2023, vol. 11, no. 4. Polekhov S.V.

2023, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 881-901

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2023-11-4.881-901

EDN: https://elibrary.ru/VLDWPV

   MOSCOW, LITHUANIA, THE HORDE
AND THE LAST TESTAMENTS OF VASILY I

S.V. Polekhov
Russian Presidential Academy
of National Economy and Public Administration
Moscow, Russian Federation
sergey.polekhov@gmail.com

Abstract: Research objectives: To ascertain why Grand Prince Vasily I of Vladimir and Moscow had to make his will twice in the last years of his reign and ask his father-in-law, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, to confirm it, and what the role played by the Golden Horde in these events was.
Research materials: Testaments of Vasily I and other Rurikids of Moscow, Russian chronicles, letters of Vytautas and dignitaries of the Teutonic Order.
Results and novelty of the research: According to the research, the reason for Vasily I drawing up the third testament between 1423 and 1425, shortly after his second testament approved by the guarantor, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, was the granting of a yarliq by Khan Ulugh Muhammad to Prince Daniil Borisovich that meant the restoration of the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod independent of Moscow. The paper provides arguments that by doing so, Ulugh Muhammad was acting independently. Although he was Vytautas’ ally, his action was contrary to the intentions of the Grand Duke of Lithuania who was interested in seeing his underage grandson Vasily Vasil’evich’s succession to the throne because Vasily I’s brother Yury Dmitrievich, an ally of Vytautas’ rival Švitrigaila, could aspire to it. Despite the struggle for power in the Horde in the early 1420s, Ulugh Muhammad seems to have had enough power to help Daniil Borisovich realize his claim to Nizhny Novgorod. Since Vytautas was not able to provide Vasily Vasil’evich with Nizhny Novgorod as a part of Vasily I’s possessions, which showed the limits of his possibilities regar­ding the Horde, the third testament was made in a different way than the second one: at the beginning it was signed by Metropolitan Photios, then sealed by Vasily I and his three brothers, and at the very end by Vytautas.

Keywords: Vasily I, Vytautas, Ulugh Muhammad, Principality of Nizhny Novgorod, Teutonic Order, princely testament, Moscow-Lithuanian relations

For citation: Polekhov S.V. Moscow, Lithuania, the Horde and the last testaments of Vasily I. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2023, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 881–901. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2023-11-4.881-901 (In Russian)

Financial Support: The article was prepared in the framework of a research grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (grant ID: 075-15-2022-326).

REFERENCES

  1. Beletskii V.D., Beletskii S.V. The „Archive” of Official Seals Excavated in the Dovmont Town, Pskov. Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum, 2022. 468, [1] p. (In Russian)
  2. Beletskii S.V. Did Vasily of Moscow recognize his vassal dependence on Lithuania? The newspaper of the Lithuanian movement for Perestroika, 1990, 29 January – 4 February, no. 5 (27), p. 13. (In Russian)
  3. Bespalov R.A. The battle of the Upper Oka lands feudals with khan Kuidadat in the autumn of 1424. Upper Don territory. Archaeology. History. Iss. 4. Tula: State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo pole”, 2009, pp. 205–210. (In Russian)
  4. Gorskii A.A. The Testaments of Vasily I Dmitrievich: Order and Dating. Old Rus’: problems of medievistics, 2017, no. 1 (67), pp. 20–34. (In Russian)
  5. Gorskii A.A. Moscow and the Horde. Moscow: Nauka, 2003. 212, [2] p. (In Russian)
  6. Gorskii A.A. From Lands to Grand Principalities: “Primysly” of Russian princes in the second half of the XIII – XV centuries. Moscow: Indrik, 2010. 174 p. (In Russian)
  7. Grekov I.B. On the dating of the so-called “second testament” of prince Vasily I of Moscow. Problems of sociopolitical history of Russia and Slavic countries. Collected articles to the 70th anniversary of academician M.N. Tikhomirov. Moscow: Izd-vo vostochnoi literatury, 1963, pp. 141–145. (In Russian)
  8. Gromov M.N. The Time and its Perception in Old Rus’. Old Rus’: problems of medievistics, 2009, no. 2 (36), pp. 7–17. (In Russian)
  9. Gulevich V.P. Crimea and the “Emperors of Solkhat” in 1400–1430: A Chronology of the Reign and the Status of the Rulers. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review, 2014, no. 4 (6), pp. 166–197. (In Russian)
  10. Gulevich V.P. From the Horde’s Ulus to the Girays’ Khanate: Crimea in 1399–1502. Kazan: Marjani Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, 2018. 491 p. (In Russian)
  11. Gulevich V.P., Hautala R. A Little-known Source on the Embassy of Sigismund of Luxemburg to Caffa in 1412. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2018. Vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 199–211. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-1.199-211 (In Russian)
  12. Testaments and treaties of grand and apanage princes from the 14th to the 16th Ed. L.V. Cherepnin. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1950. 586, [2] p. (In Russian)
  13. Zaitsev I.V. Between Moscow and Istanbul. The Jochid States, Moscow and the Ottoman Empire from the early 15th to the first half of the 16th century. Moscow: Rudomino, 2004. 215, [1] p. (In Russian)
  14. Ivanov D.I. The relations between Moscow and Lithuania in the 1420s. Medieval Rus’, Iss. 2. Moscow: Editorial URSS, 1999, pp. 79–115. (In Russian)
  15. Sigismund von Herberstein’s itineraries. Gerbershtein S. Notes about Muscovy, vol. 2. Moscow: Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli, 2008, pp. 509–511. (In Russian)
  16. Kudryavtsev O. F. Great Rus’ of knight de Lannoy. The first Western description of Rus’. Rodina=Homeland, 2003, no. 12, pp. 76–79. (In Russian)
  17. Kuchkin V.A. Publication of the testaments of the Moscow princes of the 14th The second testament of grand prince Ivan Danilovich Kalita. Drevnyaya Rus’. Voprosy medievistiki = Old Russia. The questions of middle ages, 2008, no. 2 (32), pp. 129–132. (In Russian)
  18. Kuchkin V.A. The results of the restoration of Ivan Kalita’s testaments. Otechestvennaya istoriya =Native History, 1992, no. 6, 62–70. (In Russian)
  19. Kuchkin V.A. Real or alleged forgeries? Kuchkin V.A. The country between Volga and Oka and Nizhny Novgorod in the Middle Ages. Nizhnii Novgorod: Kvarts, 2011, pp. 215–226. (In Russian)
  20. Kuchkin V.A. Three testaments of Vasily I. Old Rus’: problems of medievistics, 2016, no. 2 (64), pp. 33–54. (In Russian)
  21. Mazurov A.B., Nikandrov A.Yu. On the dating of the testaments of Vasily I. Mazurov A.B., Nikandrov A.Yu. A Russian apanage in the age of the united state formation. The Principality of Serpukhov from mid-14th to the first half of the 15th century. Kolomna: Inlait, 2008, pp. 232–239. (In Russian)
  22. Polekhov S.V. Prince Švitrigaila Algirdaitis’ marriages. „Po lyubvi, v” pravdu, bezo vsyakie khitrosti”. Collected articles. Moscow: Indrik, 2014, pp. 235–268. (In Russian)
  23. Polekhov S.V. The last testament of Vasily I and political situation in East Europe. Drevnyaya Rus’. Voprosy medievistiki =Old Russia. The questions of middle ages, 2015, no. 3 (61), pp. 97–98. (In Russian)
  24. Polekhov S.V. The last testaments of Casily I and Vytautas’ seals. Medieval Rus’, Iss. 12. Moscow: Indrik, 2016, pp. 183–200. (In Russian)
  25. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 5. St. Petersburg: V tipografii E. Pratsa, 1851. VI, 283 p. (In Russian)
  26. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 15. Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury, 2000. XII p., 186 col., 29 p.; V p., 504 col., 35 p. (In Russian)
  27. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 18. St. Petersburg: Tipografiya M.A. Aleksandrova, 1913. [III], 316 p. (In Russian)
  28. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 24. Petrograd: 2-ya Gosudarstvennaya tipografiya, 1921. 272 p. (In Russian)
  29. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 25. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1949. 470 p. (In Russian)
  30. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 26. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1959. 415 p. (In Russian)
  31. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 27. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1962. 418 p. (In Russian)
  32. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 28. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1963. 411, 4 p. (In Russian)
  33. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 35. Moscow: Nauka, 1980. 235 p. (In Russian)
  34. TComplete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 37. Leningrad: Nauka, 1982. 227, 3 p. (In Russian)
  35. Complete Collection of the Russian Chronicles, vol. 39. Moscow: Nauka, 1994. 204, [1] p. (In Russian)
  36. Ponomarev A.L. The Early Khans of Crimea: the Chronology of the Turmoil in the Accounts of the Genoese Treasury of Caffa, 1420s. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie = Golden Horde Review, 2013, no. 2, pp. 158–190. (In Russian)
  37. Ponomareva I.G. On the chronology of the testaments of grand prince Vasily Dmitrievich of Moscow. The Russian Middle Ages. Collected articles in honor of professor Yury G. Alekseev. Moscow: Drevlekhranilishche, 2012, pp. 103–110. (In Russian)
  38. Ponomareva I. G. Who ruled the Grand Principality of Moscow in 1425–1432? Medieval Rus’. Iss. 9. Moscow: Indrik, 2011, pp. 167–196. (In Russian)
  39. Ponomareva I.G. About the Yarliq of Ulugh Muhammad Khan Approving the Rule of Grand Prince Vasily II. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review, 2021, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 583–592. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2021-9-3.583-592 (In Russian)
  40. Presnyakov A.E. The formation of the Great Russian State. Moscow: Territoriya, 1998. 496 p. (In Russian)
  41. The Chronicles of Pskov, Iss. 2. Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 366 p. (In Russian)
  42. Reva R.Yu. The struggle for power in the first half of the 15th The Golden Horde in the World history. Kazan: Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2016, pp. 704–729. (In Russian)
  43. Reva R. Yu. Muhammad-Barak and his time. A review of coins and written sources. Numismatics of the Golden Horde, no. 5. Kazan: Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2015, pp. 80–104. (In Russian)
  44. Safargaliev M.G. The disintegration of the Golden Horde. Saransk: Mordovskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1960. 275 p. (In Russian)
  45. The Collection of materials relating to the history of the Golden Horde, vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Tipografiya Akademii nauk, 1884. 564 p. (In Russian)
  46. The Collection of materials relating to the history of the Golden Horde, vol. 2. Moscow -Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1941. 308 p. (In Russian)
  47. Sobolevskii A.I. Materials and notes on the Old Russian literature. VI–XIII. News of the Section of the Russian Language and Literature. Petrograd: Tipografiya Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk, 1915. Vol. XX. Kn. 1, pp. 261–290. (In Russian)
  48. Stefanovich P.S. The prince and the boyars: the oath of fidelity and the right to leave. Gorskii A.A., Kuchkin V.A., Lukin P.V., Stefanovich P. S. Old Rus’: essays on political and social composition. Moscow: Indrik, 2008, pp. 148–269. (In Russian)
  49. Sultanov T.I. The letter of khan Ulug Muhammad of the Golden Horde to sultan Murad II of Turkey. Turcological collection, 1973. Moscow: Nauka; Glavnaya redaktsiya vostochnoi literatury, 1975, pp. 53–61. (In Russian)
  50. Florya B.N. The Horde and the states of East Europe in the mid-15th century (1430–1460). The Slavs and the nomadic world. To the 75th anniversary of academician Gennady G. Litavrin. Moscow: Nauka, 2001, pp. 172–196. (In Russian)
  51. Cherepnin L.V. The Russian feudal archives of the 14th – 15th centuries, part 1. Moscow -Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1948. 472 p. (In Russian)
  52. Chechenkov P.V. The struggle for the restoration of the sovereignity of the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod (from the late 14th to the first half of the 15th century). Eight centuries of the history of Nizhny Novgorod, vol. 1: 12th – 19th 2nd ed. Nizhnii Novgorod: Nauchno-izdatel’skii tsentr NGTU, 2021, pp. 97–125. (In Russian)
  53. Chechenkov P.V. Mechanisms and stages of absorption of the Nizhny Novgorod principality. Nizhny Novgorod historical and philological collection (In print.) (In Russian)
  54. Chechenkov P.V. The paths of Moscow politics in the Nizhny Novgorod principality (the first half of the 15th century). State and society in Russia in the 15th – early 20th centuries: a collection of articles in memory of Nikolai Evgenievich Nosov. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2007, pp. 94–105. (In Russian)
  55. Chechenkov P.V. Suzdal Rurikovich and the rulers of the Golden Horde in the first quarter of the 15th century. Minin readings: proceedings of a scientific conference, N.I. Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University (October 20–21, 2006). Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny Novgorod State University Publ., 2007, pp. 339–354. (In Russian)
  56. Biskup M. The wars of Poland with the Teutonic Order, 1308–1521. Oświęcim, 2017, 412 p. (In Polish)
  57. Codex epistolaris Vitoldi magni ducis Lithuaniae, 1376–1430, ed. A. Prochaska. Cracoviae: Sumptibus Academiae Literarum Cracoviensis, Typis Vlad. L. Anczyc et Comp., 1882. CXVI, 1113 p. (In Latin, German and Polish)
  58. Dlugossii J. Annales seu Cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae. Liber XI (1413–1430). Varsaviae: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2000. 464 p. (In Latin)
  59. Ekdahl S. Der Krieg zwischen dem Deutschen Orden und Polen-Litauen im Jahre 1422 [The war between the Teutonic Order and Poland-Lithuania in 1422]. Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, 1964, Bd. 13, H. 4, pp. 614–651. (In German)
  60. Ekdahl S. Moscow troops in the wars of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Order in Prussia in 1414 and 1422: Two timeline questions. Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae, 2020, vol. 25, pp. 181–192.
  61. Gąsiorowski A. Itinerarium króla Władysława Jagiełły 1386–1434 [The itinerary of king Władysław Jagiełło 1386–1434]. 2nd Warszawa: Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2015. 172 p. (In Polish)
  62. Itinerar König und Kaiser Sigismunds von Luxemburg, 1368–1437 [The itinerary of king and emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, 1368–1437], ed. by J.K. Hoensch. Warendorf: Fahlbusch Verlag, 1995. 172 p. (In German)
  63. Itineraria regum et reginarum Hungariae (1382–1438), ed. by P. Engel, N.C. Tóth. Budapestini, 2005. 188 p. (In Latin and Hungarian)
  64. Kodeks dyplomatyczny Litwy [The diplomatic codex of Lithuania], ed. by E. Raczyński. Wrocław: Sumptibus Sigismundi Schletter, 1845. 391 p. (In Latin and German)
  65. Liber cancellariae Stanislai Ciołek. Ein Formelbuch der polnischen Königskanzlei aus der Zeit der husitischen Bewegung [Liber cancellariae Stanislai Ciołek. A formulae book of the Polish royal chancery from the age of the Hussite movement], ed. by J. Caro, vol. 1. Wien: In Commission bei Karl Gerold’s Sohn, 1871. 228 p.
  66. Lietuvos Metrika. Knyga Nr. 6 (1494–1506). Užrašymų knyga 6 [Lithuanian Metrica. Book No. 6 (1494–1506). Book of Inscriptions 6], ed. by A. Baliulis. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla, 2007. 516 p. (In Ruthenian and Lithuanian)
  67. Liv-, esth- und curländisches Urkundenbuch nebst Regesten, vol. 5, ed. by F.G.von Bunge. Riga: Im Verlage von Nikolai Kymmel, 1867. 80, 1072 p. (In German and Latin)
  68. Neitmann K. Die Staatsverträge des Deutschen Ordens in Preussen 1230–1449. Studien zur Diplomatie eines spätmittelalterlichen Territorialstaates [The state treaties of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, 1230–1449. Studies on the diplomacy of a late medieval territorial state]. Köln; Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 1986. XIV, 692 p. (In German)
  69. Neitmann K. Zur Revindikationspolitik des Deutschen Ordens nach Tannenberg. Die Auseinandersetzung zwischen dem Deutschen Orden und Polen-Litauen um die Ratifizierung des Friedensvertrages vom Melno-See 1422/23 [To the revisionist policy of the Teutonic Order after Tannenberg/Grunwald. The conflict between the Teutonic Order and Poland-Lithuania about the ratification of the peace treaty of lake Miełno in 1422/23]. Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 1983, vol. 31, pp. 50–80. (In German)
  70. Petrauskas R. Gediminaičiai, Algirdaičiai, Jogailaičiai – stirps regia Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje [Gediminidas, Algirdids, Jagiellonians – stirps regia in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania]. Lietuva–Lenkija–Švedija: Europos dinastinės jungtys ir istoriniai-kultūriniai ryšiai [Lithuania – Poland – Sweden: European dynastic connections and historical and cultural ties]. Vilnius: Nacionalinis muziejus Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų rūmai, 2014, pp. 22–34. (In Lithuanian)
  71. Polechow S. Itinerarium Witolda, wielkiego księcia litewskiego: 4/5 VIII 1392 – 27 X 1430 [The itinerary of grand duke Vytautas of Lithuania: 4/5 August 1392 – 27 October 1430]. Rocznik Lituanistyczny [The yearbook for Lithuanian studies], vol. 5 (2019). Warszawa: Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2019, pp. 9–120. DOI: 10.12775/RL.2019.5.01 (In Polish)
  72. Rimša E. Lietuvos didžiojo kunigaikščio Vytauto antspaudai ir žemių heraldika [The seals and territorial heraldry of gand duke Vytautas of Lithuania]. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas, 2016. 191, [1] p. (In Lithuanian)
  73. Rimša E. Pieczęcie miast Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego [The seals of the cities and towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo DiG, 2007. 1259 p. (In Polish)
  74. Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, vol. 6: Geschichtsquellen der Hussitenkriege [The historical sources on the Hussite wars]. Breslau: Josef Max & Comp., 1871. X, 192 p. (In German)

About the author: Sergey V. Polekhov – Cand. Sci. (History), Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the Institute of Social Sciences, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (82, Vernadskiy Avenue, Moscow 119606, Russian Federation); ORCID: 0000-0001-7866-7663. E-mail: sergey.polekhov@gmail.com

Received  September 20, 2023        Accepted for publication  December 1, 2023
Published  December 29, 2023