Grand Duchy - Grand Prince

Grand Prince

Grand princes were medieval monarchs who ruled a nation or several tribes, and were usually at the time translated as kings. However, a grand prince was usually only primus inter pares within a dynasty, other princes of the dynasty were approximately as entitled to succession as the then ruler (succession was for example through agnatic seniority or rotation), and often other members of the dynasty ruled parts of the same realm as some sort of "sub-princes". Such was usual in Eastern Europe, for example among Russians and Lithuanians. As the position of current ruler was not as elevated as that of Western kings, they have been treated more like great princes than full kings.

Velikiy Kniaz was from the 11th century the title of the leading Prince of Kievan Rus' (head of the Rurikid House), then of several princes of the Rus'. From 1328 the Velikii Kniaz of Muscovy appeared as the Grand Duke for "all of Russia" until Ivan IV of Russia in 1547 was crowned as tsar.

The title "grand prince" was used in the Slavic, Baltic, and Russian languages. Великий князь, the Slavic knjaz and the Baltic kunigaitis (usually now translated as "prince") is actually a cognate of "king". Thus, "Veliki Knjaz" was more similar to "high king" than "grand duke".

Another established use of the title was in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (since 14th century) and in the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

These countries moved slowly towards primogeniture or their rulers obtained another kingdom, whereby the position of the head of the dynasty became more elevated compared to other dynasts. In such situations, those monarchs assumed a higher title, such as tsar or sole king.

The title "grand prince" (which in many of those lands already was in later grand princely epochs awarded simultaneously to several rulers in the more expanded dynasty) continued as a courtesy title for all or several members of the dynasty, such as the Grand Duke of Russia (veliki knjaz) in Russia's imperial era. The title "velikiy kniaz", finally formalized by Alexander III, was given to sons and grandsons (through male lines) of the tsars and emperors of Russia. The daughters and paternal granddaughters of Russian emperors, as well as the consorts of Russian grand dukes, were generally called "grand duchesses" in English.

A more accurate translation of the Russian title would be "great prince", especially in the pre-Petrine era, but the term is neither standard nor widely used in English. In German, however, a Russian grand duke was known as a Großfürst, and in Latin as Magnus Princeps.

In 1582 King John III of Sweden added Grand Prince of Finland to the subsidiary titles of the Swedish kings, although without any factual consequences since Finland was already a part of the Swedish realm.

After the Russian conquests, the title of "grand duke" continued to be used by the Russian emperor in his role as ruler of Lithuania (1793-1918) and of Grand Duchy of Finland (1809-1917) as well. The Holy Roman Empire ruling house of Habsburg instituted a similar grand principality in Transylvania (Großfürst von Siebenbürgen) in 1765.

The title Didysis kunigaikštis (in Lithuanian) was used by the rulers of Lithuania, who after Jagiello also became kings of Poland, and was later found among the titles used by kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish kings of the Swedish Vasa dynasty also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latinized translation of the title of Lithuanian rulers was sometimes Magnus Dux or "grand duke".