Grand Duchy of Tver
The Grand Duchy of Tver ( Russian Великое княжество Тверское ) was a principality in northeastern Russia , which existed between the 13th and 15th centuries. With the capital Tver , it included areas on the upper reaches of the Volga . At the height of his power, Tver was a rival to Moscow for supremacy in Russia. The most important centers of the principality, besides Tver, were the cities of Kashin , Kznyatin , Subzow , Staritsa , Mikulin, Dorogobusch , Cholm , Klin and Kalyasin .
history
The Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal , Yaroslav II. Vsevolodowitsch , released areas around Tver from his principality around 1240 in order to leave them to his son Alexander Nevsky . In 1247 the territories were transferred to his other son Jaroslaw Jaroslawitsch and have been ruled by his descendants ever since. The principality was less accessible to the Mongol raids due to its geographical location . It became a place of refuge for many people from Vladimir-Suzdal and, because of the attacks by the Lithuanians, also for the inhabitants of western Russia ( Polotsk , Kiev ). In the second half of the 13th century there was a rapid rise in power from Tver. Yaroslav Yaroslavich received the title of Grand Duke in the 1260s and tried to implement a broad policy of unification of the "Russian earth". His son Mikhail Yaroslavich continued this policy , who also became Grand Duke of Vladimir from 1305. In the struggle for supremacy in northeastern Russia, Tver was at this time in strong rivalry with the principality of Moscow to the south .
The rise of Tver raised concern among the khans of the Golden Horde . Uzbek Khan supported Moscow and ordered Mikhail Yaroslavich to join the Horde to kill him there. A similar lot was later granted to his sons Dmitri and Alexander. The efforts of the Tver princes to lead the process of unification of Russia made Tver the center of the liberation struggle against Mongol rule for some time. In 1327 there was an uprising in Tver and other cities in the principality, which was brutally suppressed by the Mongols. Tver was looted and burned to the ground, and its people killed or taken into slavery. From this blow, Tver could no longer recover and no longer played a leading role. The khans promoted the feudal fragmentation of Tver. In the second half of the 14th century, the principalities of Kashin, Cholm, Mikulin and Dorogobusch split off from Tver and subsequently disintegrated into even smaller principalities. The fragmentation of the Tver principality hampered the policy of collecting the Russian soil . Tver had to maneuver politically between the Horde, Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania .
When Moscow turned against the Horde under Dmitri Donskoy , Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich tried again with the help of the Horde and the Lithuanians to compete with Moscow. Thereupon the Muscovites allied themselves with the princes of Kashin, who feuded Tver for several decades. Tver's influence rose again in the middle of the 15th century when a war of succession broke out in the Grand Duchy of Moscow between Vasily II and Dmitri Shemyaka and Tver tried to intervene. However, after the end of the Moscow Civil War, Tver quickly began to lose independence. The Tver Prince Mikhail Borisovich had to deal with the Moscow Ivan III. sign a number of detrimental contracts. Mikhail's attempt to lean against Lithuania led to the siege of Tver by the Moscow army, which took the city in 1485. The Tver Principality lost the power struggle and ceased to exist as an independent state.
See also
literature
- Ekkehard Klug : The Principality of Tver (1247–1485). Rise, Assertion, and Fall. (= Research on Eastern European history. Eastern European Institute at the Free University of Berlin. Historical publications. Volume 37) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 3-447-02553-0 .
