Though most of the current territory of the former Częstochowa Voivodeship belongs to the Silesian Voivodeship, it historically is part of Lesser Poland, apart from western areas, around Lubliniec and Olesno.
Mieszko's son Casimir I of Opole, Duke from 1211, invited German settlers immigrating to his duchy in the course of the Ostsiedlung, and granted German town law to settlements like Leśnica, Ujazd, Gościęcin, Biała and Olesno.
Pannwitz was born into a family of Prussian nobility on his father's estate Botzanowitz (today Bodzanowice), Silesia, near Rosenberg (today Olesno), now part of Poland but directly on the German-Russian border of that time.
The settlement between King George and Nicholas I was signed on 16 August 1460: the King finally accepted the rule of the Duke of Opole over Strzelce, Niemodlin and Olesno, but in exchange Nicholas I had to resign his claims over the Duchy of Opawa (he bought the Duchy in 1454 from his co-ruler Ernest, but as a result of the King's strong opposition, Nicholas I wasn't able to take effective control over this land).