Principality of Tver

The Principality of Tver was a Russian state of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, centred on the city of Tver on the upper Volga. It emerged from the disintegration of Kievan Rus and the Vladimir-Suzdal lands. In the 1230s or 1240s Grand Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich detached Tver from the Principality of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, and in 1246 his son Yaroslav Yaroslavich became its first prince. The principality suffered from the Mongol invasion but grew as refugees from devastated Vladimir and Ryazan settled in its lands. During the fourteenth century Tver rivaled Moscow for the role of uniting the Russian lands and for the title of grand prince of Vladimir, which the Golden Horde khans granted by jarlig. Its princes built churches, patronised chronicle writing and supported the bishopric, but Moscow's wealth and diplomacy prevailed. Tver's last princes lost ground, and in 1485 Ivan III of Moscow annexed the principality, ending its independence.