Henry IX (1075 – 13 December 1126), was a member of the House of Welf, a powerful dynasty in medieval Germany. He was born around 1075 and died in 1126. Henry IX is often referred to as “Henry the Black” (Heinrich der Schwarze) and ruled as Duke of Bavaria from 1120 until his death in 1126.
Life and reign
Henry was the second son of Duke Welf I of Bavaria (died 1101) from his marriage with Judith,[1] daughter of Count Baldwin IV of Flanders. As a young man, he administered the family's Este property south of the Alps.
Duke Henry nevertheless upheld close relations with the ruling Salian dynasty. In 1116, he joined Emperor Henry V's second Italian campaign to seize the estates of late Margravine Matilda of Tuscany. He succeeded his elder brother Welf II as Bavarian duke, when the latter died childless in 1120. Henry was also instrumental in bringing about the 1122 Concordat of Worms, ending the long-lasting Investiture Controversy between Pope and Emperor.
In the early 1120s, Henry commissioned the Genealogia Welforum, a family history in Latin, composed at Weingarten Abbey. He may have been prompted by the canonization of Bishop Conrad of Constance in 1123. Conrad was a Welf and his canonization stimulated Henry's interest in his ancestors. At the same time, Henry made an inventory of his family's tombs.[2]
Duke Henry played a vital role in the royal election of 1125: first supporting his son-in-law, the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick II of Swabia, he switched his allegiance to his old rival Duke Lothair of Saxony—probably after Lothair promised that Gertrude, his only daughter and heir, would marry Henry's son Henry the Proud. The marriage was concluded in May 1127. The estrangement between the Welf and Hohenstaufen dynasties ("Guelphs and Ghibellines") lasted until the 13th century.
After Lothair won the tumultuous election, he imposed an Imperial ban on Frederick II, however, the king's forces were not able to conquer the Hohenstaufen territories in Swabia. In 1126 Henry abdicated as Bavarian duke in favour of his second son Henry the Proud and retired to the family foundation of Weingarten Abbey in Upper Swabia, possibly to not be obliged to participate in the prosecution of his son-in-law.
Henry died shortly thereafter and was buried in Weingarten. His wife Wulfhilde outlived him by only 16 days. Henry's epithet "the Black" has not been recorded before the 13th century. Both Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his bitter rival Henry the Lion were his grandsons.
^Stefan Tebruck (2017), "The Propaganda of Power: Memoria, History, Patronage", in Graham A. Loud; Jochen Schenk (eds.), The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100–1350: Essays by German Historians, Routledge, pp. 160–180, esp. 167–168.
Barber, Malcolm (2004). The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050–1320. Routledge.
Lyon, Jonathan R. (2013). Princely Brothers and Sisters. Cornell University Press.
Luscombe, David; Riley-Smith, Jonathan, eds. (2006). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press.
Literature
Bernd Schneidmüller: Die Welfen. Herrschaft und Erinnerung (819–1252) (= Urban-Taschenbücher 465). Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart etc., 2000, ISBN3-17-014999-7, pp. 149 ff.
Deed of Henry IX for Ranshofen Abbey, 30 July 1125, "digitalised image". Photograph Archive of Old Original Documents (Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden). University of Marburg.
