Miklós Kásler - Zoltán Szentirmay (szerk.): Identifying the Árpád Dynasty Skeletons Interred in the Matthias Church. Applying data from historical, archaeological, anthropological, radiological, morphological, radiocarbon dating and genetic research (Budapest, 2021)

CHAPTER TEN – Unique identification of the skeletons

The mtDNA HVR 1/2 genetic investigation of the fetus’ skeleton was conducted by Dr Olasz.

She

found that the fetus could not be Béla

Ill’s grandchild (one of his daughter’s children), as its mitochondrial DNA differs from that of Anne of Antioch. The fetus does not have the 16240G specific to the Queen, and the Queen does not have 16294T and 16296T SNV found in the fetus.

According to Balázs

Holczmann

’s hypothesis, if the maternal alleles of the fetus match with the maternal alleles of skeleton II/

52_3

(they match in a ratio of 13/15), or its mtDNA haplogroup is T2b2b 1, then the female skeleton is Predslava of Kiev, while skeleton II/52_3 is Béla

II

(the Blind) (Holczmann 2019a). The sequence variations 16194T and 16296T found in the mtDNA HVR-1 region of skeleton 11/52 determine the fetus’ T2b haplogroup by themselves (Pike et

al.

2010). Thus, the fetus’ maternal genetic markers and mitochondrial haplogroup match the maternal markers of skeleton 11/52. This is possible only if the mother of the fetus is Predslava of Kiev, and the fetus is Béla

Il

’s sibling (see Figure 44). 16294T SNV can be found not only in the fetus, but in skeleton 11/52 (Béla

II)

as well, which serves as further proof that the fetus is in fact Béla

H

’s sibling.

The Ukrainians are proud of their royal connections and published a series of stamps on the Kievan wives of European Kings. Among these, the wives of Hungarian Kings were the following: Euphemia

of

Kiev, wife of Kálmán;

Anastasia

of Kiev, wife of András

I;

Predslava of Kiev, wife of Álmos;

and

Euphrosyne

of

Kiev, wife of Géza

II

(Figure 43). Predslava married Prince Álmos

of

the Árpád

Dynasty,

their later fate is still unknown.

199