Moscow's grand prince was blinded by his cousin in 1446, after his mother tore a disputed gold belt from another cousin at his wedding

Dmitry Donskoy's will of 1389 left Vladimir and its land to his elder son Vasily I, and said that if Vasily died, Moscow and Vladimir would pass to the eldest of the other brothers. Vasily I died in 1425 and left a son, Vasily II, aged about ten. Vasily's uncle Yuri of Galich claimed the throne. The metropolitan and the boyars held to succession from father to son. Vasily broke a promise to marry the daughter of the boyar Ivan Vsevolozhsky^†, who had won him the Horde's patent, and married Maria Yaroslavna; Vsevolozhsky went over to Yuri. At the wedding, in 1433^†, Yuri's son Vasily Kosoy wore a gold belt. The Brockhaus-Efron encyclopedia gives its history: it came to Dmitry Donskoy as a dowry, was swapped at his wedding by the official Velyaminov, and passed by later dowries to Kosoy's wife. Vasily's mother, Sofia Vitovtovna, recognised it and tore it off Kosoy in front of the guests. Yuri's sons left Moscow. Yuri took the city, made himself grand prince and died on 5 June 1434. Vasily II had Kosoy captured and blinded. In 1446 another of Yuri's sons, Dmitry Shemyaka, seized Vasily at the Trinity monastery, had him blinded and sent him to Uglich. Vasily retook Moscow in 1447. In 1453 Shemyaka died in Novgorod after eating a chicken poisoned by a cook in the pay of Vasily's men. Father-to-son succession held, and Vasily's son reigned as Ivan III.