support for his war with the papacy and the Italian com-
munes, but the Saxon duke refused to help without a
substantial reward. Frederick’s war ended in defeat, and
he had to make peace with the pope in 1177. Upon his
return to Germany, Frederick began legal proceedings
against his cousin. For non-appearance at his trial, Henry
was outlawed at the diet of Würzburg in 1180. He had
few allies, and an imperial army defeated him in Saxony.
In 1181 Henry was deposed from all his possessions
and exiled; he and his family fl ed to his father-in-law,
Henry II, in England, where he remained until 1185.
Saxony was split between the Archbishop of Cologne
and the Ascanian counts of Brandenburg. Bavaria went
to a member of the Wittelsbach family.
When Frederick went on crusade in 1189, he exiled
his cousin again; but Mathilda stayed in Brunswick,
where she died that year. Henry returned to Germany
upon the news of his cousin’s death. He was fi nally
pardoned by Henry VI and spent his remaining years in
Saxony. Henry the Lion died on August 6, 1195 and was
buried in the cathedral at Brunswick beside his wife.
A man who fascinated his contemporaries, Henry the
Lion was one of the most controversial German princes
of the twelfth century. Italian historian Acerbus Morena,
who met him in 1163, described him as of medium
height, but strong and agile, with dark eyes and hair.
Henry was arrogant and ruthless, but his dealings with
Frederick in the 1180s show that he could seriously
overplay his hand.
Some historians have celebrated him as the champion
of nationalism and the expansion eastward, while others
have chided him for deserting Frederick I at a crucial
time in the empire’s history. It is perhaps time to lay the
old controversies to rest.
See also Frederick I Barbarossa; Matilda, Empress
Further Reading
Jordan, Karl. Henry the Lion, trans. P. S. Falla. Oxford: Clar-
endon, 1986.
Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff, ed. Heinrich der Löwe
und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen
1125–1235. 3 vols. Munich: Hirmer, 1995.
Mohrmann, Wolf-Dieter, ed. Heinrich der Löwe. Göttingen:
Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1980.
Madelyn Bergen Dick
HENRY V (1387–1422; r. 1413–22)
The popular and Shakespearean hero-king par excel-
lence, although liberal historians have been less im-
pressed with his militarism and religious intolerance.
Born in 1387 to the fu ture Henry IV and Mary de Bohun,
he was too young to be involved in the political intrigues
of Richard II’s reign. Rich ard took him to Ireland in
1399 and knighted him during this expedition, which
opened England to the invasion and usurpation of Henry
IV. Henry V would later rebury Richard among the kings
at Westminster Abbey.
Young Henry was made Prince of Wales; from 1400
to 1408 he earned his spurs combating the Welsh revolt
of Owen Glendower and the Percys. The prince played a
major role at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. During
his father’s illness (1410–11) Henry and his supporters
dominated the royal council, but Henry IV feared his
ambition and differed with the prince over which faction
to support as France fell into turmoil. The king removed
his son from the council. The fi nal two years of Henry
IV’s reign were a period of tension and frustration for
the Prince, which may explain the later stories of his
dissipated lifestyle.
Henry succeeded on 20 March 1413. He was faced
with both religious and political plots that threatened the
tranquility of his realm. His erstwhile friend Sir John
Oldcastle, perhaps the model for Shakespeare’s Falstaff,
led a Lollard conspiracy in 1414 to kill the king and seize
London. The conspiracy was discovered and put down,
but Oldcastle remained at large until 1417, when he was
taken and executed. The king remained a vigorous per-
secutor of Lollards. Henry, self-righteously pious, sup-
ported the efforts of the Council of Constance to end the
Great Schism of the papacy, and he was a supporter of
elaborate public liturgy. The king joined pub lic worship
and private devotion in his monastic foundations, a form
of piety long out of fashion with monarchs. The palace
at Sheen was to be restored, almost in anticipation of
the Escorial (in Spain, by Charles V), with a Carthusian
house and a house of Brigettine nuns.
On the political front Henry V was faced in 1415
with a plot led by the earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope,
and Sir Thomas Grey to eliminate the Lancastrian dy-
nasty and declare the earl of March as the legitimate
heir of Richard II. March revealed the plot to the king
as Henry was preparing to invade France. The leaders
were executed, and Henry, his domestic enemies all in
fl ight, was free to pursue foreign ambitions.
Ignoring his questionable title to the English throne
and sure of his right, Henry V revived Edward III’s claim
to the French crown, and it is with his French conquests
that Henry is forever identifi ed. France was torn by strife
between the aristocratic factions of Armagnacs and Bur-
gundians under the mentally ill Charles VI. Henry led
a plundering expedition to Normandy in August 1415.
The English captured Harfl eur and then marched toward
Calais. On 15 October they were overtaken by a vastly
superior French army at Agincourt. Henry proved an
inspirational leader who skillfully deployed his archers
to win a stunning victory that encouraged English ambi-
tion and a desire for French wealth and ransoms.
Henry returned to Normandy with a second expedi-
tion in 1417, bent now upon a genuine conquest. WhenHENRY V