Grand prince

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"Grand princess" redirects here. For the cruise ship, see Grand Princess.

Grand prince or great prince (feminine: grand princess or great princess) (

Sovereign Prince and Duke
.

Romance languages, which do not normally use separate words for a "prince" who reigns as a monarch (e.g., Albert II, Prince of Monaco) and a "prince" who does not reign, but belongs to a monarch's family (e.g., Prince George of Wales). Some Slavic (Królewicz), Germanic, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages do use separate words to express this concept, and in those languages grand prince is understood as a distinct title (for a cadet of a dynasty) from grand duke (hereditary ruler ranking below a king). Some recent sources also use Archduke
.

The title of grand prince was once used for the sovereign of a grand principality. The last titular grand principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being united into other monarchies or becoming republics. Already at that stage, the grand principalities of Lithuania, Transylvania and Finland had been for centuries under rulers of other, bigger monarchies, so that the title of grand prince was superseded by the titles "king" and "emperor" there. Ivan IV of Moscow in the 16th century was the last sovereign to reign whose highest title was velikiy knyaz, until he assumed the rank of Tsar of Russia. "Velikiy knyaz" is a Russian title that is often translated as "grand prince" because there are no better equivalents in European languages. When Ivan IV's pre-tsarist title is referred to in English, however, it is usually as grand duke.

Velikiy knjaz is also a Russian courtesy title for members of the family of the Russian tsar (from the 17th century), although the people who owned this title were not sovereigns.

Terminology in Slavic and Baltic languages

Velikiy knyaz (Meaning closest to Grand Prince but was generally translated as

centralization
, their rulers acquired more elevated titles.

Use in the Middle Ages

Hungary

Main article: Grand Prince of the Hungarians

Grand Prince (

Stephen of Hungary
.

Serbia

Main article:
veliki župan

In the Middle Ages, the Serbian

veliki župan (велики жупан) was the supreme chieftain in the multi-tribal society. The title signifies overlordship, as the leader of lesser chieftains titled župan.[2] It was used by the Serb rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries.[3] In Greek, it was known as archizoupanos (ἄρχιζουπάνος), megazoupanos (μεγαζουπάνος) and megalos zoupanos (μεγάλος ζουπάνος).[3]

In the 1090s,

Vukan became the veliki župan in Raška (Rascia).[4] Stefan Nemanja expelled his brother Tihomir in 1168 and assumed the title of veliki župan,[5] as described in the Charter of Hilandar (и постави ме великог жупана).[6] A Latin document used mega iupanus for King Stefan the First-Crowned (Stephanus dominus Seruie siue Rasie, qui mega iupanus).[7] Afterwards, it was a high noble rank with notable holders such as Altoman Vojinović
(fl. 1335–59).

Kievan Rus' and successor states

Kievan Rus'

This section is an excerpt from Grand Prince of Kiev.[edit]

The

grand prince of Vladimir and the Mongol Golden Horde governors, and later was taken over by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[citation needed
]

Rus' chronicles such as the Primary Chronicle are inconsistent in applying the title "grand prince" to various princes in Kievan Rus'.[8] Although most sources consistently attribute it to the prince of Kiev,[8] there is no agreement which princes were also "grand prince", and scholars have thus come up with different lists of grand princes of Kiev.[9]

Later Rus' principalites

In the 13th century, the monarchs of other Rus' principalities which originated as appanages of Kiev, such as

Ivan IV proclaimed himself "tsar of Russia
" in 1547.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Lithuanian title Didysis kunigaikštis was used by the rulers of Lithuania, and after 1569, it was one of two main titles used by the monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The kings of Poland from the Swedish House of Vasa also used this title for their non-Polish territories. This Lithuanian title was sometimes latinized as Magnus Dux or Grand Duke.

Modern use

In 1582,

Grand Prince of Finland to the subsidiary titles of the Swedish kings, however without any territorial or civic implications, Finland
already being a fully integrated part of the Swedish realm.

The

Habsburg instituted a similar Grand Principality in Transylvania
(Siebenburgen) in 1765.

After the Russian conquests, the title continued to be used by the Russian emperor in his role as ruler of

Chernigov
" etc.

A more literal translation of the Russian title than grand duke 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, in Swedish as a Storfurste and in Latin as Magnus Princeps.

Grand prince remained as a dynastic title for the senior members of the

Romanov dynasty in Russia's imperial era. The title Velikiy Knyaz, its use finally formalized by Alexander III
, then belonged to children and male-line grandchildren of the emperors of Russia. The daughters and paternal granddaughters of the emperors used a different version of the title (Великая Княжна, Velikaya Knyazhna) from females who obtained it as the consorts of Russian grand princes (Великие Княгини, Velikie Knyagini). In modern times a Russian Grand Duke or Grand Duchess is styled Imperial Highness.

The title grand prince was also used for the heir apparent to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

See also

References

  1. ^ "www.sbc.org.pl" (PDF).
  2. ISBN 978-1-85521-512-2
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 9788683233014
    . ВЕЛИКИ ЖУПАН - 1. Титула српског владара у XI и XII веку. Гласила је велнм жупднк и била превођена одговарајућим терминима, грчки арџ- ^огтагот, игуа^огтауге, цеуаХа? ^огтожх, латин- ски те^ајирапиз, та§пиз ...
  4. ISBN 0-472-08149-7
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-521-77017-0
    .
  6. ISBN 9788676394906
    .
  7. ^ Radovi. Vol. 19. 1972. p. 29.
  8. ^ a b Dimnik 2004, p. 253.
  9. ^ Dimnik 2004, p. 253–254.

Works cited

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