[2] Initially ruled by the Silesian Piasts, it was acquired by the Münsterberg (Ziębice) dukes of the Podiebrad family from 1495 and was inherited by the House of Württemberg in 1649.

[3] After the local branch of the Silesian Piasts had died out with the death of Duke Konrad X in 1492, the duchy was supposed to pass to future Polish King John I Albert in accordance with an agreement from 1491,[3] but it Duke Henry of Münsterberg, son of the predeceased Bohemian King George of Poděbrady, also claimed the ceased fief for him and his descendants.

His claims were finally acknowledged by George's successor King Vladislav II Jagiellon in 1495, after the state countries Syców (Groß Wartenberg), Żmigród (Trachenberg), and Milicz (Militsch) had been split off.

When the Poděbrad dynasty became extinct in 1647, the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand III, King of Bohemia, enfeoffed Silvius I Nimrod of Württemberg with Oleśnica, who had married the daughter of the last Podiěbrad duke.

From 1815 Oleśnica was ruled in personal union with the Duchy of Brunswick until its dissolution after Duke William had died without issue in 1884.