Although Margaret received parts of Greater Poland as her dower, shortly after her husband's death, and for unknown reasons, she returned to Brandenburg, taking Ryksa with her.

[citation needed] The death of Otto of Brandenburg complicated again Ryksa's situation, because as the only child of the last male member of the Piast Greater Poland line and the first King in almost two centuries, she was the perfect match for every contender to the Polish crown.

[1] During this time, Ryksa was placed under the care of Gryfina of Halych, widow of Leszek II the Black and aunt of the Bohemian King.

[citation needed] Two years later, on 15 June 1305, Queen Elizabeth gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Agnes of Bohemia.

The seventeen-year-old Elizabeth, now Queen Dowager, received a pension and 20,000 talents of fine silver and the royal towns in East Bohemia of Hradec Králové, Vysoké Mýto, Chrudim, Polička and Jaroměř.

With the death of her stepson, the position of Elizabeth again changed considerably, because as Queen Dowager, she was involved in the fight for the vacant Bohemian throne.

[9] After her second husband's death, Elizabeth left Prague and settled in Hradec Králové, one of her dower towns, which became the center of her domains as her widow seat.

It was only in August 1308 when the Dowager Queen was able to return to Hradec Králové, which she transformed into a centre of culture and art with the income from her dowry towns.

Despite her conciliatory gestures toward King John, Elizabeth Richeza continued to dictate her own independent policies, as was evidenced in 1317, when she arranged the betrothal of her only daughter, Agnes, to the Piast Silesian Duke Henry I of Jawor, who in order to secure his future mother-in-law's patrimony and with her consent, entered Hradec Králové with his army and began expeditions and raids in support of rebels against King John.

Between 1316 and 1323, Elizabeth Richeza commissioned eight illuminated manuscripts[1][10] and, in 1323, the couple founded the Cistercian convent of St. Mary by securing the endowment of the community.

Elizabeth Richeza, Dowager Queen of Poland and Bohemia (known in Bohemian literature as a "beautiful Polish girl"), died on 19 October 1335 in the Cistercian monastery at Brno which she had founded.