Bełz Voivodeship was formed in 1462 from the territories of the
Duchy of Belz, after the Duchy was annexed by the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland gives a detailed description of the voivodeship: “Belz, on the Zaloka river, was one of the oldest
gords of the
Czerwien Land. In 981, the province was seized by
Vladimir the Great. Recovered by
Bolesław Chrobry in 1018, it again became part of
Rus’ after Chrobry’s death (...) In the early 14th century, the Land of Belz was inherited by
Boleslaw Jerzy II of Mazovia, who in 1331 married Eufemia, the daughter of
Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas and sister of
Aldona of Lithuania, wife of
Casimir III the Great. Boleslaw Jerzy died on April 7, 1340, and after his death, King Casimir seized
Red Ruthenia together with Land of Belz (...) In 1387, King
Wladyslaw Jagiello allowed his sister
Alexandra of Lithuania to marry
Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, giving her as dowry the Land of Belz. The province remained in the hands of sons and grandsons of Siemowit IV. The grandsons died childless in early 1462, and the Land of Belz became property of the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, during the reign of King
Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk. The newly created Belz Voivodeship was slightly smaller than Lublin Voivodeship at approximately the same size as the
Chełm Land. It was made of three counties: Lubaczów, Horodło and Szewlock, and in 1767, it was divided into the counties of Bełz, Grabowiec, Horodło, Lubaczów, and the Land of Busk. At local
sejmiks in Belz, five deputies to the
Sejm were elected, and the voivodeship had four
starostas: Belz, Busk, Grabowiec and Horodlo (...) In the 17th century, the voivodeship, which was the smaller of all
Lesser Poland voivodeships, had 483 villages and 33 towns (...) After the first partition of Poland (1772), almost whole voivodeship was annexed by the
Habsburg Empire, as part of
Galicia. What remained in Poland were towns of
Dubienka and Korytnica, together with some villages (...) In 1793 the voivodeship ceased to exist, as after the second partition of Poland, its remaining parts were annexed by the newly created
Chełm Voivodeship and
Włodzimierz Voivodeship". The area received an influx of
szlachta from
Mazovia,
Lesser Poland and
Greater Poland. In 1570–1580, 79% of the local noble families (among those of known provenance) was of Polish origin, while the percentage of
Ruthenian and
Wallachian noble families amounted to 15% and 4% respectively. Peasant strata of the population remained the least affected by migrations from the west. ==Municipal government==