The title Grand Prince or Great Prince (Latin:
Magnus Princeps; Russian: Великий князь,
Velikiy knjaz; German: Großfürst,
Finnish: Suuriruhtinas, Danish: Storfyrste, Swedish:
Storfurste, Serbian: Veliki Župan,
Lithuanian: Didysis kunigaikštis, Hungarian: Nagyfejedelem; Czech: Velkokníže, Polish:
Wielki książę) ranks in honour below Emperor and Tsar but higher than a sovereign prince (Fürst) or royal prince.
It has been a title for the sovereign of a grand principality, but it is not in such use any longer. The last titular grand
principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being
united into other monarchies or introducing republican government. Already at that stage, all
those grand principalities (such as Lithuania, Transylvania and Finland) had been for centuries under rulers (who used
their titles too) of other, bigger monarchies, usually as direct parts of those. Apparently the last sovereign monarch to reign
as Grand Prince as his highest title was Grand Duke Ivan IV of Moscow in
16th century, until he assumed the style Tsar of Russia.
Velikiy knjaz is also a Russian courtesy title for members of the family of the
Russian tsar (from the 17th century), although those Grand Princes were not sovereigns.
The usual and established translation, in languages which do not have separate words meaning prince for (1) children of a monarch, and (2) monarch (sovereign or like)
princes, is Grand Duke. English and French use Grand Duke also in this meaning. The title of
sovereign Grand Duke and it as translation of Grand Prince thus have clearly different meanings.
Medieval use
Grand Prince, used in the Slavic and Baltic languages, was the title of a mediæval monarch who headed a more-or-less loose confederation
whose constituent parts were ruled by lesser princes. Those grand princes' title and position was
at the time usually translated as king. In fact, the Slavic knjaz
and the Baltic kunigaikštis (nowadays usually translated as Prince) are cognates of king.
However, a grand prince was usually only primus inter
pares within a dynasty, other princes of the dynasty were approximately as much entitled to succession as the
current ruler (for example, succession was through agnatic seniority or
rotation), and often other members of the dynasty ruled some constituent parts of the monarchy/
country. An established use of the title was in the Kievan Rus' and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (from the 14th century). Thus,
Veliki Knjaz has been more like high king than "grand duke", at least, originally. As these countries expanded
territorially and moved towards primogeniture and centralization, their rulers acquired more elevated titles.
Some of the first rulers of Hungary in the 10th century
were grand princes: Geza and, until his royal coronation, his son and heir
Stephen of Hungary.
Великий князь (Velikiy Kniaz; literally,
grand prince) was, starting in the 10th century, the title of the leading
Prince of the Kievan Rus', head of the Rurikid House: first the prince of Kiev, and then that of Vladimir starting in the 13th century. Later, several princes of
nationally important cities, which comprised vassal appanage
principalities, held this title (Grand Princes of Moscow, Tver',
Yaroslavl', Ryazan', Smolensk, etc.). From 1328 the Grand
Prince of Moscow appeared as the titular head of all of Russia and slowly centralized power until Ivan IV was crowned Tsar in
1547.
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 Vasa dynasty also used this title for their
non-Polish territories. This Lithuanian title was sometimes latinized as Magnus
Dux or Grand Duke.
In 1582 king John III of Sweden added
Grand Prince of Finland to the subsidiary titles of the Swedish kings, however
without any factual consequences, Finland already being a part of the Swedish realm.
The Holy Roman Empire ruling house of 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 Lithuania (1793–1918) and of autonomous Finland (1809–1917) as
well. His titulary included also, among other titles, the following: "Grand Duke of Smolensk,
Volynia, Podolia", "Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Chernigov".
Modern use
The title Grand Prince (which in many of those lands already was in later grand princely epochs awarded simultaneously to
several rulers in the more expanded dynasty) continued as a courtesy title for all or
several members of the dynasty, such as the Grand Duke of Russia in
Russia's imperial era. The title Velikiy Kniaz, its use finally
formalized by Alexander III, then belonged to sons and grandsons (through male
lines) of the Tsars and Emperors of Russia. The daughters and paternal granddaughters of Russian Emperors, as well as the
consorts of Russian Grand Dukes, were also accorded the title, in female form: Великие Княгини, Velikie
knjagini.
A more accurate 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, and in Latin as Magnus Princeps.
In the 19th century, that courtesy title usage in Russia expanded, due to the birth of
several male dynasts, instead of the earlier precarious situations when Russia barely had one or two to succeed.
The German language (which has separate words for royal prince, Prinz, and for sovereign prince,
Fürst), calls the Grand Princes of Lithuania, Russian states and other Eastern European higher princes, as well as the later Russian dynasts, with the term Großfürst, not with Großherzog.
The title Grand Prince is also used for Archduke Amadeo of Austria, the son and heir of
the pretender to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His Tuscan style
is HI&RH The Grand Prince of Tuscany.
Styles and forms of address
A Russian Grand Duke or Grand Duchess in modern times is an Imperial Highness.
See also
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