Włodzimierz

Włodzimierz of Cracow (; c. 1191 – 18 March 1241) was a Polish nobleman who served as voivode of Kraków in the Seniorate Province from about 1238 until his death at the Battle of Chmielnik. In heraldic literature he has been variously associated with the Gryf and Łabędź coats of arms. Most recent genealogical studies link him with the Łabędź lineage descending from the palatine Piotr Włostowic. Before becoming voivode he held the castellanies of Brześć and Oświęcim. This reconstruction has been convincingly rejected by later genealogists, above all Marek L. Wójcik, who showed that the identification rests on a confusion of persons and on an overly broad use of the Gryf coat of arms in medieval records.

The Katalog reports that after the Mongols devastated Sandomierz, they were met near Tursko by the voivodes of Kraków and Sandomierz, Włodzimierz and Pakosław, and were initially driven off. Długosz, however, describes this encounter as a Polish defeat, a discrepancy discussed in detail by modern historians. The traditional date of the battle, and thus of Włodzimierz's death, is 18 March 1241, although critical analysis of the sources has led some scholars to propose slightly different dates within that month.

Following the defeat at Chmielnik the road to Kraków lay open. Contemporary and later chronicles agree that the city was abandoned by much of its population and subsequently plundered and burned by the Mongol troops. In the aftermath Włodzimierz was soon succeeded in the Kraków voivodeship by Klement of Ruszcza, who continued the reorganisation of the province's defences.