forced Richard’s captor, Duke Leopold V of Austria,
to turn the king over to imperial control; he then de-
manded a huge ransom for Richard’s freedom. By the
time Richard was released in February 1194, Henry had
extorted 150,000 marks, which he divided with Leopold,
as well as Richard’s pledge of England as a fi ef of the
empire with a yearly tribute of fi ve thousand marks.
Although the promised payments were never entirely
realized, Henry used the large ransom to fi nance his
invasion of Sicily.
His efforts were aided by the death of Tancred in
February 1194, leaving only an infant son as heir,
and Henry and his armies quickly conquered Sicily.
On Christmas day 1194 he celebrated his kingship in
the cathedral in Palermo. The next day, in Jesi on the
mainland, Henry’s wife gave birth to his own son and
heir, the future Frederick II.
Through ruthless policies, Henry quickly secured
his rule in Sicily. An alleged plot against him gave the
emperor an excuse to banish the usurper’s family to
Germany, and, allegedly, in Byzantine fashion, to blind
the infant former king as well as some offi cials. The
Sicilian treasury was carried to Henry’s castle, Trifels,
in Swabia by more than 150 pack animals. By Easter
1195 the emperor had proclaimed his wife as regent for
the Sicilian lands and set one of his powerful ministe-
rials in place as viceroy; arranged the betrothal of his
brother, Philip of Swabia, to Tancred’s widow, Irene,
a Byzantine princess; installed Philip as margrave of
Tuscany (including the oft-disputed Mathildine lands);
and begun to proclaim and organize a Crusade to the
Holy Land.
Returning to Germany, Henry convinced many other
princes to participate in the Crusade. He also nearly
managed to get his young son recognized as king of the
Romans by right of inheritance instead of by election.
Henry suggested what is known as the Erbreichsplan,
a, proposal to ensure that the royal, and hence imperial,
title would be inherited in the Staufen dynasty. In return,
for secular princes, Henry promised to make fi efs held
by the crown inheritable in the female line; for spiritual
princes, he promised not to practice the spolia, a king’s
exploitation of the temporal powers and royal rights
during a vacancy. At fi rst, most of the princes accepted
the plan, but, when Henry returned to Italy, they began
to express their dissatisfaction. Even more, the Roman
Curia opposed both the idea of uniting the crown of the
Holy Roman Empire with that of Sicily and of giving
up papal prerogatives in the imperial coronation pro-
cess. By November 1196 Henry offered the pope what
he claimed was more than any other emperor had ever
done, the so-called höchstes Angebot (highest offer).
But by the end of the year, Henry had given up on the
inheritance plan, and the princes elected his son as king
the old-fashioned way.
Back in Sicily during the spring of 1197, Henry
barely escaped an attempted assassination, plotted prob-
ably with the tacit knowledge of the pope and Henry’s
own wife. Henry crushed the rebellion, executing some
of the rebels in a brutal fashion. At the beginning of
September, the main Crusader fl eet set off for the Holy
Land, where they gained promising victories. Later that
month however, the emperor was taken seriously ill.
He died at the age of only thirty-one on September 28,
1197, in Palermo. Revolts in Sicily and Italy and civil
war in Germany over control of the crown soon gravely
weakened the monarchy.
Both contemporary and historical opinion on Henry
has been severely divided between those who viewed
his death as a blessing or as a curse. His critics worry
he might have established world dominion had he lived
long enough; his advocates note the breakdown of
German imperial authority after his death. Certainly,
his death provided the opportunity for Innocent III to
seize the leadership of Christendom. Overshadowed by
the reputations of his father and son, Henry VI’s short
reign is nonetheless remarkable both for it successes
and its fl aws.
See also Frederick I Barbarossa; Frederick II;
Godfrey of ViterboFurther Reading
Csendes, Peter. Heinrich VI. Darmstadt: Wissenschafttiche Bu-
chgesellschaft, 1993.
Naumann, Claudia. Der Kreuzzug Kaiser Heinrichs VI. Frankfurt
am Main: Lang, 1994.
Pavlac, Brian A. “Emperor Henry VI (1191–97) and the Pa-
pacy: Infl uences on Innocent III’s Staufen Policies.” In Pope
Innocent III and His World, ed. John C. Moore. London:
Ashgate, 1998.
Seltmann, Ingeborg. Heinrich VI: Herrschaftspraxis und Umge-
bung. Erlangen: Palm & Enke, 1983.
Toeche, Theodor. Heinrich VI. Jahrbücher der deutschen Ge-
schichte 18. Leipzig, 1867; rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1965.
Brian A. PavlacHENRY VII OF LUXEMBOURG
(c. 1275–1313)
Henry of Luxembourg was the son and heir of Count
Henry III of Luxembourg (d. 1288). Young Henry was
raised at the French court and spoke French as his native
tongue. In 1292, he married Margaret, daughter of the
duke of Brabant. As count, Henry he was noted for his
effective rule, especially as peacekeeper in local feudal
disputes. After Albert, king of the Romans, was assas-
sinated on 1 May 1308, Henry was elected unanimously
in Frankfurt on 27 November 1308. He was crowned on
6 January 1309 in Aachen.HENRY VII OF LUXEMBOURG