Editing Vasily I of Moscow (section)

==Domestic policy==
[[File:Facial Chronicle - b.12, p.038 - Lazar the Serb showing Vasily I the clock.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Lazar the Serb]] showing Vasily the clock.]]

During his reign, [[feudal]] [[landownership]] kept growing. With the growth of princely authority in Moscow, the [[judicial]] powers of landowners were partially diminished and transferred to Vasily's deputies and heads of [[volost]]s.{{cn|date=May 2023}}

Chronicles speak of a monk called [[Lazar the Serb]] who arrived from Serbia, inventing and building a clock on a tower in the Grand Prince's [[Terem Palace]] in Moscow behind the [[Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow|Cathedral of the Annunciation]] at the request of Vasily I, in 1404. It was the first ever [[mechanical clock]] in Moscow and the first in any Russian city.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Edward V. |title=The Bells of Russia History and Technology |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=70-71}}</ref> It was among the first ten such advanced clocks in Europe, and was regarded as a technical miracle at the time.<ref>{{cite news | title= Šest vekova Lazarevog sata | last= Radetić | first=M. | url= http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/aktuelno.290.html:164425-Sest-vekova--Lazarevog-sata | date= December 4, 2004| publisher= Novosti }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title= Hilandarski monah Lazar, prvi srpski časovničar | last1= Tošić | first1= Gordana | last2= Tadić | first2= Milutin | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=f932AAAACAAJ | year= 2004 | isbn= 9788684183066 | publisher= Kalenić}}</ref>

The most important ecclesiastical event of the reign was the elevation of the Bulgarian, [[Gregory Tsamblak]], to the metropolitan see of Kiev by [[Vytautas]], grand-duke of Lithuania; the immediate political consequence of which was the weakening of the hold of Moscow on southwestern Rus'.<ref name="EB1911"/>