Life and reign[edit]

He was the second son of Duke Henry IX of Bavaria and Wulfhilde, daughter of Duke
Magnus of Saxony; thus not only a member of the Welf family, but, what was quite
important, also senior heir of the Saxon House of Billung. Henry came of age in
1123, in 1126 his father retired to Weingarten Abbey where he and his wife died
shortly afterwards. As his elder brother Conrad had entered the Cistercian Order,
Henry was enefeoffed with the Duchy of Bavaria. He shared the family possessions in
Saxony, Bavaria and Swabia with his younger brother Welf VI.

In 1127 he married Gertrude, the only child of King Lothair III of Germany.[1]
Henry's father had been promised her marriage and inheritance as reward for his
changing to support Lothair in the royal election of 1125 against the Hohenstaufen
rival Duke Frederick II of Swabia. Gertrude was heir of the properties of three
Saxon dynasties: the House of Supplinburg, the Brunonids, and the Counts of
Northeim. The marriage marked the expansion of power of the Welf dynasty, Bavarian
dukes since 1070, to the northern parts of Germany. The couple had only one son,
Henry the Lion.

Henry, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, Weingarten, about 1510

After the marriage, Henry remained a loyal supporter in the warfare between King
Lothair and the Hohenstaufen brothers, Duke Frederick II (who was Henry's brother-
in-law, having been married with his sister Judith) and Conrad, then Duke in
Franconia and proclaimed the German anti-king. While engaged in this struggle,
Henry was also occupied in suppressing a rising in Bavaria, led by Count Frederick
of Bogen, during which both duke and count sought to establish their own candidates
as Bishop of Regensburg. After a war of devastation, Count Frederick submitted in
1133, and two years later the Hohenstaufen brothers made their peace with Emperor
Lothair.

In 1136, Henry accompanied his father-in-law to Italy, and taking command of a

Bavarian division of the Imperial army marched into the south Italian Kingdom of
Sicily up to Bari, devastating the land as he went. Having distinguished himself by
his military abilities during this campaign, Henry was appointed as margrave of
Tuscany, succeeding Engelbert III of Sponheim, and as Lothair's successor in the
Duchy of Saxony. He was also given the private properties of late Margravine
Matilda of Tuscany from the hands of Pope Innocent II.

When Emperor Lothair died on his way back from Italy in December 1137, Henry's
wealth and position made him a formidable candidate for the German crown. According
to the contemporary chronicler Otto of Freising, after his appointment as Duke of
Saxony he boasted of a realm stretching "from sea to sea, from Denmark to Sicily".
[2] However, the same qualities which earned him the cognomen of "the Proud"
aroused the jealousy of the princes and so ultimatively prevented his election. The
new king, Conrad III, demanded the Imperial Regalia which Henry had received from
Lothair, and the duke in return asked for his investiture with the Saxon duchy. But
Conrad, who feared his power, refused to assent to this on the pretext that it was
unlawful for two duchies to be in one hand. Attempts at a settlement failed, and
when in July 1138 Henry refused to take the oath of allegiance, he was banned and
deprived of both his duchies. Bavaria was given to the Babenberg margrave Leopold
IV of Austria, a half-brother of the new king Conrad. Saxony, which he had
attempted to hold but was not officially invested with, was given to the Ascanian
count Albert the Bear, son of Eilika of Saxony, a younger daughter of the last
Billung duke Magnus.

In 1139 Henry succeeded in expelling his enemies from Saxony and was preparing to
attack Bavaria when he suddenly died in Quedlinburg.[3] Henry is buried in the
Imperial Cathedral of Knigslutter next to his parents-in-law Emperor Lothair and
Richenza of Northeim. His death left his son Henry the Lion underage who later
would be given Saxony, while Henry II, Duke of Austria received Bavaria.[3]

Notes[edit]
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