, 1907 Born probably at the
Albrechtsburg residence in
Meissen, Henry was the youngest son of Margrave
Theodoric I, Margrave of Meissen and his wife
Jutta, daughter of Landgrave
Hermann I of Thuringia. In 1221 he succeeded his father as Margrave of
Meissen and
Lusatia, at first under guardianship of his maternal uncle, Landgrave
Louis IV of Thuringia, and after his death in 1227, under that of Duke
Albert I of Saxony. In 1230 he was legally proclaimed an adult. Henry had his first combat experience in sometime around 1234, while on crusade in Prussia, fighting against the
Pomesanians. His pilgrimage and company is well-documented by Peter of Dusburg, and it resulted in the construction of Balga castle, an important administrative centre for the
Teutonic Knights. In 1245 after many years of conflict with the
Ascanian margraves of
Brandenburg, he was forced to cede the fortresses of
Köpenick,
Teltow and
Mittenwalde north of
Lower Lusatia. In 1249 however, the
Silesian duke
Bolesław II the Bald granted him the eastern area around
Schiedlo Castle at the
Oder river, where Henry founded the town of
Fürstenberg. In the struggle between the
Hohenstaufen Emperor
Frederick II and
Pope Gregory IX, Henry took the side of the Emperor. In consideration, Frederick II in 1242 promised him the heritage of
Henry Raspe as Landgrave of
Thuringia and
Count palatine of
Saxony. In 1243 the Emperor also betrothed his daughter
Margaret of Sicily to Henry's son
Albert II. Henry remained a loyal supporter of the Hohenstaufens and not before the departure of Frederick's son
Conrad IV from
Germany did he recognise the antiking
William of Holland. After the death of Henry Raspe in 1247, he enforced his rights in Thuringia by military means in the
War of the Thuringian Succession against the claims raised by
Sophie of Thuringia, daughter of late Landgrave Louis IV, and her husband Duke
Henry II of Brabant, as well as by Prince
Siegfried I of Anhalt-Zerbst. After a long drawn-out war he detached the
Landgraviate of Hesse in the west and gave it to Sophie's younger son
Henry, but kept Thuringia, which he granted to his son Albert II together with the Palatinate of Saxony. The Thuringian acquisition significantly increased the Wettin territorial possessions, which now reached from the
Silesian border at the
Bóbr river in the east up to the
Werra in the west, and from the border with
Bohemia along the
Ore Mountains in the south to the
Harz range in the north. From 1273 Henry was an important support to the newly elected
Rex Romanorum Rudolph of Habsburg in his struggle against rivaling King
Ottokar II of Bohemia. Against Bohemia he won, among other places,
Sayda and Purschenstein Castle near
Neuhausen, He was known throughout the whole empire as a glittering prince, famous as a patron of the arts and a model knight, and as a significant
minnesinger (not to be confused with
Heinrich Frauenlob), poet and composer. Henry was patron of many tournaments and singing competitions, in which he also took part himself, and commissioned the famous
Christherre-Chronik. He set to music hymns to be sung in the churches, by express permission of the pope. ==Family==