Heinrich der Löwe (Henry the Lion), was born in the year of our lord 1129, in Altdorf near Ravensburg in the Holy Roman Empire. His father was Heinrich der Stolze (Henry the Proud), duke of Saxony and Bavaria, and his mother was Gertrud von Sachsen, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Lothar III.
Heinrich der Löwe
After Emperor Lothar III. had died in 1137, a conflict between the families of the Welfen (Guelphs) with Henry the Proud as their leader and the Staufer (Ghibellines) began. Heinrich der Stolze wanted to become the new King because his father-in-law, Emperor Lothar III., had constituted him as his heir before he died. But the German nobles didn't want a powerful Welf as their new Emperor because they were afraid of losing their own power. So in 1138 most of them voted for Konrad, who was a Staufer and he was elected as King Konrad III. Because of the continuing conflict, Konrad III. reclaimed the right to govern the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria from Heinrich. Only one year later, in 1139, Heinrich der Stolze died and Heinrich der Löwe became his heir when he was only about ten years old.
Konrad III.
Heinrich immediately claimed the title of duke of Saxony and Bavaria and in 1142, as a boy of about 13 years, he got Saxony and Bavaria as estates in fee. Perhaps King Konrad needed the support of the powerful Welfen and wanted to end the conflict. But later in the very same year Heinrich had to disclaim the duchy Bavaria because the German nobles didn't want two duchies in one Hand. For now he was left with the duchy of Saxony, made Brunswick the capital and built his castle there. In 1148 Henry married Clementia von Zähringen and they had three children. Two of them died when they were young and the third one, their daughter Gertrud, later married King Knut of Denmark.
Heinrich supported the new German King Friedrich (Frederick) I. Barbarossa, who was a member of the Staufer family, but who was also Heinrich's cousin. Heinrich took part in the King's military campaigns of 1155 against the towns in Northern Italy, which wanted to become independent from the German King. Only Heinrich's strong army and his personal courage and valour saved the King from being defeated. And in Rome he helped his King to be crowned by the pope as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
The crown of the Holy Roman Empire
In recognition of Heinrich's merits the emperor gave him Bavaria as estate of fee in 1156, but before that Bavaria was divided into two parts. Heinrich got the bigger part of Bavaria and his stepfather Heinrich Jasomirgott von Babenberg got the eastern part which then was the new duchy of Austria. So Henry's wish came true to become duke of Saxony and Bavaria, just as his father had been before. In 1157 he founded the town of Munich, which became the capital of Bavaria. Later, after the successful crusades against his Slavonian neighbours, he also obtained the reign of the Slavonian territory of the Obodrites, who lived in the area of Mecklenburg. There he founded the town of Schwerin in 1160. Now Heinrich der Löwe was the most powerful noble in Germany, he even had more land and people than the Emperor himself. But his often aggressive political behavour and his trials to expand his territory and last but not least, his success, made many of his neighbours and other German nobles become his enemies.
Friedrich I. Barbarossa
In 1162 Heinrich left his wife Clementia of Zähringen. It is supposed that Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa wanted the dissolution of that marriage because he had a conflict with Clementia's family and he was afraid of an alliance between the Welfen and the family of Zähringen. On February 1st 1168 Henry married his second wife Matilde Plantagenet, daughter of King Henry II. of England. Matilde was sister of the English Kings John Lackland and Richard I. Lionheart.
Heinrich and his second wife Matilde
In 1172 Heinrich began his pilgrimage to Jerusalem while his young wife stayed in Brunswick to take charge of his properties. During his journey he met many important people and some of them joined him so that the group of pilgrims grew almost every day. In Byzantium he visited the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I. and there he was welcomed as if he was a king. Heinrich got valuable relics from Manuel, as well as a real live lion, that he took that lion back to his castle in Brunswick. After his return to Brunswick in 1173, Henry built the famous cathedral of Brunswick and endowed the relics which he had got from the Byzantine emperor. People say that the scratches next to the cathedral's door were made by Heinrich's lion while the animal was looking for its master.
The cathedral of Brunswick with the heraldic animal of Heinrich.
In 1176 Heinrich refused to support Friedrich I. Barbarossa with the emperor's new military campain against the towns of Northern Italy and Friedrich was badly defeated. Because of his refusal and several other complaints, two legal proceedings were instituted against Heinrich in 1179 and 1180. He was sentenced to be exiled from Germany and he lost his two duchies Saxony and Bavaria. Only a territory around the towns of Brunswick and Luneburg could be kept by the Welfen and their allies. Heinrich and his wife had to leave Germany and went to his father-in-law, King Henry II. to England. In 1187 he was allowed to return to Germany again, but although he was a duke no longer, he was sure that his family would rule again.
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