Henry III

duke of Bavaria and Saxony

Henry III, byname Henry the Lion, German Heinrich der Löwe, (born

1129/30—died Aug. 6, 1195, Brunswick, Saxony), duke of Saxony (1142–80)
and of Bavaria (as Henry XII, 1156–80), a strong supporter of the
emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Henry spent his early years recovering his
ancestral lands of Saxony (1142) and Bavaria (1154–56), thereafter founding
the city of Munich (1157), enhancing the position of Lübeck, and greatly
extending his territories. He broke with Frederick in 1176 and in consequence
was deprived of most of his lands and was exiled twice (1181–85; 1189–90).

Early Years
Henry the Lion was the only son of Henry the Proud, duke of Saxony and
Bavaria, and Gertrude, the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Lothar III.
In May 1142 he recovered Saxony, one of the two duchies of which his father
had been divested by Conrad III, the first Hohenstaufen German king. In 1147
Henry laid claim to Bavaria, which Conrad III had granted to Henry II
Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria, and in 1151 he tried in vain to take
possession of the duchy. In 1147 or 1148 he married Clementia, the daughter of
Conrad, duke of Zähringen, but this marriage was dissolved in 1162.

When Frederick I Barbarossa of Hohenstaufen, his cousin, was elected king of

Germany in 1152, the Hohenstaufen made peace with the rival dynasty of the
Welfs, of which Henry was a member. In 1154 Frederick granted Henry the
right to invest the bishops of the new bishoprics beyond the Elbe and also
recognized his territorial claims to Bavaria. In September 1156 Henry secured
possession of the Duchy of Bavaria; Austria was subsequently separated from
Bavaria and was given to Henry Jasomirgott and elevated into its own duchy.

Alliance With Frederick Barbarossa

Henry, in turn, for 20 years supported Frederick Barbarossa. He accompanied
him with a large army on his first Italian campaign (1154/55) and, after
Frederick’s coronation as emperor, suppressed a rising of the Romans. In 1157
he took part in Frederick’s expedition against the Poles. During Frederick’s
second Italian campaign, Henry provided valuable assistance to the Emperor
at the siege of Crema in 1160 and in the war against the Milanese cities in 1161.