Background
Henry married Welf to Uta, the daughter of Godfrey of Calw, count palatine of the Rhine.
Henry married Welf to Uta, the daughter of Godfrey of Calw, count palatine of the Rhine.
On Godfrey"s death in 1131, a dispute opened up between Godfrey"s nephew Adalbert and Welf over the inheritance of Calw. They were defeated at the Battle of Flochberg. In 1152, the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen made peace and Frederick Barbarossa was elected king.
He returned Bavaria to Henry"s son Henry the Lion in 1156.
In October 1152, at Würzburg, Frederick gave Welf, as the head of his family, the duchy of Spoleto, margraviate of Tuscany, and principality of Sardinia among other Italian properties. lieutenant came to a head between 1164 and 1166 and ended with the resolution of the emperor himself, generally on the side of the Welfs.
When Welf"s aforementioned only son died of malaria at Rome in 1167, while campaigning with Barbarossa against Pope Alexander III, Henry demanded the inheritance of all the Welf estates. Welf demanded in return a large sum of money, which Henry did not raise.
Welf therefore gave his Italian states to the emperor.
Welf remained in charge of his Italian duchies until 1173, while Christian, Archbishop of Mainz, was imperial vicar. A rift between Henry and Barbarossa over an Italian campaign in 1176 provided the basis for the proceedings against Henry in 1179, which finally deprived him of all his estates, including those he had purchased from Welf. These were given back to Welf, who gave them to Barbarossa"s heir, the duke of Swabia, on his death in 1191.
Thus, all the Swabian Welf estates passed to the Hohenstaufen, descended from Welf"s sister Judith.
The male line of Welfs, descended from Henry the Lion, remained with their Billung patrimony in northern Germany. Welf was a patron of churches.
He was the patron of the Historia Welforum, the first medieval chronicle of his dynasty.
