Volodar Rostyslavych

Volodar Rostyslavych [Rostyslavyč], b ?, d 19 March 1124. Kyivan Rus’ prince; son of Rostyslav Volodymyrovych. Volodar and Davyd Ihorovych of Volhynia invaded Tmutorokan on 18 May 1081 and ruled there until they were ousted by Oleh (Mykhailo) Sviatoslavych in 1083. Volodar and his brothers, Vasylko Rostyslavych and Riuryk Rostyslavych, ruled Halych principality from ca 1084. He was granted the rule of Peremyshl by Vsevolod Yaroslavych after Riuryk died (1092). He and Vasylko Rostyslavych defeated the Kyivan prince, Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, in 1097 and the Hungarians in 1099 in a critical battle near Peremyshl. They formed an alliance with Byzantium and the Cumans, which was cemented in 1104 by the marriage of Volodar's daughter, Iryna, to the son of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]