Part III � The Welf Dynasty Of German Princes
Welf, or Guelph, in tradition, the name was derived from the word meaning �whlep. � It was a very noble Swabian House.
Welf I, Bavarian Count, was the first member of the house of whom there is certain evidence, a contemporary of Charlemagne and of Louis the Pious. He was married to Aegilivi, from a great Saxon family. Two of the sons were named Conrad and Rudolph.
Children:
Generation 6. Welf II, Count of Bavaria, the German line which had it�s chief s eats at Altdorf and Ravensburg in Swabia
Children:
Generation 5. Kunzia, (Cunigunde), daughter of Welf II, married Asso of Este, in Lombardy. Kunzia died before 1055.
Generation 4. Welf IV, son of Kunzia and Asso, was born in 1030. Upon the death of his childless uncle, in 1055, he was summoned from Lombardy to take over the inheritance. He became the 1st Welf Duke of Bavaria in 1070, and died in 1101.
Generation 3. Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, son of Welf IV, was born in 1070 probably in Lombardy. He married Wulfhild, a co- heiress of Magnus, the last Billung Duke of Saxony. Henry and Wulfhild both died in 1126.
Children:
Generation 2. Henry the Proud, son of Henry the Black and Wulfhild, was born in 1100. He was Duke of Bavaria and Saxony. He was married in 1127 to Gertrude, the only child of the German King, Emperor Lothair II.
Gertrude�s father, Lothar II, the Saxon, of Supplinburg, (son of Gebhard, Otto, Count of Supplinburg) was born in 1070.
Gebhard died in 1075, with Lothair succeeding to his father�s extensive lands around Helmstadt in Saxony. His position was greatly enhanced by his marriage in 1100 to Richenza, daughter of Henry Otto (1030-1083), Count of Nordheim. When Henry V died in 1125 Lothair was chosen German king at Mainz on 30 August 1125, largely through the efforts of the papal party. Lothar died in 1137.
Henry gained Lothair�s entire fortune. This wealth and position made him a formidable candidate for the German throne, but his ambition aroused the jealousy of the princes, and prevented his election. War broke out in Saxony and Bavaria, but was cut short by Henry�s sudden death, whether by poison or not cannot be ascertained, at Quedlinburg on 20 October 1139. Henry was a man of great ability, and his early death alone prevented him from playing an important part in German history. Gertrude was married/2 about 1142, to Henry II, Jasomurgott, margrave of Austria, and her son Henry forfeited Bavaria to them.
Generation 1. Henry the Lion, only son of Henry the Proud and Gertrude, was born in 1129, in Ravensburg. When Henry the Proud died in 1139, most of the family�s south German lands passed to Henry the Proud�s younger brother Welf VI, who was also enfeoffed with Tuscany, Spoleta and the Mathildine lands by his Hohenstaufen nephew the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa; and Welf VI chose the house of Hohenstaufen to succeed him. Bavaria went with his mother�s second marriage. Henry was invested as Duke of Saxony, at Frankfort in 1142.
He was married in 1147 to Clementia, daughter of Conrad, duke of Zahringen. He began to make expeditions and raids winning much land. in 1147, and 1151, he tried to regain Bavaria, but King Conrad denied him. The situation changed when Frederick I became German King the next year. After Henry served Frederick I faithfully, he was granted the claim. He was formally invested as Duke of Bavaria in 1156.
He divorced Clementia in 1162, and in 1168 was married to Matilda, (1156-1189) daughter of Henry II of England. He was on the outs with his uncle Welf, and in and out of favor of King Frederick, and spent some time in England. Henry won his surname of �Lion� by his intrepidity. His influence on the fortunes of Saxony and northern Germany was considerable. He colonized the whole of northern Germany down to the Elbe, he founded numerous towns in Germany and sought to spread Christianity. He did not abuse his privileged position. His rule for the 20 years which followed the settlement of Ratisbon was beneficial to Germany, if it was detrimental to the interests of individual princes. Henry threw himself with all his energy into the work of German expansion, the promotion of commercial enterprise, the development of municipal life. When Henry the Lion had in 1180 forfeited his fiefs only the Saxon patrimony around Brunswick and Luneburg remained to his descendants. In 1193 he revolted against Henry VI, but the captivity of his brother-in-law Richard I, King of England, led to a reconciliation. Henry passed his later years in intellectual and artistic pursuits at Brunswick, where he died on 6 August 1195.
Children:
Bibliography
Enclyclopaedia Britannica