The boundaries varied slightly in the following decades: at least when the duchy was re-established for the sons of Władysław II the Exile in 1163 (see below), it also comprised Lubusz Land northwest of Krosno, which had been the western outpost of Greater Poland and passed to the margraves of Brandenburg in 1248.

After his failed bid to take control of the entire Kingdom in 1146, he lost his status as the senior duke, was excommunicated by Archbishop Jakub ze Żnina of Gniezno and fled to the Holy Roman Empire.

With support from Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who had campaigned in Greater Poland in 1157 and forced Bolesław IV to cede Silesia, Władysław's sons were able to return to the duchy in 1163.

Bolesław I died in the same year and was succeeded by his only surviving son Henry I the Bearded, who soon entered into conflict with his Piast relatives as well as with his German neighbours.

The plan however was foiled, when Władysław III lost the seniorate and furthermore Lubusz was occupied by the troops of the Wettin margrave Conrad II of Lusatia.

Upon the death of his cousin Duke Casimir I of Opole, son of Mieszko I Tanglefoot, in 1230, he acted as guardian of his minor nephews, thereby once again ruling over whole Silesia.

In 1232 he became High Duke of Poland, and as he was able to secure the succession of his son Henry II the Pious upon his death in 1238, it seemed that the Polish fragmentation could be overcome and the will of Bolesław III Krzywousty would finally be fulfilled.

The hopes for a re-unification of the Polish lands under the Silesian Piasts ended with the Mongol invasion of Poland and Henry's death at the 1241 Battle of Legnica.

As the Polish king Casimir III in the 1335 Treaty of Trentschin had renounced Silesia, Henry's VI duchy passed without opposition to the Bohemian kingdom when he died without male heirs three months later.