Vladimir Vasilkovich

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vasylkovich.

Vladimir Vasilkovich (Ukrainian: Володимир Василькович) was a son of Vasilko Romanovich. He succeeded his father as the prince of Volhynia when the latter died in 1269, and was famous for numerous constructions and reconstructions of town fortifications in Volhynia.

Vladimir Vasilkovich
Prince of Volhynia
Reign	1269–1288
Died	1288

In the 1270s (1276, according to most sources) he founded a castle that included a keep now famous as the Tower of Kamyanets, and around which sprang up the town of Kamyanets; he also authored the construction of a similar tower in the re-built castle of Berestye. He died in 1289 in Luboml. Summing up his life, the "old chronicle" presented him as a booklover and philosopher, whose like in the world had never before been seen, and would never be seen again.

Vasilkovich was renowned for his favorable treatment of the region's Jewish population, which had erewhile been severely maligned and ill-treated. According to an annalist who describes the funeral of the grand duke Vladimir Vasilkovich in the city of Vladimir (Volhynia), "the Jews wept at his funeral as at the fall of Jerusalem, or when being led into the Babylonian captivity."^[1]

References

1. Isidore Singer & Cyrus Adler, eds., The Jewish Encyclopedia: Leon-Moravia (New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1904), 119.