| Vasily I | |
| Reign: | 19 May 138927 February 1425 |
| Succession: | Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow |
| Predecessor: | Dmitry I |
| Successor: | Vasily II |
| Spouse: | Sophia of Lithuania |
| Spouse-Type: | Consort |
| Issue: | Anna, Byzantine Empress Vasily II of Moscow |
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| Issue-Pipe: | more... |
| House: | Rurik |
| House-Type: | Dynasty |
| Father: | Dmitry Donskoy |
| Mother: | Eudoxia Dmitriyevna |
| Birth Date: | 30 December 1371 |
| Birth Place: | Moscow |
| Death Place: | Moscow |
| Burial Place: | Archangel Cathedral |
| Religion: | Russian Orthodox |
Vasily I Dmitriyevich (Russian: Василий I Дмитриевич; 30 December 137127 February 1425) was Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow from 1389.[1] [2] He was the heir of Dmitry Donskoy, who reigned from 1359 to 1389.
He entered an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1392 and married Sophia, the only daughter of Vytautas, though the alliance turned out to be fragile, and they waged war against each other in 1406–1408.
The raid on the Volga region in 1395 by the Turco-Mongol emir Timur resulted in a state of anarchy for the Golden Horde and the independence of Moscow. In 1412, Vasily resumed submission to the Horde.
Vasily was the oldest son of Dmitry Donskoy and Grand Princess Eudoxia, daughter of Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod.
While still a young man, Vasily, who was the eldest son of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy (ruled Moscow 1359–89), travelled to the Tatar khan Tokhtamysh (1383) to obtain the Khan's yarlik (patent) for his father for the title of grand prince of Vladimir. Diplomatically overcoming the challenge of the prince of Tver, who also sought the patent, Vasily succeeded in his mission. But he was subsequently kept at Tokhtamysh's court as a hostage until 1386 when, taking advantage of Tokhtamysh's conflict with his suzerain Timur Lenk (Tamerlane), he escaped and returned to Moscow.[3]
With Tokhtamysh's permission, Vasily I took over Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal in 1393. Nizhny Novgorod was given to Vasily by the Khan of the Golden Horde in exchange for the help Moscow had given against one of his rivals.[4] He also took Murom. In 1397–1398 Kaluga, Vologda, Veliki Ustyug and the lands of the Komi peoples were annexed.
To prevent Muscovy from being attacked by the Golden Horde, Vasily I entered into an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1392 and married Sophia of Lithuania, the only daughter of Vytautas the Great. The alliance turned out to be fragile, and they waged war against each other in 1406–1408. Vytautas had positioned himself as an unifier of all Rus’ lands, the Polish historian Koneczny spoke of the potentiality "that could have been realised had the program of the subjugation of all of Rus’ been implemented". Furthermore, he saw the potentiality of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania becoming an empire by virtue of all of Rus’ being under Lithuanian domination.[5] Vytautas, thus attacked Novgorod and Pskov, clashing with his son-in-law Vasily but later making peace. This peace allowed Vytautas to strike against the Teutonic order at the Battle of Grunwald. However, the terms of the Union of Horodlo negotiated by Polish King Jogaila, which discriminated against Orthodox Christians, caused Lithuania to lose its influence over the Russian states.[6]
Mongol emir Timur raided the Slavic lands in 1395; he ruined the Volga region but did not penetrate as far as Moscow. Timur's raid was of service to the Muscovite prince as it damaged the Golden Horde, which for the next twelve years was in a state of anarchy. During the whole of this time no tribute was paid to the khan, Olug Moxammat, though vast sums of money were collected in the Moscow treasury for military purposes.
In 1408 Edigu burnt Nizhny Novgorod, Gorodets, Rostov, and many other towns but failed to take Moscow, though he had still burnt it. In 1412, however, Vasily found it necessary to pay the long-deferred visit of submission to the Horde.
The growing influence of Moscow abroad was underlined by the fact that Vasily married his daughter Anna to Emperor John VIII Palaeologus of Byzantium.
During his reign, feudal landownership kept growing. With the growth of princely authority in Moscow, the judicial powers of landowners were partially diminished and transferred to Vasily's deputies and heads of volosts.
Chronicles speak of a monk called Lazar the Serb who arrived from Serbia, inventing and building a clock on a tower in the Grand Prince's Terem Palace in Moscow behind the Cathedral of the Annunciation at the request of Vasily I, in 1404. It was the first ever mechanical clock in Moscow and the first in any Russian city.[7] It was among the first ten such advanced clocks in Europe, and was regarded as a technical miracle at the time.[8] [9]
The most important ecclesiastical event of the reign was the elevation of the Bulgarian, Gregory Tsamblak, to the metropolitan see of Kiev by Vytautas, grand-duke of Lithuania; the immediate political consequence of which was the weakening of the hold of Moscow on southwestern Rus'.
Vasily married Sophia of Lithuania, a daughter of Vytautas the Great and his wife, Anna. They had nine known children, five boys (of which only one survived to mature adulthood) and four girls:
Sophia also suffered many miscarriages: