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Henry II (Piast)

Type Figure Region Silesia Time c. 1196–1241 Also known as Henry the Pious

Duke of Silesia (1238–1241) and an important military leader of the Polish Piast dynasty;…

Timeline

  1. c. 1196–1238Wrocław · WrocławSon of Henry I the Bearded, he co-ruled with his father from the 1210s and took part in campaigns against Masovia and Greater Poland; in the early 1230s he contended with Władysław Odonic and others for control of Greater Poland, and inherited the main Silesian lands after his father's death in 1238.
  2. 1231–1238Greater Poland · Greater PolandIn the 1230s he and his father Henry I, together with Conrad of Masovia and others, competed for hegemony among the Polish duchies; spheres of influence were adjusted after the Treaty of Krzywina in 1234; in the mid-to-late 1230s he gradually unified Opole, Legnica and other Silesian districts, becoming one of the strongest military princes in western Poland.
  3. 1241Legnica · LegnicaIn 1241 Batu's Mongol westward campaign entered Poland; Henry II gathered Polish and German knights and Teutonic reinforcements near Legnica to meet them. In the battle of 9 April the coalition was badly defeated, Henry II was killed, and his head was reportedly presented to the Mongol commander; western Poland suffered severe devastation.

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