The duchy shared the history of the
Cieszyn Silesia region, and also in part that of Silesia in general: the Teschen area was the south-easternmost part of the medieval
Duchy of Silesia, a Polish province established upon the death of Duke
Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1138. According to his
testament, the Silesian lands were to be ruled by his eldest son
Władysław II, who became the progenitor of the
Silesian Piasts. Though he was exiled by his younger half-brothers after he had tried to gain control over Poland as a whole, his sons, backed by Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa, were able to return and to secure their Silesian inheritance. In 1172 they divided the heritage: the Upper Silesian lands with the Cieszyn area stretching up to the
Beskid Mountains fell to the second son
Mieszko I Tanglefoot, who ruled as
Duke of Racibórz. Defying the Polish
agnatic seniority principle, Mieszko Tanglefoot in 1202 occupied the neighbouring
Duchy of Opole from his nephew
Henry the Bearded, forming the united Upper Silesian
Duchy of Opole and Racibórz. His descendants ruled Upper Silesia until the death of Mieszko's grandson Duke
Władysław Opolski in 1281, whereafter Opole-Racibórz was again divided among his four sons. The eldest,
Mieszko, initially ruled the Duchy of Racibórz with Cieszyn and Oświęcim, jointly with his minor brother
Przemysław. After another partition in 1290, Mieszko took his residence in Cieszyn and became the first Duke of Teschen.
Piast rule Like most of his Silesian Piast relatives, Mieszko approached the
kings of Bohemia; during the Polish internal struggles after the death of High Duke
Leszek II, in 1291, he and his younger brother Duke
Bolko I of Opole signed a support agreement with King
Wenceslaus II. Mieszko also had the Teschen lands on the
Vistula and
Biała rivers and the
Beskid foothills settled by
German immigrants. He colonised the remote parts of his duchy and vested Cieszyn,
Oświęcim,
Zator,
Skoczów and
Karviná with
town privileges. His adhered to the alliance with Bohemia even after in 1310 the
House of Luxembourg assumed the throne in
Prague. After Mieszko's death in 1315, his son
Władysław took the lands east of the Biała river where he established the separate
Duchy of Oświęcim, which eventually became a fief of the
Polish Crown. His brother
Casimir I retained the western part and in 1327 swore
homage to King
John of Bohemia. After that Teschen became an autonomous
fiefdom of the Bohemian kings and part of the
Crown of Bohemia. Local Piast rulers often possessed other lands outside the duchy itself, as the
Duchy of Siewierz, half of
Głogów and some parts of
Bytom. ), issued by Duke Wenceslaus III Adam in 1573 After the death of Duke
Bolesław I in 1431, the rule over the duchy was shared by his wife
Euphemia and their four sons. In 1442 the duchy was divided between the brothers who all bore the ducal title; nevertheless, the real control over the duchy passed to
Boleslaus II and
Przemyslaus II, who after the death of Boleslaus II in 1452 ruled alone. From the late 15th century onwards, the Beskid valleys in the south were settled by
Vlach peasants from neighbouring
Moravian Wallachia. While the Lands of the Bohemian Crown passed to the
Habsburg dynasty in 1526, the Duchy of Teschen during the reign of Duke
Wenceslaus III Adam, from 1528 onwards, shifted to
Protestantism. Influenced by the
Moravian governor
John of Pernstein, his tutor and father-in-law, he turned to the
Lutheran faith in 1540 and his subjects had to follow according to the
cuius regio, eius religio rule. In 1560, still during his lifetime, he ceded the
Duchy of Bielsko with Karviná and
Frýdek to his son and heir
Frederick Casimir. Nevertheless, Frederick died already in 1571 and his father, struggling with financial problems, had to sell Bielsko as a
state country to the
Princes of Pless. The remaining duchy passed to the only surviving son
Adam Wenceslaus, who in 1610 shifted back to
Roman Catholicism for the sake of political advantage and enacted several
Counter-Reformation measures. Indeed, Emperor
Matthias appointed him Silesian governor in 1617, however, he died a few months later. The Cieszyn Piast rule continued until 1653, when the male line became extinct with the death of Adam Wenceslaus' son
Frederick William amidst the
Thirty Years' War in 1625. The intentions of the Habsburg rulers to seize the duchy as a reverted fief were initially thwarted by his surviving sister, Duchess
Elizabeth Lucretia, who began a lengthy lawsuit on her heritage. Nevertheless, when she died in 1653, the duchy passed directly to the Bohemian monarchs, at that time the Habsburg emperor
Ferdinand III and his son King
Ferdinand IV.
Habsburg rule Ferdinand IV ruled Teschen until his death in 1654, whereafter the duchy fell back to Emperor Ferdinand III. His Habsburg successors continued the re-Catholicization policies. In 1722 Emperor
Charles VI separated Teschen from the Bohemian Crown and granted the duchy to Duke
Leopold of Lorraine, whose son
Francis I was to marry Charles's daughter
Maria Theresa. Leopold had unsuccessfully claimed his maternal grandmother's rights to the north Italian
Duchy of Montferrat, which Charles had taken and given to the
Dukes of Savoy in 1708 as part of their alliance pact. Once
Holy Roman Emperor, Francis had to face the attack by the
Prussian king
Frederick the Great, who after the 1742
Peace of Breslau took the bulk of Silesia, while Teschen remained with the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1766 Teschen passed to Francis' eldest surviving daughter, Archduchess
Maria Christina and her husband
Prince Albert of Saxony, who thus became known colloquially as the Duke of Saxe-Teschen. Although most of Silesia had passed to Prussia, Teschen with Bielsko and the duchies of
Krnov (Jägerndorf),
Opava (Troppau) and southern part of episcopal
Nysa (Neisse) remained under Habsburg control and passed to the newly established
Austrian Empire in 1804. Archduchess Maria Christina had died in 1798 and as her marriage remained childless, upon the death of the widowed Albert in 1822 the duchy passed to their adopted son,
Archduke Charles of Austria, who assumed the title of
Herzog von Teschen and became progenitor of the Teschen cadet branch of the
Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. While the Duchy of Teschen finally merged into the
crown land of
Austrian Silesia after the
Revolutions of 1848, the ducal title passed down Charles' line, first to his eldest son,
Archduke Albert, and then in 1895 to Albert Frederick's nephew,
Archduke Frederick. With Austrian Silesia, the territory of Teschen became part of the
Cisleithanian half of the
Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy upon the
Compromise of 1867. At the end of
World War I both the crown land and the ducal title were disestablished with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Archduke Frederick, appointed Austrian field marshal in 1914 but soon neutralized by Chief-of-Staff
Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, found his vast possessions expropriated and retired to
Magyaróvár in Hungary.
Aftermath At the end of the war, local
Polish and
Czechoslovak self-governments were established in the territory of Cieszyn, which on 5 November 1918 signed an interim agreement under which the territory – including the town of Cieszyn itself – was divided along the
Olza (Olše, Olsa) River. However, the preliminary convention failed to settle the border conflict between the newly established state of Czechoslovakia and the Second Polish Republic, which claimed further areas of the former Cieszyn duchy with a predominantly
Polish-speaking population. The ongoing conflict escalated when Czechoslovak troops crossed the Olza on 23 January 1919, starting the
Polish–Czechoslovak War. Clashes of arms continued until 31 January, but neither of the belligerents benefited: at the 1920
Spa Conference the division of the former duchy along the Olza was confirmed. The eastern part of Cieszyn Silesia was incorporated into the Polish
Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship, while the western part (including the
Trans-Olza region) became part of
Czechoslovakia. This was confirmed on 5 August 1920 by the
Conference of Ambassadors. After
World War II the remaining German population was
expelled. ==Demographics==