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The Duchy of Pless (in some sources Duchy of Pszczyna, Template:Lang-de, Template:Lang-pl) was a duchy of Silesia, with its capital at Pless (Pszczyna, Poland).

At first the lands of Pszczyna were a part of Little Poland (Template:Lang-pl), but in 1178 King of Poland Casimir II the Just gave them to one of the Dukes of Silesia, Mieszko I Tanglefoot, who attached it to his two other duchies, Duchy of Opole and of Racibórz. Leszek Pszczyński was forced to accept vassalization by John I of Bohemia in 1327, putting the Duchy in the Bohemian sphere of influence up until his death in 1336. For a time, the Duchy was ruled by the Czech Přemyslid dynasty. From 1412 until 1452, Helena, sister of Jogaila, ruled the Duchy. Her stepdaughter governed it from 1452 until 1462. Later, the House of Podebrady took over, and the Duchy became a part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. The Thurzó family acquired the Duchy and sold it in 1548 to the Promnitz family, who ruled the Duchy with the approval of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor until 1765.

In the War of the Austrian Succession most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia; but the Dukes, and later Princes, of Pless would remain the rulers of the territory. The Dukes of Anhalt-Cöthen-Pless inherited it in 1765 (being descended from the earlier dukes in the female line), the last of them died in 1847, and was succeeded by Hans Heinrich X, Count of Hochberg. The Hochbergs (Hans Heinrich X, XI, and XV) were among the wealthiest families of Germany, in part because of the mines of Pless.

Prussian administration would attempt to Germanize the Poles of its conquered territories, culminating in the (passed, but never enforced) Polish Expropriation Act of 1908(the wife of Hans Hochberg XV, Mary Theresa Cornwallis-West claims her husband voted against it in the Prussian Parliament) The regional newspaper Tygodnik Polski Poświęcony Włościanom ("Polish Weekly for Estate Owners" was the first Polish newspaper of Upper Silesia, and steadfastly resisted this movement; Pszczyna remained overwhelming Polish with 94.3 Poles in 1829 , the district was 86% Polish as late as 1867.

The Prince's power over his land and its tenants was very great; for example, when the Duke of Ratibor, who had represented the district of Pless-Rybnik in the parliament of the North German Confederation, ran in the first election to the Imperial German Reichstag in 1871, Hans Heinrich XI, Prince of Pless, endorsed him, and was able to enlist even the constabulary, servants of the Prussian state, as election workers; he also threatened the economic well-being of those who opposed his candidate. But the Prince's power was not absolute; the opposition candidate, the saintly Father Eduard Müller, an unknown priest from Berlin, won anyway. This electoral surprise was one of the first great successes of the German Catholic Centre Party; they retained the seat until 1903, when much of the Centre Party's delegation from Silesia was replaced, although by very thin majorities, by the Polish National Democrats.

Alexander II of Russia gave the Hochbergs a herd of wisent in 1864 or 1865, and they roamed the lands of Pless until the German Revolution in the aftermath of the First World War, when the herd was broken up and reduced to three survivors by poaching.

The Hochbergs were Princes of Pless in the Prussian peerage; however, in 1905, Hans Heinrich XI was made a Duke, for his lifetime only - in part because he had been a Prince for fifty years; in Germany, dukes outranked princes. Hans Heinrich XV succeeded in 1907; he had married Mary Theresa Cornwallis-West, better known as Daisy, Princess of Pless. He and his elder sons were considered as candidates for the throne of the Kingdom of Poland planned as a German protectorate in 1916, in part because of their Polish descent.

The population of Pless retained a large Polish-speaking majority (86% in the Prussian Census of 1867); it was reattached to Poland in 1922, as part of the settlement after the Silesian Uprisings. The principality therefore no longer exists, but the Hochbergs continue to use the style of Prince of Pless.

References

1. Julian Janczak, "Duchy of Pszczyna" (in) Zarys dziejów kartografii śląskiej do końca XVIII wieku (An outline for the History of Cartography till the End of the 18th century), Opole: 1976, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw: Institute of History of Science, Education and Technology, 1993, ISBN 83-86062-00-2. This contains sections in several European languages, including Template:En icon; Accessed 2008-13-01.
   ^ Tadeusz Walichnowski, Territorial Provenance of Archival Documents in International Relations (Przynaleznosc terytorialna archiwaliow Panstwa Polskiego w stosunkach miedzynarodowych), Polish Scientific Publishers, Warsaw, 1977. Polish State Archives.
   ^Nagel's Encyclopedia Guide, Poland by Nagel Publishers, 1989, 399 pages, ISBN 2826308181. Accessed 2008-13-01.
2. The dynastic numbering was, as in other princely families, given to all males of the House.
3. Princess Daisy pp. 147-151
5. See Anderson, op. cit..
6. Victor Moritz Karl, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, also Prince of Corvey; younger brother of Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, later Chancellor, who had given up the family estates. Half of the district belonged to the Prince of Pless; the Hohenlohes owned much of the rest.
7. Anderson, p.1464-68; which contains contemporary accounts of Müller, his charisma, and his charity. Her analysis is that the landowners of 1871 could indeed suppress any secular opposition; opposition candidates had to hand out ballots to voters, and this could be prevented - but the pulpit was relatively free.
8. Ahrens, p.61.
9. Daisy, Princess of Pless, Better Left Unsaid, p.177
10. Daisy, Princess of Pless

• Margaret Lavinia Anderson, "Voter, Junker, Landrat, Priest: The Old Authorities and the New Franchise in Imperial Germany" The American Historical Review, Vol. 98, No. 5. (Dec., 1993), pp. 1448-1474. JSTOR link.
• Theodor G. Ahrens, "The Present Status of the European Bison or Wisent" Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 2, No. 2. (May, 1921), pp. 58-62.JSTOR link.
• Daisy, Princess of Pless, by Herself. New York (1929) Ed. and Introd. by Maj. Desmond Chapman-Huston.
• Daisy, Princess of Pless: Better Left Unsaid. New York (1931).

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• Former principalities