Background
He strengthened his authority over the County Palatine by marrying Sophia, daughter of Lutgard of Stade and Frederick II of Sommerschenburg, a former Count Palatine.
Count Palatine Landgrave of Thuringia
He strengthened his authority over the County Palatine by marrying Sophia, daughter of Lutgard of Stade and Frederick II of Sommerschenburg, a former Count Palatine.
The brothers were released the following year. Louis had been made Count Palatine of Saxony as a reward for his services to the emperor, but transferred the dignity to Hermann. Louis III died in 1190.
Emperor Henry VI attempted to seize Thuringia as a vacant fief of the Holy Roman Empire, but Hermann frustrated the plan and established himself as the landgrave.
Having joined a league against the emperor, he was accused, probably wrongly, of an attempt to murder him. Henry VI was not only successful in detaching Hermann from the hostile combination, but gained his support for the scheme to unite Sicily with the Empire.
Hermann joined the German Crusade of 1197 but returned on news of Henry VI"s death. Philip accordingly invaded Thuringia in 1204 and compelled Hermann to come to terms by which he surrendered the lands he had obtained in 1198.
After the death of Philip and the recognition of Otto, Hermann was among the princes who assembled at Nuremberg in 1211 and invited Frederick of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily, (afterwards Emperor Frederick II), to come to Germany and assume the crown.
In consequence of this step the Saxons attacked Thuringia, but the landgrave was saved by Frederick"s arrival in Germany in 1212. Hermann died at Gotha in 1217 and was buried at Reinhardsbrunn. Hermann was fond of the society of men of letters, and Walther von der Vogelweide and other Minnesingers were welcomed to his castle, the Wartburg.
In this connection he figures in Richard Wagner"s Tannhäuser.
With Sophia of Sommerschenburg:
Jutta (1184-1235), married twice:
in 1194 to Margrave Theodoric I of Meissen (1161-1221)
in 1223 to Count Poppo VII of Henneberg (d 1245)
Hedwig, married in 1211 to Count Albert II of Weimar-Orlamünde
With Sophia of Wittelsbach:
Irmgard (b 1197), married in 1211 to Count Henry I of Anhalt
Louis IV (1200-1227)
Herman (1202-1216)
Henry Raspe (1204-1247)
Agnes, married twice:
in 1225 to Henry "the Profane" of Babenberg (1208-1228), a son of Duke Leopold VI of Austria
in 1229 to Duke Albert I of Saxony (c 1175 – 1261).
