George William, Duke of Liegnitz
George William (), also known as George IV William (; 29 September 1660 – 21 November 1675) was the last Silesian duke of Legnica (Liegnitz) and Brzeg (Brieg) from 1672 until his death. He was the last male member of the Silesian Piast dynasty descending from Władysław II the Exile (1105–1159), as well as the last legitimate male member of the entire House of Piast. Family George William was the eldest but only surviving son of Duke Christian of Legnica-Brzeg (1618–1672) by his wife Louise (1631–1680), a daughter of the Ascanian prince John Casimir of Anhalt-Dessau. He had three siblings: Karolina of Legnica-Brieg (1652–1707), last Silesian Piast duchess, married to Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg (1651–1724) in 1672; Louise (1657–1660); Christian Louis (1664). As the only surviving son, George William was the sole heir to his father's possessions. Duke Christian of Legnica-Brzeg had spent many years in exile in Poland and in the Duchy of Prussia during the Thirty Years' War, after George William's grandfather Duke John Christian of Brieg had fallen out of favour with the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II. Duke Christian became sole ruler over the Silesian duchies of Legnica and Brzeg in 1664. After the abdication of King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland in 1668, he even put forward his candidacy for the Polish throne; to win the affection and support of the old nobility, he initially wanted to give his newborn son an old Piast name (like Mieszko or Bolesław); however, the Calvinist clergy of his duchy opposed this, maintaining that the idea could bring the return to paganism over Poland. The duke, however, saw to it that his son spoke Polish and wore Polish clothes. Life The deaths in 1663 and 1664 of his paternal uncles Duke George III of Brzeg and Duke Louis IV of Legnica without surviving issue left him as the only heir of his father in the still vast Duchy of Legnica-Brzeg. As a result, since his early years, George William received a careful education. During his upbringing, he was put in the hands of the Anhalt-Bernburg count-marshal August Friedrich Bohne, and the personal doctor Henry Martini. During this first period of his education, he acquired an excellent knowledge of German, French and Latin, also understood Italian, Spanish and Polish; he was also educated in theology, philosophy, and rhetoric. After his father's death in 1672, the then twelve-year-old George William succeeded him as Duke of Legnica and Brzeg; during his minority, the regency was exercised by his mother, Dowager Duchess Louise who held the towns of Wołów and Oława as her dower (wittum). Fearing claims raised by the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I in his capacity as ruler over the Crown of Bohemia, Duke Christian had devised by will that his son was formally under the tutelage of his maternal uncle Prince John George II of Anhalt-Dessau and the mighty Hohenzollern elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. The day before his father's death, Louise sent her son to study at the Viadrina University