Heinrich (V.) the Elder of Braunschweig

Heinrich in the Weingartener Stifterbüchlein (around 1510)

Heinrich (V) the Elder of Braunschweig (* around 1173/74; † April 28, 1227 in Braunschweig ) from the Welfen family was Count Palatine near the Rhine from 1195 to 1212 .

family

The eldest son of Duke Henry the Lion and Mathilde of England had been married to Agnes von Staufen , the heir to the Rhineland Count Palatine Konrad von Staufen , since January or February 1194 . From this marriage three children resulted in Heinrich the Younger , Irmengard bei Rhein and Agnes. In his second marriage, he was married to Agnes von Landsberg , daughter of Margrave Conrad II of Niederlausitz († 1266), from 1211 . This marriage remained childless.

Life

Heinrich accompanied his father in 1182 and 1189 in Normandy and in exile in England . After the unauthorized return of Henry the Lion in the autumn of 1189, he successfully defended Braunschweig against Emperor Heinrich VI. At the peace of 1190 he was together with his brother Lothar († 1190) as a hostage to Heinrich VI. given. He had to Henry VI. 1191 accompanied on his Italian expedition and took part in the unsuccessful siege of Naples . Finally he fled and returned to Germany via Marseille , where he (falsely) announced the death of the emperor and recommended himself for the future election of the king. At Pentecost 1192 Heinrich the Elder was ostracized by the emperor . In 1193/1194 he secretly married Agnes, cousin of the emperor and daughter and heiress of the Staufer Rhineland Palatinate Count Konrad . In the same year Heinrich reconciled again with the emperor, who pardoned him and then after the death of the count in 1195 with the Rheinpfalz belehnte .

In the same year Heinrich inherited the Guelph household goods after the death of his father . As the new partisan of the emperor, he accompanied the emperor on his Italian expedition to Sicily . He took part in the crusade of Henry VI. to the Holy Land . Together with the Bishop of Bremen, he led a contingent with which he sailed with 44 ships with stops in Norway, England and Portugal to Messina , where he joined the main army of the crusade in August 1197 and sailed on to Acre , where he was in September arrived. When the crusaders of the surprising death of Emperor Henry VI. learned in October 1197, the crusade was canceled and Heinrich the Elder returned home in the summer of 1198 at the latest.

In the Welfisch-Hohenstaufen throne dispute over the succession of Emperor Heinrich, Heinrich the Elder initially supported his brother Otto IV against his rival Philip of Swabia . In the Paderborn Treaty of May 1, 1202, the Guelph allodial property was divided between him and his younger brothers Wilhelm von Lüneburg and Otto IV. The city of Stade , the county of Stade and Dithmarschen fell to Heinrich along with other areas . Alongside Altencelle , Stade was his most important residence until 1204. As a result, there were more and more disputes with Otto. Heinrich the Elder saw the emphasis of his rule in the Palatinate, which he got back from him in 1204 after the peace with Philip of Swabia. After his death in 1208 Heinrich the Elder returned to the side of his brother Otto IV and became imperial administrator in the Rhineland. He fought against the three Rhenish archbishops and was finally ousted from the Moselle and Middle Rhine region . His father-in-law and predecessor as Count Palatine, Konrad der Staufer , had already moved his court from Stahleck Castle near Bacharach on the Middle Rhine to Heidelberg Castle around 1182 . In 1212 Heinrich renounced the Palatinate in favor of his son Heinrich the Younger . After the death of Wilhelm von Lüneburg in 1213 he inherited extensive property between the Elbe and Weser , in which area King Friedrich II appointed him as imperial vicar in 1219 .

Since his only son died childless in 1214 at the age of 17, Heinrich the Elder decided in 1223 his nephew Otto the child , the son of Wilhelm von Lüneburg, to inherit his property. Heinrich the Elder was buried in Brunswick Cathedral .

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

literature

• Andrea Briechle: Heinrich Duke of Saxony and Count Palatine by the Rhine. A Guelph prince at the turn of the 12th to the 13th century (= Heidelberg publications on regional history and regional studies. Series of publications by the Institute for Franconian-Palatinate History and Regional Studies. Vol. 16). Winter, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-88349-522-4 .
• Peter Fuchs:  Heinrich (V.) the Tall One (Elder) of Braunschweig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , pp. 381-383 ( digitized version ).
• Edgar N. Johnson: The Crusades of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI. In: Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard (eds.): The later Crusades, 1189-1311 (A History of the Crusades 2). University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1969, pp. 87 ff.
• Gudrun Pischke: Heinrich V. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent (Hrsg.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th century. Appelhans, Braunschweig 2006, p. 319.
• Eduard Winkelmann :  Heinrich von Braunschweig, Rheinpfalzgraf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 559-561.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich V.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Ruth Gerstner: The history of the Lorraine and Rhenish palatinate counties from their beginnings to the formation of the Palatinate Kurterritoriums. Bonn 1941, p. 111.
2. ↑ " de castrum Stalecka in castrum Heidelberg ", Saint Vita of Eberhard von Kumbd (from approx. 1220). See: Franz Schneider: The Vita Eberardi de Commeda (also called de Stalecke) as a Rhenish historical source for the second half of the 12th century. In: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 110 (1962), pp. 37–72.
3. ↑ Helmut Plath : The early history. in: Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.), Dieter Brosius (collaborators): History of the city of Hanover. Vol. 1: From the beginning to the beginning of the 19th century. Schlütersche, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-87706-351-9 , here: p. 30; online via google books .

predecessor	Office	successor
Konrad	Count Palatine near Rhine 1195–1212 / 1213	Heinrich (II.) Of Braunschweig