Where Could Prince Izyaslav Volodymyrovych Escape from Terebovlia in September 1210/1211?

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to identify one of the witnesses of executing in 1212 a diploma by the Prince of Kalisz Władysław Odonic for the Prussian bishop Christian with the subsequent granting of the village of Ceków to the bishop. The diploma mentions a certain Isizlaus among alii nobiles. As we cautiously suggest, that was the son of the former Galician Prince Volodymyr Igorevych – Izyaslav, the Prince of Terebovlia, in the years 1209/1210–1210/1211. After a victorious campaign in August – September 1210/1211 against the Igorids brothers, settled in the Halych land, the Hungarian troops led by Palatine Poth, reinforced by the Kraków, Sandomierz, and Volhynian troops, captured Svyatoslav and Roman Igorids and sold them to the Galician boyars, after which the brothers were hanged together with their families. Unlike the Igorids, Prince Volodymyr and his son Izyaslav managed to escape. While sources do not report anything about Izyaslav for the next few decades, the appearance of the person named Isizlaus at the court of Władysław Odonic in 1212 may not be coincidental. We assume that this may have been Prince Izyaslav Volodymyrovych, since Prince Władysław was his uncle ‘on the distaff side’ according to the genealogical relations with the Galician Rostislavovids.