[6] In the 1230s or the 1240s, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the grand prince of Vladimir, detached the city of Tver from the Pereyaslavl-Zalessky principality (where it previously belonged), and gave it to his son Alexander "Nevsky" Yaroslavich.

[11] In particular, Tver and Moscow received many displaced inhabitants of Vladimir, and experienced population growth during the early Golden Horde hegemony.

[4] Nevertheless, Tver had an advantageous location on the Upper Volga for luxury goods transported by traders from the far north down the river towards the Jochid capital of Sarai.

[12] It was one of the first northeastern Rus' cities to begin post-invasion major construction works, such as the Transfiguration Church (Russian: Спасо-Преображенский собор) in the late 13th century.

[citation needed] In the same encounter, Özbeg's sister and Yuri's wife, Konchaka, was captured by Mikhail and made a prisoner of war.

[17] During the Great Troubles (1359–1381), the Golden Horde descended into a war of succession which weakened it internally and externally, allowing the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under Algirdas (Olgerd) to score a major victory at the Battle of Blue Waters (1362/3).

[19] But the same year, a Muscovite-led expedition besieged Tver for four weeks, forcing Mikhail to sign a treaty recognising Dmitry Donskoy as his "elder brother" and the rightful grand prince of Vladimir, and to pledge military support in the case of a conflict.

[20][22] The symbolic victory had little practical effect, as Tokhtamysh defeated and killed Mamai at the Battle of the Kalka River in 1381, causing Dmitry Donskoy to flee and leaving the Muscovites to their fate when Tokhamysh besieged and sacked Moscow in 1382.

[24] Dmitry of Moscow did so as well, minting coins after 1382 stating proudly "Grand Prince Dimitry Ivanovich" on one side, but submissively "Sultan Tokhtamysh: Long may he live" on the other.

Scholars have also interpreted the Slovo as an expression of aspirations by Tver to become the center for the unification of the Russian land (russkaia zemlia).

[30] In the subsequent 1425–1533 period, the rulers of Moscow nevertheless managed to gain the economic and military overhand, switch the order of dynastic succession from the chaotic horizontal to vertical inheritance, reincorporate all Suzdalian appanages, and during wars with Lithuania even annex Ryazan, Novgorod, Pskov, and Smolensk into the Muscovite realm.

When Mikhail II tried to compensate for the treaties by seeking an alliance with Lithuania, the army of Ivan III swiftly conquered Tver in 1485.