Yaroslav Osmomysl

Yaroslav Osmomysl (, Osmomyslŭ Jaroslavŭ; , Yaroslav Volodymyrkovych Osmomysl) ( – 1 October 1187) was a prince of Halych (now in western Ukraine). He is best-known for appearing in The Tale of Igor's Campaign. His sobriquet, meaning "Eight-Minded" in Old East Slavic, was granted to him in recognition of his wisdom. Some scholars even assert that Yaroslav was fluent in eight foreign languages. Biography Son of Volodymyrko of Halych by his wife, a daughter of King Coloman of Hungary, he assumed the throne in 1153. His foreign policy tended towards the alliance with the kings of Hungary and Poland, and against the Grand Princes of Kiev, who supported Yaroslav's cousin Ivan Berladnik in his attempts to take possession of several towns bordering Volynia. After many years of warfare, Yaroslav managed to ensure Berladnik's expulsion to Byzantium. In 1164/65, Andronikos the cousin of Manuel I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, escaped from captivity in Byzantium and fled to the court of Yaroslav. This situation, holding out the alarming prospect of Andronikos making a bid for Manuel's throne sponsored by both Galicia (Halych) and Hungary, spurred the Byzantines into an unprecedented flurry of diplomacy. Manuel pardoned Andronikos and persuaded him to return to Constantinople in 1165. Yaroslav of Galicia was persuaded to renounce his Hungarian connections and return fully into the imperial fold. As late as 1200, the princes of Galicia were providing invaluable services against the enemies of the Byzantine Empire, at that time the Cumans.