Henry the Lion (german: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the
Welf dynasty who ruled as the
duke of Saxony and
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
from 1142 and 1156, respectively, until 1180.
Henry was one of the most powerful German princes of his time, until the rival
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 dynas ...
dynasty succeeded in isolating him and eventually deprived him of his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony during the reign of Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa 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
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
s to the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
, and from
Westphalia to
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
. Henry achieved this great power in part by his political and military acumen and in part through the legacies of his four grandparents.
Family background
Born in
Ravensburg, in 1129 or 1131, he was the son of
Henry the Proud, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the heir of the
Billung
The House of Billung was a dynasty of Saxon noblemen in the 9th through 12th centuries.
The first known member of the house was Count Wichmann, mentioned as a Billung in 811. Oda, the wife of Count Liudolf, oldest known member of the Liudol ...
s, former
dukes of Saxony. Henry's mother was
Gertrude, only daughter of
Emperor Lothair II and
Empress Richenza, heiress of the Saxon territories of
Northeim
Northeim (; nds, Nuurten) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, seat of the district of Northeim, with, in 2011, a population of 29,000. It lies on the German Half-Timbered House Road.
History
Northeim is first mentioned in 800 in a document ...
and the properties of the
Brunones, counts of
Brunswick.
Henry's father died in 1139, aged 32, when Henry was still a child. King
Conrad III
Conrad III (german: Konrad; it, Corrado; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III and from 1138 until his death in 1152 ...
had dispossessed Henry the Proud of his duchies in 1138 and 1139, handing Saxony to
Albert the Bear
Albert the Bear (german: Albrecht der Bär; 1100 – 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142.
Life
Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Bal ...
and Bavaria to
Leopold of Austria. This was because Henry the Proud had been his rival for the Crown in 1138.
Rule
Henry the Lion 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. However, the
East Mark was not returned and became the
Duchy of Austria.
Henry was the founder of
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
(1157) and
Lübeck (1159); he also founded and developed numerous other cities in Northern Germany and Bavaria, a.o.
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
,
Hildesheim
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the ...
,
Stade,
Kassel,
Güstrow,
Lüneburg,
Salzwedel,
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...
and
Brunswick. In Brunswick, his capital, he had a
bronze lion
The Bronze Lion ( nl, Bronzen Leeuw) is a high Royal Dutch award, intended for servicemen who have shown extreme bravery and leadership in battle favouring The Netherlands; in some special cases it can be awarded to Dutch or foreign civilians. It ...
, his heraldic animal, erected in the courtyard of his castle
Dankwarderode
Dankwarderode Castle (german: Burg Dankwarderode) on the ''Burgplatz'' ("castle square") in Braunschweig (Brunswick) is a Saxon lowland castle. It was the residence of the Brunswick dukes for centuries and, today, is part of the Herzog Anton Ulric ...
in 1166 – the first bronze statue north of the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
. Later, he had
Brunswick Cathedral built close to the statue.
In 1147, Henry married
Clementia of Zähringen
Clementia of Zähringen (died 1175), was a daughter of Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen and his wife Clementia of Namur. By her first marriage, Clementia was Duchess of Bavaria and Saxony. By her second marriage she was Countess of Savoy.
Duchess of ...
, thereby gaining her hereditary territories in
Swabia
Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
. 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
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse
* Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...
(1156–1189), the daughter of King
Henry II of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...
and Duchess
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...
and sister of
King Richard I of England
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was over ...
.
Henry faithfully supported Emperor Frederick 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 Saxon knights. During Frederick's first invasion of northern Italy, Henry took part, among the others, in the victorious
sieges of Crema and Milan.
In 1172, Henry took a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (June–July), meeting with the
Knights Templar and
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, and spending Easter of that year in Constantinople.
By December 1172, he was back in Bavaria
and in 1174, he 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
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mi ...
: a request Barbarossa refused.
Fall
Barbarossa's expedition into Lombardy ultimately ended in 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 Henry to his knees. Henry's allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit in November 1181 at an
Imperial Diet in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
. He was exiled from Germany in 1182 for three years, and stayed with his father-in-law in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
before being allowed back into Germany in 1185. At Whitsun 1184 he visited the
Diet of Pentecost in Mainz, probably as a mediator for his father-in-law Henry II. 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 the rich city of
Bardowick
Bardowick (''Bewick'' in Low Saxon) is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective mu ...
as punishment for its disloyalty. Only the churches were left standing. Barbarossa's son,
Emperor Henry VI, again defeated Duke Henry, but in 1194, with his end approaching, he made his peace with the Emperor, and returned to his much diminished lands around Brunswick, where he peacefully sponsored arts and architecture.
Children
By his first wife,
Clementia of Zähringen
Clementia of Zähringen (died 1175), was a daughter of Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen and his wife Clementia of Namur. By her first marriage, Clementia was Duchess of Bavaria and Saxony. By her second marriage she was Countess of Savoy.
Duchess of ...
(divorced 1162), daughter of Duke
Conrad I of Zähringen and Clemence of Namur, Henry had:
*
Gertrude (1155–1197), who married first Duke
Frederick IV of Swabia
Frederick IV of Hohenstaufen (1145–1167) was duke of Swabia, succeeding his cousin, Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1152.
He was the son of Conrad III of Germany and his second wife Gertrude von Sulzbach and thus the direct hei ...
and then King
Canute VI of Denmark.
*Richenza (–1167)
*Henry, who died young
By his second wife,
Matilda
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse
* Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...
(married 1168), daughter of King
Henry II of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...
and Duchess
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...
:
*
Matilda
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse
* Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...
(or Richenza) (1172–1204), who married first Count
Geoffrey III of Perche and then Lord
Enguerrand III of Coucy
Enguerrand III de Boves, Lord of Coucy (c. 1182 – 1242) was a medieval French nobleman. The eldest son and successor of Ralph I, Lord of Coucy (c. 1134 – 1191) and Alix de Dreux,M. A. Pollock, ''Scotland, England and France After the Loss ...
.
*
Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (–1227)
*Lothar (c. 1174–1190)
*
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor and
Duke of Swabia (c. 1175–1218)
*
William of Winchester, Lord of Lüneburg (1184–1213)
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
*Son (b. & d. 1182)
By his lover, Ida von Blieskastel, he had a daughter, Matilda, who married Lord
Henry Borwin I of Mecklenburg.
Legacy
The
Henry the Lion Bible is preserved in near mint condition from the year 1170; it is located in the
Herzog August Library in
Wolfenbüttel, a town in Lower Saxony.
Henry the Lion remains a popular figure to this day. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, a
nail man depicting Henry the Lion, called ''Eiserner Heinrich'', was used in Brunswick to raise funds for the German war effort.
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
propaganda later declared Henry an antecessor of the Nazi's ''
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...
'' policy and turned Brunswick Cathedral and Henry's tomb into a "National Place of Consecration".
Image:DEU Schwerin COA.svg, Henry the Lion on the coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
of Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...
Image:Braunschweig Brunswick Orden Heinrichs des Loewen (1834).JPG, Order of Henry the Lion
The House Order of Henry the Lion In German: ''Hausorden Heinrichs des Löwen,'' was the House Order of the Duchy of Brunswick. It was instituted by William VIII, Duke of Brunswick on 25 April 1834.
The ribbon of the Order was red with yellow edge ...
, order of merit of the Duchy of Brunswick (awarded from 1834 to 1918)
Image:Braunschweig Brunswick Heinrich der Loewe Heinrichsbrunnen (2005).JPG, Henry the Lion's Fountain (1874), Brunswick
Image:Braunschweig Heinrich der Loewe 1915.jpg, ''Eiserner Heinrich'' (1915), Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Brunswick
File:2012.02.26.145337 Löwendenkmal Markt Schwerin.jpg, Henry the Lion Monument in Schwerin
File:Henry the Lion Monument in front of the Dom. Schwerin, Germany.jpg, Henry the Lion Monument in Schwerin
Folklore and fiction
Shortly after his death, Henry the Lion became the subject of a
folktale
A folktale or folk tale is a folklore genre that typically consists of a story passed down from generation to generation orally.
Folktale may also refer to:
Categories of stories
* Folkloric tale from oral tradition
* Fable (written form of the a ...
, the so-called ''Heinrichssage''. The tale was later also turned into the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
''
Enrico Leone'' by Italian composer
Agostino Steffani
Agostino Steffani (25 July 165412 February 1728) was an Italian ecclesiastic, diplomat and composer.
Biography
Steffani was born at Castelfranco Veneto on 25 July 1654. As a boy he was admitted as a chorister at San Marco, Venice. In 1667, ...
. The ''Heinrichssage'' details a fictional account of Henry's
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to the
Holy Land. A popular part of the tale deals with the
Brunswick Lion. According to legend, Henry witnessed a fight between a lion and a
dragon while on pilgrimage. He joins the lion in its fight and they slay the dragon. The faithful lion then accompanies Henry on his return home. After its master's death, the lion refuses all food and dies of grief on Henry's grave. The people of Brunswick then erect a statue in the lion's honour.
The legend of Henry the Lion also inspired the Czech tale of the knight
Bruncvík, which is depicted on a
column on
Charles Bridge
Charles Bridge ( cs, Karlův most ) is a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the early 15th century.; ...
in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
.
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Henry the Lion on Encyclopedia.comThe fall of Henry the Lion (from Germany) – Encyclopædia BritannicaDeposition of Henry the Lion. (from Frederick I) – Encyclopædia Britannica2009-10-31)
Charter given by Henry to monastery Volkenroda, 31.1.1174 Photograph taken from the collections of the
Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden at
Marburg University
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wo ...
showing Henry's seal.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry Iii
12th-century births
1195 deaths
12th-century dukes of Bavaria
People from Ravensburg (district)
Henry 03
House of Welf
Medieval child rulers
Christians of the Wendish Crusade
12th-century Saxon people
Military personnel from Baden-Württemberg
Burials at Brunswick Cathedral