Grand Duke

Grand Prince

(for a fuller account, see Grand Prince)

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Grand Princes or great princes were medieval monarchs which ruled usually several tribes and/or were overlords of other princes. At the time, they were usually treated and translated as kings. However, a grand prince was not as an elevated sovereign as later Western kings, and perhaps thus they are treated lower than kings, particularly in later literature.

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Grand Princes were rulers usually in Eastern Europe, for example among Slavs, Balts and Hungarians.

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The title Grand Prince is Velikiy Knjaz (Великий князь) in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Baltic kunigaitis (today translated as Prince) is actually a cognate of King. Thus, Veliki Knjaz was more like "high king" than "grand duke".

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These countries developed in a way that the position of the head of the dynasty became more elevated. In such situations, those monarchs assumed a higher title, such as Tsar or sole King. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Moscovia was apparently the last monarch to rule without any higher title, until he assumed the style Tsar of Russia in 1547.

Related Topics:
Ivan IV of Moscovia - Tsar of Russia

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The title Grand Prince (which in many of those lands already was in later medieval centuries awarded simultaneously to several rulers of the more expanded dynasty) continued, in modern times, as a courtesy title for all or several members of the Russian dynasty, such as the Grand Duke of Russia (veliki knjaz) in Russia's imperial era.

Related Topics:
Medieval - Grand Duke of Russia

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