thumb|Haute Volhynie (Upper Volhynia) or Luck Palatinate in 1665, Luck identified as Lusuc

Volhynian Voivodeship (, , , Volynske voievodstvo) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1566 until 1569 and of the Polish Crown within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 1569 Union of Lublin until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. It was established in the historical region of Volhynia in the Lesser Poland Province.

Description

The voivodeship was established based on the Łuck Eldership (starostvo) in 1566 with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the 1569 union of Lublin, it was ceded to the Crown of Poland as part of the Lesser Poland (Malopolska) Province.

The capital of the voivodeship was in Łuck (presentday Lutsk), and it had three senators in the Senate of the Commonwealth. These were the Bishop of Luck, the Voivode of Volhynia and the Castellan of Volhynia. Volhynian Voivodeship was divided into three counties: Luck, Wlodzimierz and Krzemieniec. Local starostas resided in the three capitals of the counties, while sejmiks took place at Luck. The voivodeship had two deputies in the Polish Sejm, and one deputy in the Lesser Poland Tribunal in Lublin.

Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland provides this description of Volhynian Voivodeship:

Administration

Seat of Voivodeship Governor and regional sejmik:

  • Łuck

Regional council (sejmik generalny) for all Ruthenian lands

  • Sądowa Wisznia

Administrative division

Counties (powiats)

  • Luck County (Powiat Łucki), Łuck
  • Wlodzimierz County (Powiat Włodzimirski), Włodzimierz
  • Krzemieniec County (Powiat Krzemieniecki), Krzemieniec

Free royal cities

  • Kowel
  • Krzemieniec
  • Łuck
  • Milanowicze
  • Ratno
  • Świniuchy
  • Włodzimierz
  • Wyszniwka

Selected voivodes

  • Janusz Ostrogski (since 1558)
  • Aleksander Ostrogski (since 1593)
  • Adam Aleksander Sanguszko (1630–1653)
  • Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski (since 1679)
  • Franciszek Salezy Potocki (in 1755 only)
  • Józef Kanty Ossoliński (1757–1775; resigned)

See also

  • Volhynia
  • Volyns'ka oblast'

Sources

  • Volhynian Voivodeship, description by Zygmunt Gloger
  • Central European Superpower, Henryk Litwin, BUM Magazine, October 2016.