Demetrius, Prince of the Tatars (Latin : Demetrius princeps Tartarorum) was a Mongol or Tatar ruler in the second half of the 14th century.
Demetrius was mentioned in medieval chronicles and in a Hungarian royal charter of 1368. [1] According to the Lithuanian-Ruthenian Chronicle, preserved in the Codex Suprasliensis and other codices, Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, invaded Podolia in 1363 and 1364 and defeated three Tatar chieftains –Kutlug Bey, Hacı Bey and Demetrius –in the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362 or 1363. [2] [3] Algirdas's invasion was the first military campaign that a European power launched in the territory of the Golden Horde. [2]
When Grand Prince [Algirdas] was Lord of the Ruthenian land, he went into the steppes with the Lithuanian army, and at the "Blue Waters" he defeated the Tatars, which included three brothers, [Hacı Bey], [Kutlug Bey], and Demetrius. These three brothers were the heirs of the land of Podolia. From them the collectors [of the Tatars] took tribute.
— Lithuanian-Ruthenian Chronicle [3]
According Latopis Nikonowski the battle was in 1363, according to Latopis Hustyński in 1362. [4]
"Lord Demetrius, Prince of the Tatars" (dominus Demetrius princeps Tartarorum) was mentioned in a royal charter, issued 22 June 1368 by Louis I of Hungary. [5] According to the charter, King Louis granted the merchants who came from Demetrius's country an exemption from paying custom duties in the Kingdom of Hungary in exchange for Demetrius's identical grant for the merchants of Brașov who visited the Tatar prince's country. [5] [6]
Historian Virgil Ciocîltan describes Demetrius as the "last magnate of Bujak" who emerged in the period of the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 1340s. [7] According to historian Laurenţiu Rădvan, Demetrius controlled the land between the upper courses of the rivers Prut and Dniester, including the trading ports on the coast of the Black Sea. [8] His title "princeps" shows that Demetrius was an independent ruler who was not subjected to the Khan of the Golden Horde in 1368. [7]
Louis I, also Louis the Great or Louis the Hungarian, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of Poland, to survive infancy. A 1338 treaty between his father and Casimir III of Poland, Louis's maternal uncle, confirmed Louis's right to inherit the Kingdom of Poland if his uncle died without a son. In exchange, Louis was obliged to assist his uncle to reoccupy the lands that Poland had lost in previous decades. He bore the title of Duke of Transylvania between 1339 and 1342 but did not administer the province.
Basarab I, also known as Basarab the Founder, was a voivode and later the first independent ruler of Wallachia who lived in the first half of the 14th century. Many details of his life are uncertain. According to two popular theories, Basarab either came into power between 1304 and 1324 by dethroning or peacefully succeeding the legendary founder of Wallachia, Radu Negru, or in 1310 by succeeding his father, Thocomerius.
Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy was Prince of Moscow from 1359 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1363 until his death. He was the heir of Ivan II.
Mamai was a powerful Mongol military commander of the Golden Horde. Contrary to popular misconception, he was not a khan (king), but was a kingmaker for several khans, and dominated parts or all of the Golden Horde for almost two decades in the 1360s and 1370s. Although he was unable to stabilize central authority during the 14th-century Golden Horde war of succession known as the Great Troubles, Mamai remained a remarkable and persistent leader for decades, while others came and went in rapid succession. His defeat in the Battle of Kulikovo marked the beginning of the decline of the Horde, as well as his own rapid downfall.
Švitrigaila was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.
The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441–1783, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. Established by Hacı I Giray in 1441, it was regarded as the direct heir to the Golden Horde and to Desht-i-Kipchak.
Algirdas was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his brother Kęstutis he created an empire stretching from the present Baltic states to the Black Sea and to within 80 kilometres of Moscow.
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Narimantas or Narymunt was a Lithuanian duke and the second eldest son of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. During various periods of his life, he ruled Pinsk and Polotsk. In 1333 he was invited by Novgorod's nobles to rule and protect territories in the north, Ladoga, Oreshek and Korela. He started the tradition of Lithuanian mercenary service north of Novgorod on the Swedish border that lasted until Novgorod's fall to Moscow in 1477.
Dragoș, also known as Dragoș Vodă, or Dragoș the Founder was the first Voivode of Moldavia, who reigned in the middle of the 14th century, according to the earliest Moldavian chronicles. The same sources say that Dragoș came from Maramureş while chasing an aurochs or zimbru across the Carpathian Mountains. His descălecat, or "dismounting", on the banks of the Moldova River has traditionally been regarded as the symbol of the foundation of the Principality of Moldavia in Romanian historiography. Most details of his life are uncertain. Historians have identified him either with Dragoș of Bedeu or with Dragoș of Giulești, who were Vlach landowners in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Bogdan I, commonly known as Bogdan the Founder, was the first independent ruler, or voivode, of Moldavia in the 1360s. He had initially been the voivode, or head, of the Vlachs in the Voivodeship of Maramureș in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, when the first certain record was made of him in 1343, he was mentioned as a former voivode who had become disloyal to Louis I of Hungary. He invaded the domains of a Vlach landowner who remained loyal to the king in 1349. Four years later, he was again mentioned as voivode in a charter, which was the last record of his presence in Maramureș.
Uliana Aleksandrovna was a Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Algirdas, the grand duke of Lithuania. She was the daughter of Alexander of Tver and Anastasia of Galicia, daughter of Yuri I of Galicia.
Meñli I Giray was the khan of the Crimean Khanate and the sixth son of Hacı I Giray.
The Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars were a series of wars between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which was later unified with other Russian principalities to eventually become the Tsardom of Russia. After several defeats at the hands of Ivan III and Vasily III, the Lithuanians were increasingly reliant on Polish aid, which eventually became an important factor in the creation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Before the first series of wars in the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania controlled vast stretches of Eastern European land, from Kiev to Mozhaysk, following the collapse of Kievan Rus' after the Mongol invasions. Over the course of the wars, particularly in the 16th century, the Muscovites expanded their domain westwards, taking control of many principalities.
Theodor, Prince of Podolia was a member of the Gediminids dynasty branch in what is now Ukraine. Son of Karijotas.
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The founding of Moldavia began with the arrival of a Vlach (Romanian) voivode, Dragoș, soon followed by his people from Maramureș, then a voivodeship, to the region of the Moldova River. Dragoș established a polity there as a vassal to the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1350s. The independence of the Principality of Moldavia was gained when Bogdan I, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathians in 1359 and took control of Moldavia, wresting the region from Hungary. It remained a principality until 1859, when it united with Wallachia, initiating the development of the modern Romanian state.
George Koriatovich, also known as George Korjatowicz or Jurg Korjat, was a Lithuanian prince from the Gediminid dynasty. He was prince of Podolia together with his two brothers from around 1363. George closely cooperated with Casimir III of Poland against his Lithuanian kinsmen who had absorbed parts of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. He was elected voivode of Moldavia in 1374, but his Vlach subjects murdered him in 1375 or 1377.
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