Sophia Loren | Hagia Sophia | Sophia University | Sophia Antipolis | Sophia Parnok | Sophia Jagiellon, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach | Sophia Kiely | Sophia Perennis | Sophia Frangou | Sophia Charlotte of Hanover | Princess Sophia | Countess Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach | Sophia the Martyr | Sophia Smith Collection | Sophia Petrillo | Sophia of Nassau | Sophia of Hanover | Sophia Montecarlo | Sophia Magdalena of Denmark | Sophia Latjuba | Sophia Jagiellon | Sophia Desta | Sophia College, Mumbai | Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom | Princess Sophia of Gloucester | Miss Sophia's Diary | SS Princess Sophia | Sophia of Lithuania | Sophia Mundi Steiner School | Sophia Morrison |
After the death of his first consort, Maria of Tver (1467), and at the suggestion of Pope Paul II (1469), who hoped thereby to bind Russia to the Holy See, Ivan III wedded Sophia Paleologue (also known under her original Greek and Orthodox name of Zoe), daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, despot of Morea, who claimed the throne of Constantinople as the brother of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor.
In an effort to reunite the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, Pope Paul II arranged during 1472 a marriage between the Catholic daughter of Thomas, Zoe Palaiologina (renamed Sophia), and Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia, with the hope of making Russia a Roman Catholic country.