In 1177, under the rule of Konrad Spindleshanks, the youngest son of High Duke Władysław II the Exile of Poland, the town of Głogów had already become the capital of a duchy in its own right.

Konrad I, a child when his father died, claimed his rights too and in 1251 and received the northern Głogów territory from his elder brother Bolesław II the Bald, then Duke of Legnica.

This action finally brought the Bohemian antiking Matthias Corvinus to the scene, who in 1488 conquered Głogów, deposed Jan II and made his son John the duke.

In 1506 the duchy finally became an immediate dominion of the Bohemian Crown, which, after Vladislaus' son Louis II Jagiellon had died in 1526, were inherited by Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria and became part of the Habsburg monarchy.

Finally, after World War II the territories of Prussian Silesia east of the Oder-Neisse line were granted to Poland by the Allied Powers under the Potsdam Agreement.