Henry (VII) of Germany

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This article refers to the King of the Romans Henry (VII) of the House of Hohenstaufen. For the Emperor from the House of Luxembourg, see Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor.

Henry (VII) (1211 – February 12 (?), 1242), was King of the Romans, King of Sicily, and Duke of Swabia. He was the son and co-king of Emperor Frederick II and elder brother of King Conrad IV of Germany.

[edit] Biography

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. However, after the death of the Pope in 1216, Frederick called his son Henry to Germany and 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.

In 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. He transferred to Germany: Henry did not use the title of "King of Sicily" after 1217.

After Frederick II returned to Italy in 1220, Henry was placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne, who crowned him as King on May 8, 1222, in Aachen. After Engelbert's death in 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria, took over the guardianship. In 1225, due to his father's wishes, Henry married Margaret, daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria, a woman seven years older than him, in Nürnberg.

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.

In 1228, he had a falling-out with Duke Louis of Bavaria, who was suspected of plotting with the Pope against Emperor Frederick II. 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.

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 July 5, 1234. Henry revolted and formed an alliance with the Lombards in December. However, he was forced to submit to his father on July 2, 1235 in Wimpfen, forsaken by most of his followers. Frederick II and the nobles tried Henry on July 4, 1235 in Worms and dethroned him. His younger brother Conrad was appointed Duke of Swabia and also elected King.

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. He died on February 12, 1242 in Martirano, after a fall, possibly an attempted suicide. His father had him buried with royal honours in the cathedral of Cosenza, in an antique Roman sarcophagus.

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.

[edit] See also

Preceded by Frederick II	King of Sicily 1212–1217	Succeeded by Frederick II
Preceded by Frederick II	Duke of Swabia 1216–1235	Succeeded by Conrad IV
Preceded by Frederick II	King of Germany 1220–1235	Succeeded by Conrad IV