The Duchy of Siewierz was a Silesian duchy with its capital in

Siewierz Siewierz is a town in southern Poland, in the Będzin County in the Silesian Voivodeship, seat of Gmina Siewierz. History Siewierz was first mentioned in 1125, and was administered by the Castellan of Bytom. In 1177, Casimir II of Poland grant ...

. The area was part of the original

Duchy of Silesia The Duchy of Silesia ( pl, Księstwo śląskie, german: Herzogtum Schlesien, cs, Slezské knížectví) with its capital at Wrocław was a medieval duchy located in the historic Silesian region of Poland. Soon after it was formed under the Piast ...

established after the death of Duke

Bolesław III Wrymouth Bolesław III Wrymouth ( pl, Bolesław III Krzywousty; 20 August 1086 – 28 October 1138), also known as Boleslaus the Wry-mouthed, was the duke of Lesser Poland, Silesia and Sandomierz between 1102 and 1107 and over the whole of Poland between ...

in 1138 during the times of the fragmentation of Poland. Poland Siewierz - castle

Siewierz in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

was ruled by the

Silesian Piasts The Silesian Piasts were the elder of four lines of the Polish Piast dynasty beginning with Władysław II the Exile (1105–1159), eldest son of Duke Bolesław III of Poland. By Bolesław's testament, Władysław was granted Silesia as his h ...

as part of the Duchy of Bytom under Duke Casimir. In 1312 he granted the town to his youngest son

Mieszko Mieszko is a Slavic given name of uncertain origin. Onomastics There are three major theories concerning the origin and meaning of the name of Duke Mieszko I of Poland. The most popular theory, proposed by Jan Długosz, explains that Mieszko is a ...

, who renounced it in favour of his brother Władysław. In 1337 it was acquired by Casimir I, Duke of Cieszyn, whose scion Wenceslaus I sold it to the Archbishop of Kraków in 1443.

Zygmunt Gloger Zygmunt Gloger (3 November 1845 in Tybory-Kamianka – 16 August 1910 in Warsaw) was a Polish historian, archaeologist, geographer and ethnographer, bearer of the Wilczekosy coat of arms. Gloger founded the precursor of modern and widely popu ...

in his book "Historical geography of lands of ancient Poland" ("Geografia historyczna ziem dawnej Polski"), published in 1900, writes that the Duchy of Siewierz belonged to

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

, after it was bought by the Archbishops of Kraków. Since 1443, after its acquisition by Archbishop Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki for 6,000 silver

groats Groats (or in some cases, "berries") are the hulled kernels of various cereal grains, such as oat, wheat, rye, and barley. Groats are whole grains that include the cereal germ and fiber-rich bran portion of the grain, as well as the endosp ...

, it was, alongside the

Duchy of Nysa The Duchy of Nysa ( pl, Księstwo Nyskie, cs, Niské knížectví) or Duchy of Neisse (german: Herzogtum Neisse) was one of the duchies of Silesia with its capital at Nysa in Lower Silesia. Alongside the Duchy of Siewierz, it was the only ec ...

, the only ecclesiastical duchy in the region (ruled by a bishop of the Catholic Church). On many levels this tiny principality was almost a 'country within a country': it had its own laws, treasury and army. The union of the duchy with

was concluded when in 1790 the Great Sejm formally incorporated the Duchy as a Land of the Polish Crown into the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. In the course of the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, the duchy and its adjacent regions were annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

and incorporated into the new province of New Silesia. In 1800 the Kraków bishops moved their residence away from Siewierz.

Temporarily recreated in 1807 by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

as a gift for his ally Jean Lannes within the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

, after the 1815

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon ...

the lands became part of

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...

under

Imperial Russian The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. Th ...

rule. In 1918, Siewierz became part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

, from 1939 to 1945 it was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The bishops of Kraków continued to use the title of a ''Prince of Siewierz'' until the death of Adam Stefan Sapieha in 1951. The Dukes of Montebello claim the title ''prince de Sievers'', due to their descent from Marshall Lannes, but without recognition from the French or Polish States.

Dukes

* Mieszko bytomski 1312-1328 * Władysław bytomski 1328-1337 * Kazimierz I cieszyński 1337-1358 * Bolko II Mały 1359-1368 * Przemysław I Noszak 1368-1410 * ''?'' 1410-1423 * Zbigniew Oleśnicki 1423-1455 * Tomasz Strzępiński 1455-1460 * Jakub z Sienna 1461-1463 *

Jan Gruszczyński Jan Gruszczyński was a medieval Bishop of Kraków, Kujawski, Archbishop of Gniezno, Chancellor of the Crown, and active diplomat. Early life He was born at Sieradz, Central Poland in 1405 AD into the Poraj Polish noble family. He was the ...

1463-1464 * Jan Lutek 1464-1471 * Jan Rzeszowski 1471-1488 *

Fryderyk Jagiellończyk Frederick Jagiellon ( pl, Fryderyk Jagiellończyk; 27 April 1468 – 14 March 1503) was a Polish prince, Archbishop of Gniezno, Bishop of Kraków, and Primate of Poland. He was the sixth son and ninth child of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland ...

1488-1503 * Jan Konarski 1503-1524 *

Piotr Tomicki Piotr Tomicki (1464 – 19 October 1535) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Przemyśl and Poznań, Archbishop of Kraków, Vice-Chancellor of the Crown, and Royal Secretary. Celebrated as one of the most important representatives of the Polish Renais ...

1524-1535 * Jan Latalski 1536-1537 * Jan Chojeński 1537-1538 * Piotr Gamrat 1538-1545 *

Samuel Maciejowski Samuel Maciejowski (15 January 1499 – 26 October 1550) was a 16th-century Roman Catholic Bishop of Chełm, Płock and Kraków, in Poland. Early life He was born 15 January 1499 and ordained a priest in 1530. He began his career in 1518 as a n ...

1546-1550 * Andrzej Zebrzydowski 1551-1560 * Filip Padniewski 1560-1572 * Franciszek Krasiński 1572-1577 *

Piotr Myszkowski Piotr Myszkowski can refer to: * Piotr Myszkowski (bishop) Piotr Myszkowski (c. 1510 – 1591) was a 16th-century Roman Catholic Bishop of Plock and Kraków, in Poland. Early life Piotr Myszkowski was born about 1510 at Przeciszów into the J ...

1577-1591 *

Jerzy Radziwiłł Jerzy Radziwiłł ( lt, Jurgis Radvila; 1480 – April 1541), nicknamed "Herkules", was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman. He was Deputy Cup-Bearer of Lithuania from 1510, voivode of Kiev Voivodeship from 1510, Field Hetman of Lithuania in ...

1591-1600

References

*
about Siewierz
in Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego {{DEFAULTSORT:Siewierz, Duchy Duchies of Silesia History of Lesser Poland 1312 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in Poland 1795 disestablishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Fiefdoms of Poland Former duchies

Dukes

See also

References