Vasily I of Russia

Vasily I
Vasily I of Moscow and Sophia of Lithuania
Grand Prince of Moscow
Reign	19 May 1389 – 27 February 1425
Predecessor	Dmitry I
Successor	Vasily II
Born	(1371-12-30)30 December 1371 Moscow, Grand Duchy of Moscow
Died	27 February 1425(1425-02-27) (aged 53) Moscow, Grand Duchy of Moscow
Consort	Sophia of Lithuania
Issue	Anna, Byzantine Empress consort Yury Vasilievich Ivan Vasilievich Anastasia Vasilievna Daniil Vasilievich Vasilisa Vasilievna Simeon Vasilievich Maria Vasilievna Vasily Vasilievich
Dynasty	Rurik
Father	Dmitry Donskoy
Mother	Eudoxia Dmitriyevna
Religion	Eastern Orthodox

Vasily I Dmitriyevich (Russian: Василий I Дмитриевич; 30 December 1371 – 27 February 1425) was the Grand Prince of Moscow (r. 1389—1425), heir of Dmitry Donskoy (r. 1359—1389). He ruled as a Golden Horde vassal between 1389-1395, and again in 1412-1425. The raid on the Volgan regions in 1395 by Mongol emir Timur resulted in a state of anarchy for the Golden Horde and the independence of Moscow. In 1412, Vasily reinstated himself as a vassal of the Horde. He had entered an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1392 and married the only daughter of Vytautas the Great, Sophia, though the alliance turned out to be fragile, and they waged war against each other in 1406–1408.

Vasily was the oldest son of Dmitry Donskoy and Grand Princess Eudoxia, daughter of Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod.

While still a youth, Vasily, who was the eldest son of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy (ruled Moscow 1359–89), travelled to the Tatar khan Tokhtamysh (1383) to obtain the Khan’s patent for his father to rule the Russian lands as the grand prince of Vladimir. Diplomatically overcoming the challenge of the prince of Tver, who also sought the patent, Vasily succeeded in his mission. But he was subsequently kept at Tokhtamysh’s court as a hostage until 1386 when, taking advantage of Tokhtamysh’s conflict with his suzerain Timur Lenk (Tamerlane), he escaped and returned to Moscow.

Vasily I continued the process of unification of the Russian lands: in 1392, he annexed the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod and Murom. Nizhny Novgorod was given to Vasily by the Khan of the Golden Horde in exchange for the help Moscow had given against one of his rivals. In 1397–1398 Kaluga, Vologda, Veliki Ustyug and the lands of the Komi peoples were annexed.