Life
Little is known about Louis II's first years. The death of his father in 1399 left him and his older half-brother Henry IX as the co-rulers of the Duchy of Brieg; however, one year later (October 1400) they decided to make a formal division of their domains: Louis II retained Brieg and Henry IX took Lubin (Lüben), Chojnów (Haynau) and Oława (Ohlau). On 17 July 1402 both brothers appeared in a meeting of Piast Dukes in Wroclaw, in which they concluded with each other and the other Dukes a defensive alliance and paid homage to King Wenceslaus IV.
In 1404 Louis II made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which he was imprisoned by the Saracens. The unfortunate news reached Brzeg only at the end of the year. Henry IX, in order to gather the ransom for his brother, imposed on the inhabitants of Brzeg, as well on his own subjects of Chojnów and Oława an additional tax. The needed sum of 4,000 fines was collected shortly after; however, Louis II wasn't returned to Silesia until the end of 1405. During his captivity, his brother held the regency over his Duchy of Brieg.
Relations between the brothers (which since their childhood had always been close and warm) suffered a total breakdown in connection with the issue of the succession over the Duchy of Legnica. In March 1409 Duke Wenceslaus II of Legnica, Bishop of Wroclaw, decided to name Louis II as his heir, left him Legnica and a half of Złotoryja (Goldberg). The rights over the other half of Złotoryja and a rent of 6,000 fines were assigned to Henryk IX. Wenceslaus II also decided that both brothers had the option to take control over all Złotoryja if one paid the other in compensation. In the same year Louis II purchased from Henry IX his part of Złotoryja. At this point, the Duke of Lubin (already infuriated by the favoritism of Wenceslaus II over Louis II) and his younger brother broke their friendly relations. Soon the dispute turned into an open war, begun by Henry IX, which occurred during the years 1411–1414. Eventually, on 16 March 1413 Wenceslaus II resigned from the government of Legnica, and gave it to Louis II.
The war continued despite the mediation of Wenceslaus II, who tried to persuade Henry IX to stop. The dispute only ended thanks to the action of King Wenceslaus IV, who forbade his vassals from fighting. The brothers were finally reconciled and issued a document on mutual help. The residents of the Duchy of Legnica-Złotoryja were obliged to pay homage to both Dukes.
In 1419 Ludwik II obtained the town of Krnov for life, and in 1427 Strzelin. In 1413 he had already pledged the towns of Kluczbork, Wołczyn and Byczyna to Conrad VII the White, Duke of Oleśnica, who finally bought them in 1420. In 1434 Conrad VII also pledged these lands, this time to the Dukes of Opole.
Read more about this topic: Louis II, Duke Of Brieg
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“My life has been one long descent into respectability.”
—Mandy Rice-Davies (b. 1944)
“It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Virtue and vice suppose the freedom to choose between good and evil; but what can be the morals of a woman who is not even in possession of herself, who has nothing of her own, and who all her life has been trained to extricate herself from the arbitrary by ruse, from constraint by using her charms?... As long as she is subject to man’s yoke or to prejudice, as long as she receives no professional education, as long as she is deprived of her civil rights, there can be no moral law for her!”
—Flora Tristan (1803–1844)