Suggest an Edit — Ivan I of Moscow

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Biography

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Ivan I Danilovich, known to later generations as Ivan Kalita, was prince of Moscow from 1325 and grand prince of Vladimir from 1328 until his death in the mid-fourteenth century. He was a son of Daniel Alexandrovich, the first prince to establish Moscow as a lasting dynastic seat, and a grandson of Alexander Nevsky. Historians conventionally place his birth in 1288, almost certainly in Moscow, though contemporary chronicles do not record an exact day. After the killing of his elder brother Yuri at the Golden Horde in 1325, Ivan succeeded to the Moscow throne. Northeastern Rus' at that time consisted of competing appanage principalities under the suzerainty of the Mongol-Tatar Golden Horde; Moscow was still a relatively modest principality compared with Tver, which had recently held the grand princely title.

The decisive episode of Ivan's early reign was the Tver uprising of 1327. A Tatar detachment led by Chol-khan (Shevkal), a relative of Khan Uzbek, was massacred by the townspeople of Tver after provocations. Ivan travelled to the Horde and returned with a large Tatar army that sacked Tver and other towns of that principality. Prince Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver fled. Khan Uzbek then granted Ivan the yarlyk, or patent, to the grand principality of Vladimir, the traditional senior title among the northeastern Rus' princes. For a few years Ivan shared aspects of that dignity with Alexander Vasilyevich of Suzdal; after the latter's death Ivan held it alone. From this position he acted as the Horde's chief tribute-collector in the Russian lands. His byname Kalita (moneybag or purse), attested from later sources, refers both to the wealth he accumulated and to the leather bag from which he was said to distribute alms.

Ivan used the revenues of tax-farming, together with direct purchases of villages and smaller towns, to enlarge the Moscow principality. Chronicles and his own testament mention acquisitions that later tradition associated with Uglich, Galich Mersky, and Belozero, although the precise legal status of some of these purchases remains debated by historians. He made several journeys to the Horde to confirm his patents and to outmanoeuvre rivals. By keeping the tribute flowing and by avoiding open rebellion, he secured relative peace for Moscow and a measure of khanly favour that his competitors in Tver could not match. Novgorod, the wealthy northern republic, was also brought more firmly into Moscow's orbit during his reign through a combination of pressure and negotiation.

Equally important was Ivan's alliance with the Church. Metropolitan Peter of Kiev and All Rus', who had long been at odds with the princes of Tver, accepted Moscow as his principal residence. In 1326 Ivan founded a stone cathedral dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Moscow Kremlin; Peter was buried there at his death the same year and was soon venerated as a wonderworker. Peter's successor Theognostus likewise lived in Moscow, thereby making the city the de facto ecclesiastical capital of Rus'. Ivan also built the stone Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, a church of St. John of the Ladder, and other masonry churches within the Kremlin, replacing wooden structures and giving the fortress a new monumental character. These foundations both displayed piety and advertised Moscow's new status.

Ivan was married to Princess Elena, who died in 1331 and was buried in the Kremlin; he appears to have taken a second wife, sometimes named Ulyana, who survived him. He had several children who reached adulthood, notably Simeon, who succeeded him as grand prince; Ivan, later Ivan II; and Andrei, progenitor of the Serpukhov line, as well as daughters married into other Rurikid houses. Ivan died in Moscow on 31 March 1340 (some annalistic traditions give 1341, reflecting calendar usage) and was interred in the Archangel Cathedral he had commissioned. He was not formally canonized, unlike his father Daniel of Moscow. Historians regard his reign as a turning point in the rise of Moscow: through fiscal administration, Mongol patronage, and the presence of the metropolitan, rather than through large-scale conquest, the principality began the long process of gathering the Russian lands under a single dynasty.

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