Duchy of Bytom

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Coat of arms of the Duchy of Beuthen

The Duchy of Beuten ( Polish Księstwo bytomskie; Czech Bytomské knížectví ), also Duchy of Oberbeuthen , was created in 1281 as an independent duchy when the Duchy of Ratibor-Opole was divided . It was ruled by dukes from the Opole line of the Silesian Piasts until 1355 , and after a year-long inheritance dispute, in 1369 half each came to the dukes of Teschen and half of Oels . In 1459 the Duke of Oels, Konrad IX. "The black" also the second half, whereby the area was reunited as a whole. The place of residence was the city of the same name, Beuthen . At last it existed as a free state rule (Ober-) Beuthen before it became the district of Beuthen in 1816 .

history

The area of ​​Bytom originally belonged to Malopolska and came to the Ratibor Duke Mieszko around 1177 together with the castellanias Auschwitz and Sewerien . After the latter also appropriated the Opole area in 1202 after the death of the first Opole Duke Jaroslaus and his father Boleslaus I of Silesia , who died shortly afterwards , he incorporated the newly acquired areas into his Duchy of Ratibor and called himself Duke of Opole .

After the death of Duke Wladislaus I in 1281, his duchy was divided among his four sons. The areas of Beuthen and Cosel received the second-born son Casimir II of Beuthen , who from 1286 also called himself Duke of Cosel . Already at the beginning of his reign he turned politically to Bohemia and was the first Silesian duke to honor the Bohemian King Wenceslaus II in Prague on January 10, 1289. At the same time, with the consent of his sons, he took over his land as a fiefdom of the crown of Bohemia . After Kasimir's death in 1312, he was followed by his second son, Wladislaus , who in 1337 drove his brother Ziemowit to the area of Gliwice . After Wladislaus death in 1352 he was followed by his son Boleslaus , who however died in 1355, leaving only daughters behind.

Then there was a long-term dispute between the Oelser and the Teschen dukes over the Beuthen-Cosel inheritance, which had fallen back to the Crown of Bohemia as a settled fiefdom . Nevertheless, the four representatives of the main line of Opole raised Casimir I of Teschen , John I of Auschwitz († 1370/72), Boleslaus II of Opole and Bolko II of Falkenberg , whose son Wenzel was engaged to Boleslaus daughter Euphemia († 1411) , whom he married in 1364, inheritance claims to the defunct duchy. Even Conrad I († 1366) of Oels, who was married for 1328/29 with Euphemia († 1376/78), a subsidiary of Duke Władysław of Bytom and Cosel, filed for claims.

On October 10, 1355, an arbitration court chaired by the Bohemian sovereign Charles IV awarded the Duchy of Cosel to Duke Konrad I of Oels. The dispute over the inheritance of the Duchy of Beuthen was only settled in 1369 after the death of Duke Konrad I von Oels, who died in 1366. Then the Duchy of Bytom was divided. Half of Beuthen with the northern part of the duchy was handed over to the widow of Konrad I Euphemia († 1376/78) or her son Konrad II von Oels . The second half, together with Tost and Peiskretscham , was given to Duke Przemislaus from Teschen , who had married Boleslaus daughter Elisabeth between 1360 and 1363. Boleslaus daughters Euphemia (1350 / 52–1411) and Boleslawa / Bolka (1351 / 55–1427 / 28) received a severance payment. After the Duke of Oels, Konrad IX, in 1459 . “The black one” had also acquired the Teschen half, both parts were connected again. He died in 1471, heir was his younger brother Konrad X. "the young white man" .

In 1476 King Matthias Corvinus conquered Beuthen and handed it over to the Bohemian Count Johann Zierotin as a pledge . After the death of Matthias Corvinus in 1490 it was returned to Duke Konrad X. "the young whites". With his death in 1492, the Oels branch of the Glogau line of the Silesian Piasts expired, whereby the Duchy of Bytom fell as a settled fiefdom to the Bohemian King Vladislav II . The Opole Duke Johann II acquired it from him in 1498. He connected Beuthen with his Duchy of Opole, but died in 1532 as the last male descendant of his family line. The orphaned Duchy of Opole fell back to the Crown of Bohemia as a settled fiefdom.

Already in 1526 Duke Johann II had enfeoffed the Brandenburg Margrave Georg the Pious of Ansbach with Opole. The Habsburgs , who came to power in Bohemia in the same year, confirmed Georg of Brandenburg-Ansbach's pledge ownership of Opole-Ratibor in the Prague Treaty of June 17, 1531. However, the rule of Beuthen was promised to only two physical heirs. After Johann Georg von Brandenburg , who was a partisan of the Bohemian King Friedrich V, was ostracized , Beuthen fell back as a fiefdom to Bohemia after the battle of the White Mountain . In 1623, Emperor Ferdinand II, in his capacity as King of Bohemia, granted the rule of Beuthen as a pledge to Lazarus I. Henckel von Donnersmarck . His son of the same name, Lazarus II, inherited the Bytom rule in 1629. From 1697 the Duchy of Bytom was a free class rule , which after the First Silesian War in 1742, like almost all of Silesia , fell to Prussia .

Dukes of all Bytom

Dukes of Beuthen / Teschen part

Dukes of Beuthen / Oelser Share

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ To distinguish from Beuthen on the Oder .