The son of Prince Adam Wacław and Elizabeth of Kurland, the daughter of Gotard Kettler. His mother died ten days after giving birth to her son (19 November), for which reason he was brought up by guardians. In 1610 he joined his father in converting to Catholicism. After his father's death in 1617 his guardianship passed to the Bishop of Wrocław, Archduke Charles Habsburg, Prince Charles of Lichtenstein and the Starosta of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz, Frederick Oppersdorff. His elder sister, Elżbieta Lukrecja, acted as regent on his behalf in the Duchy of Cieszyn. He received a thorough education at the Jesuit College in Munich.
      In 1624 he returned to Cieszyn, but not for long though. Nonetheless everything suggests he would have made an able ruler. He took care of the fortunes of the Duchy following the great plague which struck his lands in the 1620s, relinquishing an additional tax for the upkeep of the princely court. He forbad the nobility from taking over the property of townspeople, abandoned by their owners as a result of the plague. In this way he saved the townspeople from economic ruin. He made sure not to limit the religious rights either of Protestants or of Catholics.
      The young prince, too busily engaged in politics, found no time to marry. However a liason with a Cieszyn townswoman produced a daughter. He died in Cologne in 1625.

(K. Jasiński, Rodowód, p. 206, G. Biermann, Geschichte)