'', late 15th century Opava was initially established as a Moravian province under the rule of King Ottokar's son Nicholas I, who first appeared as a "Lord of Opava" () in 1269 and became the progenitor of the Opava branch of the Přemyslid dynasty. After Ottokar was killed in the 1278
Battle on the Marchfeld, Nicholas had to ward off against claims raised by his stepmother
Kunigunda of Halych and her lover
Záviš of Falkenstein residing at
Hradec Castle near Opava. Nevertheless, he reached his confirmation by both the
Habsburg king
Rudolf I of Germany and his stepbrother King
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and retained his territory even after the murder of the last Přemyslid king
Wenceslaus III of Bohemia in 1306. Upon the extinction of the royal branch of the Přemyslid dynasty and the subsequent turmoil around the Bohemian throne,
Henry of Carinthia gave Opava in pawn to the Silesian duke
Bolesław III the Generous. When finally in 1310 the mighty
House of Luxembourg ascended to the throne, it was redeemed by King
John of Bohemia in 1311. Opava was officially raised to a duchy in 1318 and was confirmed as a fief for Nicholas' son Duke
Nicholas II by King John, who soon had to fend off the Hungarian troops of King
Casimir III of Poland. The conjunction with Silesia was accomplished when Duke Nicholas II married
Anna of Racibórz, sister of the Piast Duke
Leszek of Racibórz, also a Bohemian vassal since 1327. When Leszek died without heirs in 1336, King John vested his brother-in-law Nicholas II with the Silesian
Duchy of Racibórz (
Ratibor,
Ratiboř), whereafter he ruled both duchies in
personal union until his death in 1365, when his eldest son John I succeeded him. In 1377, Duke John I again separated Opava from the duchies of
Racibórz and
Krnov (
Jägerndorf,
Krnów) and granted it to his younger brothers Nicholas III (†1394), Wenceslaus I (†1381) and Przemko (†1433). Afterward, Opava ownership changed several times, mainly due to purchase and partitions. Przemko's sons sold their shares to the Bohemian king
George of Poděbrady by 1462; their Přemyslid cousins however retained Racibórz and Krnov. In 1465 King George gave Opava to his second son
Victor, who also became Duke of
Münsterberg in 1462. Victor in turn had to cede it to the Bohemian anti-king
Matthias Corvinus in 1485, who installed his illegitimate son
John as duke. '' by
Joan Blaeu, 1645 In 1506 King
Vladislas II Jagiellon of Bohemia granted Opava to Duke
Casimir II of Cieszyn (
Teschen), who had married a daughter of Victor and held the duchy until his death in 1528, after which it was again seized by Bohemia. Meanwhile, in 1521, with the death of Duke Valentin of Racibórz, the Opava line of the Přemyslids had finally become extinct and all their possessions had fallen back to the Bohemian Crown, which in 1526 passed to the
Habsburg monarchy. Prince
Karl I of Liechtenstein was invested with the Duchy of Troppau in 1614 by Emperor
Matthias of Habsburg. After the 1620
Battle of White Mountain Prince Karl also acquired the
Duchy of Krnov, and ever since the heads of the
Princely Family of Liechtenstein bear the title "Duke of Troppau and Jägerndorf". The related
Ducal Hat (or coronet) is now visible at the Treasure Chamber in Vaduz. In 1742, in the course of the
First Silesian War and the
Treaty of Breslau, the Duchy was divided once more, with the part north of the
Opava River including
Głubczyce (
Leobschütz,
Hlubčice) and
Hlučín (
Hultschin) becoming part of
Prussia. The southern part with
Krnov,
Bruntál (
Freudenthal),
Fulnek and Opava itself remained part of
Austrian Silesia, a crown land of the
Austrian Empire from 1804. The Austrian Duchy of Troppau ceased to exist when the
Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved in 1918 and the area (
Troppauer Land) including the city became part of
Czechoslovakia. The Prussian share (reduced by the territory of the
Hlučín Region which new Czechoslovak state also reclaimed for itself) remained a part of the
Silesian province until 1945, when it fell to
Poland in accord with the
Potsdam Agreement. ==See also==