Yurii Lvovych

Yurii Lvovych [Jurij L’vovyč], b ca 1252–7 (or 1262), d 23 April 1308 (or 1315). Ruler of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia; son of Lev Danylovych. He ruled in Kholm and Podlachia, and after his father's death he united all the lands of Galicia-Volhynia into a principality, with its capital in Volodymyr-Volynskyi. During his tenure Poland regained the Lublin region (1302), and Hungary seized a part of Transcarpathia, but his reign was largely peaceful, and his principality flourished economically. His title was ‘King of Rus’, Prince of Lodomeria.’ Yurii enjoyed favorable foreign relations; he maintained a particularly close alliance with the princes of Kujavia, in Poland, and married Eufemia (Yevtymiia), the sister of Władysław Łokietek. When the metropolitan of Kyiv moved his see north to Vladimir, Yurii obtained the assent of Constantinople to establish Halych metropoly (1303), in which Halych eparchy, Volodymyr-Volynskyi eparchy, Peremyshl eparchy, Lutsk eparchy, Kholm eparchy, and Turiv eparchy were included. Yurii was succeeded by his sons, Andrii Yuriiovych and Lev Yuriiovych.

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