Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine

Heinrich (v. ) the Elder of Brunswick (c. 1173/74; † April 28, 1227 in Braunschweig ) from the family of the Guelphs was 1195-1212 Count Palatine of the Rhine.

Family

The eldest son of Duke Henry the Lion and Matilda of England was married to Agnes of Staufen, the heiress of the Rhenish Palatinate Count Konrad von Staufen since January or February 1194. From this marriage three children were born. In his second marriage he was since 1211 Agnes of Landsberg, daughter of Margrave Conrad II of Lower Lusatia († 1266 ), married. This marriage remained childless.

Life

Henry accompanied his father in 1182 and 1189 in Normandy and into exile in England. After the unauthorized return of Henry the Lion in the fall of 1189 he defended Braunschweig successfully against Emperor Henry VI .. When peace of 1190, he and his brother Lothar († 1190 ) hostage to Henry VI. given. He had Henry VI. 1191 accompany on his Italian campaign and took part in the unsuccessful siege of Naples. Finally, he escaped and returned via Marseille returned to Germany, where he (wrongly ) announced the death of the Emperor and himself recommended for the future election of a king. Pentecost 1192 Henry the Elder was outlawed by the emperor. 1193/1194 he secretly married Agnes, cousin of the emperor and daughter and heiress of the Hohenstaufen Rhine Palatinate Count Conrad. In the same year Henry reconciled again with the Emperor, who pardoned him and then enfeoffed after the death of the Count Palatine of the Rhine Palatinate 1195.

In the same year Henry inherited after the death of his father the House Guelph goods. As a new partisan of the Emperor, he accompanied him on his Italian expedition to Sicily. He participated in the crusade of Henry VI. to the Holy Land in part. Together with the Bishop of Bremen, he led a contingent, with whom he sailed with 44 ships, with intermediate stops in Norway, England and Portugal to Messina, where he joined in August 1197 with the main army of the crusade and sailed to Acre, where he in September arrived. When the Crusaders from the sudden death of the Emperor Henry VI. learned in October 1197, the Crusade was canceled and Henry the Elder returned by the summer of 1198 in the homeland.

In the Guelf - Ghibelline throne conflict over the succession of Emperor Henry Heinrich supported the Elder first his brother Otto IV against his rival Philip of Swabia. In Paderborn contract from 1 May 1202, the Guelph allodial between him and his younger brothers William of Lüneburg and Otto IV was divided. Here, Henry fell to the town of Stade, Stade and the county Dithmar among other areas. Besides Altencelle Stade was to 1204 his main residence. As a result, it came with Otto rapidly becoming disputes. Henry the Elder saw the heavy weight of his reign in the County Palatine, which he after the peace with Philip of Swabia received back in 1204 from this. After his death in 1208 Henry the Elder returned again to his brother Otto IV the page and became regent in the Rhineland. He fought there against the three Rhenish archbishops and was finally expelled from the Mosel and Middle Rhine area. Even his father and predecessor as Count Palatine, Konrad of Hohenstaufen, had moved to in 1182 his court of the castle Stahleck in Bacharach on the Middle Rhine to the castle of Heidelberg. 1212 Henry renounced in the Palatinate favor of his son Henry the Younger. After the death of William of Lüneburg in 1213, he inherited extensive property between the Elbe and Weser, the area in which the Emperor Frederick II in 1219 appointed him as imperial vicar.

Since his only son in 1214 who died childless at the age of only 17 years, appointed Heinrich the Elder in 1223 his nephew Otto the Child, the son of William of Lüneburg, the heir to his estates. Henry the Elder was buried in Brunswick Cathedral.

" In all likelihood, " donated the Henry St. Gallus relic for the chapel of the castle of St. Galli Lauenrode before Hannover, which Henry gave his worldly protection and suzerainty over Conrad II expression.

Progeny

From his first marriage with Agnes of Staufen children came from:

• Henry the Younger ( * 1197, † 1214) ∞ 1212 Matilda of Brabant ( † 1267 )
• Irmengard by Rhine (c. 1202, † 1260 ) ∞ 1220 Hermann V. Margrave of Baden († 1243 ), Pforzheim brought to the House of Baden ( to 1918 )
• Agnes (c. 1201, † 1267 ) ∞ 1222 Otto II Duke of Bavaria († 1253 ), brought the Palatinate to the Wittelsbach family (up to 1918)