Editing Vasily II of Moscow (section)

===First ten years of struggle===
{{further|Muscovite War of Succession}}
Vasily&nbsp;II was the youngest son of [[Vasily I of Moscow]] by [[Sophia of Lithuania]], the only daughter of [[Vytautas the Great]], and the only son to survive his father (his elder brother Ivan died in 1417 at the age of 22). On his father's death Vasily II was proclaimed Grand Duke at the age of 10. His mother acted as a regent. His uncle, [[Yuri of Zvenigorod]] (the prince of [[Galich-Mersky]]), and his two sons, [[Vasily Kosoy]] ("the Cross-Eyed") and [[Dmitry Shemyaka]], seized on the opportunity to advance their own claims to the throne. These claims were based on the Testament of [[Dmitry Donskoy]], Yuri's father and Vasily&nbsp;II's grandfather, who had stated that if Vasily I died Yuri would succeed his appanage. However, Dmitri had written the testament when Vasily&nbsp;I had no children of his own, and it might be argued that this provision had been made only for the case of Vasily&nbsp;I's childless death. Vasily&nbsp;II's claim was supported by Vytautas, his maternal grandfather.

Upon Vytautas' death in 1430, Yuri went to the [[Golden Horde]], returning with a license to take the Moscow throne. But the Khan did not support him any further, largely due to the devices of the [[Smolensk]] princeling and Moscow [[boyar]]in Ivan Vsevolzhsky. When Yuri assembled an army and attacked Moscow, Vasily&nbsp;II, betrayed by Vsevolzhsky, was defeated and captured by his enemies in 1433. Upon being proclaimed the grand prince of Moscow, Yuri pardoned his nephew and sent him to reign in the town of [[Kolomna]]. That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily&nbsp;II immediately started to plot against his uncle and gather all sort of malcontents. Feeling how insecure his throne was, Yuri resigned and then left Moscow for his northern hometown. When Vasily II returned to Moscow, he had  Vsevolzhsky blinded as a traitor.

Meanwhile, Yuri's claim was inherited by his sons who decided to continue the fight. They managed to defeat Vasily II, who had to seek refuge in the Golden Horde. After  Yuri died in 1434, Vasili the Cross-Eyed entered the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] and was proclaimed new Grand Duke. Dmitry Shemyaka, who had his own plans for the throne, quarreled with his brother and concluded an alliance with Vasily&nbsp;II. Together they managed to banish Vasily the Cross-Eyed from the Kremlin in 1435. The latter was captured and blinded, which effectively removed him from the contest for the throne.