1056).

Religious life
According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Albert of Stade, before her marriage, Oda was a nun in the monastery of Rinthelen. The location of this monastery is not known, but is thought to have been Ringelheim. In order to have Oda released from the monastery, her mother Ida granted Villa Stedenthorp near Heßlingen to Rinthelen.

Marriages and children
Around 1065, however, Oda left the monastery and married Sviatoslav II of Kiev, as his second wife. According to the eleventh-century chronicler Lampert of Hersfeld, Oda's brother, Burchard, provost of St Simeon in Trier (d.1086), was sent to Rus’ to arrange the marriage. According to Albert of Stade, this was done at the instigation of Oda's mother Ida. Around 1070 Oda gave birth to Sviatoslav's fifth son, Yaroslav (also known as Constantin), who later became prince of Murom (r.1097-1123, 1127–1129) and Chernigov (r.1123-1127). After Sviatoslav's death (d.1076), Oda returned to the Holy Roman Empire with her son, where she raised him.

Oda is believed to have arranged the marriage of her niece Eupraxia of Kiev to Henry III the Long, Count of Stade.

By her second marriage, to an unknown Saxon nobleman, Oda had a daughter: Akarina of Elsdorf (1079-1130) (whom Albert of Stade refers to as Aliarina), who was the mother of Burchard of Loccum.