Duchy of Bytom

The Duchy of Bytom was one of the Silesian duchies of fragmented Piast-ruled Poland, established about 1281 when the Duchy of Opole and Raciborz was divided among the sons of Duke Wladyslaw Opolski. Its capital was Bytom, a town that had belonged to Lesser Poland until 1177, when Casimir II the Just attached it to the Silesian Duchy of Raciborz. Casimir of Bytom first ruled jointly with his brother Bolko I of Opole and from 1284 alone. Conflict with his cousin Henry IV Probus drove him to seek the protection of King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, and in 1289 he became the first Silesian Piast duke to accept Bohemian overlordship. The Bytom branch of the Piasts died out in 1355, and the duchy was divided among heirs, then reunited in 1459 under Conrad IX the Black of Olesnica. In 1472 Matthias Corvinus annexed Bytom, and in 1498 it was merged back into the Duchy of Opole.