Grand prince or great prince (feminine: grand princess or great princess) is a hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families.
Grand duke is the usual and established, though not literal, translation of these terms in English and the Romance languages, which do not normally use separate words for a "prince" who reigns as a monarch (e.g., Albert II, Prince of Monaco) and a "prince" who does not reign, but belongs to a monarch's family (e.g., Prince George of Wales). Some Slavic and Germanic languages do use separate words to express this concept, and in those languages, grand prince is understood as a distinct title (for a cadet of a dynasty) from grand duke (hereditary ruler ranking below a king). Some recent sources also use archduke.
The title of grand prince was once used for the sovereign of a grand principality. The last titular grand principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being united into other monarchies or becoming republics. Already at that stage, the grand principalities of Lithuania, Transylvania and Finland had been for centuries under rulers of other, bigger monarchies, so that the title of grand prince was superseded by the titles of king and emperor there.
The title of veliky knyaz (translated as either grand prince or grand duke) was used for the Russian sovereign until Ivan IV was crowned as tsar in 1547. Although, the Slavic ' and the Baltic ' (now usually translated as prince) are similar to kings in terms of ruling and duties. However, a veliky knyaz was usually only ' within a dynasty, primogeniture not governing the order of succession. All princes of the family were equally eligible to inherit a crown (for example, succession might be through agnatic seniority or rotation). Often other members of the dynasty ruled some constituent parts of the monarchy or country. An established use of the title was in the Kievan Rus' and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (from the 14th century). Thus, Veliky knyaz has been more like a regional high king (but without international recognition as such) than a "grand duke", at least, originally and was not subordinated to any other authority.
History
Middle Ages
Hungary
Grand prince () was the title used by contemporary sources to name the leader of the federation of the Hungarian tribes in the 10th century. Constantine VII mentioned Árpád in his book De Administrando Imperio as ', while Bruno of Querfurt referred to Géza in his Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris vita altera as '. It was used by Géza and his son and heir Stephen of Hungary.
Serbia
In the Middle Ages, the Serbian veliki župan () was the supreme chieftain in the multi-tribal society. The title signifies overlordship, as the leader of lesser chieftains titled župan. It was used by the Serb rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries. In Greek, it was known as archizoupanos (), megazoupanos () and megalos zoupanos (). Stefan Nemanja expelled his brother Tihomir in 1168 and assumed the title of veliki župan, as described in the Charter of Hilandar (). A Latin document used mega iupanus for King Stefan the First-Crowned (). Afterwards, it was a high noble rank with notable holders such as Altoman Vojinović ().
Russia
The title of grand prince (veliky knyaz) was historically used in Russia by the sovereign until the title of tsar was officially adopted by Ivan IV in 1547. Although other principalities emerged, the grand prince of Kiev was recognized as the leading prince, although his actual powers gradually diminished during the 12th and 13th centuries, and other branches of the ruling dynasty claimed the grand princely title for themselves.