Henry (VII) of Germany

[
Würzburg in 1234, from the sixteenth-century chronicle of Lorenz Fries] Henry VII (1211 – 12 February (?) 1242) was King of Sicily from 1212, King of Germany (formally "Rex Romanorum") from 1220, and Duke of Swabia (as Henry II) from 1216. He was the son and co-king of Emperor Frederick II and elder brother of Conrad IV of Germany.

Under custody

Henry was the only son of Frederick II and his first wife, Constance of Aragon. His maternal grandparents were Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile.

He was born in 1211 in Sicily. When Frederick sought the crown of Germany, he had his son crowned King of Sicily in February 1212 by Pope Innocent III, since an agreement between Frederick and the Pope stated that the kingdoms of Germany and Sicily should not be united under one ruler. For this, the regency of the Kingdom went to his mother and not to his father.

However, after the death of the Pope in 1216, Frederick called his son to Germany and again assumed the title of King of Sicily (1217). Henry's mother remained as regent in Sicily, now on behalf of her husband, until 1220.

In Germany, Frederick II entrusted him with the Duchy of Swabia. After the end of the Zähringen line in 1219 Henry also received the title of "Rector of Burgundy", though that title disappeared again when Henry was elected king.

On 20/26 April 1220, the German princes assembled at Frankfurt-am-Main elected him King, for which the Emperor issued "Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis", favoring the lords spiritual. The election had been a condition to Frederick II redeemed his Cruzade promises of 1215, because the succession question on case of emperor's death on the crusade was clarified by them. However, Pope Honorius III didn't recognize the election and also deprived him of his rights over the Sicilian Kingdom, because he (just as his predecessor) wanted to prevent the union of both countries. Also numerous German princes had rejected the election in the first moment.

After Frederick II returned to Italy in 1220, Henry was placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne, who crowned him as German King on May 8 1222, in Aachen. Despite the fact that Henry was formally betrothed to Agnes of Bohemia, Engelbert planned his marriage with one of the daughters of the King John of England; however, this union never took place. After Engelbert's death in 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria, took over the guardianship. The young King was mostly in the care of imperial Ministerialis. They also acted as administrators over his Duchy of Swabia. In the meanwhile, the betrothal between Henry and the Bohemian princess was cancelled.

In Nürnberg on 29 November 1225, by order of his father, Henry married a woman seven years older than him, Margaret, the daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. Sixteen months later, on 23 March 1227, she was crowned German Queen in Aachen. This union produced two sons: Henry (who died young ca. 1242/1245) and Frederick.

Henry seems to have been a lively, cultured ruler and kept many "Minnesänger" at his court. It is possible he wrote some "Minnelieder" (courtly love poetry) himself. He was physically robust, although lame, and about 1.66 m (5' 4 1/2") in height.

Majority and rebellion against his father

In 1228, he had a falling-out with Duke Louis of Bavaria, who was suspected of plotting with the Pope against Emperor Frederick II. Around Christmas of that year, Henry took over the rule for himself, forced Louis to submit, and then turned against the Bishop of Strassburg. The nobles, angered by his city-friendly policies, forced him however to issue in Worms on May 1 1231 the "Statutum in favorem principum", in favour of the princes and directed against the cities, and by their complaints turned Frederick II against his son — the Emperor was dependent on the support of the princes for his Italian policies. Among other things who augmented the discord between father and son, Frederick lifted several regulations on Henry during his minority years who reduce his authority, and on the other side, the action of Count Egeno V of Freiburg, an staunch enemy of the Emperor, who became in the most important of Henry's advisers.

In 1232, Henry swore obedience to his father in Cividale. In the same year, Henry renewed the league between the Hohenstaufen and the French royal house of Capet, and in the following year, subdued Otto II of the Palatinate, the son of Duke Louis of Bavaria. In 1233/34, however, he made his father angry again, when he intervened against the inquisitor Conrad of Marburg, while his father was trying to bring Pope Gregory IX into an alliance against the Lombards. Frederick II reacted strongly and outlawed his son on 5 July 1234. Henry revolted and formed an alliance with the Lombards in December. However, he was forced to submit to his father on 2 July 1235 in Wimpfen, forsaken by most of his followers. Frederick II and the nobles tried Henry on 4 July, 1235 in Worms and dethroned him. His younger brother Conrad was appointed Duke of Swabia and also elected King.

Henry's allies were pardoned as far as possible. Frederick II reacted to the weakening of the royal power originated by his dispute with his son, among other things, with the Imperial Meeting (German: "Reichsversammlung") in Mainz on 25 August 1235, on which for first time a Country Peace Law (German: "Landfriedensgesetz") was remitted and the Regalia right was reformed fundamentally.

Imprisonment and death

Henry was kept prisoner in various places in Apulia. His seclusion may have been dictated as much by his health as by his rebelliousness: analysis of his skeleton in 1998-1999 has shown that he was suffering from advanced leprosy in his last years. This was maybe the real cause who prevented the Emperor to forgive him.

Possibly on 12 February 1242, Henry died near to Martirano after a fall from his horse when he was translated there from Nicastro. Some chroniclers report that it has been an attempted suicide. His father had him buried with royal honours in the cathedral of Cosenza, in an antique Roman sarcophagus.

Frederick, Henry's second and only surviving son, was deprived of the succession jointly with his father after his rebellion in 1235. However, his grandfather Frederick II, in his testament, entrusted him with the Duchy of Austria and the Marquisate of Styria, but he never can took over the government of this lands and died few years later (ca. 1251/1252) unmarried and childless.

Among the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry is mentioned only in parentheses, as he did not exercise the sole kingship. He is not to be confused with the later Emperor Henry VII of the House of Luxembourg.

ee also

*Dukes of Swabia family tree

External links

* [http://www.paleopatologia.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=45 Gino Fornaciari, "The Leprosy of Henry VII (1211–1242), son of Frederick II and King of Germany".]