Simeon

SIMEON

(1316–1353), prince of Moscow and grand prince of Vladimir.

Like his father Ivan I Danilovich "Moneybag," Simeon Ivanovich ("the Proud") collaborated with the Tatar overlords and secured a preferential status. After Ivan I died in 1340, Simeon and rival claimants visited the Golden Horde in Saray to solicit the patent for the grand princely throne. Khan Uzbek gave it to Simeon, who became the khan's obedient vassal and was thus able to wield at least limited jurisdiction over rival princes. He also obtained the khan's backing for his campaigns against Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania who, in the 1340s, increased his incursions into western Russia. Simeon waged war on Novgorod and forced it to recognize him as its prince and to pay Tatar tribute to him. With the help of Metropolitan Feognost he asserted greater control over the town than his father had done. During Simeon's reign the principality of Suzdal–Nizhny Novgorod replaced Tver in the rivalry for supremacy with Moscow. Although the Tatars helped Simeon fight foreign enemies, after 1342 Khan Jani-Beg refused to help him become stronger than his rivals in northeast Russia. Specifically, he prevented Simeon from increasing the size of his domain and his power as grand prince.

Simeon's agreement with his brothers in the late 1340s alludes, for the first time, to the appanage system of Moscow. The document describes the relationship between the grand prince and his brothers and recognizes the domains that Ivan I allocated to his sons as hereditary appanages. On April 26, 1353, Simeon died from the plague.

See also: appanage era; grand prince; moscow; muscovy

bibliography

Fennell, John L. I. (1968). The Emergence of Moscow, 1304–1359. London: Secker and Warburg.

Martin, Janet. (1995). Medieval Russia, 980–1584. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Martin Dimnik