'Ivan II Ivanovich the Fair' (Иван II Иванович Красный in
Russian) (
March 30,
1326 –
November 13,
1359) was the second son of
Ivan Kalita who succeeded his brother
Simeon the Proud as
Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of
Vladimir in
1353. Until that date, he had ruled the towns of
Ruza and
Zvenigorod.
Upon succeeding his brother and because of increased civil strife among the
Golden Horde, Ivan briefly toyed with the idea of abandoning traditional Moscow allegiance to the
Mongols and allying himself with
Lithuania, a growing power in the west. This policy was quickly abandoned and Ivan asserted his allegiance to the Golden Horde.
[1]
Contemporaries described Ivan as an apathetic ruler, who didn't flinch even when
Algirdas of
Lithuania captured his father-in-law's capital,
Bryansk.
[2] By his second wife, Alexandra Ivanovna Velyaminova, daughter of a Moscow
mayor, he had several children, including
Dmitri Donskoi, who succeeded him.
References
1. Medieval Russia, 980-1584, Janet Martin, , , Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 0521368324
2. Russia, Alfred Rambaud, Edgar Saltus, , , P. F. Collier & Son, 1902, [1]