The Prince of Moscow (Russian: князь московский|translit=kniaz moskovskii), later known as the Grand Prince of Moscow (Russian: великий князь московский|translit=velikii kniaz moskovskii|label=none), was the title of the ruler of the Principality of Moscow, initially a part of the grand principality of Vladimir-Suzdal. By the late 14th century, the grand principality was inherited by the prince of Moscow; the monarch bore the title of grand prince of Vladimir and Moscow and later the title of grand prince of Vladimir, Moscow and all Russia.[1]
The grand principality of Vladimir-Suzdal fell apart into feuding appanages over the course of the 13th century. The princes of Moscow were descendants of Daniel. As Daniel never became grand prince of Vladimir before he died in 1303, this meant that according to traditional succession practices, his descendants were izgoi: his son and successor Yury of Moscow had no legitimate claim to the throne of Vladimir. This is why Tokhta Khan granted Mikhail of Tver the grand princely title when Andrey of Gorodets died the next year (27 July 1304). Nevertheless, the princes of Moscow managed to play towards the favour of the Mongol khans of the Golden Horde in order to be awarded the grand princely title through a yarlik by the second quarter of the 14th century, in disregard of dynastic traditions. The Horde sought to use Moscow to weaken the Principality of Tver (the strongest principality), but by the second half of the 14th century, when the Horde got embroiled in a decades-long war of succession 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 princes of Tver instead in order to keep Moscow in check. Dmitry Donskoy passed the grand principality to his son Vasily I in his 1389 will, thus usurping the right of the khan to choose the grand prince.[2]