Henry the Lion (; 1129 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the
Welf dynasty and
Duke of Saxony, as
Henry III, from 1142, and
Duke of Bavaria, as
Henry XII, from 1156, which
duchies he held until 1180.
He was one of the most powerful German princes of his time, until the rival
Hohenstaufen dynasty succeeded in isolating him and eventually deprived him of his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony during the reign of his cousin
Frederick I and of Frederick's son and successor
Henry VI.
At the height of his reign, Henry ruled over a vast territory stretching from the coast of the
North and
Baltic Seas to the
Alps, and from
Westphalia to
Pomerania. Henry achieved this great power in part by his political and military acumen and in part through the legacies of his four grandparents.
Biography
Born in
Ravensburg, he was the son of
Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the son of Duke
Henry the Black and an heiress of the
Billungs, former dukes of Saxony. Henry's mother was Gertrud, only daughter of Emperor
Lothair III and his wife
Richenza of Northeim, heiress of the Saxon territories of
Northeim and the properties of the
Brunones, counts of
Braunschweig.
Henry's father died in 1139, aged 32, when Henry was still a child. King
Conrad III had dispossessed Henry the Proud, who had been his rival for the crown in 1138, of his duchies in 1138 and 1139, handing Saxony to
Albert the Bear and Bavaria to
Leopold of Austria. Henry, however, did not relinquish his claims to his inheritance, and Conrad returned Saxony to him in 1142. A participant in the 1147
Wendish Crusade, Henry also reacquired Bavaria by a decision of the new Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa in 1156.
Henry is the founder of
Munich (1157/58;
München) and
Lübeck (1159); he also founded and developed the cities of
Stade,
Lüneburg and
Braunschweig. In Braunschweig, his capital, he had a bronze lion, his heraldic animal, erected in the yard of his castle
Dankwarderode in 1166 — the first bronze statue north of the
Alps. Later, he had
Brunswick Cathedral built close to the statue.
Coronation of Henry the Lion and Matilda of England (1188).
In 1147 Henry married Clementia of
Zähringen, thereby gaining her hereditary territories in
Swabia. He divorced her in 1162, apparently under pressure from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who did not cherish Guelphish possessions in his home area and offered Henry several fortresses in Saxony in exchange. In 1168 Henry married
Matilda (1156 -1189), the daughter of
Henry II of England and
Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister of
Richard Lionheart.
Henry long and faithfully supported his older cousin, Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), in his attempts to solidify his hold on the Imperial Crown and his repeated wars with the cities of
Lombardy and the Popes, several times turning the tide of battle in Frederick's favor with his fierce Saxon knights. But in 1174, Henry refused to aid Frederick in a renewed invasion of Lombardy because he was preoccupied with securing his own borders in the East. He did not consider these Italian adventures worth the effort, unless Barbarossa presented Henry with the Saxon imperial city Goslar: a request Barbarossa refused.
Barbarossa's expedition into Lombardy ended in utter failure. He bitterly resented Henry for failing to support him. Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, who had successfully established a powerful and contiguous state comprising Saxony, Bavaria and substantial territories in the north and east of Germany, Frederick had Henry tried
in absentia for insubordination by a court of bishops and princes in 1180. Declaring that Imperial law overruled traditional German law, the court had Henry stripped of his lands and declared him an outlaw. Frederick then invaded Saxony with an Imperial army to bring his cousin to his knees. Henry's allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit in November 1181 at a
Reichstag in
Erfurt. He was exiled from Germany in 1182 for three years, stayed with his father-in-law,
Henry II of England, in
Normandy before being allowed back into Germany in 1185. He was exiled again in 1188. His wife Matilda died in 1189.
When Frederick Barbarossa went on the
Crusade of 1189, Henry returned to Saxony, mobilized an army of his faithful, and conquered and ravaged the rich city of
Bardowick as punishment for her disloyalty. Only the churches were left standing. Barbarossa's son, Emperor
Henry VI, again defeated the Duke, but in 1194, with his end approaching, he made his peace with the Emperor, and returned to his much diminished lands around
Braunschweig (Brunswick), where he finished his days as duke of Braunschweig, peacefully sponsoring arts and architecture. He died on 6 August 1195.
Ancestors
Family
Henry's duchies Saxony and Bavaria
Henry had the following known children:
- *Richenza (c. 1157 - 1167)
- *Lothar of Bavaria (c. 1174-1190)
Three other children are listed, by some sources, as having belonged to Henry and Matilda;
- Eleanor (born 1178); died young
- Ingibiorg (born 1180); died young
- by his lover, Ida of Blieskastel:
