Glogau

Main

Non-Reign

Princely Coat of Arms Princely Coat of Amrs

History

In 1177, under the rule of Konrad Spindleshanks, the youngest son of High Duke Władysław II the Exile of Poland, the town of Głogów had already become the capital of a principality in its own right. However when Konrad died between 1180 and 1190, his duchy was again inherited by his elder brother Bolesław I the Tall, Duke of Wrocław. After the death of Bolesław's grandson Duke Henry II the Pious at the 1241 Battle of Legnica his sons in 1248 divided the Lower Silesian Duchy of Wrocław among themselves. Konrad I, a child when his father died, claimed his rights too and in 1251 and received the northern Głogau territory from his elder brother Bolesław II the Bald, then Duke of Legnica.

Under the rule of Konrad's son Henry III the principality became smaller, as fragmentation and division continued, and other, smaller duchies were split from it like Ścinawa and Żagań in 1273 as well as the principalities of Oleśnica and Wohlau in 1312. After Henry's son Przemko II had died without heirs in 1331, King John the Blind was able to seize the principlity as a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Bohemia and granted it to the Piast Duke Henry I of Jawor six years later. As Henry I left no issue, King John's son, Charles IV incorporated one half of Głogau into Bohemia, granting the remaining half to Duke Henry V of Iron (Żelazny) of Żagań in 1349.

When in 1476 the Głogau line of the Piast dynasty became extinct with the death of Henry XI, fights over his succession broke out between his cousin Duke Jan II the Mad of Żagań and Elector Albert III Achilles of Brandenburg, the father of Henry's widow Barbara of Hohenzollern. In consequence the Principality's northern part of Krosno Odrzańskie was incorporated by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1482. The truce however eroded Duke Jan II, who continued his attacks on the neighboring territories and in 1480 even invaded the royal Bohemian half of the Głogau principality. This action finally brought the Bohemian anti-king Matthias Corvinus to the scene, who in 1488 conquered Głogau, deposed Jan II and made his son János the duke.

Upon Matthias' death in 1490 his territories were inherited by King Vladislas II Jagiellon of Bohemia, who granted the fief of Głogau to his brothers John I Albert in 1491 and Sigismund I the Old in 1499, both future kings of Poland. In 1506 the duchy finally was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which, after Vladislas' son Louis II Jagiellon had died in 1526, were inherited by Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria and became part of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Principality of Głogau remained part of the Crown of Bohemia within the province of Silesia until the end of the First Silesian War in 1742 when it, like the majority of Silesia, became part of Frederick the Great's Kingdom of Prussia.