Vasily I of Moscow

Who was Vasily I of Moscow?

Vasily I Dmitriyevich was the Grand Prince of Moscow, heir of Dmitry Donskoy. He ruled as a Great Horde vassal between 1389-1395, and again in 1412-1425. Mongol emir Timur's raid on the Volgan regions in 1395 resulted in the Golden Horde's state of anarchy for the next years and the independence of Moscow. In 1412, Vasily reinstated himself as the Horde's vassal. He had entered an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1392 and married Vytautas the Great's only daughter Sophia, though the alliance turned out to be fragile, since Vytautas would later capture Vyazma and Smolensk in 1403–1404.