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Please
place your cursor over a box to see if it is linked to brief notes on the
individual. All these individual notes then are linked to fathers and
sons so it is possible to trace the lineage from Igor to Fedor I. The family
line is traced back to Alexander Nevski, although he was never prince of
Moscow.
The first of the family to proclaim himself such was Alexander's third son,
Daniel. However by starting with Alexander Nevski we can link the family
backwards more easily. Aleksandr's two older sons, Dmitrii and Andrei III,
fought each other for the throne of Vladimir and both had the khan's
yarlik at one time or another. But Daniil died before Andrei III, so had no
chance himself to the Vladimir throne. But both Dmitrii Aleksandrovich's and
Andrei Aleksandrovich's family lines ended, leaving the succession to Aleksandr
Yaroslavich Nevski's domains to Daniil Aleksandrovich's family. Meanwhile
Aleksandr Yaroslavich Nevski's brothers, Andrei II and Yaroslav III, both grand
princes of Vladimir, had established their family rule in Susdal and Tver
respectively. These are shown on other diagrams. (Susdal) (Tver). Members of
these two princely houses continued to struggle with the Moscow family.
Then Daniel's son, Yuri III Danilovich, vied with his cousin,
Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, for the throne of
Vladimir - actually the Tatar yarlik giving him the title as Grand
Prince of Vladimir, winning it in 1317. When Yuri III died in 1325, the title
for Moscow went to his younger brother, Ivan I Daniilovich. But he had lost
the yarlik for Vladimir in 1322 to Mikhail Yaroslavich's son,
Dmitri Mikhailovich Groznii Ochi and then Mikhail's
other son, Aleksandr Mikhailovich from 1326 to 1327.
Ivan regained this after a fight in 1331, and from then on through the next
eight generations Moscow gradually became the capital of "all the
Rus", although not without a struggle against Tver.
The typical fratricidal war amongst the brothers in Moscow was eliminated when
in 1453 the ruling prince, Semyon Ivanovich the proud, died in the great plague
along with all his sons who had not already died and his brother, Andrei
Ivanovich. This left the throne clear for Ivan II. Of his two sons, only
Dmitrii Ivanovich Donskoi, was a contender, even though he came to the throne
at age 9. His son, Vasilii I, ruled without opposition from his brothers. But
when the throne passed to his son, Vasilii II, then a civil war again broke out
between Vasilii II Vasil'yevich and his uncle, Yuri IV Dmitriyevich. And this
war was continued by Yuri's sons. Thus Dmitrii Shemyaka claims place as grand
prince of Moscow for two brief periods until Vasilii II regained his throne. By
the reigns of Ivan III, Vasilii III, and Ivan IV any pretence at opposition
from brothers or uncles was ineffectual.
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