Editing Grand duke (section)

==Grand prince==
{{main|Grand prince}}
Grand princes (or sometimes ''great princes'') were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal [[overlord]]s of other princes. At the time, the title was usually translated as "[[Monarch|king]]", sometimes also as "minor king" or "little king" ({{langx|de|Kleinkönig}}).

Grand princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs and Lithuanians.

The title "grand prince" translates to {{Transliteration|ru|velikiy knjaz}} ({{lang|ru|Великий князь}}) in Ukrainian and Russian. The Slavic word ''knjaz'' and the Lithuanian {{lang|lt|kunigas}} (today translated as "priest") are [[cognate]]s of the word ''king'' in its original meaning of "ruler". Thus, the literal meaning of {{Transliteration|ru|Veliki Knjaz}} and ''Didysis kunigaikštis'' was more like "great ruler" than "grand duke".

With the growing importance and size of their countries, those monarchs claimed a higher title, such as king or [[tsar]] (also spelled "czar" in English) which was derived from the Latin ''caesar'' ("emperor") and based on the claim to be the legitimate successors of the Byzantine-East Roman Emperors. Grand Prince [[Ivan IV of Russia|Ivan IV of Muscovy]] was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, until he finally assumed the style [[Tsar of Russia]] in 1547.

The rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania ({{langx|de|Siebenbürgen}}) used the title of grand prince; this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish kings of the Swedish [[House of Vasa]] also used the grand-princely title for their non-Polish territories.

In the late Middle Ages, the title "grand prince/grand duke" became increasingly a purely ceremonial courtesy title for close relatives of ruling monarchs, such as the Tsar of Russia, who granted his brothers the title [[Grand Duke of Russia]] ({{Transliteration|ru|veliki knjaz}}).