The Prince of Moscow (russian: Князь Московский), later known as the Grand Prince of Moscow (russian: Великий князь Московский), was the

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

of the

Principality of Moscow The Grand Duchy of Moscow, Muscovite Russia, Muscovite Rus' or Grand Principality of Moscow (russian: Великое княжество Московское, Velikoye knyazhestvo Moskovskoye; also known in English simply as Muscovy from the Lati ...

, initially a part of

Vladimir-Suzdal Vladimir-Suzdal (russian: Владимирско-Су́здальская, ''Vladimirsko-Suzdal'skaya''), also Vladimir-Suzdalian Rus', formally known as the Grand Duchy of Vladimir (1157–1331) (russian: Владимиро-Су́здальс ...

, one of the

principalities A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

that emerged from the collapse of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

History

The grand principality of

fell apart into feuding Yurievichi

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...

s over the course of the 13th century. The Muscovite princes were the Daniilovichi branch of the Yurievichi clan, namely, they were descendants of

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

(Daniil). As Daniel never became

grand prince of Vladimir The grand duke of Vladimir was the ruler of a principality during the era of Kievan Rus' and after its collapse. It ruled territory approximately bounded by three rivers, the Volga, the Oka and the Northern Dvina. From 1157 to 1238 its capital was ...

before he died in 1303, this meant that according to traditional succession practices in Rus', his descendants were ''

izgoi Izgoi is a term that is found in medieval Kievan Rus'. In primary documents, it indicated orphans who were protected by the church. In historiographic writing on the period, the term was meant as a prince in Kievan Rus' who was excluded from succe ...

'': his son and successor

Yury of Moscow Yuriy Danilovich, also known as Georgiy Danilovich (Юрий Данилович in Russian) (1281 – 21 November 1325) was Prince of Moscow (1303–1325) and Grand Prince of Vladimir (from 1318). Yury was the oldest son of Daniel, the first p ...

had no legitimate claim to the throne of Vladimir. This is why khan

Tokhta Tokhta (Toqta, Toktu, Tokhtai, Tochtu or Tokhtogha) (died ) was a khan of the Golden Horde, son of Mengu-Timur and great-grandson of Batu Khan. His name "Tokhtokh" means "hold/holding" in the Mongolian language. Early reign under Nogai In 1 ...

granted

Mikhail of Tver Mikhail Yaroslavich (russian: Михаил Ярославич) (1271 – 22 November 1318), also known as Michael of Tver, was a Prince of Tver (from 1285) who ruled as Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1304 until 1314 and again from 1315–1318. ...

the Vladimirian grand princely title when

Andrey of Gorodets Andrey III Alexandrovich (ca. 1255 – 27 July 1304), a Russian prince, son of Alexander Nevsky, received from his father the town of Gorodets on the Volga. In 1276 he added Kostroma to his possessions and joined the struggle for the Grand Duchy ...

died the next year (27 July 1304). Nevertheless, the Daniilovichi managed to play towards the favour of the Mongol khans of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...

in order to be awarded the grand princely title through a ''

yarlik A jarlig ( mn, зарлиг, zarlig; russian: ярлык, ''jarlyk'', also transliterated yarlyk in Russian and Turkic, or even more correctly yarlıq, and the Tatar: yarlığ) is an edict or written commandant of Mongol and Chinggisid rulers' ...

'' by the second quarter of the 14th century, in disregard of dynastic traditions. The Horde sought to use Muscovy to weaken the

Principality of Tver The Principality of Tver (russian: Тверское княжество, la, Tferiae war of succession A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim the Order of succession, right of successor to a demise of the Crown, deceased or deposition (politics), deposed monarch. The rivals are typic ...

known as the Great Troubles, the Muscovite princes managed to grow too powerful, and the khans were too late to start awarding the ''yarlik'' of grand prince of Vladimir to the Tverian princes instead in order to keep Moscow in check. It is unclear when exactly the princes of Moscow started styling themselves "''grand'' prince of Moscow" independently of their title of

, but the addition of "grand" appears relatively late.

Vasily II of Moscow Vasily Vasiliyevich (russian: Василий Васильевич; 10 March 141527 March 1462), also known as Vasily II the Blind (Василий II Тёмный), was the Grand Prince of Moscow whose long reign (1425–1462) was plagued by the ...

referred to himself as "grand prince of Moscow and all Rus'" (''velikii kniaz' i vseia Rusi'') in a 1451/2 letter to the last Byzantine emperor,

Constantine XI Palaiologos Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος, ''Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos''; 8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last List of Byzantine em ...

List of princes

References

Bibliography

* * (e-book). * {{cite book , title=Medieval Russia: 980–1584. Second Edition. E-book , last=Martin , first=Janet , url=https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/802816/medieval-russia-980-1584/janet-martin/ , year=2007 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , location=Cambridge , isbn=978-0-511-36800-4

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Daniilovichi family Russian monarchy