History of Silesia - Silesian Duchies

Silesian Duchies

After the death of Henry II the Pious his realm was divided between various Piast dukes. In the second half of the 13th century, Henry II's grandson, Henryk IV Probus of Silesia, made an attempt to gain the Polish crown, but he died in 1290 before realizing his goal. Duke Przemysł II of Greater Poland united two of the original provinces and was crowned in 1295, but was murdered in 1296. According to his will, Greater Poland was supposed to be inherited by Duke Henryk III głogowski, (a Silesian duke of Głogów) who also aspired to unite Poland and even claimed the title Duke of Poland. However, most nobles of Greater Poland supported another candidate from the Kuyavian line of Piasts, Duke Władysław I the Elbow-high. Władysław eventually won the struggle because of his broader support. In the meantime, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia decided to extend his rule and was crowned as King of Poland in 1300. The next half-century was rife with wars between Władysław (later his son Casimir III the Great) and a coalition of Bohemians, Brandenburgers and Teutonic Knights trying to divide Poland. During this time, all Silesian dukes, accepted Władysław's claims for rule sovereignty over other Piasts. After acquiring papal consent for his coronation as king of Poland, all nine dukes of Silesia declared twice (in 1319 before and in 1320 after the coronation) that their realms lied inside the borders of the Polish Kingdom.

Despite the formal papal consent for the coronation of Władysław I the Elbow-high, his right to the Polish crown was still disputed, by successors of Wenceslaus III (a king of both Bohemia and Poland) on the Bohemian throne. In 1327 John of Bohemia invaded Poland in order to gain the Polish crown. After the intervention of King Charles I of Hungary he left Polonia Minor, but on his way back he enforced his supremacy over the Upper Silesian Piasts.

In 1329 Władysław I the Elbow-high engaged himself in a war with the Teutonic Order. The Order was supported by John of Bohemia who managed to enforce his supremacy over the dukes of Masovia and Lower Silesia.

In 1335 John of Bohemia renounced his claim to the title of king of Poland in favour of Casimir the Great, who in return renounced his claims to the Silesia province. This was formalized in the Treaty of Trentschin and Congress of Visegrád (1335), ratified in 1339 and later confirmed in the 1348 Treaty of Namslau.

The last independent Silesian Piast, Bolko II of Świdnica, died in 1368. His wife Agnes ruled the Świdnica duchy until her death in 1392. From that time on all remaining Silesian Piasts became vassals of the Bohemian Crown.

Despite the shift of the Silesia province from Poland to Bohemia and the treaties mentioned above, medieval lawyers of the Kingdom of Poland created a specific claim to all formerly Polish provinces that were not reunited with the rest of the country in 1320. It based on the theory of the Corona Regni Poloniae according to which the state (the Crown) and its interests were no longer strictly connected with the person of the monarch. Because of that no monarch could effectively renounce his claims to any of the territories that were historically and/or ethnically Polish. Those claims were reserved for the state (the Crown) which in theory still covered all of the territories that were part, or dependant of, the Polish Crown in 1138.

Over the following centuries, the lines of the Piast dukes of Silesia died out and were inherited by the Bohemian Crown:

• Opolska (of Opole)in 1314;
• Świdnicka (of Świdnica) in 1368;
• Oleśnicka (Oleśnica and Głogów) in 1476;
• Żagańska (of Żagań) in 1504;
• Woitowitz (of Woitowitz, Wrocław) in 1532 ;
• Cieszyńska (of Cieszyn) in 1625;
• and Brzesko-Legnicka (of Brzeg and Legnica) in 1675.

Although Friedrich Wilhelm, the last male Silesian Piast Duke of Teschen (Cieszyn) died in 1625, rule of the duchy passed to his sister Elisabeth Lucretia, wife of the duke of Liechtenstein, until her death in 1653 after which it reverted to the Bohemian crown under the Habsburg rulers.

By the end of the 14th century, the country had been split up into 18 principalities: Wrocław, Brzeg, Głogów, Jawor, Legnica, Ziębice, Oleśnica, Świdnica and Ścinawa in Lower Silesia; Bytom, Niemodlin, Koźle, Nysa, Opole, Racibórz, Strzelce Opolskie, Cieszyn and Opava in the upper district. The petty rulers of these sections wasted their strength with internecine quarrels and proved quite incompetent to check the lawlessness of their feudal vassals. Save under the vigorous rule of some dukes of Lower Silesia, such as Henry I and Bolko I, and the above-named Henry II and IV, who succeeded in reuniting most of the principalities under their sway, the country fell into a state of growing anarchy.