Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion (German: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131[1] – 6 August 1195[1]), also known as Henry III, Duke of Saxony (ruled 1142-1180) and Henry XII, Duke of Bavaria (ruled 1156-1180), was a member of the Welf dynasty.[2]
Henry the Lion
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Henry was one of the most powerful German princes of his time, until the rival Hohenstaufen 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 and Baltic seas to the Alps, and from Westphalia to Pomerania. Henry achieved this great power in part by his political and military acumen and in part through the legacies of his four grandparents.
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Family background[edit]
Born in Ravensburg, in 1129 or 1131,[1] he was the son of Henry the Proud,[1] duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the heir of the Billungs, former dukes of Saxony. Henry's mother was Gertrude,[1] only daughter of Emperor Lothair II and Empress Richenza, heiress of the Saxon territories of Northeim and the properties of the Brunones, counts of Brunswick.[1]
Henry's father died in 1139, aged 32, when Henry was still a child. King Conrad III had dispossessed Henry the Proud of his duchies in 1138 and 1139, handing Saxony to Albert the Bear and Bavaria to Leopold of Austria. This was because Henry the Proud had been his rival for the Crown in 1138.[1]
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By his first wife, Clementia of Zähringen (divorced 1162),[5] daughter of Duke Conrad I of Zähringen and Clemence of Namur, Henry had:[6]
By his second wife, Matilda (married 1168), daughter of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine:[8]
Three other children are listed, by some sources, as having belonged to Henry and Matilda:
By his lover, Ida von Blieskastel, he had a daughter, Matilda, who married Lord Henry Borwin I of Mecklenburg.
Henry the Lion's Fountain (1874), Brunswick
Henry the Lion Monument in Schwerin
Henry the Lion Monument in Schwerin
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