Konrad was the fourth son of Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia and High Duke of Poland from 1238, by his wife Anna, daughter of the Přemyslid king Ottokar I of Bohemia. At the time of his father's death in the 1241 Battle of Legnica against the Golden Horde, he and his younger brother Władysław were placed under the guardianship of their eldest brother Duke Bolesław II Rogatka. After Henry's sudden death, the Silesian Piasts were not able to maintain their dominant position: Bolesław II tried to succeed his father on the Polish throne at Kraków, but eventually could not prevail against his Piast cousin Konrad I of Masovia.