Henry V, Duke of Legnica, had been present as a youth at the court of King Ottokar II of Bohemia in Prague, where he became a knight.
Henry's father had in 1273 given him the town of Jawor (Jauer) as an independent duchy.
Henry's father Boleslaw II the Bald, acting four years later on behalf of his ally, king Rudolph of Habsburg, r, kidnaps his own nephew Henry IV, the ruler of the Duchy of Wrocław.
This act arouses the anger of the nobility in Lesser Poland and the neighbors of Henry IV, who then organize an expedition to free him and punish Boleslaw.
At the head of the Greater Poland-Głogów-Wroclaw coalition are Dukes Przemysł II of Greater Poland and Henry III of Głogów.
The armies fight at Zabkowice Slaskie near Stolec in one of the most bloody battles of the Polish Middle Ages.
Boleslaw, suspecting in the course of the action that the battle is about to be lost, flees the field.
At this point, however, the young Henry leads a charge, turns the tide of battle, and achieves a great victory, taking both Dukes Przemysl II and Henry III as prisoners.
Thanks to the action of the young Duke of Jauer, his father and family are saved from disastrous defeat.
