The Duchy of Głogów (Polish: Księstwo głogowskie, Czech: Hlohovské knížectví) or Duchy of Glogau (German: Herzogtum Glogau) was one of the Duchies of Silesia, formed in course of the medieval fragmentation of Poland into smaller provincial duchies. Its capital was Głogów in Lower Silesia.[1] It existed in 1177–1185 and 1251–1506 and was ruled by the Silesian Piasts, followed by John Corvinus and the Jagiellonian dynasty.
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 duchy 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, and re-incorporated to the Duchy of Silesia/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 Głogów territory from his elder brother Bolesław II the Bald, then Duke of Legnica.
Under the rule of Konrad's son Henry III the size of the principality was fluctuating, as fragmentation and division continued. In 1273, smaller duchies of Ścinawa and Żagań were split off. In 1296, the duchy expanded to the east and south-west obtaining the towns of Gorzów, Kluczbork, Milicz, Oleśnica, Ścinawa and Trzebnica from the Duchy of Wrocław and Bolesławiec and Chojnów from the Duchy of Legnica.[2] In 1312, the duchies of Oleśnica and Wołów were split off.
When in 1476 the Głogów 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 Brandenburg. In consequence the duchy's northern part of Krosno Odrzańskie (Crossen an der Oder) was incorporated by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1482. The truce however was broken by Duke Jan II, who continued his attacks on the neighbouring territories and in 1480 even invaded the royal Bohemian half of the Głogów duchy. This action finally brought the Bohemian antiking Matthias Corvinus to the scene, who in 1488 conquered Głogów, deposed Jan II and made his son John the duke.
Głogów remained part of the Crown of Bohemia within the province of Silesia until the end of the First Silesian War in 1742 when, like the majority of Silesia, it became part of Frederick the Great's Kingdom of Prussia (which was definitively confirmed by the Treaty of Aachen in 1748). Even the Seven Years' War did not change this status. In 1815 the Duchy (along with other Silesian duchies) ceased to exist due to radical administrative reform. All of Silesia was unified into a single administrative unit, Province of Silesia.
^Orzechowski, Kazimierz; Przybytek, Dariusz; Ptak, Marian (2008). Dolny Śląsk. Podziały terytorialne od X do XX wieku (in Polish). Wrocław. p. 41. ISBN978-83-923255-5-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
