Duchy of Krnov

Duchy of Krnov
Herzogtum Jägerndorf (de) Krnovské knížectví (cs)
Silesian duchy Fiefdom of the Bohemian Crown
1377 – 1849
Duchies of Opava and Krnov, map from Atlas Novus by Joan Blaeu, 1645
Capital		Krnov
Government		Principality
Historical era		Late Middle Ages Early modern period
•	Partitioned from Opava	1377
•	Vladislaus II of Opole Duke	1385
•	George of Brandenburg-Ansbach Duke	1523
•	Merged into Austrian Silesia	1849
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Troppau Austrian Silesia

Duchy of Krnov (Latin: Ducatus Carnoviensis, Czech: Krnovské knížectví, Polish: Księstwo Karniowskie) or Duchy of Jägerndorf (German: Herzogtum Jägerndorf) was one of the Duchies of Silesia, which in 1377 emerged from the Duchy of Troppau (Opava), itself a fief of the Bohemian Crown. Its capital was at Krnov in the present-day Czech Republic.

The province had been established in 1269 on lands which until then had been part of the Bohemian Margraviate of Moravia, when King Ottokar II of Bohemia vested his natural son Nicholas I with Opava. Together with the adjacent Duchy of Racibórz it was under the direct rule of a cadet branch of the royal Přemyslid dynasty—unlike most other Silesian duchies ruled by the Silesian Piasts, who nevertheless in large part also had become Bohemian vassals in 1327. Nicholas retained Opava after the last Přemyslid ruler of Bohemia, King Wenceslaus III was killed in 1306. In the following struggle for the Bohemian throne, he backed the claims of the Luxembourg candidate John the Blind, who in turn enfeoffed his son and successor Nicholas II with the Duchy of Opava in 1318. In 1337 Nicholas II also received the neighbouring Duchy of Racibórz upon the death of the last Piast duke Leszek.