Dmitri of Tver

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Dmitri Mikhailovich of Tver (Russian: Дмитрий Михайлович Тверcкой; nicknamed The Terrible Eyes - Грозные Очи; 1299 — September 15, 1326) was a Grand Prince of Vladimir (1322 to 1326) and Grand Prince of Tver from 1318 to 1326. He was a son of Mikhail of Tver and Anna of Kashin.

Dmitri continued his father's fight with Grand Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow for the the yarlik (also iarlik) that is, the diploma or patent of office for the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir, which was granted by the Khan of the Golden Horde. The title was much desired because the Grand Prince of Vladimir was the khan's tax-collector in Rus', and as such could gain authority and real power over the other princes of Rus'.

Following Yury's machinations which led the khan to grant the yarlik to Moscow and their father's execution at the Horde in 1318, Dmitri and his brother, Aleksandr, fought a series of battles with Yuri and intrigued against him at the Horde, culminating in Dmitri's acquisition of the yarlik of office for the grand princely throne in 1322 and his murder of Yuri at the Horde (in Sarai) three years later. Dmitri was himself arrested for the murder and executed in Sarai on the orders of Uzbeg Khan in 1326. His remains were taken back to Tver' and interred in the cathedral there.^[1]

[edit] See also

Rulers of Russia family tree

[edit] References

^ John Fennell, "Princely Executions in the Horde 1308-1339," Forschungen zur Osteuropaischen Geschichte 38 (1988), 9-19; Jeremiah Curtin, The Mongols in Russia (Boston: Adamant Media Corporation,2002), 310-311; Janet Martin, Medieval Russia 980-1584 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 176-177.