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Henry the Fowler

Henry the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Vogler or Heinrich der Finkler; Latin: Henricus Auceps) (c. 876 – 2 July 936[2]) was the Duke of Saxony from 912[2] and the King of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emperors, and he is generally considered to be the founder of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet "the Fowler" because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king.

"Heinrich der Vogler" redirects here. For the minstrel and poet, see Heinrich der Vogler (poet).

Henry the Fowler

c. 24 May 919 – 2 July 936

c. 24 May 919[1]

Conrad the Younger

Otto the Great

30 November 912 – 2 July 936

Otto the Illustrious

Otto the Great

c. 7 July 876
Mimileba, East Francia

2 July 936 (aged 59–60)
Mimileba, East Francia

Quedlinburg Abbey

Ottonian

Otto I, Duke of Saxony

Hedwiga

Chalcedonian Christianity

He was born into the Liudolfing line of Saxon dukes. His father Otto I of Saxony died in 912 and was succeeded by Henry. The new duke launched a rebellion against the king of East Francia, Conrad I of Germany, over the rights to lands in the Duchy of Thuringia. They reconciled in 915 and on his deathbed in 918, Conrad recommended Henry as the next king, considering the duke the only one who could hold the kingdom together in the face of internal revolts and external Magyar raids.


Henry was elected and crowned king in 919. He went on to defeat the rebellious dukes of Bavaria and Swabia, consolidating his rule. Through successful warfare and a dynastic marriage, Henry acquired Lotharingia as a vassal in 925. Unlike his Carolingian predecessors, Henry did not seek to create a centralized monarchy, ruling through federated autonomous stem duchies instead. Henry built an extensive system of fortifications and mobile heavy cavalry across Germany to neutralize the Magyar threat and in 933 routed them at the Battle of Riade, ending Magyar attacks for the next 21 years and giving rise to a sense of German nationhood. Henry greatly expanded German hegemony in Europe with his defeat of the Slavs in 929 at the Battle of Lenzen along the Elbe river, by compelling the submission of Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia through an invasion of the Duchy of Bohemia the same year and by conquering Danish realms in Schleswig in 934. Henry's hegemonic status north of the Alps was acknowledged by the kings Rudolph of West Francia and Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy, who both accepted a place of subordination as allies in 935. Henry planned an expedition to Rome to be crowned emperor by the pope, but the design was thwarted by his death. Henry prevented a collapse of royal power, as had happened in West Francia, and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. He was buried at Quedlinburg Abbey, established by his wife Matilda in his honour.

Family[edit]

Born in Memleben, in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Henry was the son of Otto the Illustrious, Duke of Saxony,[3] and his wife Hedwiga, who was probably the daughter of Henry of Franconia.


In 906 he married Hatheburg of Merseburg,[3] daughter of the Saxon count Erwin. She had previously been a nun. The marriage was annulled in 909 because her vows as a nun were deemed by the church to remain valid. She had already given birth to Henry's son Thankmar. The annulment placed a question mark over Thankmar's legitimacy. Later that year he married Matilda,[3] daughter of Dietrich of Ringelheim, Count in Westphalia. Matilda bore him three sons and two daughters, Hedwig and Gerberga, and founded many religious institutions, including the Quedlinburg Abbey where Henry and Matilda are buried. She was later canonized.


His son Otto I, traditionally known as Otto the Great, continued his father's work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers. He installed members of his family in the kingdom's most important duchies, subjected the clergy to his personal control, defeated the Magyars and conquered the Kingdom of Italy.

German royal dynasties

919 – 936
936 – 973
973 – 983
983 – 1002
1002 – 1024

With :[3]

Hatheburg

As the first Saxon king of East Francia, Henry was the founder of the Ottonian dynasty. He and his descendants ruled East Francia, and later the Holy Roman Empire, from 919 until 1024.


Henry had two wives and at least six children:

Henry the Fowler is a main character of 's opera Lohengrin.

Richard Wagner

Henry the Fowler is one of two antagonists, being the end boss in the final mission of the 2001 game . The game portrays him as an evil necromancer and anachronistically places him in 943 CE, 7 years after his actual death year of 936.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Family tree of the German monarchs

Bachrach, David S. (2012). Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany. The Boydell Press.

Bachrach. David S. "Restructuring the Eastern Frontier: Henry I of Germany, 924–936," Journal of Military History (Jan 2014) 78#1 pp 9–36

Barraclough, Geoffrey, ed. (1961). Studies in Mediaeval History:Mediaeval Germany. Vol. II. Essays. Basil Blackwell.

Bernhardt, John W. (2002). Ininerant Kingship & Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval German, c. 936–1075. Cambridge University Press.

Frischauer, Willi (1953). Himmler, the Evil Genius of the Third Reich. Odhams.

(1957). The Kersten Memoirs: 1940–1945. Macmillan.

Kersten, Felix

von Holtzmann, Robert (1935). . Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.

Thietmari Merseburgensis Episcopi Chronicon

Janssen, Karl-Heinz (2000). (PDF). Die Zeit. Retrieved 24 May 2016.

"Himmlers Heinrich(German)"

Krofta, Kamil (1957). "Bohemia to the Extinction of the Premyslids". In Tanner, J.R.; Previt-Orton, C.W.; Brook, Z.N. (eds.). The Cambridge Medieval History: Victory of the Papacy. Vol. VI. Cambridge University Press.

Leyser, Karl (1982). Medieval Germany and Its Neighbours 900–1250 (1st ed.). The Hambledon Press.

Poole, Austen Lane (1926). "Germany: Henry I and Otto the Great". In Gwatkin, H. M.; Whitney, J. P.; Tanner, J.R.; Previte-Orton, C.W. (eds.). The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. III. Cambridge University Press. pp. 179–203.

Steinberg, S. H. (2014). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-66016-8.

A Short History of Germany

Arnold, Benjamin, Medieval Germany, 500–1300: A Political Interpretation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997)

Bachrach, David S., 'The Military Organization of Ottonian German, c. 900–1018: The Views of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg', The Journal of Military History, 72 (2008), 1061–1088

Bachrach, David S., 'Exercise of Royal Power in Early Medieval Europe: the Case of Otto the Great 936–73', Early Medieval Europe, 17 (2009), 89–419

Bachrach, David S., 'Henry I of Germany's 929 Military Campaign in Archaeological Perspective', Early Medieval Europe, 21 (2013), 307–337

Bachrach. David S., 'Restructuring the Eastern Frontier: Henry I of Germany, 924–936', Journal of Military History, 78 (2014), 9–36

Gillingham, John, The Kingdom of Germany in the High Middle Ages (900–1200) (London: The Historical Association, 1971)

Leyser, Karl, Rule and Conflict in Early Medieval Society: Ottonian Saxony (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1979)

Leyser, Karl, Medieval Germany and Its Neighbours 900–1250 (London: The Hambledon Press, 1982)

Müller-Mertens, Eckhard, 'The Ottonians as Kings and Emperors', in The New Cambridge Medieval History III: c. 900–1024, ed. by Timothy Reuter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 233–266

Nicholas, David M., The Evolution of the Medieval World: Society, Government & Thought in Europe, 312–1500 (London: Routledge, 1992)

Peden, Alison 'Unity, Order and Ottonian Kingship in the Thought of Abbo of Fleury', in Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies Presented to Henry Mayr-Harting, ed. Richard Gameson and Henrietta Leyser (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 158–168

Reuter, Timothy, Germany in the Early Middle Ages, C. 800–1056 (London: Longman Group, 1991)

Reuter, Timothy 'The 'Imperial Church System' of the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: a Reconsideration', The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 33 (2011), 347–375

Deed by Henry I for Hersfeld Abbey, 1 June 932 with his seal, . Photograph Archive of Old Original Documents (Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden). University of Marburg.

"digitalised image"

in the OPAC of the Regesta Imperii

Publications about Henry I