Henry V, Count Palatine Of The Rhine
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Henry V, the Elder of Brunswick (; – 28 April 1227), a member of the House of Welf, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1195 until 1212.


Life

Henry was the eldest son of Henry the Lion, Duke of
Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
and
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and Matilda, the eldest daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. After his father's deposition by his first-cousinBarbarossa was the son of Judith of Bavaria, sister of Henry X, Duke of Bavaria, father of Henry the Lion the
Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...
emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he grew up in
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. When the family returned to
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in 1189, young Henry distinguished himself by defending the Welf residence of Braunschweig against the forces of the emperor's son King Henry VI. Peace was established the next year, provided that Henry and his younger brother Lothar (d. 1190) were held in hostage by the king. He had to join the German forces led by Henry VI, by then emperor, on the 1191 campaign to the
Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...
and participated in the
siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...
of
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. Taking advantage of the Emperor falling ill, Henry finally deserted, fled to
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, and returned to Germany, where he falsely proclaimed Henry VI's death and tried to underline his own abilities as a possible successor. This partly led to the withdrawal of Henry VI and the captivity of Empress Constance. Though he was banned, he became heir to the
County Palatine of the Rhine This article lists counts palatine of Lotharingia, counts palatine of the Rhine, and electors of the Palatinate (), the titles of three counts palatine who ruled some part of the Rhine region in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire bet ...
through his 1193 marriage to Agnes of Hohenstaufen, a cousin of Emperor Henry VI and daughter of Conrad of Hohenstaufen, Count Palatine of the Rhine, the younger half-brother of the late Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He and Emperor Henry VI reconciled shortly afterwards, and upon Conrad's death in 1195, Henry was enfeoffed with his County Palatine. A close ally of the emperor, he accompanied him on the conquest of Sicily in 1194/95 and on the Crusade of 1197. After the sudden death of the emperor in 1197, Henry's younger brother Otto IV became one of two rival kings of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. At first he supported him, but switched sides to Philip of Swabia in 1203. Having divided the Welf
allod Allod, deriving from Frankish language, Frankish ''alōd'' meaning "full ownership" (from ''al'' "full, whole" and ''ōd'' "property, possession"; Medieval Latin ''allod'' or ''allodium''), also known as allodial land or proprietary property, was ...
ial lands with his brothers Otto and William of Winchester, Henry then ruled over the northern Saxon territories around Stade and Altencelle and also was confirmed as count palatine by King Philip. When the German throne quarrel ended with Philip's assassination in 1208, Henry again sided with Otto IV. In Imperial service, he tried to ward off the territorial claims by the Rhenish Prince-archbishops of
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,
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and
Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
, though to no avail. After he inherited further significant properties in Saxony from his brother William in 1213, Henry ceded the Palatinate to his son Henry the Younger and moved north. After his son's early death the next year, he left his Welf properties to his nephew, William's son Otto the Child, who became the first Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1235. Henry died in 1227 and is entombed in Brunswick Cathedral.


Marriage and children

In 1193, Henry married Agnes of Hohenstaufen (1177–1204), daughter of Count Palatine Conrad. They had the following children: * Henry VI (1197–1214), married Matilda, daughter of Duke Henry I of Brabant * Irmengard (1200–1260), married Margrave Herman V of Baden * Agnes (1201–1267), married Otto II of Wittelsbach, Count palatine of the Rhine from 1214, Duke of Bavaria from 1231. Around 1209, he married Agnes of Landsberg (d. 1248), daughter of the Wettin margrave Conrad II of Lusatia.


Ancestors


References


Sources

* * * {{Authority control Counts Palatine of the Rhine House of Welf 1170s births 1227 deaths Christians of the Crusade of 1197 Burials at Brunswick Cathedral