Polish monarch Boleslaw Wrymouth makes complex arrangements intended to prevent fratricidal warfare and preserve the Polish state's formal unity.

Following his concept of seniority, Boleslaw divides the country into five principalities: Silesia, Greater Poland, Mazovia, Sandomierz and Kraków.

The first four provinces are given to his four sons, who became independent rulers.

The fifth province, the Seniorate Province of Kraków, is to be added to the senior among the Princes who, as the Grand Duke of Kraków, is the representative of the whole of Poland.

The stability of the system is supposedly assured by the institution of the senior or high duke of Poland, based in Kraków and assigned to the special Seniorate Province that is not to be subdivided.

This principle breaks down within the generation of Boleslaw III's sons, when Wladyslaw II the Exile, Boleslaw IV the Curly, Mieszko III the Old and Casimir II the Just fight for power and territory in Poland, and in particular over the Kraków throne.

The external borders left by Boleslaw III at his death closely resemble the borders left by Mieszko I; this original early Piast monarchy configuration does not survive the fragmentation period.

For nearly two centuries, the Piasts will spar with each other, the clergy, and the nobility for the control over the divided kingdom.

Wladyslaw II, the former High Duke of Poland, had administered the Kaiserpfalz at Altenburg and its dependencies in the Imperial Pleissnerland during the Second Crusade.

Without waiting for German aid, Wladyslaw and his wife Agnes had gone to the Roman Curia and asked Pope Eugene III for help in restoring Wladyslaw to the Polish throne but this attempt had been unsuccessful.

In 1152, King Conrad III of Germany had died and been succeeded by his nephew Frederick Barbarossa.

With this, the hopes of Wladyslaw II, called the Exile, of returning to Poland had been reborn.

Following the inducements of Wladyslaw and Frederick's aunt Agnes of Babenberg, the Holy Roman Emperor launches a new expedition to Greater Poland in 1157.

The campaign is a success, but unexpectedly Frederick Barbarossa does not restore Wladyslaw to the Polish throne, after Boleslaw IV, apprehended at Krzyszkowo, has to declare himself a vassal to the Emperor andis compelled to pay tribute to him.

In compensation, the Emperor forces Boleslaw IV to promise the restitution of Silesia to Wladylsaw's sons Boleslaw the Tall and Mieszko IV Tanglefoot.

At this time, it appears, Wladyslaw knew that his battle for supremacy in Poland was finally lost.

He remains in exile at Altenburg, where he will die two years later.

It will not be until 1163 that Boleslaw IV finally grants the Silesian province to Wladyslaw's sons.

Boleslaw IV the Curly, who dies on January 5, 1173, is succeeded as High Duke of Poland by Mieszko III the Old, and ...

…as Duke of Sandomierz in Lesser Poland by Casimir II.